Get those B&W hitches while you can!

My most recent post was concerning the rising cost of steel and some of the factors that influence steel costs. Well, guess what? We just heard this week that the B&W Turnover Balls that we have been selling successfully for a number of years now have been marked by the manufacturer for a huge price increase.

Incidentally, B&W has not raised their prices for over 2 years, since 2004. So I guess an increase was coming, but not one this substantial.

My advice: get your hitch NOW! We will be able to keep the prices where they are till May 15, 2008. After that, expect to see the hitches prices about 15 to 20% higher. That's right ladies and gentlemen! I said a huge price increase, and I wasn't kidding. We will be able to absorb a few percentage points of that increase, but not all of it. We regret that this is happening, but it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Even if you don't yet have a truck or need the hitch, but will in the near future, you should probably still consider buying one now to save yourself the increase in price at the end of this month. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to call or email.

Steel prices going up

Just a few weeks ago, we were informed by our various trailer suppliers that steel prices are again taking another jump. Of course, we weren't surprised by this, since an annual increase in trailer prices is usually the norm. But the amount of increase is what really hit us: over 7%! Fortunately, we still have a number of trailers in our inventory that were purchased before the price increase, but what does this mean for our next order of trailers?

At any rate, we are doing our best to absorb as much of the increase as we can. But there are a number of factors involved, the foremost of which is the rising cost of transportation. Not only is it costing more to transport the raw materials for steel fabrication to the steel mills, but then to get the steel to the manufacturers, and then the finished products to people like me. In addition, mining equipment is also ran by diesel-guzzling heavy machinery, and I'm sure mining companies and ore refineries are feeling the increases too. I don't know where you live, but with diesel costing over $4.00/gal across the nation, it's easy to see where the bulk of the price increase is coming from.

Here's something I'm wondering: In spite of the rise in fuel costs, we've noticed that our trailer sales initially taper off, and then stabilize. It seems to me that fuel costs are to blame, since most of our customers are pulling our trailers with diesel pickups. Maybe you can help me with this: Do fuel prices influence your spending habits when it comes to trailers and buying in general? I'd be curious to know what your thoughts are on that.

For my wife and I, fuel costs certainly affect our spending habits. We wanted to buy a different car, something with AWD, but since we now enjoy 30+ MPG, we are rethinking our decision. In addition, we live north of Pueblo, Colorado, and my wife regularly commutes to work. I stick around and manage the trailer business. She puts about 80 miles on the car every time she goes to work. Even with a 4-cyl car, that's a lot of fuel. We used to go shopping together, but since she's already in town, she does it alone now (much to our dismay) to save on fuel. Purchases that we would have made had we been shopping together are no longer being made, simply because we are not together to discuss them. I guess that's a plus, but at times inconvenient too.

This post started out talking about steel prices, but I think it's pretty clear what the increases are resulting from, and these increases influence nearly everything we do. It's at least somewhat encouraging that we can still keep our prices low enough to keep our trailers affordable. And I suppose even that statement is subjective, but we are doing our best to keep things affordable for everyone. If you have any thoughts on this, please share!

It's about time...

For years now, I have resisted the blogging trend, thinking "Who in the world would care about a blog from a trailer manufacturing and sales company?" Well, our business is growing, and in an effort to keep folks up-to-date as to what's happening in the industry, I thought it's about time to start keeping everyone informed.

For a number of years now, we've been selling our products, including our brand of stock and horse trailers, on our website tandrtailer.com. We've had a great response from our customers and the internet public in general. So now we'd like to give back a little, and with the ever-changing economy, especially within the world of trailers and everything related to them, we feel it's important to let you know what's going on.

If you have any questions about us, our products, or trailers in general, please send them to me, and I'll try to address them here. It's my hope that through this blog, we all can educate ourselves and be better off for it.

Thanks for reading, and by all means, come back and see us!