Mark Baute wrote this obituary as a tribute to his old friend, Dallen Trealoff, founder of Eclipse RV.
Dallen Trealoff passed away Saturday, Sept. 5, surrounded by his wife Joanne; daughter, Sarah; son-in-law, Julien; two grandsons, Sebastian and Wesley; and granddaughter, Remington.
Dallen was a friend and mentor to many in the RV and toy hauler industry, and he found real meaning in life through his family’s love and his career. Dallen’s life is remarkable when you look at where he started and contrast it with where he ended up, and what he learned along the way.
Dallen was born in 1948, and his home life as a young man was as tough as it gets, so as a teenager he chose to be homeless and live out of his car, where it was more peaceful than living at home. Next, he chose to serve our country in Vietnam from age 18 to 21. On returning to civilian life, he made his way into the toy hauler and RV industry, where he became the top salesman on the West Coast for the better part of two decades. During that phase of his career, he chose to solve the geographic distance between dealerships by just flying his own plane to meet with and mentor his major dealers and friends throughout the industry.
Flying his own plane across the country while setting sales records resulted in his friends in the industry giving Dallen the early nickname “Trailer Dog.” Dallen’s friendship, mindset and mentoring is illustrated by one of Dallen’s favorite and well-known quotes:
“Don’t tell me what I can’t do until I’ve done it.”
This attitude played a big role in Dallen’s ability to see that it was time to open his own toy hauler design, engineering and manufacturing business in Southern California in the early 2000s. He opened the business with his wife, Joanne, and created the most successful toy hauler design and manufacturing brand on the West Coast, from scratch, using his own money. Really nothing slowed him down, not even a difficult jury trial involving a larger competitor, he simply took the witness stand, testified, won the trial and kept moving forward, and brought the “Attitude” line of toy haulers into the field.
While most competitors are far behind on technology and “green” design, Dallen simply decided that Eclipse would be the first toy hauler to go entirely “green.” Eclipse toy haulers are no longer reliant on the fumes or pollution inherent in diesel generators and plug-in electric power. Instead, and through sheer force of will and years of trial and error, Eclipse toy haulers now use solar energy and lithium batteries to power fully off-the-grid, air-conditioned units with LED lighting.
Most competitors are still in the relative dark ages when it comes to energy efficient green design, but due to Dallen, Eclipse toy haulers are now entirely self-sustaining, using only solar power to recharge every day, without fumes, without a plug in and with mini split air conditioning to make the experience civilized.
The balance and love in his life was provided by his wife, Joanne, and his daughter, Sarah, his son-in-law, and two grandsons and a granddaughter. Weekends during the past six years were spent with his close tribe, and grandchildren that are now 2, 4 and 6.
In the end, the man Dallen Trealoff, who started out choosing to be homeless due to a tough family life, and then took on the Vietnam War, built a loving family and the most successful toy hauler design and manufacturing business on the West Coast. He will be missed deeply, by many, and cannot be replaced. Along the way during his life journey, his friends and the men he mentored in the field joked that perhaps his nickname “Trailer Dog” should reverse the letters in dog so that his new nickname late in life was “Trailer God.” As his friend, I can see Dallen, the Trailer God, casually driving his Ferrari to now meet the other God. May he rest in peace. I spoke with him a week ago, and he was planning his conquest and his ascent until his last breath. I miss him.
Mark Baute is a California-based attorney who first met Dallen and Joanne Trealoff some two decades ago when he represented the pair and their company, Eclipse RV, in a courtroom battle against a much larger manufacturer. He and Dallen had been friends ever since, and as Baute wrote of his friend: “The stone-cold truth is he started out 30 points behind with no advantages, no resources and no plan, and he ended up winning the championship in ‘life.’ He finished with a loving family, a successful business that created jobs for several hundred people, and friends and younger men in the field that aspired to achieve even half of what Dallen achieved.”
