By Marilyn Odendahl, Truth Staff
modendahl@etruth.com
SYRACUSE - The pile of 200 red and blue screw guns represent the basic ingredient of the recreational vehicle manufacturing and testify to the current struggles of the industry.
When clasped in workers' hands, their high-pitched whir creates the soundtrack inside the factories as the motorhomes and trailers are built from chassis to roof.
However through the past year, these tools of the trade have been falling silent as the stumbling economy has brought many production lines to a halt.
In the case of Ameri-Camp RV, the screw guns have been massed onto a table where they are waiting to be auctioned along with the rest of the equipment and real estate. Financial pressures forced the young company to stop making RVs permanently.
Looking at all the screw guns is bittersweet for Brad Hooley. Founder and owner of Bartel & Company Auctions, Hooley is organizing and will conduct the dismantling of Ameri-Camp. He loves to sell, he said, and he considers himself lucky that he can make a living doing something that is rarely boring, but the auction of an RV company means hundreds are out of a job.
Hooley would rather the cacophony of screw guns continue so the workers could come to his collector car auctions and do fun stuff. Unfortunately that is not the situation so Hooley will do what he does while minding the philosophy of his company: always tell the truth, treat other people the way he wants to be treated and don't be in a hurry to count the money.
Treasure and junk
Hooley's job for Ameri-Camp began in January with a walk-through of the buildings. Next he wrote a proposal and, after that was accepted by the owners and the bankers, he organized his crew and turned to preparing for the auction.
Inventory was catalogued, sorted and similar items were put together. The tools, equipment and materials used to build RVs, office furniture and computers along with all the paraphernalia that tend to accumulate in workplaces slowly took their positions on the factory floor.
"If it can be picked up and carried out, it will be sold," Hooley drawled.
Slabs of plywood were laid across overturned crates to fashion long display tables. Once the boxes of drill bits, wrenches, screwdrivers and tin snips are gone, then the crates and plywood will be put up for bidding. Big pieces of machinery, small handheld items, one person's junk is another's treasure.
Weeks before the auction, the Bartel & Company team were just beginning to dissect the Ameri-Camp campus. As he ambled through the main production plant constructed just a year ago, Hooley pointed out where the wood shop was, the welding shop, the direction the units would have rolled through the line and discerned from the pieces of aluminum pipe that the dust collection system was still being installed.
What must have been the production supervisor's office is an island sitting in the middle of the facility. The interior gives the impression that the manager left one day not knowing it was the last day. Paper still overflowed from in and out boxes on the desk, files were stuffed into drawers, a list of suppliers with phone numbers was tacked to the wall and a Styrofoam cup had remnants of dried coffee on the bottom.
The one mystery that Hooley could not figure out was the office's carpeting. Bright red, "Las Vegas Red," Hooley called it. He had found about eight full rolls of the carpet and did not understand how or why it was used.
"You could turn on the lights, hire workers and build units with what's in here," Hooley said, referring to the amount and variety of the contents left behind.
Free market
With hundreds of bidders yelling out what they are willing to pay for any given item, an auction is a free market, Hooley said. The final price will not be ridiculously low -- "It's not a garage sale," he said -- but since everyone wants a bargain, purchasers usually do not have to pay more than the item is worth.
Auctioning Ameri-Camp will be done in one day, using eight or nine auctioneers and three, possibly four, rings going at once. The event will start on time or a couple of minutes before with the even-tempered Hooley turning into "a big Rottweiler" and giving the bidders "kind of a mean speech" about bounced checks.
Then the bidding will start as the items are moved on and off the auction block at a vigorous pace.
The auctioneers will work in pairs, taking breaks to keep fresh, and following Hooley's advice to turn up the volume of the public address system a bit and whisper to preserve their voices.
Once the parts and property are claimed, the bidders will have until 5 p.m. March 24 to get the items loaded in their trucks and removed from the campus. The screw guns and rolls of red carpet will become someone's treasured booty while the Ameri-Camp RV company will become a memory.
"Auctions are exciting all by themselves," Hooley said. "Every situation is different. We'll be here a few weeks and then move on. It's never a dull moment."