Word: coachmen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...long stretch of time, there was virtually no design difference between the RV and a kitchen appliance. Remember those silver boxes lumbering down the highway like two-slice toasters? They've got them here. They also have a little Ralph Kramden affair, from 1964, called the Coachmen Cadet. We mention this because the Coachmen story is the lemonade stand all over again, which is why founder Tom Corson's photo is one of the 185 black-and-white mugs hanging in the RV Hall of Fame...
...three Coachmen started in a two-car garage in 1962 and made 12 trailers the first year. Last year Coachmen, the largest among 72 RV manufacturers in Indiana and one of the top three nationally, sold 28,000 RVs for $661 million. "It was the best year ever, and the numbers are up for this year," says president Keith Corson...
...years. People want bigger and better RVs, says Corson, who sells everything from a $3,500 folding trailer to a $160,000 motor home the size of the Love Boat. They want AC, microwave, satellite dishes, PC stations, hydraulic slide-outs to expand room size when parked. If Coachmen could figure out how to make one with a back lawn, some Joe's going to buy the damn thing and mow it while Ethel does 65 on the interstate...
Nobody's got a better deal than Ken Slaven. Every day, eight of the Class A motor homes--the big ones--roll off a Coachmen assembly line manned by 185 workers who grunt, lift and sweat. And then Slaven, 50, sticks the keys in the ignition and takes each one for a road test...
...Coachmen Industries, the Elkhart area's largest manufacturer, sales shot up 80% last year to $478 million, and profits nearly quadrupled. During the first three months of 1984 profits leaped another 89%, even though production was restricted by a shortage of chassis on which motor-home bodies are mounted. Complains Chairman Thomas Corson: "Detroit can't send us enough, so we're starting to use Toyota chassis...