Brookfield, Wisconsin based REV Recreation Group announced today plans to add an assembly plant and component warehouse in Decatur, Indiana for its Lance Camper line of travel trailers.
“With the growing interest in and demand for travel trailers, our Decatur facilities will help to better serve those dealers in the Midwest and in the East,” said Mike Lanciotti,president, REV Recreation Group. “Adams County is known for its loyal and diligent workforce, many with expertise in RV manufacturing; we look forward to more employees joining the Lance team.”
This expansion will create more than 100 jobs in Adams County with initial recruiting expected to begin in early April. Preliminary startup is planned for July, with production ramp-up to follow for six to eight months.
Lance received support both from Adams County and the Indiana Economic Develop Corporation in the form of property tax abatements and incentive-based tax credits. Tax credits are performance-based, meaning the company is eligible to claim incentives once Hoosiers are hired.
“As the RV Capital of the World, Indiana offers a business-friendly climate and skilled workforce for a variety of RV and camper manufacturers to increase production and meet rising demand of Hoosiers wanting to explore,” said Ann Lathrop, executive vice president of global investments for the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. “We’re excited Lance Camper has chosen to expand operations in Indiana and look forward to supporting the company’s continued growth.”
Located just 20 miles south of Indiana’s second largest city, Fort Wayne, Lance will join one of REV’s other brands in Decatur, Fleetwood RV, makers of motor homes Bounder, Discovery, Southwind, Pace Arrow, and others.
The addition of Lance manufacturing trailer in the eastern half of the United States should be good news for dealers in this part of the country. Currently Lance’s manufacturing facility is in Lancaster, California, and shipping trailers to the east coast adds a good chunk of change to the cost. This should help ease some of those costs.
For more info on Lance Campers, visit their website at lancecamper.com.
Some other key specs include a dry weight of 1,985 lbs as optioned. That coupled with the 2500 lbs axle gives you around a 500 lbs cargo capacity. Overall length from hitch to tail is 15’, with a box length of 11’10”. Overall width (including fenders) is 7’11”, and box width is 6’ 3/4”, making it a comfortable “6-wide”. Interior dimensions include a 4’ interior height, and floor length of 6’8”, which is also the length of the mattress when in bed configuration. Interior width comes out to 69 1/2”.
The categories on The Teardrop Shop are endless. And I’m finding they have a lot of great products even if you don’t have a teardrop. Accessories for inside and outside your trailer, as well as clothing, decals, hitching and towing accessories, solar, cooking needs…the list goes on. You can visit The Teardrop Shop by clicking on the thumbnail on the right column of any of our pages, or just click here and explore: 
Looking at the mid-sized E17 HATCH, you’ll find the front two-thirds of the trailer is typical of what you’ll find in a small trailer in its 22’ hitch to tail length, with a front east-west queen bed, kitchen, bathroom, and a pantry.
For more info on the Aliner Scout Lite, visit their website at 
But it was in 2018 when co-owners Brian Seeley and Janice Levenhagen-Seeley decided to go bigger and work on producing a traditional “canned ham” style trailer. As Janice told me recently, “We decided to try making a canned ham probably a year and a half ago, but it took us a while to finally get around to making the prototype. The Sellwood is a 13′ model, and we plan to create the Fremont, a 16′ model with a bathroom, in the nearish future. All of our models are named after Portland bridges, in case you were wondering. 🙂 We do a few RV shows every year, and at each we hear from a good number of people who love our teardrops but want to do more camping year-round than the teardrop style comfortably allows. We also looked at the options for that size and style of trailers at these shows and were unimpressed by the quality–they were all mass-produced. We knew we could make something that would provide both the quality we had in our teardrops and the more weatherproof camping that a fully contained trailer allowed for. And, last but not least, they were adorable and I had to have one. We love the tiny house movement, and the idea of creating a beautiful, functional, fully contained tiny house on wheels is a lot of fun.”
When I first saw the pictures of the 
Another thing that caught my eye were the jalousie windows in the prototype. For me, that screams retro! But not so fast. While the Aljo did have jalousie style windows, which are used in the prototype, the production models will differ, and really for the better. Despite the cool factor of that style of window, they were prone to be a headache with so many moving parts and potential leak points. As Brian told me in an email, “The windows that we are planning to use in production models are the Dometic S5 dual pane windows with integrated honeycomb blinds.” This makes good sense, as it’s going to be a lot better window. And speaking of windows, the size of the window openings in the Sellwood create an incredible amount of natural light. Whether it’s around the front dinette or the rear couch, you likely won’t need to use any of the lights within the trailer until nightfall. 
The front dinette converts into a 35″ x 79″ twin bed, while the rear couch converts into a 50″ x 80″ double bed. 
You can also order as an option, a hammock bunk over the rear couch. But that’s not the only option, as Janice explains. “For the options, we’re starting out with just a few. I’m sure we’ll keep adding as people start requesting things! In addition to the hammock bunk and AC, they can also order a larger fridge, customizable upholstery, customizable curtains, an external propane hookup for barbecuing outside, solar panels, rear receiver for a bike rack, a drawer for a small porta-potty, and an exterior shower. For the external colors, there will be the standard 10 that we offer our teardrops in for no additional fee, but there’s also the option to do any color under the sun through either powder-coating or vinyl wrap. For the interior colors, they will be able to choose their countertop and flooring from a large variety. And of course, customers will name their trailers and get a custom name plate for each just like the teardrops (this one is named Alameda).” While the base Sellwood does not come with a wet bath, as Janice relayed, it will have a drawer for a small potty, to save from those night time runs to the comfort station at the campground. But what it does offer in lieu of a wet bath is an ample wardrobe just to the left of the entry door. 
However, there will be an option for a wet bath, which will alter the interior on the sides somewhat. The wet bath will be opposite of the entry door, and the kitchen will be broken up on both sides. But with the base Sellwood model, the kitchen is quite useful, complete with oven, stove, sink with on demand hot water, a mini fridge, and ample counter space for this size of a trailer. With the wet bath option, you lose the oven, but gain a microwave. One suggestion I’d have on the base model is to ditch the oven and go with a microwave or perhaps a convection oven, which we see more and more of in the small trailer segment. 
As for construction and dimensions, the Sellwood features:
