Tilly Rexhepi: G’day, everybody. I’m Tilly from Retreat Caravans, and today I’ve got the pleasure of sitting down on the couch with Vince. Vince, welcome to Retreat Caravans, my friend.
Vince: Hi Tilly. Thanks for having me.
Tilly Rexhepi: Mate, I’m very, very honoured to have you in my presence because not only are you a look alike for one of my favourite rappers, DJ Khaled, you are a very smart man in the caravan industry. And we’re going to get to that in a second. But for those that don’t know you, please tell our audience who you are, a little bit about your company, and some of the products that you obviously supply to the caravan industry.
Vince: So I’m a director of a company called Transform RV. 12 years ago now we opened up the company-
Tilly Rexhepi: 12 years ago, you say?
Vince: 12 years ago. Yep. Yeah. It’s been that long. Opened up a company, just basically doing timber frame walls for various companies in the caravan industry, and over the time we’ve come forward and brought new products.
Tilly Rexhepi: Started innovating.
Vince: We sure have. Yep.
Tilly Rexhepi: Yeah. Beautiful, mate. So you’ve provided a lot of meranti timber frame walls to a lot of the caravan manufacturers, and what’s happening now? Are we starting to see a shift in wall construction?
Vince: Definitely. In the last few years, we’ve seen people trying to get away from the traditional meranti plywood structure to more of the composite side of it.
Tilly Rexhepi: And why do you reckon that is, Vince?
Vince: Look, I think it’s got a lot to do with just the structure of it being more structurally sound and a lot to do with the water-
Tilly Rexhepi: Ingress, rock, that sort of stuff. Of course, yeah. Because at the end of day, it is a timber product.
Vince: Correct.
Tilly Rexhepi: But do you reckon insulation’s got anything to do with it as well?
Vince: Definitely. I mean, the thermal properties of the composite these days are cooler in summer and warmer in winter.
Tilly Rexhepi: Yeah, absolutely. Now, Vince, there’s no secret why we’re here, mate. And it’s standing right behind me. You’ve actually developed a product that, with your affiliation, working hand in hand with Retreat, putting it out on the road. Because obviously the brains and the product came from you, with our crew led by Shaz at Retreat, we’ve developed, I guess you’ve developed, but we’ve also helped in that development, the RXP construction.
Vince: Correct.
Tilly Rexhepi: Now RXP, just so you know, is not an abbreviation of my surname. But tell us a little bit about the RXP walls, that we call them, and how they come about, and I guess the differences between RXP and a traditional meranti or composite construction.
Vince: Well, a few years ago, me and one of my coworkers were just around and saying how we need to come up with a structure or a concept that is easier to build and to have the benefits of a composite. So we sat around, basically going through a lot of things, and we come up with with a model like the RXP. Obviously still a lot of RND-ing to do.
Tilly Rexhepi: Of course.
Vince: Me being good friends with Shaz, I showed him and he gave me some feedback of what we should do.
Tilly Rexhepi: Of course. Yeah.
Vince: And what would be great to streamline the production, and also what customers are searching. And obviously through a lot of emails up and forth and a lot of design changes, the RXP was born.
Tilly Rexhepi: And I think you hit the nail on the head. It’s not just about manufacturers and streamlining manufacturing. At the end of the day, this is a product for the consumer.
Vince: Of course.
Tilly Rexhepi: Having a product that is, let’s face it, rot-free. Its thermal property, like you mentioned, is impeccable where the whole caravan is fully insulated. We’ll talk about a little bit of the specifics later on. Warmer in the cool months and cooler in the hotter months. It’s just something that customers are going to really benefit from. And in saying that Vince, sorry to cut you off, but at the caravan shows that we’ve displayed this product at, people are actually now starting to come to caravan shows asking our representatives, have we got RXP walls here? So it’s definitely hit the market running.
Vince: Yes. Look, I think it’s a great product. Not only do you have that rot-free guarantee that you guys offer the industry, which is fantastic. That fibreglass look, you guys put Alucobond and obviously stucco, the original aluminium.
Tilly Rexhepi: And I think that’s probably the big difference between an RXP wall and a traditional composite material is that, as you can see here, we can still use the polyurethane cross-member supports with the XPS foam. Obviously, the big structure of the caravan still stays there, like traditional methods. But then having the ability to change the colour on the sides of your caravan, as opposed to having, let’s face it, white all the time. It’s an aesthetic appearance that makes a big difference, but not withholding the insulation properties.
Vince: Correct, Tilly.
Tilly Rexhepi: And where does the RXP material come from?
Vince: We source it from a local supplier here, but it all gets imported from Italy and Germany and all European countries. And we only use the best. I mean, obviously, you guys know that Europe’s been using composite for decades. And it’s only starting to reach here. So we only use the best. But the whole actual structure of the RXP, it’s solid. You compare it to a timber frame, and I do timber frames. You compare it to a timber frame, timber warps. There’s a lot of variation in timber, and in plywood, whereas this … It’s a man-made material. You’re always going to get the constant tolerances all the time, all the time. And overall, it’s a fantastic product. Fantastic products.
Tilly Rexhepi: Yeah. Well, the walls in general are a really fantastic product. For me, the part that sticks out the most with our RXP construction is definitely the one-piece roof.
Vince: Definitely.
Tilly Rexhepi: So should a customer choose white as their front and roof colour, they actually get to have a one piece smooth fibreglass roof from the front of the checker plate on the van all the way to the back of the caravan.
Vince: Correct. Correct. And that gives you-
Tilly Rexhepi: There’s no seams in there at all.
Vince: That’s right. And that eliminates a whole lot of things. Water getting in, dust which I believe is a big factor when you start going up north of all that bull dust on these roads that we get. It’s a big thing. It’s massive.
Tilly Rexhepi: Well, there you have it, guys. An innovative product with a very innovative man. Vince, it’s been a pleasure, mate. Thank you very much for taking your time out. And if anyone wants to find out more about the RXP wall construction, please visit RetreatCaravans.com.au and hit the RXP logo. Thank you, Vince.
Vince: Thank you, Tilly.
Tilly Rexhepi: Enjoy the rest of your day.
