Box tent’s we

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States suggest the marker
there could be as large as
40,000 units of the box tent
that he bills as “the aifordable
Way to get away.”

He's had inquiries from
Ace Hardware in the U.S.
and Canadian Tire and Revy
in Canada about carrying the
unit which will fit into the
box of compact and shortbox
pickup trucks. Off-shore
inquiries about selling the
product have come from
Hawaii, Australia and
Switzerland.

The inquiries and strong
consumer interest are a heady
situation for a company that
just started production in
January.

“We're totally flabbergast-
ed by what's happened,” said
Ron Moser, the company’s
sales manager.

“lm happy, excited and
scared all at the same time,”
Charbonneau said in a tele-
phone interview. Most poten-
tial buyers say that it’s about
time that someone came
along with a product such as
the box tent.

Charbonneau and_ his
brother Dennis began devel-
opment work on the box tent
about 18 months ago. By last
fall, they were building pro-
totypes and they’ve been
showing them off at RV and
sportsman’s shows during the
fall and winter.

As someone. who had
hunted and fished in
Northwestern Ontario,
Charbonneau saw a need for
a small, lightweight RV such
as the box tent.

When he sought financing
for his company, he was
turned down by banks and
government lending agencies.
Instead, he raised money
through private investments.

Now the company is in

production and it's runniag
m the black.

“We've been paying our
way. Now the banks are
phoning offering a line of
credit,” said) Charbonneau,
bur he’s turned them down.

He’s happy and excited
about the response to his
product, bur a little scared
about the challenges that fie
ahead in meeting demand for
the box tent.

So far, Outback has sold
50 units in Kelowna and the
distributor for southern
Alberta) and northern
Montana has sold two.
Charbonneau expects sales to
pick up after the grand open-
ing in Kelowna on the week-
end.

Right now, the Outback
Products Inc. factory in
Kelowna is building three
units a day with one shift. By
the end of May, Charbonneau
intends to increase produc-
tion by going to three shifts a
day, seven days a week. That
would yield an annual pro-
duction rate of 10,000 units.

Outback Products started
by building the shortbox
model, but production has
started on a larger model to
fit in eight-foot pickup boxes.
Once approvals are received
from regulatory agencies, the
larger model will be offered
with appliances.

The shortbox model sells
for $4,495, while the long-
box version sells for $5,495.

A tent-trailer version is in
the planning stages. [t would
consist of the box tent
mounted on a flatbed utility
trailer. Storage boxes would
be mounted on the trailer
bed on either side of the tent
unit.

He has enough designs to
provide for 10 years of expan-
sion of the product line.

When the box tent is
mounted in a_ four-wheel

When it’s folded out, the box tent looks like a tent trailer except that it’s in the box of a pickup truck.

Friday, March 24, 2000 —- North Shore News - 33

per top

Edmonton Jourmal file phato

Constructed with fibreglass top and bottoms and canvas walls, the box tent weighs about 450 poun?’ =

drive pickup, it doesn’t affect
the truck’s manoeuvrability.
The folded down tent is
tower and narrower than the
profile of the cab, eliminating
worry about low branches
when driving off-road.

In addition, the unit does-
n’t affect the truck’s stability
in rough terrain. Since there
is no belly bar as there would
be for a truck camper, there’s
less chance of getting stuck
by having the bar get hung
up in mud or dirt.

The light weight box tent
is attractive to truck owners
who are concerned about
gross vehicle weight due to

crackdowns in many jurisdic-
tions. Lo.
Charbonneau said com-
pact trucks and half-tons can
carry the box tent, where a
truck camper could require a
3/4-ton truck.

While the box tent was
designed to be used in a pick-
up truck, Charbonneau is
finding there’s interest in the
unit for use in other situa-
tions. Wilderness and hunting
camps have expressed interest
and cross-country ski areas
would like to purchase box
tents for use as emergency
shelters. In that situation, the
tent would be equipped with

BUYING A
TOYOTA
TALK TO TYLER

a heater. If someone was “The diversification with

caught out in the cold, that
person could set up the box
tent and start the heater.

Charbonneau plans to
build units for the hunting
industry where they would be
used as blinds. He has
ordered camouflage-coloured
canvas for the sides of those
box tents.

this unit is phenomenal,” he
said.

For more information on
the bos: tent, phone the factory
at (250) 491-4100 or the dis-
tributor and dealer in
Lethbridge at (403) 381-2987.
Charbonneau is. still looking
for dealers and distributors far
his product. .

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