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| Dave Hoskins of Aluminess: Taking Aluminum Farther |
| Gordon White | Monday, 10 August, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Take your truck camping expeditions farther off-road and off-the-grid with Aluminess's aluminum bumpers, racks, and boxes - serious off-road gear. ...  Dave Hoskins is a natural problem solver and a serial entreprenur. When Sportsmobile contacted Dave with a problem, he solved it. Then his solution quickly became a manufacturing operation. Without marketing or even naming the company, the orders kept coming. Now the problem was that Dave was supposed to be retired after years of saving and entrepenual success. Dave solved that problem by starting Aluminess. So how does someone who's retired find themselves not only back at work, but owning his own thriving business? And what's so special about Aluminess's aluminum bumpers, racks, and boxes? Meet Dave Hoskins and discover the serious off-road aluminum gear from Aluminess.
TCM: How did you first discover the world of off-road vehicles? Dave: When I was about six years old, another kid in the neighborhood and I were playing with toy cars in the dirt when we saw a wheel under the ice plant. We uncovered a bike with a motor on it. I found out later that it was built by my uncle during the depression. He is ninety-seven now. When my dad got home that night he said, “I bet we can make it run”. Everything was completely rusted up. We had to take the motor apart, clean it up, and get it running. When we finished, dad put me on the bike and shoved me down the street. The motor was wired up with an open throttle and no brakes. Dad was as excited as I was and I still have the motorbike today. We rode that motorbike through all the canyons where I grew up. I even restored the bike a few years back. When I was growing up my dad always made his toys because he could not afford to buy them. He made several ski boats and campers. I got to help and learned a craft. As I got older, I started making motorcycles and street rods as a hobby. TCM: How did your interest in off-road vehicles become a career? Dave: Aluminess is actually the seventh start-up company I have been involved in. Before this I was in the computer and medical device industries. Aluminess is my first off-road related business, other than some consulting work and personal hobbies. I had actually retired in 1994 after doing well with the previous companies and saving for many years. After I retired, I took my wife and two children across the United States and Canada for eight-weeks. We didn’t stay in any hotels. We camped the whole way. Then, in 2001, one of my consulting jobs involved helping Sportsmobile with a situation where their 4x4 van supplier, Quigley Motor Company, had voided the warranties on vans with aftermarket steel bumpers. Sportsmobile had called me up knowing I had a background in automotive mechanics and street rods and asked if I could solve the problem. What I found is that the steel bumpers were putting an excessive amount of weight on the front of the vehicle. The steel bumpers alone were 200 to 300 pounds. A common option was to then add a winch at an additional 100 to 140 pounds. The weight was stressing the geometry of the steering and alignment of the vans. Imagine holding a two-pound weight straight out in front of you all day. In about twenty minutes, your shoulder would ache. By the end of the day, you would need an orthopedic surgeon. That’s what the vans were doing with these heavy steel bumpers.
TCM: So that’s what pulled you out of retirement? Dave: Yes, Sportsmobile got me working again. Their bumper suppliers didn’t believe aluminum was a good alternative to steel. Then I explained that fighter jets and the space shuttle are made of light weight alloy and aluminum. Being competitive and strong willed, I sketched out an idea, purchased some material, and fabricated an aluminum bumper for Sportsmobile. We put it on a vehicle and they liked it, so I found a better welder than myself and the orders just grew. We started in a parking lot, then moved to an 800 square foot facility, then a 2,000 square foot facility, and now we’re in a 6,000 square foot facility. We were originally just a private label for Sportsmobile. Then people started asking for our bumpers on trucks and SUVs. At first I really struggled with sacrificing the free time of retirement, but I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people who are out having fun. We have now been in business for eight years. TCM: I imagine that was a very tough decision. Is the bulk of Aluminess’s business still from Sportsmobile and other Quigley 4x4 van conversions? Dave: About half of our business was Sportsmobile until the first quarter of last year. The bumper orders from Sportsmobile really slowed down when diesel hit $5.00 a gallon and the interest rates shot up. That’s when we diversified our product lines to include aluminum bumpers for other vehicles. TCM: How can Aluminess bumpers improve a truck camper’s ability to off-road and boondock? Dave: Let’s start with the front bumper. Putting an aluminum bumper on the front of a truck offers two opportunities. First, there is lockable storage within the front bumper where people put tools, leveling blocks, and tow straps. People also install a winch in their front bumpers for getting out of difficult situations or helping others who get stuck. A third benefit is the addition of a brush guard to protect from deer, elk, bear, and concrete barriers. TCM: Concrete barriers? Dave: Yes. We helped Cal Tech University with specially designed bumpers for their entry in the DARPA Challenge. The DARPA Challenge is a race sponsored by the Department of Defense with a $2 million prize for an unmanned vehicle to travel 180 miles in the desert, guided only by GPS coordinates. The Cal Tech University vehicle with our bumper was a finalist, but it crashed into a concrete barrier. The bumper was scratched with no significant damage, and the vehicle was unscathed. TCM: Very cool. And the rear bumper? Dave: The rear bumper is where truck campers can really benefit. Off-road vehicles often need larger tires to get through ruts, bumps, sand, and other off-road conditions. These larger oversize tires will not fit where the original spare tire was on a truck so most people either don’t have a spare, or keep it inside the vehicle. Some people even put their spare tires on the roof, which means risking dropping it down a canyon when they need it. With our product, you carry your large oversize spare tire on swing arms on the back of your vehicle. You simply swing the tire away to access the camper.
TCM: That is an important feature. Tell us about your rear bumper boxes. Dave: Lots of campers want to carry small generators, tools, camp chairs, bikes, barbeques, and things that don’t fit well within camper. We have a variety of boxes to help out with storage of these items. Generally, we look at what campers want to take with them without having to compromise inside storage. Who wants a tire or a generator in with their linens, sleeping bags, and pillows? TCM: That sounds like the argument truck campers have against toy haulers. Who wants to sleep with their dirty ATVs? Tell us about the Aluminess Galley Box. Dave: If you have a Honda 2000 generator, we have a Galley Box that fits it perfectly. And you can fit a barbeque. On top of the Galley Box, or you have room for two Coleman five-gallon water containers. Our Baja Box has a lid on the top for people who like to layer their items. The Baja box also features a side pocket that will fit five-gallons of water or fuel. When out camping, people want to take more water for dishes, cooking, and showering. The Deluxe Box is thirty inches tall. It allows for your generator to be on the bottom with a shelf for more items or some camp chairs can also fit it. Both the Galley Box and Deluxe Box have a seal on the door to prevent moisture and dust from getting into everything. The Deluxe Box is also taller than the spare tire on the driver’s side, which allows us to install a bike rack up there. TCM: That’s neat. What bike racks are you using to do that? Dave: We use Thule and Yakima bike racks. We use the same components that other vehicles use to tie bikes to their roofs.
TCM: That’s a lot of added utility. Tell us about your Expedition Kit. Dave: The Expedition Kit bolts to the side of the larger boxes. The Expedition Kit has waterproof locks, a shovel, and an ax. The shovel and ax come with the kit. The shovel is a necessity for anyone who might get stuck in the sand or dirt and needs to dig their way out. The ax is useful when a tree branch blocks your path. TCM: The rear bumpers and boxes seem to require a camper with no rear overhang. What do you offer for the truck campers with a rear overhang? Dave: I have some concept designs for truck campers with a rear overhang. I need to work with a truck camper manufacturer to prove my concept. I have two different concepts that I think will work. There are some future ideas that we’re working on.
TCM: Are there any other truck camper products on the horizon for Aluminess? Dave: Yes. We have a new product that I believe will be quite popular for truck campers. Under the front cabover bed, we have designed a box of about three feet by four feet by six inches deep. You can store a lot in that space. I could see that being good especially for pop up campers with limited space. We also have been working with Four Wheel Campers and Hallmark RV to add product lines for them. We aim to be a standard for the camper industry. TCM: What does a typical Aluminess bumper cost? Dave: The front bumper for full size truck is $1,995. That bumper comes complete with powder coat, all aluminum construction, winch compatible, locking storage, off-road light mounts, tow hooks, and a bolt on application to unbolt your bumper and put ours on. Accessories to add-on are lights, a winch, and shackles. The most common lights are $85 a pair. A winch can go from $400, with the most common being $1,200. And shackles are $70 a pair. The rear bumper standard package comes with two swing arms and a locking storage compartment in the bumper and light mounts. On the driver’s side, you have the spare tire. On the passenger side is a standard open box. That is $2,375 and it is the most common rear bumper. The most common upgrade is the Galley Box for your generator, which is $495 in addition to the rear bumper package. TCM: Tell us about the lights that are available for the front and rear bumper. Dave: On the front bumper, you get built-in light mounts that will accommodate most manufacturer’s six-inch flood, fog, or spot lights. The benefit is additional visibility when you are in the back country. There is actually space on top of the bumper for additional HID lights. In the rear bumper you can install two flood lights for backing up in the dark or lighting up your campsite. The Warn 12000 is the most popular model. If you don’t get a winch, you get storage where the winch would have gone. The winch compartment is thirty-four inches wide by ten inches deep, so you could put a lot of stuff in there.
TCM: How does someone buy an Aluminess product? Dave: We do not have a dealer network set up yet, so our customers buy directly from us. Contact us directly and we will help you. If you have a shop you like working with, we can make sure they have all the information they will need to successfully purchase and/or install the bumpers. Some customers who are handy and mechanical choose to work on their own. TCM: Can a truck camper dealership contact you about reselling Aluminess products? Dave: Absolutely. We would love for truck camper dealers to sell our products. We just hired a rep company in June for the western United States and Canada to help us sign up some dealers. We’ve had difficulty finding the truck camper customer. TCM: Truck Camper Magazine can help you with that. Tell us about your customer service and product warranty. Dave: Our products are designed to be used off-road. They need to handle whatever you can throw at them. If a customer comes to us with a damaged bumper, I see that as an opportunity to learn how to make our product better. With our warranty we are selling our reputation, we’re not selling products. We do whatever we need to do to make sure our customer is satisfied. We’ve had customers back up into things and we support them. I once had a customer who got stuck and had to get A bulldozer to pull him out. He pulled his bumper apart and I even gave him a new bumper. With very few exceptions, we always fix the problem for free. The goodwill alone makes it worthwhile to treat our customers well. And if you spend $1,995 on a bumper, you should expect top-notch customer service. TCM: We agree. What’s next for Aluminess? Dave: Until now we really did not put a lot of effort into marketing our products. Everything was word of mouth from people who saw our products on Sportsmobiles. I didn’t even put label on our products until a year and a half ago. That’s when I decided to improve our exposure. Now we’re working with camper manufacturers, advertising our company and products, getting exposure, and growing the company by getting the word out about our products. We have an expanded product line, new employees, and we will continue to add equipment and facilities to support the market. TCM: Thanks Dave. We look forward to learning more about Aluminess, your products, and customers. Dave: You’re welcome. To learn more about Aluminess, visit their website at www.aluminess.com. |
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