BAYFIELD – Less than a year old, Bayfield-based manufacturer Outpost Campers found early success, prompting the owner, Taylor Ripp, to begin expanding.
But steep tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump have disrupted those plans, as rising material costs threaten the survival of the business reliant on internationally sourced materials.
“Since ‘Liberation Day,’ it’s just been survival mode trying to get ahead and stay ahead of what we see as the immediate threat – supply change shortages,” Ripp said. “We’re feeling the squeeze.”
On April 2, Trump declared “Liberation Day” and announced sweeping tariffs for most U.S. trading partners. A 10% baseline tariff was set on all imports, with higher rates for countries accused of “unfair trading practices.”
China, one of America’s largest trading partners, was hit with some of the highest tariffs, triggering an escalating trade war. In response to China’s retaliation, Trump added a new 125% tariff that is added on top of others for certain products, doubling or tripling the cost of importing certain products to the U.S.
Outpost Campers produces a single product: the Outpost 6.5, an off-grid, four-season camper built for comfortable travel in both hot and cold conditions.
Designed to fit in a truck bed, the camper is surprisingly spacious. It accommodates Ripp’s 6-foot frame with room to spare and includes a kitchenette, bathroom and a full-size mattress tucked farther back than it appears from the outside.
The Outpost 6.5 is fully electric, powering the stove top, air conditioning, lighting and charging ports without the need for propane – a major selling point for customers seeking an off-grid experience. Ripp describes it as offering “all the comforts of home” on the road.
“It's part of what makes this camper innovative, why it’s landing so well and why we're growing,” he said. “We use a very sophisticated off-grid electrical system.”
Ripp said Outpost Campers receives as much of its materials from the U.S. as possible, but many components – fundamental parts of the product – can only be sourced from overseas.
The refrigerators are made in Italy and the heaters are made in Germany.
The specialty, double pane, acrylic windows and doors come from a U.S. supplier that manufactures the product in China.
The LED lights, air conditioning and fans: also made in China.
If the trade environment remains as is, or if tariffs rise even higher, Ripp said Outpost Campers may have to shut its doors.
“Our supplier in the U.S. has ceased all imports because they don’t know what the tariff rate is going to be when it hits the ports,” Ripp said.
Even though the supplier could theoretically pass the extra cost onto customers, he isn’t willing to take that risk. As a small business, Outpost Campers is facing an impeding shortage of necessary materials.
It appears that the most important specialty component of the camper, the ecoflow system – a specialized control system manufactured only in China – will no longer be available in the U.S.
Ripp said he has looked extensively for a comparable component made in the U.S., but nothing like it compares – at least not now.
He said the tariff rate, as set, will raise the price by $8,000 per camper, which would leave him will no option but to pass the cost on to consumers. Effectively, there would be a 20% increase in the price of campers.
The Outpost 6.5 starts at $39,950. Ripp acknowledged it is a significant expense, but said the current pricing model is extraordinarily competitive in the niche market of slide-in truck campers.
“I don’t have an alternative but to basically pay the tariff or stock up now and hope that something changes,” he said. “If it doesn’t, I’m paying the tariff and hoping my customer can absorb the price increase – and I don’t know if we have a viable product at that point.”
For now, Outpost Campers is stocking up on as much material as possible and searching for alternative suppliers.
“All we can do right now is try to acquire as much inventory as possible,” Ripp said. “We’re looking at other options, but we’re buying time by stocking up.”
Most of Outpost's suppliers still have U.S. inventory available at pre-tariff prices. Ripp hopes to secure enough materials – about three to four months’ worth – to fill as many orders as possible before U.S.-stored stock runs out.
Still, it’s a temporary fix.
Outpost Campers uses a make-to-order model: Customers pay a $1,000 deposit to join the wait-list, with full payment due upon delivery. The company has 130 orders to fill. With a production rate of around 12 campers per-month, that’s about a year’s worth of work, Ripp said.
Even with stockpiling, he said it won’t be enough to cover all existing deposits. And the up-front material costs are steep. Typically, he buys supplies for one month at a time; now, he’s asking customers to increase their deposits to $20,000 to secure a spot at the top of the list.
If Ripp is forced to raise prices for customers who don’t increase their deposits before the pre-tariff inventory runs out, the business would break its promise and risk losing guaranteed revenue.
The tariffs are part of Trump’s push to boost U.S. manufacturing.
“That’s something I think people need to understand – we are a U.S. manufacturer. We’re building the campers right here, in America. These are American employees right here,” Ripp said, gesturing to the men operating noisy power tools inside the main warehouse.
But the changes have occurred too quickly for Outpost Campers to stay afloat while U.S. manufacturing ramps up – if it does ramp up – and if that new manufacturing covers his needs, Ripp said.
“To start a factory to build those windows in the U.S. would take years and millions of dollars of capital,” he said. “It’s not something you can do overnight, which is how fast these tariffs have hit.”
Outpost Campers recently emailed customers and friends, asking them to contact the White House, their representatives and anyone in a position to act.
“A few people got angry with us, cause they thought it was too political,” Ripp said. “But for us, it’s not political, it’s existential.”
U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, R-Grand Junction, who represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, shares some of Ripp’s concerns.
Hurd is sponsoring the Tariff Review Act, which would restore congressional authority over new tariffs.
Under the bill, the president would have to notify Congress within 48 hours of imposing tariffs, which would then require congressional approval within 60 days. Congress could also overturn tariffs through a joint resolution.
“I don’t see this as a political issue,” Hurd said in an interview Thursday with The Durango Herald. “I see it as a constitutional issue – a fundamental constitutional issue – and I would be taking this position regardless of who is president or which party controls the White House.”
While the passage of the bill give Congress the power to reevaluate recent tariffs, it could take months.
Hurd acknowledged that, but he believes it can still be a potential solution.
“I’ve learned that the political landscape can change quickly,” he said. “And while at the moment, it might not seem that this bill would progress very far, you never know what things will look like in the coming weeks and months. Regardless of how far it progresses, I feel that it’s consistent with what I promised the voters when I ran for office.”
When asked about how he would be fighting for businesses like Outpost Campers in the short-term, he said it would all come down to the passage of the bill.
The future of Outpost Campers is uncertain.
Predicting beyond the next three to four months is impossible, Ripp said. He has started looking into sourcing materials from Europe, which, even with higher tariffs, could be cheaper than relying on Chinese imports.
However, rapid changes to U.S. trade policy have made planning difficult. In the two weeks after “Liberation Day,” Trump backtracked on some tariffs after a steep stock market drop, pausing reciprocal tariffs for most countries except China.
“You can’t operate a business in an environment where you don’t know what the regulations are going to be, what the taxes are going to be next week, tomorrow,” Ripp said.
Until two weeks ago, Outpost was developing a new product, looking at hiring more staff members, preparing to expand into a larger building. Ripp had already identified land and taken out a business loan to begin construction of a new workshop.
The new building would have doubled or tripled the production capacity, but the shifting economic climate has put most of it on hold.
“I got my life savings tied up in that project, which two weeks ago, we had a business where all we could see was success in our future,” he said.
Outpost Campers emerged from a hobby. Ripp, a retired raft guide and self-proclaimed dirt bag, built out his own camper van as a fun project. It evolved into his first startup, San Juan Vans, before he saw a need for a different kind of off-grid camping solution.
“Building campers started out as a hobby before it became a business,” he said. “It’s turned into quite the monster – kind of an American dream,” one he hopes to preserve.
For now, Ripp said he’s spent the past few weeks on the phone with suppliers, trying to figure out his next move – a difficult task when, he said, “every decision feels like rolling the dice.”
jbowman@durangoherald.com
An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect last name for Taylor Ripp.
