Can I ride before I sign?

So now you have less than 4,000 under actual contract to Horizon . Horizon already has around 600 contractors . At one time they had over 2,000 . So those contractors get 6 or 7 of these trailers each .
Elkhart to Hope 853 miles . Hope to Columbus 861 miles 1714 miles # 12 mpg (smart people don't even try to use a 6.0 for this )about 143 gallons x say $2.70 a gallon is $386 for fuel . At $.89 a mile you get about $1500 . Which leaves around $1100 after fuel . What about insurance , tires , the truck itself ? How long will a pickup last running over 2,000 miles a week ?
Yes it is unlikely there will be many trailers headed that way from Elkhart in that time frame . Horizon totaled around 45,000 moves to all parts of the country last year .
A 30% increase in sales this year ? That's not impressive when sales were down over 25% last year . http://www.rvbusiness.com/2010/02/stat-surveys-2009-towable-sales-down-25-9/
Sales dropped in 2007 and 2008 as well . I really doubt that 30% increase . The economy won't allow that .
The panels used in the FEMA trailers were NOT the same panels used in previous production . Gulfstream suppliers couldn't meet production demand so panels were imported .

http://www.soros.org/resources/multimedia/katrina/projects/ToxicTrailers/story_DyingforHome_3.php


Yes , I disagree with much of what you said including your saying Greenlawn bought "new"' mobile homes . Is that what they bought , mobile homes ? Mobile homes can't be hauled with pickups and I can't see a mobile home dealer buying that many FEMA campers .

 

from what I understand, the mobile homes (12'X60' or 70' and also 12' X 40') that went to Hope, Ark. were new. They were the ones that were supposed to be given to families at a discount so they would relocate to a spot further inland and basically abandon their homes in the hard hit areas. They were just taken there as (supposedly) a temporary holding spot and you may remember they were sinking in the mud without proper bracing on either end so the frames were over time warping under their own weight.
So maybe the quick response to this calamity took place, where they blocked up the ends and this 'may have' stopped the warping. I personally doubt it, but I only saw the massive number of these homes from the air on mapquest. You can see it now at the Hope, Ar Airport on any online map site. I also saw them when delivering FEMA campers there.
What strikes me as odd is that when all these stories of FEMA campers and the Mobile Homes are talked about, you really can't understand which of the two they're talking about. Technically they are all Mobile Homes because as I stated earlier the FEMA Travel Trailers are actually labeled in their door panel as "Emergency Portable Mobile Homes" or something to that effect. They're really just Travel Trailers with no holding tanks and equipped as such, with apt. refridgerators, flush toilets, but camper stoves and furnaces.
I don't doubt...and have no reason to disbelieve...that the panels were bought from everywhere on EARTH to keep up with demand when they were being built. However the Travel Trailers that were built by manufacturers other than Gulfstream and Fleetwood were for the most part just regular Travel Trailers with holding tanks and were sold to the govt. for 'supposedly' the same as the FEMA T.T.'s cost of $8850, I was told by the dispatcher at Gulfstream.
I'm not sure where you're going with the other part of your cost analysis of whether someone should start hauling campers. You and I know that $.89 is basically too cheap if you're only going to haul one way. 853 miles one way to Columbus yields a gross of $759 and at 8 MPG uses 106 gallons X $2.70/gal. = $287 and return at 16 MPG for $143 to total $430. You can only legally drive about 600 miles while either dispatched or loaded, so 3 days for $430 aint enough. But what I was relating to MacroGuy is that This is a good way to START into the trucking industry because it gives valuable learning tools like trailer backing, exposure to D.O.T. regulations and keeping of Logs, and with such low wages he could practically right off all the miles VS. income generated (853 X 2ways X $.50/mile = $853 deduction) so all the income "could be" written off.
And yes you're right, the only way to move a 60 or 70 ft. trlr is with a Semi or Toter. I wasn't referring anyone to pull those, though they probably pay substantially more since you'd need a follow 'flag' vehicle, I believe. And at $27.477 million, Greenlawn either paid about $7800 each for the Mobile Homes and got the Travel Trailers free or they paid $2400 each for the Travel Trlrs and got the Mobile Homes free. And when I talked to the General Manager there he said they have most of the travel trailers presold. I can only hope the buyers know the risk if they don't plan to reskin the interiors of them. On the plus side, they'll offer someone relatively cheap rental housing if they do get reskinned. I personally believe that even if they didn't get reskinned with new panelling or drywall that if someone stayed in them for only a week or two there wouldn't be substantial risk to their health.

 

Wow thats deplorable! My Dodge with its cummings pulling my 60 hp New Holland Farm Tractor and trailer gets 15 mpg or 18 mpg empty.

 

Yeah but if you took off that farm tractor and put on a 24 foot box or a camper I would bet your MPG would go down to 12 or less. That tractor is way more aerodynamic than a Travel Trailer. I'm surprised your truck and trailer (without the tractor)gets only 18MPG.

 

Its a 4 wheel drive pickup. My one ton dually with an automatic gets 26 mpg.

 

THats sweet. I wonder what your 26MPG goes to when hauling a big camper? You'd think it gets upwards of11-13MPG. My buddy pulling a 32' camper through hills(?) of Iowa just reported 7.3MPG's with his 2000 7.3 ford 2WD because he couldn't stay in 4thO.D. Wishing he had a Dodge Cummins now.LOL.