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Before we get started, let’s address this “Part 1” situation. There are actually two reasons for breaking this blog up into two separate stories: first, as I type this article our Thor Outlaw motorhome is still in the shop with Camping World of Strafford, MO. Since I won’t have a solid conclusion on this “Does Camping World suck?” thing until we pick up the rig, we’ll instead focus today on the ins and outs of Camping World (and Gander RV’s) overwhelmingly poor reputation. And that brings me to the second reason we’ll need two blogs to cover this; there’s a LOT to unpack when it comes to Camping World’s reputation. If you prefer to hear me talk versus reading my typing, check out the related YouTube video here.  The birth of a conglomerate For many decades the RV dealer landscape looked a lot like the restaurant industry did “pre-McDonald’s” - a bunch of mom & pop family-owned joints specializing in certain dishes or ethnicities of cuisine. There were no drive-thrus, no fast food. You walked in, sat down, took your time and chose from a limited menu. Buying an RV just ten or fifteen years ago was quite similar - you first decided if you wanted a travel trailer, 5th wheel or motorhome then visited the family-owned dealer specializing in the RV type you’re looking for. While these family-owned dealerships are still plentiful in the industry, over the past several years a superstore has risen to power and consequently disrupted the market in many ways. The superstore chain in question is of course Camping World. With CEO Marcus Lemonis largely at the helm since the early 2000’s, Camping World’s goal of nationwide RV sales and service domination is well underway. Mergers and acquisitions have been the name of the game and In terms of volume and plain ol’ numbers they are absolutely dominating: 180+ stores in 46 states make Camping World/Gander RV the largest chain by a long shot (by contrast, the largest family-owned RV dealer chain I’m aware of in the US is Campers Inn RV with 30 stores in 12 states). Numbers, as we all know, only tell part of the story.  Quantity over quality It doesn’t take someone with a PhD in business to figure out that the larger the chain and greater the sales volume, the harder it is to establish a culture which puts the customer first and focuses on long-term sales through networking and relationship building. My experience during my 20 years in the automotive industry translates pretty well to RV sales and service: the bigger (and more corporate-structured) the dealer group, the less personal contact employees (and in some cases managers) have with those at the top of the corporate ladder. When the leader doesn’t have a true voice everything below them becomes a rat race. Managers get fixated on the numbers and employees are pressed to hit those numbers via homerun transactions in which they make huge margins on a single sale. It becomes a case of “skinning the sheep” rather than “shearing the sheep”. You can shear a sheep for it’s lifetime but when you skin a sheep, it’s gone. And make no mistake: people are leaving Camping World. If this is the case, how does this company continue to put up big numbers? Simply put, the allure of Camping World lies in convenience and name recognition. Let’s jump back to that restaurant analogy. If you’re a new customer who has never bought an RV from a dealer, Camping World is likely the first name that comes to mind. Thanks to partnerships with NASCAR and other professional sports leagues, billboards, a massive online advertising budget and more, they’ve become a household name. Beyond the name recognition aspect we have convenience. There is a Camping World location almost anywhere you go and they have a plethora of RV models and types ranging from tiny travel trailers to massive fifth wheels and Class A motorhomes. Need supplies? Every location has a well-stocked parts and accessories area with almost anything you’d ever need right there in the store. You can get in and get out without a lot of fuss. This is akin to the McDonald’s fast food chain disrupting mom & pop restaurants with fast food at low prices back in the 1950’s and 60’s. Golden arches began popping up on every corner and suddenly families across the country were quelling their hunger on the most convenient and readily-available food in front of them rather than sitting down at the local diner.  Social media vs. Camping World If there’s one thing Camping World has taught us about huge conglomerates operating in a space which demands excellent customer service, it’s that you can only get away with slacking for so long. Social media has given everyone a voice. Disgruntled customers tend to have loud voices and they sure do make themselves heard! A quick search of Facebook will reveal a number of anti-Camping World groups and hundreds (thousands?) of negative posts. A Google search of Camping World experiences uncovers more of the same: not only are people saying negative things, they are going so far as to create entire websites dedicated to slandering Camping World. Class action lawsuits have been organized by bitter consumers. Some go so far as to hurl physical threats against CEO Marcus Lemonis. Speaking of Mr. Lemonis, he really does seem to be at the center of the vitriol. You may have seen him on his TV show The Profit, in which he visits floundering businesses and offers insight and (in most cases) an injection of capital to help the business get back on its feet. You have the typical reality TV sob stories, occasional feuding siblings, several angry northeasterners and Mr. Lemonis front and center playing to the cameras. Think of it as Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares without the disgusting food and british accent. Naturally Mr. Lemonis is not handing checks to these people out of the kindness of his heart - he’s looking to be an investor and ultimately collect a profit from the business in question. That is, after all, the title of the show. As a small business owner I find The Profit to be an entertaining show. I’ve watched enough episodes of the show to have my own opinion of Mr. Lemonis, and while I won’t go so far as to say that I don’t like him I do feel there is something slightly off-putting about his demeanor and the way he does business. For example, at the start of each dramatic episode of The Profit, Mr. Lemonis says he does what he does because (in part) he cares about people. While I’m sure Marcus has a heart and he does care about people (in the way most humans wouldn’t let another human die in a burning car), the emotional interactions with his potential business partners can feel forced and at times downright awkward. Alas, we’re not here to judge Mr. Lemonis’ character. Indeed he is a businessman first and that means he’s here for the dollar first. While I do respect that, I also genuinely think his played-up “I’m here for the people” approach is part of the reason for Camping World’s woes. When you enter any Camping World store you’ll see Marcus Lemonis’ smiling face plastered all over the doors. They read [paraphrasing]: “If you’re not happy, I’m not happy. Here’s my direct phone line.” Unfortunately, lots of people are leaving these stores unhappy and guess what? They’re calling Marcus. But Marcus isn’t answering. He is also not responding to messages. I can personally attest to this, as I both left a voicemail with and sent a heartfelt email to Mr. Lemonis following a concerning visit at the Wichita, Kansas location. In that email I constructively outlined what I was seeing on the ground level and went so far as to offer my own experience in the automotive industry paired with knowledge of RVs and activity within the RVer community to help his team right the ship. No response. So, speaking from experience, when you have a bad experience and reach out to the guy who says “If you’re not happy contact me directly”, yet he blows you off… you end up more frustrated than you were in the first place. And this really is the core of the problem. Culture starts at the top. When Mr. Lemonis failed to respond to my email, I sent a similar message to the General Manager of the store. No response. My aggravation elevated, I now went directly to the Service Manager. No response. It was at this point I began to realize why there are so many people bashing Marcus Lemonis personally. Frankly, when you consider that he is almost non-responsive to customers who are already upset, he’s sort of making the bed in which he lies. He’s essentially breaking a promise made every time he fails to respond to an upset customer. Breaking promises to customers might be offense #1 in the Book of Bad Business. To summarize, Mr. Lemonis sits at the top of an organization with a widely-perceived culture of “numbers first, people second” while at the same time proclaiming a genuine care for the people and failing to deliver. This empty promise of customer service appears to be filtering down to some of the store management. Maybe he does deserve some of the personal criticism. But I digress. Marcus Lemonis and Wichita branch aside… is Camping World all bad?
My personal experiences Aside from our experience with the Wichita location (which is worthy of it’s own blog) we’ve had dozens of interactions with Camping World locations across the country. Honestly almost all of them have been highly positive! I buy almost all of our parts and accessories from Camping World based simply on - you guessed it - convenience. I know they’ll likely have the item I need, and I know if I have an issue with that item in another state there is a Camping World location right off the highway somewhere to get me taken care of. When I visit a Camping World I can expect a clean, well kept store and in almost every instance I am greeted by a smiling face. The only negative experiences I have had were (again) the Wichita store’s Service Department and a potential purchase at the Oklahoma City location. That experience at the OKC store was particularly odd, as we were very actively looking to purchase a motorhome that day yet no one could be bothered to take our money. While typical negative purchase experiences tend to revolve around an overly-aggressive sales team, our salesperson seemed to want us out of the store. Surprisingly, when we spoke to a Sales Manager he gave us the same impression. We left the store with two business cards and confused faces. I felt like we were pre-judged as tire kickers. One week later we were on a plane headed to Ft. Meyers, Florida to pick up our new motorhome from Palm RV (an experience which was absolutely awesome by the way)! Despite getting the cold shoulder from the sales team, we returned to the OKC location to have our new-to-us rig serviced a few months later. That was a VERY good interaction complete with excellent communication and service from our Service Advisor, Christina and Parts Associate, Brent. We even got a complimentary wash and propane fill! My overall takeaway from all of these visits? Clearly the experience varies based on the associate with which you are working. There are outliers on the extreme ends of the spectrum, good and bad, from store to store and employee to employee. Just as there are terrible and excellent stores within the organization, there can be caring employees working in the same store as those who clock in to simply collect a check. Camping World may be mismanaged at the highest levels but it isn’t all bad. With 180 stores and over 12,000 employees, it can’t be.  Making myself a guinea pig Having both criticised and defended Camping World on social media I can tell you some of the people who hate (and I mean hate!) CW will straight up come at you for saying anything nice about them. I’ve been called a plant, a mole, accused of being a Camping World employee, even labeled an undercover agent sent directly by the Dark Overlord himself, Darth Lemonis. All this simply for saying “Hey, I’ve had mostly good experiences with Camping World”! The haters’ cries for lawsuits and government intervention and physical violence against Mr. Lemonis and his Camping World employees fueled me to take a leap. At some point last year I decided to make myself a guinea pig and jump on a grenade for the greater good. I decided to take our motorhome to Camping World for the next major repair visit and document the entire process. So here we are. As I type this, our Outlaw is hundreds of miles away with a Camping World in another state having a litany of repairs done including one very major item: an entirely new roof membrane. Is Camping World really so bad?? We’re about to have a very good indicator. I’ll dive further into the visit and overall experience in Part 2 of this blog series but you can go to our YouTube channel now and watch the video in which we document the drop off process and initial communication with the service personnel. Please consider subscribing to the channel while you’re there and click the bell icon so you can be notified when Part 2 drops! Keep your fingers crossed for us… the rig should be finished very soon and we’re anxious to get it back hopefully in better shape than ever! I’m pretty optimistic at this point. What’s the worst that could happen, right?  
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Our 2019 Ranger (affectionately named Rango) has been a great little toad for our RV life. It’s comfortable and quiet enough, tough and capable. Part of the reason we opted for the 4x4 (besides the fact that the RWD model is not flat-towable) is because we wanted the freedom to be able to take the truck on some adventures! And we’ve done just that. During said excursions the little truck has performed admirably. The suspension, torque and locking diff have all worked great and powered us over any obstacles we’ve encountered. There was, however, one glaring weak link in the whole package: The original Ford-equipped Hankook Dynapro AT/M tires. Not only did we encounter some slippage on basic obstacles, we also damaged a sidewall and wheel when the flexible sidewall pinched on a rock. Although no tire is immune to damage in rocky situations, this particular instance was during a slow crawl over a rock shelf with pressures at 30 psi. We should also not discount the fact that our optional 18” wheels are less ideal than the standard 17” wheels for off road purposes, as there is less sidewall there to absorb flex and impacts. At any rate, while the truck (and tires) did everything we asked of them, there was certainly room for improvement.  The Hankooks weren’t all bad. Redeeming qualities include light weight compared to a heavier-duty off road tire which result in decent handling and fuel economy, and quiet performance on-road. They just weren’t great either - and that’s typical of OEM tires. Auto manufacturers are always riding the balance of installing a nice name-brand tire with good manners in all types of weather and conditions which is also quiet and fuel efficient. True all-terrain tires simply do not fit into this category. A step up to the Ford Ranger Tremor does get you more rugged (and upsized) Goodyear Wranglers, but all other trims are on Hankook Dynapros. Honestly, I couldn’t wait to wear out the Hankooks and replace them with something bigger, better, and cooler. At 27,000 miles (plus about 15k towed behind our RV), the Hankooks were clearly on their way out. I’d plugged one of the tires roadside and still had the big sidewall gash in another, plus the tread was down to the wear bars on the shoulders. So I began shopping. The Candidates Going into the process my top choice was by far the BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2. I’ve always felt that the BFG is the quintessential off road tire, and apparently many others share my opinion! The BFG KO2 is one of the most popular all terrain tires on the market. I got to spend some time with these tires during a week of aggressive buggy driving in Baja Mexico with Wide Open Excursions where the grip and durability of these tires shined through as we put them through the wringer over rocks, sand and gravel at high speeds. At the conclusion of that event I knew I had to have some BFG KO2’s! But wait… what else is out there? I’d be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t shop my options before pulling the trigger right? There are several tires that compare to the BFG KO2 and I found very quickly that while the differences were trivial, prices varied greatly. In other reviews I found it became apparent that the General Grabber ATX, Falken Wildpeak, Goodyear Wrangler, Toyo Open Country and Cooper Discoverer series have really closed the gap on BFG in terms of overall performance and in many cases represent a better value. My priorities Everyone has their own order of priorities when it comes to buying all terrain tires. For me personally, this was my order:
Narrowing it down In looking over my priority list it may come as no surprise that the BFG All-Terrain KO2 took a couple steps down the ladder almost immediately. Several times I placed the BFGs in my online cart and stepped away to give it some thought. Every time I returned to my computer, I opened the cart and looked at the total purchase price… then deleted them from my cart. The more I did this, the more I realized these may not be the tires for me. I then started to look more and more at the competition. After several hours of comparing tires on various websites and reading review after review, I found myself gravitating towards the General Grabber ATX. I like the looks of the tire, from the tread to the white letter sidewalls. In addition they were quite a bit less expensive than the BFG. Again I added the Grabbers to my cart… let it sit… then came back and did one last search. That’s when I stumbled across the Cooper Discoverer ATP II. Not only were these Coopers great looking tires, they were offered at a much lower price point (made sweeter by a Black Friday deal!). Most importantly, they appeared to have many of the same features and capabilities as the more expensive tires. What I found interesting (and marginally concerning) was that there were no really good reviews of the ATP II tire online. It seems since this tire is quite new (it replaces the outgoing ATP model) and exclusive to Discount Tire, maybe it isn’t getting much attention. After giving it some thought and considering budget more and more, I opted to give these relatively-unproven tires a shot on our Ranger. The purchase and install experience I originally planned on purchasing online through Tire Rack, but since the Cooper Discoverer ATP II is only available through Discount Tire I was sort of forced to go that route. I’ve heard great things about Discount but I’ve never used them, so I was interested to see if they could seamlessly translate my online order to the in-store experience. I ordered on the Discount Tire website and scheduled to have the tires delivered to a local store where they would be installed on my Ranger in two days’ time. Before driving to the store I stopped by an empty lot and did some “before testing” with my old Hankook Dynapro tires. Twice I got stuck in the sandy terrain and had to switch to 4WD and/or locking rear diff. I then drove on to the store with my tires filthy and coated in goathead stickers (which I massively apologized for to the technicians). Upon arrival I was greeted immediately by a friendly consultant and they immediately checked me in. All my information was in the system and ready to go from my online order, so there was no paperwork to fill out or hoops to jump through. The consultant brought one of the new Cooper tires out for me to inspect, and once I gave them the thumbs up they got right to work! Since I was going up in size quite a bit the technicians first mounted a front tire and installed it on the truck to ensure we had good clearance all around the steering and front suspension components. That was a nice touch. All-in-all I was only in the store for about 15 minutes! My consultant handed me a pamphlet with my printed paperwork and warranty information, then he explained my Discount Tire benefits such as free flat repairs and tire rotations & balances nationwide. That was a pleasant bonus that I did not take into consideration when I made the decision to buy the Coopers and it adds even more value to the purchase. I backed the truck out of the bay, stood back and admired the new shoes, and hit the road!  First impressions I’ll be honest, my past experience with adding larger off-road tires to my vehicles has not been overly pleasant. As I mentioned earlier, the added weight of these types of tires can really affect ride, acceleration, handling, fuel economy, even braking. Aggressive tread patterns and big tread blocks typically mean increased tire noise especially when on the highway. You certainly have to be prepared to sacrifice some on-road manners for off-road capability. When I left the Discount Tire shop I jaunted right across the road to Sedgwick County Park, which has some bumpy and unkept areas as well as nicely paved roads with sweeping curves. It was a good place to quickly get a feel for my truck’s new road manners. I found rather quickly that the tires did indeed change the way the Ranger drove, however the difference was not nearly as drastic as I’ve felt with other tires (such as the Toyo Open Country on our last SUV). Acceleration is slightly more sluggish and I can feel the truck wallowing more when making corners. I feel that the ride is only slightly harsher than with the OEM tires, although it may not be much different at all. It’s hard to tell really. Leaving the park, I immediately merged onto the highway to head back to the sandlot for a follow-up test to compare off-road grip against the old Dynapros. This is where I fully expected some road noise and ride harshness thanks to these tires’ much more pronounced and aggressive tread pattern as well as stiffer sidewalls. Instead I found myself pleasantly surprised! Tire noise was not discernibly louder than with the OEM tires and the ride was just the same as with the Hankooks (which, by the way, is quite poor in a stock Ranger). Because we do a lot of highway travelling, this was a very welcome discovery. The off-road test My completely unscientific off-road test of the Discoverer ATP II was to drive the Ranger over a series of berms at low speeds on a very low-traction surface. My theory here was that while the Ranger would make it through any of these obstacles pretty easily in 4WD and with some momentum, lower speeds would force the tires to do the work. Before I get too far into the findings I think it’s important for me to explain that this is not intended to be a direct comparison between the Hankook Dynapro AT/M and Cooper Discoverer ATP II. Not only are these tires fundamentally different, the Hankook also had 27k miles of wear on them. Think of the Dynapro results simply as a “Brand X” baseline.
1,000 mile thoughts I’ve now had some time to live with the Discoverers and try them in all sorts of different day-to-day scenarios: dry, wet, gravel, highway, residential, etc. I believe most people are going to purchase this tire for use in the same manner as me, that is to say lots of daily driver street use with the occasional off-road excursion for work or play. With that in mind I will continue to test these tires in various off-road conditions and report back later in the life of the tire. Today let’s focus on the everyday practicality of upgrading from an OEM all purpose tire to an upsized Cooper Discoverer ATP II. First and foremost I have to say that I am really enjoying the new look of our Ranger with these new tires. Whereas the OEM tires always looked one size too small and a little bit too subdued, these 275/65/18 Coopers fill the wheel wells much nicer while raising the truck slightly and showing off those blocky sidewalls with off-road intent. The optional raised white letters are a personal preference and I’ve found that people tend to love them or hate them - there’s not much in between. As a child of the 80’s who adored his Tonka and Nylint toy trucks, the white letters really speak to me. Most of our driving has been highway miles and there haven’t been any real complaints from Tosha nor I. As I mentioned earlier, tire noise is no issue and road manners are essentially just the same as they were before (that is to say, not great). One comment was made from our son Carter as he sat in the backseat - he felt that when Tosha was driving she was darting back and forth in the lane a little bit more frequently and it was bothering him. Tosha agreed that she might have been giving more steering input and pointed to the tires as the cause. I can certainly see how this might be the case, as those thick tread blocks wallowing and flexing under the carcass could cause one to correct left and right constantly. The biggest drawback however comes as no surprise: fuel economy. I must say first that we have been traveling almost exclusively north and south on I-35 and we’ve had some horrible luck with headwinds. During one trip from Oklahoma City to Wichita we charged headlong into almost constant 40-mph winds. When we headed back south to Dallas, wind had shifted out of the south and again we found ourselves pushing the Ranger’s little 4-banger to punch through the gusts. We’ve truly seldom had the wind at our back since getting these tires installed! All that being said, our economy went from an average of 19.5 mpg over the last 5000 miles of driving with the OEM tires (as calculated by the Ranger’s MFI), to just 16.0 with the upsized Coopers! While I do feel that our numbers have been quite skewed given our luck with these recent winds, it can’t be denied that there was some sort of considerable loss in fuel economy here.  Would I buy them again? It may be just a little too soon to tell yet. The overall purchase experience from Discount Tire was amazing and just as I was writing this blog Discount Tire has announced they’ve acquired Tire Rack and are merging operations. This is no doubt going to be an incredible pairing as they now represent two of my favorite options for tire purchases. It makes the choice that much simpler. I would absolutely purchase from Discount Tire again and I highly recommend purchasing and scheduling online! I’ve never experienced such a friendly and efficient tire install experience. While I am quite happy with the tires thus far, I am keen on trying them off-road alongside similar trucks and SUVs with the competitor’s tires. That will be the true test. Has this latest iteration of the budget(ish) Cooper Discoverer line truly closed the gap between them and the big boys? In terms of off-road capability I’m unsure of that until I can see it for myself. The on-road manners are quite good and I truly do not see any of the competition feeling any better or offering a quieter ride. For the price, I won’t be complaining either way. If you’re interested in watching our YouTube video showing how the tires performed off road, you can do that here! Please consider subscribing to our channel while you’re there. I hope you found this blog and video helpful! See you in the next one! |
