C. David Hoefer, Earthbound RV’s co-founder, chairman and CEO (left) is pictured with son David B. Hoefer, Earthbound’s vice president of sales, marketing and product development, next to a completed Earthbound travel trailer.

You could call Earthbound RV an instant success eight years in the making.

C. David Hoefer (Sr.), Earthbound RV’s co-founder, chairman and CEO, says many of the ideas and innovations found in the company’s lightweight, eco-friendly travel trailers date back prior even to Pilgrim International, which he founded in 2002 and which was widely recognized for its use of lightweight composite materials.

In early 2009, Hoefer and others founded Earthbound RV in Middlebury, Ind. But extremely challenging market conditions and resulting financial setbacks forced the company to mothball operations in mid-2009.

Today, Earthbound RV is riding high. Its products are in demand from dealers and consumers, it was recognized by the Website Roaming Times with the “Green RV of the Year” award, and it has strong financial backing. The company earlier this year secured $2 million in private funding and an additional $1 million in tax breaks and training grants to build its lightweight, eco-friendly travel trailers in Marion, Ind.

Recently, Hoefer and son David B. Hoefer (Jr.), Earthbound’s vice president of sales, marketing and product development, talked at length with RV PRO about their operations in Marion, how they’re seeking to differentiate Earthbound RV in the marketplace, and their plans for the company for the future.

RV PRO: You moved from your manufacturing operation in Middlebury into your new facility in Marion in early 2010. Is production at full speed yet?
David Jr.: The ruckus from the move is over, and we’ve shifted that ruckus into production (laughs). The guys actually surprised us on the production line; they got it ramped up a lot quicker than we expected.

Earthbound RV renewed production of its travel trailers in Marion, Ind., earlier this year. However, many of the ideas and concepts found in the company’s lightweight, eco-friendly trailers date back almost a decade.

David Sr.: (It helps) having a nucleus of experience people that have been in the RV industry for many years. Those that we’re hiring out of Marion – we had 1,500 applicants the first four days – are extremely qualified people. These are automotive-type people, and that’s the direction we’re going.

RV PRO: Can you elaborate on that? What do you mean by going in the “automotive direction”?
David Sr.: We are a company that is becoming an assembler. For instance, we use automotive suppliers; they actually manufacturer all of our cabinetry.

You know, you can buy a new $23,000 automobile and you can get it with a five-year warranty and 100,000 miles. And you have very, very few issues with it, if any. … There’s no reason that we can’t build an RV to those specifications without an engine. That’s the direction we’re heading. And we’re out of the chute with a three-year, bumper-to-bumper warranty.

The materials we’re utilizing are from the automotive, aircraft and marine industry. Those items are substantially more money than your typical stick-and-tin or hybrid composite industry that they’re trying to build today in the RV industry.

There’s absolutely no wood in our unit, anywhere. And we’re working toward having – other than the ambient air – no VOCs.

RV PRO: It sounds like you’re thinking ahead to the future even though you’ve been in your current facility for less than a year. Is that correct?
David Sr.: We’re working on product that will be produced two years from now. We’re working way ahead … in terms of material content: additional weight savings, more strength, utilization of technologies our industry has never seen.

David Jr.: If you take a traditional laminated lightweight unit, on average we’re anywhere between 1,200 to 1,500 pounds lighter. Our 30-foot travel trailer, fully equipped, would come in weighing about 4,650 pounds. That weight will drop significantly with some of the new materials we’re working toward.

RV PRO: Can you talk a bit about the motivating factors behind your decision to make these investments in new technologies and materials?
David Jr.: We have to change as an industry, or else we’re going to be left behind. The European market changed probably 10 years ago – they’re way ahead of us.

Workers assemble the lightweight steel frames that are integral to Earthbound RV’s travel trailers. Earthbound RV officials say their trailers weigh between 3,900 and 4,800 pounds, which they say on average is 1,200 to 1,500 pounds less than traditional laminated models.

Automobiles are changing: we (as a country) are going to hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles. (As a country,) we’re going to vehicles that will have a maximum towing capacity of 4,000 pounds. So, if we don’t change, we’ll be left behind.

David Sr.: The other thing is the CSI: the consumer satisfaction index on an RV, it’s an abomination. The industry ought to be ashamed of it. … If we continue down the path that we continue, we ought to be ashamed of ourselves. We’re not satisfied with the status quo, we’re moving ahead of that.

RV PRO: Earlier this year, the Website Roaming Times named Earthbound RV as its 2010 Green RV of the Year, citing your product as being lightweight and eco-friendly. Still, it seems like every RV manufacturer today is claiming they are “green.” Are you concerned that the widespread claims made about how environmentally friendly various products are diminishes what you’re doing?
David Sr.: The dealers and the consumers know the difference.

David Jr.: You know, MDS board is not green. I don’t care what it’s rated. It will rot, mildew and mold. So will Lauan. Lauan comes de-laminated and it comes in hundreds of different variances. You know what, we (as an industry) have got to do better.

But, to answer your question, I’m getting thousands of retail responses and they’re just begging for quality product.

RV PRO: Besides being green and lightweight, what do you see as some of the key differentiating factors when it comes to your product versus competing travel trailers?
David Jr.: I would say ease of towing – it’s extremely aerodynamic. The feature benefits – everything that comes standard on it – will blow you away. There are unique things we’re doing that other manufacturers are not. We’re encapsulating our holding tanks with ceramic, which gives you an equivalency rating of R13, without even having to put a plastic underbelly on them. Keypads are standard. …

RV PRO: For those who don’t know, how many different floorplans are you offer initially and what types of features these products will be equipped with?
David Jr.: Initially there’s seven floorplans. They vary from 25 feet up to 31 feet. The smallest unit, with current configuration, weighs about 3,900 pounds, dry weight; the heaviest unit weighs 4,800 pounds and the average 30-foot unit weighs about 4,600 pounds. The GVWR is right about 6,000 pounds, average tongue weight.

They come extremely well equipped. … We don’t goof around on options; almost everything comes standard on these units. Retail customers don’t have to worry about being up-charged for things like alloy wheels – that comes standard.

We’re doing things like manifold systems. You name it, we’ve got it. Things like LED lighting all of the way around the outside; front and rear caps are standard. And leather furniture, the ultra-leather. We’re not using anything cheap.

David Sr.: When you go to this type of unit to attain the weight savings, there’s a cost involved. And it’s generally pretty close to $3 a square foot. … Still, we’re a third lighter and a third less in price than other high-end units in this category.

RV PRO: Obviously all of that sounds expensive and time consuming. What makes you believe dealers and end customers will embrace what you’re doing?
David Jr.: We were approached by a number of dealers to work on a project. They’re getting a lot of customers that are moving out of a fifth wheel and they’re moving out of a large one-ton duly. They’re moving out of Prevost motorhomes, out of $300,000 motorhomes. That market is obviously trending downward.

Earthbound RV CEO Ken Geljack peers out of a partially completed unit.

The customers that have been out in the field using travel trailers – started out with travel trailers – and then moved up to fifth wheels, moved up to motorhomes, are now going down to travel trailers. If you look at the stats in the industry, travel trailers are just booming. … (Moving forward) there’s going to be an awful lot of tow vehicles changing and there’s going to be a lot of consumer demand for a quality product where you just can’t find it in a travel trailer today unless you spend $80,000.

And weight is a factor then, because most of the products in the market are in a 7,000-pound range when you get to that quality level. We can give them a travel trailer that they can tow with a half-ton vehicle that’s already sitting in their driveway and it’s a luxury unit. It’s not going to be for everybody, but people will pay for quality.

David Sr.: And we’re not trying to supply the whole industry. We’re in a niche and there’s nobody really doing what we’re doing.

RV PRO: Speaking of which, you (Dave Sr.) have been involved in some companies in the past, like Dutchmen, that have gone on to become large players in the RV industry. Do you see this effort as having the potential to grow into a major manufacturer, or simply to serve a niche market?
David Jr.: I can answer that. We have, honestly, no intentions of stopping where we are. At the same time, we have no intentions of producing any kind of cloned product. Every product we produce will have a specific niche for whatever market we’re going for. We will make sure that every product line that we produce is unique in its own right. …

David Sr.: And we aren’t going to build any units that aren’t sold. We want to keep the dealers supplied and we’re trying to control the size of the dealer body so we can take care of those that we’re with and maintain a stable workforce year-round.

RV PRO: Now you’re up and running in Marion, but you originally started production in Middlebury in 2009. Have you ever thought in retrospect that maybe you could have wished for better timing to start your operation, given the state of the industry then?
David Sr.: Actually, it was a good time. We got our prototyping done, and we found out what some of our deficiencies were. The only problem we had was that some of our initial investors, because of their own demise, couldn’t come with us. Otherwise we would have been fine.

And we’d have stayed there (in Middlebury). But when we went outside for additional funding the banks just were not flexible.

David Jr.: The RV industry is typically the first in (to recession) and the first out. Being able to start at the time we did we were able to buy right in terms of purchasing equipment for pennies on the dollar. …

RV PRO: So what does your dealer network look like currently? Are you nationwide?
David Jr.: To be honest with you, we can only sign so many dealers. As production and quality allows, we’ll gradually add dealers.

Trust me, I’ve got retail customers calling every day that I wish I could take care of right away. But, over the next few months we do plan to expand the network quite a bit. … We’ve got about 39 dealer locations right now. We’d fine right now, over the next few months, with (reaching) 60 locations. Production is going to allow us to add more locations, but until then we just have to keep taking baby steps.

RV PRO: The Hoefer family is well-known in the industry because of prior involvement with other RV manufacturers. Still, was there ever any concern that dealers might be reluctant to take on a new manufacturer, especially now?
David Jr.: You know, honestly the only problem that dealers have been having lately – and it’s not just on the Earthbound RV standpoint – is the financing side. We’ve had dealers that had sold through 60 to 70 percent of their inventory and couldn’t order more product. It’s easing up now, fortunately.

We have not seen any reluctance for people to take on the Earthbound product. We’ve had dealers that are going into their personal lines of credit, or paying cash, to get our product. In fact, everyone that has taken the product so far has taken in on a cash basis.

RV PRO: Can you offer any hints as to what the future holds for Earthbound RV in terms of products?
David Jr.: We have no intention of stopping just at the travel trailers. But we have to stay focused in what we’re doing. The testing that’s involved in the material content goes through extensive automotive-type testing. The RV industry can change on a dime; fads come in and out. We can’t do that. This material has to be extensively tested. We’re working with large conglomerates like PPG and DuPont that don’t allow (their) products to be used in just anything.

David Sr.: The testing we go through on some of our materials has been a two- and three-year project, just for a material. And it’s been used before in other industries, it’s just that for our application it has to be tested and tested and tested. …

RV PRO: So, for 2010, what kind of year are you expecting for Earthbound RV?
David Jr.: I think it’s going to be a fantastic year. Absolutely. … By the end of this year we’re anticipating shipping 400 units. We see good things ahead.