Bob McCarthy, President, Rieco-Titan Products, Inc.
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As camper owners, we sometimes take camper jacks for granted. We assume that jacks are jacks and that’s the fact. But the truth is that jacks are not jacks. Each camper jack company has different leadership with their own philosophies of design, construction, quality control, and customer service.
Recently we had the opportunity to talk to Bob McCarthy, President of Rieco-Titan Products, Inc., about his philosophies and products. It turns out that Bob is a bit of an accidental camper jack maker. It also turns out that he takes his products and business very seriously.
TCM: What are your earliest memories that involve RVs?
Bob: I’m going to be different than most other people you’ve interviewed in that I had no experience with RVs until I got into the manufacturing business. I went tent camping with scouts and once or twice I went out with a friend who had a little Jayco pop-up camper. That’s about it.
TCM: Have you gone truck camping?
Bob: I have gone truck camping, but my wife and I are two people who like to have the space and accommodations of a hotel room. We do spend a lot of time hiking, snowmobiling, horseback riding, and exploring the mountains of Colorado. We enjoy being outdoors a lot.
TCM: We’re going to have to get you out in a nice truck camper!
Bob: Yes, perhaps you are.
TCM: So how did you get into the camper jack business?
Bob: I was working for Johnson & Johnson in management and they were forcing me to relocate to the east coast. I had family in the Midwest and didn’t want to move. So in 1979, my wife and I bought a metal fabrication company, Vindee Industries, Incorporated, that fabricated for Titan Jack. A few years later, we purchased Titan Jack. The two companies are sister companies to this day.
TCM: Did you manufacture more than just camper jacks?
Bob: About eight years ago we were fabricating all the metal speaker stands for Circuit City. We were also fabricating products for World Dryer, Health-O-Meter, Northern American Safety Products, Home Depot, and others. At that time we weren’t paying too much attention to our camper jack business. Then we lost the Circuit City, World Dryer, Health-O-Meter, Northern American Safety Products, and Home Depot business to off shore competition.
TCM: What did you do?
Bob: We had to reassess. We saw that our Titan Jack business was not getting adequate attention. Then, after listening to what our customers wanted, we did a lot of engineering work to make our jack line the most comprehensive and top of the market. Once we debuted our wireless electric jack, things started taking off. Today we are the only camper jack manufacturer that offers the complete line of jacks and accessories - from the tripod jacks, to the corner mechanical to the hydraulic to the top of the line wireless/wired electric jacks.
TCM: So where did the Rieco or Rieco-Titan come from?
Bob: Rieco came from Andy Peralez. Andy had a paint business back in 1970 and his then fifteen year-old daughter was into horses. Andy wanted a truck camper for his daughter and couldn’t find a jack system that was easy to use. So he invented a hydraulic camper jack and by 1975 went into production.
Soon thereafter, Andy and I became acquainted and started a joint marketing program for our camper jack businesses. A few years later Andy suggested that we buy him out. He was getting up in years and it seemed a match made in heaven. So Titan Jack Incorporated bought Rieco. The company names were strong so we combined them.
TCM: Is it pronounced Ree-Coe or Rye-Coe? And is there a hyphen in the name?
Bob: I suppose if you followed the English language pronunciation it would be Ree-Coe, but it’s pronounced Rye-Coe. At any rate, this is what Andy Peralez, the original owner of Rieco, taught me. The name Rieco stands for Rush Industrial Enameling Company. The company was originally on Rush Avenue in South El Monte California.
But you can call us whatever you want. Call us Ree-Coe, call us Rye-Coe, just call us. As for the spelling, put a hyphen between the names, Rieco-Titan.
TCM: Is Rieco-Titan 100% focused on the truck camper market?
Bob: No. We are 90% focused on truck camper jacks and accessories, and 10% on custom hydraulic and electric actuators for the automotive industry. We do make some slide-outs for customers who require custom work. There are slide-out manufacturers that already produce very good slide-outs, but some customers need custom designs at low volume. That’s where we come in.
TCM: Tell us about your build quality.
Bob: Design comes first, and then testing, modification of design, prototyping, and field testing with actual campers. Every part is checked once it’s in the door. If anything isn’t up to specification, it’s isolated. Then there are multiple quality check layers during manufacturing while stamping parts, welding, etc. Each operator knows the importance of quality. Everyone here is concerned about quality and service. Our average seniority is over 15 years. Our team knows how important their products are. For example, we have tool and die makers tour the entire plant in the morning and afternoon checking the tooling component specifications. It just flows from there.
Consistency is the key to camper jack quality. The last jack on the assembly line must be identical to the first. Everyone at the plant has the same belief and understands why that’s important. That’s how you maintain quality. And we have layers of quality control standards, inspectors, and documents. But everybody does that. Employees must understand the importance of consistency and be open and forthright. Anyone can make a mistake but we make sure our employees don’t feel they need to hide it. It’s about integrity, honesty, and credibility. You have to protect it.
TCM: Which truck camper manufacturers currently use your jacks?
Bob: Arctic Fox, Snowriver, Travel Lite, Sun Valley, Palomino, Alaskan, Four Wheel, Six-Pac, All Terrain, Stable Lift, and others. We also export to camper manufacturers in Australia, Japan, China, and Germany.
TCM: Tell us about your relationship with Stable-Lift.
Bob: It actually started at that wonderful Ogallala, Nebraska show. We met Mont Peters, the President of Stable Lift, there. He wanted to make a couple of technical improvements with their existing system and we knew we could help him. So one thing led to another and we made some prototypes. They tested and loved them. Now we’re going to manufacture a larger quantity of jacks to their specifications. Soon we’ll have a small assembly line for them. We’re very happy about our relationship with Stable-Lift. It’s growing and their sales are growing.
TCM: Why should someone care about what brand of camper jacks come with their new truck camper?
Bob: My personal philosophy of engineering is overkill. There are a number of ways a manufacturer can engineer their products to make money. They can be as economical as they can from a manufacturing point of view. Some people do that. For example, large companies are forced to do that for profits that support high overhead. Rieco-Titan has twenty-five employees and a small company overhead. I’m happy to talk with our customers but I don’t want them to call with problems. With that in mind, I build jacks from an overkill point of view. For example, our electric jack is rated at 2,500 pound capacity. However, the jack has been tested and proven to 4,000 pounds, but that’s too much. That much capacity isn’t needed in the field so we set our internal clutch at 3,200 pounds. The decal says it’s a 2,500 pound jack, but it’s really a 4,000 pound jack.
TCM: So could Rieco-Titan jacks lift a 16,000 pound camper?
Bob: In an ideal and perfect world setting, yes. The load would have to be exactly the same 4,000 pounds for each jack, the ground would have to be perfectly flat, and a whole bunch more of perfect parameters that just don't exist.
TCM: How do your camper jacks need to be maintained?
Bob: Our tripod and four-corner mechanical jacks have a hole under their gearbox where you should shoot some light oil about twice a year. The type of oil doesn’t matter as long as it has sticking power. 3-in-1 oil would work fine. Our hydraulic jacks need to be exercised by being operated periodically - twice a year. The oil gets a little sticky over time when they sit. And there’s nothing to maintain with the electric jacks as everything is sealed with a synthetic lubricant. There’s nothing to be opened.
On any jack, including our competition’s, it’s always a good idea to wax coat the inner tube to prevent deterioration and to lubricate the tubes as they slide.
TCM: Tell us about your camper jack warranty. What’s your general customer service philosophy?
Bob: There are two answers to that. The official answer is two years. That’s two years from the point in time when the camper is purchased. It’s conceivable that a dealer would have a camper that is two or three years old and just now sells the camper. By the time a consumer contacts us, the jacks could be five years old. We still treat it as two years.
On the other hand, if someone calls us who’s had our jacks for ten years and there’s a problem, we would probably replace it for nothing. It just depends on the circumstances. On the other hand, if the customer hit a curb that’s a different thing.
Service is the name of the game. You have to have a good product that’s easy to use, affordable, reliable, and safe. Then service the end user. Unfortunately, so many end users wait until the day before they’re going camping to discover a problem. By the time they call us they’re unhappy and in a panic. It can become difficult at times. Think ahead!
TCM: Can someone switch their camper jacks to Rieco-Titan?
Bob: Yes. A great number of people upgrade their corner jacks from mechanical to electric jacks. Of course why not push a button instead of cranking. Cranking is hard. It’s a matter of economics. There’s an inverse relationship between the cost of jacks and the work it takes to raise your camper. Some people only want to go hunting or camping a few days a year so they’re not going to put electric or hydraulics on their camper.
In my opinion, our hydraulic jack is actually the best bang for the buck. The difference in cost over our mechanical hand crank jack is not huge. The difference in work is. Mechanical hand jacks require circular motion in the shoulder joint. When we get older that joint gets tired. Compare that motion with the up and down pump of a hydraulic. It’s a much easier body motion. And with hydraulics, you can lower the camper by cracking a valve and letting gravity gently bring your camper down. And last, but not least, electric jacks cost about 200 to 300 percent more than hydraulic jacks.
TCM: Tell us about your mechanical to electric jack conversion kits.
Bob: It doesn’t matter if you have Rieco or Atwood mechanical jacks, we can convert them to electric wireless jacks. The conversion is usually done by the owner or a local dealership. Seventy-five percent of the conversions are done by the owner. It’s an easy installation.
We really can’t take full credit for this. At a distributor show we were asked why we couldn’t make a conversion kit for mechanical Atwoods. Well golly, why didn’t we think of that? So we made them. The conversion kits have been out for about a year and a half now.
TCM: On your homepage you feature a camper dolly. Is that primarily for dealerships or can consumers order them too?
Bob: It’s priced to be sold to end users at $429. We use high quality steel and casters so it’s strong and yet affordable for the camper owner. It can handle 5,000 pounds and is adjustable in width. It holds a camper 19 ½ inches off the ground but a quite a few customers ask us to lower it closer to the ground, which we do. If you have a hard surface floor for your garage, driveway, or barn, it’s very easy to push a camper into a corner. It’s a space saver. You have to be careful if you have a little bit of a slope that the camper doesn’t get away from you. So the casters have brakes.
TCM: What is your vision for the future of Rieco-Titan? Any new products?
Bob: We will constantly improve our products. We will be coming out soon with a new receiver control system for more foolproof operation, more protection, more control, and more trouble shooting help. The reality is that end users don't always do everything correctly. So they need a way to trouble shoot their problems quickly and easily.
TCM: Can we debut your new control system on TCM?
Bob: Yes. Of course.
TCM: Where do you see the truck camper industry in ten years?
Bob: I see the truck camper market growing. As gas prices continue to escalate, people will have less disposable income and will step down in their budgets. The truck camper is the most affordable of the camping vehicles. It’s also the most practical. I believe the truck camper market share will increase.
For more information about Rieco-Titan, visit their website at www.riecotitan.com.
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