A thousand Arctic Wolf units have been manufactured in Forest River’s new Lagrange, Ind., facility. To mark the milestone, Forest River GM John Quake and Arctic Wolf Sales Manager Bryan Walczak welcomed Phaylon Schrock and Henry Schwartz of Outpost RV in Middlebury to the Lagrange facilities to deliver the 1,000th unit. Quake and Walczak were joined by many enthusiastic plant employees, warranty/service personnel, purchasing managers, and engineers.
Cherokee Arctic Wolf, introduced in 2016, quickly grew from producing 321 fifth-wheels in its original Goshen plant to over 1,000 units produced in 5 months out of the new Forest River Lagrange plant.
Made possible by investment in the new state-of-the-art facility, extra emphasis has been placed on quality though in station inspections, daily PDI, and increased supplier audits. Cherokee Arctic Wolf is one of Forest River’s newest brands, but has already garnered several accolades such as 2016 Louisville Best of Show. Cherokee’s Arctic Wolf will be featured at the upcoming shows: Hershey Penn., Elkhart EXPO, Pomona, Calif., Louisville, Ky., and Tampa, Fla.
Cherokee Arctic Wolf’s 1,000th unit is a 285DRL4 featuring three slides, weighing in at 8,050 pounds, with a 1,400-hitch weight – targeting light duty trucks like Ford’s F-150, GMC/Chevrolet/Dodge 1500, and even Nissan’s Titan XD. The 285DRL4 shows off the freestanding island, walk-in pantry, walk-through side aisle bathroom, plus many new features for 2018 model year.
“While we have been primarily a Cherokee travel trailer dealer,” stated Outpost’s Phaylon Schrock, “we look forward to future growth at our dealership with the new Arctic Wolf fifth wheel product.”
Cherokee Arctic Wolf unit shipments from Lagrange started around April 2017. Also developed on the Lagrange campus are Cherokee’s toy hauler Wolf Pack and Vengeance.
“With the increased space, we have been able to decrease our off the shelf dealer parts fulfillment times to under four days, while setting new records in freight fulfillment orders,” said Quake.