Just a follow up on this.
Last weekend I attended the Pittsburgh RV show and a Renegade dealer had a rig on display.
From what he said Chuck is still in charge and brought on partners (investors) to expand.
The dealer (I do not remember the name) had a 32' motorhome on a tandem axles FL Coronado chassis. I thought I would be more impressed with the Coronado than I was. It is a nice truck and it is big! But it just seems like it would be a p.i.t.a to drive once you got off the highway. It is a great truck when you want to have a overhead bunk. Renegade put a queen bed up there and it looked great with that cab (the overhead did not look to big; the bunk looked in proportion to the rest of the front end)
The motorhome side of the rig was pretty high-end. The interior had that traditional deep blood red carpet renegade likes to use(which I am not a big fan of) along with pergo wood tiles mimicking black marble.(again would not have been my choice) They used walnut stained oak with wains coat throughout and chocolate leather walls (I really, really like the leather walls, looked awesome) The wood and leather really took the look of the rig up a notch. The 7 1/2' ceiling makes the interior seem cavernous but a necessity to make that overhead bunk usable. I like the flat panel tv's which save so much space, the front tv was in the center of the overhead bunk and than access to the bunk was on either side. They padded the back side of the TV and I really liked the placement. (well thoughtout) Loved the big Flexsteel leather furniture they used.
On the exterior they had the traditional chrome lower section, which has to be a major p.i.t.a. to keep clean. Don't like the bin door hardware they use, and the storage bin's seem small in height compared to my rig. Didn't seem like a lot of storage space for such a big conversion.
Although there where some interior colors and materials I would change up if it where mine, the quality looked great. Since the last time I really looked over a Renegade, the exterior seems and trim look much better.
A Haulmark dealer also was there displaying a rig and you had to feel bad for him. I don't want to sound like I am dissing Haulmark, but compared to the Renegade unit the Haulmark looked like a very, very low end product. This was on a tandem axle Columbia chassis with a outrageously long wheel base. Probably a 32' motohome like the Renegade, they had the rear axles set all the way back. I absolutely do not see the reason for this. The interior was plain which I am sure alot of racers would like so I am not judging the 2 rigs on that. But the vents in the roofs are the cheesy loud plastic fans (no reason for using junk like that in a conversion) the sky light in the shower was again a cheesy looking plastic opaque looking thing. There where a number of other items that where very low quality items. I totally understand the concept of keeping cost down, but it seems like they could have done a much better job of using inexpensive items.
Anyway the Renegade display was packed with people and the Haulmark was empty. It just seems like you would want to put your best foot forward at a show and than let a customer cut out the frills when it came time to sign on the dotted line.
Bill
