Poll-Should RV Dealers be allowed to advertise on this Forum?
 

As has been discussed here in the last two days we want to get your opinion as to allowing RV dealers to advertise here on the Forum. Other forums have rules that prohibit businesses from advertising, but we don't appear to have any written rules here. If there any rules please bring them to our attention.

I'm all for it as long as they post pictures. Even if a person isn't looking to buy it can be fun and informative to see pictures of other Hi/Los. It can inspire new ideas in people who are remodeling theirs.

I just started a new poll doing it the right way. Please put your responses there.

Good call, Rich!

Great! We constantly have members asking for parts, service, and whole trailers. Since new HiLos aren't being made, I'm all for it.

- Jack

OOOPS. Accidently clicked the wrong response. Meant to click #2 not #1. My bad.

Not a problem.

I believe that RV dealers should be able to post any HiLo trailers that they have for sale as long as they are not spamming our members.

We have a number of posts that advocate for J&R, Midget, and Montanelli trailers which are all businesses, so why would we not allow RV dealers that have Hi-Los for sale?

Nicely stated, Les! Makes sense to me.

- Jack

I think they should be able to post with restrictions. First, there should be a new section titled Hi-Lo Trailers, Parts, and Services by Dealers. Dealers should only post for sale ads there. Dealers can also post in other areas as long as they are not advertising. For example, a dealer could answer a technical question.

I belong to other forums that do the above and it works well.

Ditto on your ditto! :)

Raul,

Rich & I as moderators don't have the ability to make any changes to the format of this site. We can edit, move, delete and lock threads, and ban users, but cannot change the formats.

Nealandbev own this site. They set it up so that when our members click on the advertising feeds, it generates funds to keep this forum going. They have all the rights to this forum, but have not logged on since 2012. I will try to reach out to Neal to see if Rich and I can be granted more rights and possibly add other moderators, but for now there are just 2 of us.

I voted and would like to see more repair shops/people here on the east coast. The repair guy stated that mine was the second one he had ever worked on.

That's a great suggestion.

Question
 

Does it effect band-width, video/audio ability etc? I know this was an issue with the Honda Helix forum that I used to be on. Just asking?

That's a good question. I think that it would be OK if they post 2-3 photos of something they have for sale. If they want people to see more photos or a video they should post a link instead.

There are still five more days to vote on this poll.

Thanks! I hope you can catch up to them. They need to give their input.

If they are not putting video on the posts it should not affect bandwidth. They should only say they have a certain item for sale and provide a link to their website.

dealers on the forum
 

The point was expressed that dealers may not want to give out advice because their is no $ in it for them. Most of the time our very bright and generous forum members are able to answer questions correctly. Much good detailed information is available in back posts. The dealers would only have to respond if they wanted to. Many times when you call a dealer for information/help you end up ordering a part. Jay in parts and Steve in service have told us they are committed to helping us HiLo owners. Especially since HiLo went out of business. This is at Mantelli trailer sales.1-716-625-8877. Several time we have had to call them in the middle of repairs. Jay had a part we needed that no one carried. They have more free time to answer questions in the off season. Ask the dealers for some input on this issue. I am on another forum where the RV dealers regularly answer questions and provide invaluable experience.

Good info Sam! I think if you support dealers by purchasing parts or services from they are more likely to give out info to you, that's good for them. I'm talking about the people that call for info with no intention of making any purchases and go off somewhere else. Been there and done that in the hardware business. Sometimes there is liability involved by giving out information on certain subjects.

Results?
 

Looks like a runaway! Was a final policy determination made?

I've already seen one RV dealer(Arizona) with a listing with 4 or 5 Hi Lo's for sale, and as far as I'm concerned, with highly inflated prices.

RV dealer prices
 

I agree with the highly inflated prices by the Arizona dealer. Our forum members look up prices at www.NADAguides.com It is cheaper to buy from a private buyer. HiLos are readily available from private sellers.

I'm sure prices are negotiable. Even the NADA guides are a little "inflated".

YES for RV sales and parts!!!! Since we have gotten off-topic a bit, those high prices should help all Hi Lo owners or sellers!!!!
Thanks for keeping the Forum up and running!!!! Bob

It appears that "Yes, to only HiLo related items, such as, trailers, servicing, and parts." has won by a landslide.

So let's approach cautiously and maybe police our forum as we get posts from from businesses. I think that any businesses that place information here register with their actual business names. When they have items of interest to the forum they give a general description and then provide a link to their website or some other info to contact them, such as, email addresses or phone numbers.

Adding a new topic for dealers would be good, but right now I don't know how we can do this without a forum administrator or webmaster.

Please give me your comments on this.

These are the rules that can be found at the very bottom of the page. I knew they were here somewhere.

"Hi-Lo camper travel trailer forum Rules

Although the administrators and moderators of Hi-Lo camper travel trailer forum will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of Hi-Lo camper travel trailer forum, nor Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (developers of vBulletin) will be held responsible for the content of any message.

By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.

The owners of Hi-Lo camper travel trailer forum reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason."

Hi Rich,

I know being a moderator can be a thankless job so THANK YOU! :)

There is a good group of people here on the Forum and things have gone quite smoothly over the last four years. Mostly spammers, but that got fixed.

If you ever get access to add a folder for dealers and other commercial postings, you can do like the Bayliner Owners Club forum has done (https://baylinerownersclub.org/index.php/forum/index):

As you scroll down you will see a folder in the "For Sale" area called, "BOC Mall." This is where all commercial sellers are supposed to post for sale ads for boats, accessories, etc. Below that you see a folder called, "Go2Marine". This business has its own folder because they are a major sponsor of the forum. This allows forum members to view commercial ads only if they want to. If they prefer not to they can only view the "Boats for Sale" and "Classified" sections.

Incidentally, dealers, professional mechanics, etc, still post in other sections of the Bayliner forum. They just don't advertise there. Usually they post replies to technical questions.

That's a good suggestion. Thanks!

As an addition, if you want to report a questionable or spam post, just hit the exclamation point at the upper right hand of the post.

As I was driving eastbound across Arizona on Tuesday I saw a Hi Lo going westbound and it made me think about dealers on the forum, with thoughts of this getting out of hand and dealers for TV's posting their wares for sale. In addition, have you seen how dealers abuse Craigslist and post the same unit multiple times?:(

No dealers
 

I knew I saw it somewhere on the Forum. Under the Trading Post heading it says: "No dealer ad's allowed" That has been there from the beginning of the Forum.

yes as long as it has to do with Hi Lo campers