The latest statistics show RV sales are down, but that hasn't fazed many RV dealers from undergoing major expansion projects. Why? Because record numbers of motorhomes were sold before the recent dip in the RV market. And all those vehicles must go somewhere for service.

Bingo.

New lights, figuratively and literally, have been going on at dealerships across the United States and Canada. And they're all in the service department. With new training resources and service opportunities such as those provided by Workhorse Custom Chassis, RV service options have never been better.

Some examples:

Dave Aborgast RV, Troy, OH: It was an automobile and van conversion dealership until two years ago when it began construction of a $3.2 million dollar RV sales and service center, complete with 12 service bays, a hydraulic lift, the largest showroom in Ohio and even camping facilities for motorhomers.

Altmans Winnebago, Carson, CA: Over the next six months this dealership will triple its service capabilities, expanding from 8 to 22 service bays and from 6 to 19 service technicians.

McBrides Service and Supply Co., Chino, CA: This long-time RV service center has doubled its technicians from three to six in the last two years and added three specialty service bays that allow simultaneous work on the upper and lower (chassis) level of the motorhome.

Ballantyne RV and Marine, Victor, NY: In the last year it has gone from an 8,000 square foot facility and 8 technicians to an 18,000 square foot facility with 18 technicians and 17 service bays.

Camp-Land, Burns Harbor, IN: In the last two years it's grown from 6 service bays and 7 technicians to 16 bays with 9 year-round technicians.

A new profit center
For most of these places there have been only one reservation about expanding: whether it's enough. Suddenly, servicing RVs has gone from "a necessary evil" to a new profit center, according to Greg Jones, service and parts director for Ballantyne RV.

"It can be a significant profit center if it's done correctly," said Jones. "If it's diversified and you hire the best technicians. Customers can buy their RV here and get bumper-to-bumper service that's what today's consumer demands. We do chassis work, coach work, body repairs. We're here to take care of the customer as expertly and as quickly as we can."

Joe Altman, vice president and co-owner of Altmans Winnebago, expects his expanded service department to "fully absorb all the overhead costs of the dealership. Our goal is to have our service department carry the dealership, in good times and in bad. Our sales department will be the gravy."

"The term for that is service absorption. In the auto industry, that's a key measurement of a dealership whether the fixed operations of service and parts can absorb all the overhead of a dealership. For the RV industry that hasn't been a key measurement."

Until now, perhaps. According to the Recreation Vehicle Dealers Association (RVDA), gross margins generated by aftermarket sales have climbed about 14 percent over the past four years.

Phil Ingrassia, director of communications for RVDA, said. "The service side of the industry is becoming a more important source of revenue for dealers as margins on new products are under increasing pressure. We are seeing a trend where more and more dealers are interested in providing one-stop service as a service to their customers."

The Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) has also made it an industry goal to double the number of certified service technicians to 2,400 by 2004. New sources of technical training like Workhorse have been a big boost to RV service centers. Workhorse has trained 170 technicians at 50 service centers since it began its training classes a year and a half ago and many service departments are realizing such expertise can be their bread and butter.

Building a quality reputation
Bill Sickler, director of operations for Dave Arbogast RV, said, "We knew the service department was going to have to pay for our big, new building. So we thought carefully about how to make it work well for our customers."

That thinking included campsites with sewer and utility hook-ups around their building for people waiting on repairs.

Such measures should ease some of the service horror stories that Sickler knows go around the campsites of RVers. "I think word of mouth is even more critical in the RV business," he said. "They're a tight community. When they leave your place they better have something good to say because I'm sure a lot of people are going to hear about it.

"There's a big demand for service excellence", said Jones, who also knows the horror stories RVers can relate. "And it can be a real recession fighter. I've been in the business 25 years and I've seen two major recessions where a lot of dealerships closed. But if people aren't buying them they're going to be fixing them. We've seen it in the cash flow when sales drop off the service end of the business picks up tremendously. You can't take the weekend away from the American public."

Qualified technicians a must
But expanding service operations does come with challenges. One of the biggest is often finding qualified technicians. Sickler thinks a lot of the poor service RVers have experienced comes at a service center that couldn't come up with enough technicians with enough experience and know-how. He notes that, unlike automobiles, motorhomes contain a plethora of different systems and products, from the chassis to the refrigerator to the generator to the coach construction there could be a dozen different component warranties to contend with. Coming up with the technicians to cover all of those bases can be difficult.

Altman sees obtaining qualified help as the biggest challenge in their expansion plans. "What we decided six months ago was if we're ever going to get the technicians to come into this business, we're just going to have to pay them. The pay scales in this business have been below that of heavy truck mechanics and auto mechanics and all the different trades we want to pull in to work on both the coach and chassis."

"So we've increased the pay of our current employees and what we're willing to pay new employees. That's also meant we've had to increase our retail and our warranty labor rate. But I think a customer will pay for it if they're getting good service. That's the key thing: $50 an hour for service that's bad is worth nothing. But $100 an hour for service that's very good is worth even more than that. Our goal is to continuously     provide that high quality of service."

Camp-Land has been in business for 40 years, but has spent the last four at a new location near the intersection of U.S. 20 and I-94 in Burns Harbor, IN, at the southern tip of Lake Michigan. When it opened four years ago its service area only comprised the first three bay doors in the photo. The section with the remaining five doors was opened after Memorial Day 2000 in response to increasing demand for service and the opportunity to be a service center for Workhorse Custom Chassis.

The service area from the other or lot side of the building that faces I-94. Again the first three bays in photo 2 were part of the original building that opened four years ago. The remaining bays (close up in 2A) were added in 2000.

The interior of the new service section Camp-Land added in 2000. Things were busy on this Labor Day weekend.

One-stop service sells motorhomes
One other challenge is providing bumper-to-bumper, one-stop service when chassis manufacturers such as Chevrolet or Ford restrict warranty work to a limited number of service centers. For that reason, all the dealerships have been pleased they could become a Workhorse service center when Chevrolet sold the Class A gas chassis business to Workhorse.

"Our hands are tied when we have to get an appointment at another dealership," said Jones. "That customer is not really theirs and they may be booked two or three weeks out, whereas with the Workhorse product we can handle it as fast as possible to get it back on the road.

"Actually, though, we haven't needed to do a lot with the Workhorse chassis. It's a good product from what I'm seeing and I'm the person who gets the complaints."

Workhorse was a significant factor in Camp-Land's expansion. Bryon Gaines, service manager at Camp-Land, said, "When Workhorse gave RV dealerships the ability to get into chassis warranty work, we decided we wanted to get into RVs from the ground up. When a customer has a problem we want to be able to fix it no matter what it is. If Workhorse hadn't given us that opportunity we probably wouldn't have expanded like we did, especially adding 27,000 lb. and 40,000 lb. lifts."

The service factor accordingly becomes a strong selling point for a motorhome built on a chassis that can be serviced at the dealership. David Paschen, vice president and co-owner of Camp-Land, said, "I know 4 or 5 people who were up in the air as far as the chassis, but when they found out we could service Workhorse that made the choice for them. Now we're really pushing our sales manager to order more of them on Workhorse."

Altman said, "Being a one-stop place is definitely a big selling point."

Opportunities have also expanded for places that are strictly RV service centers. Charlie McBride, operations manager of McBrides Service & Supply, confirms that Workhorse "has had a very positive impact on our business. It has created new customers for us." Among other things, McBrides partners with a half dozen area RV dealerships on service work. McBride said, "They send us their chassis work or coach work they can't do. These dealers mainly work on coaches."

David Paschen (right), vice president and co-owner of Camp-Land, stands with CampLand Service Manager Bryon Gaines next to their service award from Winnebago given for achieving excellent customer satisfaction 95 percent of the time or better.

Camp-Land's parts manager Phil Lenzo.

Another view of the new Camp-Land service area showing its 27,000 lb. lift.

Camp-Land's accessory store is located next to its service department and carries a range of RV-related parts and supplies.

Expanding service capabilities has also meant investing in new equipment at CampLand. Bryon Gaines shows off a new rain water and leak detection system from Sealtech. It attaches to the motor home's roof vent to increase the interior air pressure of the motor home so that leaks become readily apparent when a soapy solution is applied to the exterior. Gaines says this ensures better leak detection and greatly reduces the time involved in finding leaks.

Workhorse fills training gaps
Among other things, service departments have found the electrical training provided by Workhorse particularly helpful, because it fills a common gap in their technician's knowledge and is also applicable to the coach and other systems beside the chassis. Sickler said, "Most of our guys have some plumbing, carpentry and auto technician experience, but many of them don't have 12-volt and 110-volt experience. That seems to be the trickiest thing for them to get the hang of."

Jones added, "The electrical training is fantastic. Next year I will send my RV technicians and probably my marine technicians for that. It can be used in a number of applications."

It's clear that new investments in bumper-to- bumper service and technician training bode well for RV service departments no matter what the economic climate.