“We started getting inquiries from overseas and we shipped to China, Europe, Australia, and soon to Africa,” General Manager Randall A. Pozzi told RV PRO.  This year, Host Industries hopes to earn a bid for a unit that would ship to a customer in Israel.

About  5 percent of Host Industries’ manufacturing volume in 2011 was dedicated to foreign markets, Pozzi said.

“We’d like to double that and take it to 10 percent,” he added. 

The truck campers made by Host Industries are all-aluminum framed, triple-slide constructed units with an 8-foot-wide floor. The campers typically sell for between $37,000-$44,000, while the company’s motorhomes go for between $175,000-$225,000, Pozzi said. 

“The customers love it. They’re nice truck campers – nicest thing out there regardless,” he said.

Given that manufacturing codes and specifications are different in foreign markets, Host Industries' engineers must do extensive research before completing blueprint designs, Pozzi explained.  When the company builds a unit intended for use overseas, it doesn’t alter the floorplan, only the varieties and sizes of the hardware and equipment, he said.

“We have to be able to handle different codes, say, for electrical and LP gas. Even the bottle hook-ups are different – they have a different style of propane bottles in Europe,” he said. “Plus the voltage is different, the taillight requirements are different, the license plate brackets are different, the plugs are all different, the color in the wiring is different, there’s a different size of wiring harness, the appliances – all this stuff changes.”

Host Industries’ foreign unit modifications can vary widely depending on a customer’s travel plans. The company recently completed an all-diesel (no propane) truck camper quote for a customer who plans to visit Africa. Another European customer who owns a Host motorhome shipped the unit back to the  company’s manufacturing plant in Oregon to prepare it for a cross-world trip. The company added additional water tanks, fuel capacity, two spare tires, and wired it to run on both 220-volt 50-hertz, and 110-volts 60 hertz, Pozzi said. 

Everest truck camper interior. Photos courtesy of Host Industries.

Orders from foreign customers receive special attention because the builder may only get one chance to get the order right.

“When you get started on an order, you have to be prepared to spend the extra time and energy to do your research to make sure you get it right, because your customer is thousands of miles away,” he said. “The last thing you want is a warranty issue for something that’s not done right.”

Host Industries typically fulfills an order within three to four weeks for a truck camper and about six weeks for a motorhome. Foreign-shipped truck campers also require a custom-built shipping pallet. 

“There are a lot of issues you have to overcome when it comes to international trade. These things don’t have wheels, so they have to be palletized. Even the shipping becomes an issue. You have to build a big pallet so when it gets to the port, they can pick it up with a big forklift,” Pozzi said. 

Host Industries doesn’t market its products overseas, instead relying on support from its foreign dealers and word of mouth marketing. The company’s early success overseas leads Pozzi to believe that there’s exponential potential in that market.

“This business came to us, but we’re going to look overseas for expansion because, for us, it really is an untapped market,” he said.