The East End Camper Team (names listed below)
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The front of East End Camper's building and Bill Penney's Northstar Igloo 9.5
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Look for this sign and about eighty truck campers when you arrive
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Bill Penney, East End Camper's Owner, having a meeting with Mike Basil
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Bill Penney is almost always on the phone
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Bill Penney demonstrating the Bill Penney Method of loading a camper
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Over seventy campers arranged into rows and columns - it's a maze!
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Entering the East End maze of Northstars, Okanagans, Hosts, Eagle Caps, Bigfoots, Arctic Foxes, and S&S Campers
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Bill sold three Host Everest triple-slides during our five day visit
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A Bigfoot Extreme in East End Camper's front yard
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Dean and his F450 drove from Atlanta to pick up his Host Everest
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Candy and Pete Livingstone picking up a used Okanagan 116ULT
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Southold, New York - Who ever coined the phrase, “It’s the journey, not the destination,” has obviously never been to East End Campers. Located at the eastern tip of Long Island, New York, East End Campers requires either a drive past New York City or a ferry ride from the mainland.
So why is East End Campers one of the most successful truck camper dealerships on the planet? The answer is simple; Bill Penney.
Bill Penney is East End Camper’s owner and unstoppable force of nature. In any given moment, you can find Bill working under a truck, talking to customers on the phone, moving a camper, and directing his team. In fact, he’s usually doing two of the above actions at the same time. The man is a truck camper sales and service machine.
"Yea-Yeah” and the EEC Crew
The rest of East End's crew is equally colorful and valuable to the dealership. Mike Basel matches Bill's energy and couldn't be more friendly. He's also quite funny and has a habit of saying, "yea-yea-yeah" so fast and so often that we started catching ourselves saying, "yea-yea-yeah". Thanks Mike.
James Perez is East End’s website mastermind. His full time job is to keep the East End Camper website, www.eastendcampers.com, up to date. James is also the guy behind the 360-degree virtual tours and the extensive inventory photographs. From all accounts, his efforts online are a critical part of the success of East End Campers.
Necdet Karadeniz is East End’s hands-on service tech. He also seems to really like his work and was always smiling when we saw him. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to meet John Nugent, another important member of the team. Next time John.
An Amazing Camper Maze
During our visit, East End Campers had sixty-one new campers in their inventory; sixteen Northstars, eight Bigfoots, six Hosts, fourteen Okanagans, ten Eagle Caps, five S&S campers, one Arctic Fox, and one Lance. In their used inventory they had ten Lance Campers, four Host Campers, three Northstars, and two Bigfoots. That’s nineteen used campers for a total of eighty campers in inventory.
This may not seem that impressive except for the fact that East End Campers is a relatively small dealership. To fit the campers onto their modest lot, the East End team has arranged the campers into a dense series of rows and columns. It’s a camper maze.
It can be interesting when you’re walking between the rows and columns of campers. We would recommend that anyone who enters the camper maze brings (a) bread crumbs, (b) a cell phone, and (c) some kind of GPS device. Okay, maybe all you need is a cell phone so you call Bill when you’ve found the right camper.
The real point here is that there is an amazing amount of truck campers in a surprisingly small amount of space. The obvious advantage to this truck camper concentration is that you can see a wide variety of camper makes and models in one place. This allows for more immediate comparisons and should ease and speed the decision making process. The camper maze is also fun. Really.
The disadvantage to the amazing camper maze for East End Campers is that they often have to move five or six campers to reach the camper they need. This means one should not show up without warning and expect to leave with a camper in the far corner an hour later. Call ahead and plan on staying a few days. Why? We’re glad you asked.
Southold, New York: A Vacation Destination
Sure-sure, East End Campers has a lot of campers and camper variety, but why on earth would someone want to put a truck camper dealership on the tip of Long Island, New York? The answer again is actually quite simple; that’s where Bill Penney grew up and he loves it. And the reason why he loves Southold is what makes East End Campers a destination dealership.
Located a few miles from the Hamptons, Southold is an idyllic summer resort town surrounded by water and more fishing, boating, beach combing, and cultural activities than you’ll likely have time to explore. East End Campers even has a full hook-up site at the dealership to accommodate customers who want to spend a couple days exploring Southold and the surrounding area. Bill will tell you exactly where to go and what to do. Highly recommended.
Loading Campers: The Bill Penney Method
There are very few people who can load and unload a truck camper faster than Bill Penney. The secret to his loading is what he calls the Bill Penney Method. It’s quite the show.
With the driver’s seatback lowered, Bill puts his right foot on the brake and turns his body so that his back and rear end are facing the driver side door. As he turns, he extends as far as he can over the seatback without losing contact with the brake pedal. Then he focuses through the lower right hand corner of the rear truck window and sights the line where the lower right edge of the camper should line up.
He then releases the brake and slowly backs the truck under the camper. While he’s backing the truck, he makes small corrections with the steering wheel if the camper strays from the line. Once he has the truck four-fifths under the camper, he puts the truck in park, gets out of the truck, hooks up the camper electrical cord, and uses the jack remote to lower the camper until it’s level with the truck bed. Once the camper is level with the truck, he backs the truck until he lightly bumps the camper. Tie downs, turnbuckles, and done.
Of course he makes it look so easy. When we tried the Bill Penney Method ourselves, it proved to be tougher than it looked. As with anything, practice makes perfect. To watch Bill load and unload campers, you know he’s on to something good. We'll get it down.
Working With Manufacturers
We hear a lot from dealers who wish manufacturers would make changes. Bill Penney is no different in his desire to see truck campers improve, but he’s not content to just talk about it. For example, when Bill had the idea to put a rear tent on a truck camper for his beach going customers, he flew out to Host on his own dime to make the pitch. Host ran with the idea and now it’s an important feature found on many truck camper makes and models.
Another example is Bill’s relationship with Northstar Campers. During our visit with Northstar, we heard Rex and Rory Willett say again and again how Bill Penney suggested this feature or brought that idea forward. Bill had a lot to do with Northstar using cassette toilets, thermal windows, and detachable power cords. Bill said that he once sent Rex three pages of ideas for Northstar campers. That’s a dealer-manufacturer relationship that’s moving things forward.
It’s no secret to TCM that Bill’s a visionary. East End Campers became our first dealership sponsor less than a week after we started. He called us! Now that’s vision.
New Hampshire and Beyond
As soon as this story runs, it will be out of date. Bill Penney and the team at East End Campers are always talking about what’s next and making big plans. We know of a few things they have cooking that could set our industry on fire.
And then there’s the New Hampshire location. Bill has purchased land for a second location in New Hampshire which gives him the ability to sell truck campers tax free. Tax free?
That’s right. Unfortunately, the new dealership building is on hold until our economic stars line up a bit better. Bill may be an overachieving visionary, but he also knows when to not overextend.
As for us, we will be returning to East End Campers regularly to get access to new campers for Video Views. The truth is that can’t wait to get back to Southold. As for our long trip there, it’s so worth it.
For more information about East End Campers, visit their website at www.eastendcampers.com
The East End Camper Team: Necdet Karadeniz, Mike Basel, John Nugent, Robin Penney, Megan Penney, Bill Penney, Ryan Penney, James Burnett (picking up a camper that day), Dogs (left to right) Molly and Fletcher
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