Author Archive
SEMA Is Coming!
It’s that time of year and we’re gearing up for SEMA 2011!
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Warrior Products has had A LOT going on this year. Mainly, we’ve expanded our product line to include products for the Toyota FJ Cruiser and we’ve also joined the racing circuit. Team WP Racing recently finished our first race, The Best in the Desert – Vegas to Reno race (click here for video), and we’re currently getting prepped for the Baja 1000. |
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In order to accommodate everything that Warrior Products has going on this year, we’ve decided to upgrade our booth to have a bigger and better showcase of what we have to offer. On top of the usual Jeep products, we’ll have our Team WP Race Car on display as well as our Trail Adventure Series for the FJ Cruiser. |
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We have a few other fun features up our sleeve so stay tuned for more updates…. Tom Richardson |
Tom’s Chronicles: The Race Car Acquisition
Warrior is officially on the SCORE Off-Road Racing Circuit!
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Actually, we’ve spent the early part of this year prepping the car to be ready to race, so we’ve missed a couple of SCORE events, but we’re still planning on attending two of the remaining events.. We’ll be debuting our Jeepspeed built race car at the Terrible’s Primm 300 and following up with our first attempt at the infamous Baja 1000. Our partner in this racing venture is Cliff Seubert of Seubert Machining. Cliff and I headed out to California late in March to pick up the race car, built from a 1991 Jeep XJ Cherokee. The trip had been postponed during a large snow storm a month earlier, but this time there was no stopping us. The weather was just about as bad, only with rain instead of snow most of the way to Bakersfield. The snow was limited to the mountain passes, but it still made for a soggy first half of the trip to “sunny” California. We made it to the Lake Elsinore, CA area and prepared to take the Jeep to the desert for some testing, but yeah, you guessed it, we were rained out. It rained cats and dogs the night before and the desert area would have been a mess. Instead, we ran a few passes on the street and then headed home. Going north out of Redding, CA the highway patrol closed Interstate 5 because of snow. Later on in the day, they required chains on tow vehicles, which we had; and on trailers, which we didn’t have. All the stores that carried chains were sold out, so we were stuck. After a few hours delay, we were back on the road again. All in all, a great adventure with our new Jeep race car and a great beginning to this year’s season. So far, the Jeep has had the body work done with most dings removed. Also, we gave her some new paint to clean the body up, removing all the decals. Next up is to rebuild the undercarriage, which is pretty much a complete tear down, inspection, and replacement of worn parts. The first test drive will be this July in the high desert of Eastern Oregon. |
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| Our main focus on the two or three weekends in the Oregon desert will be the driving teams getting some “seat time” in the Jeep. We have four teams that will split driving duties at the 1000 and all need to get some of that “seat time”. My driving partner and long time friend, Randy Peterson currently working with Bushwacker, will share the driving duties on my two man team. Randy and I have had many an adventure over the years and this Baja trip will be a fun addition to these adventures.
The first official race will be the Primm 300 which is a SCORE event in August. We plan on having some Warrior Products Body Armor Exterior Protection installed for that race with all our new sponsor decals installed and ready for race day. It’s shaping up to be an interesting and very exciting summer. If you are at one of the race, walk up and say hey we will be happy to chat. |
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Tom’s Chronicles: Easter Jeep Safari 2011
Team Warrior just got back from a successful trip to the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah and got some great pics and video footage of some rock crawling and trail runs!
Moab was beautiful as usual and to do our part to keep it beautiful, Team Warrior handed out our new Warrior green bags (see photo #12) for drivers to pick up trash on the trails.
Area BFE was a highlight of the week and high desert trail runs with good friends were frequent. Video will be up on Warrior TV soon but, for now, here are some of the photos of the week full of rock crawling and rollovers:
Tom’s Chronicles: Trail Adventures for 2011
After a very successful 2010, here at Warrior, we are very excited about this New Year. Setting a company sales record last year signals excellent potential for expansion this year and the continued growth of our brand. Thank you to all who have been involved with Team Warrior.
Not sitting on our success of the past year, Warrior Products will be investing in newer equipment to help us maintain our commitment to build high quality products. We should be able to double the production output and cut lead times substantially. Also, we are working to expand the engineering department with new software, increased staff, and better model control. Innovation of new products has been our primary drive these past few years, hence the decision to expand research & development and engineering. New products for the Jeep vehicles from 1941 to current along with the new FJ Cruiser Trail Adventure Series will be the main focus for 2011. We are always open to our customers’ individual needs as well as suggestions on what the market needs. E-mail us with your thoughts. As a USA manufacturer, we can react to small production runs, “one offs”, build what customers are asking for, and take customers’ ideas to market in a quick manner.
We are in the process of moving our corporate offices to a new location in order to expand the manufacturing plant. We are simply out of space. Our cut and sew division will be moving into some of the newly available area. Shipping and receiving will need some of this space and the larger engineering department will need more offices and model rooms.
Look for some new and exciting changes coming from IT this year. New large screen TV’s throughout the production plant will show the movement of items in production and the priority of all parts will help our production cycle, time to market, and quality control. Our new web site is already completed and is up and running. Feel free to check out all our great, new features. The Warrior staff built a first class state of the art web site, a job well done.
Video will be the next area of growth. Look for new videos coming soon to Warrior TV located on our web site, including videos of races that we will be participating in, such as the Baja 1000! We have invested in our own top shelf video production equipment to produce our own racing videos, off road demos, installation videos, but mostly, what ever the team can dream up. Stay tuned!
All in all a very exciting year is shaping up for all of us here at Warrior, but especially for all our customers and dealers. With the growth of the JK Wrangler, both two door and four door, selling more vehicles this year than any year in the past 69 years, we see nothing but continued demand for the fun stuff that Warrior Products builds. And with the introduction of our accessory product line for the FJ Cruiser, Warrior will definitely be busy. But let me be clear: Warrior Products will invest in our facilities, our new employee hires, our equipment; whatever it takes to serve our customers at the highest level of quality products, backed with renowned customer service. Our teams are off road enthusiasts and understand the ins and outs of the market. For all going to Easter Safari in Moab in April, stop by our booth, or corner us on some trail and say “hi”. Our teams are planning on fifteen to twenty trade shows across the nation this year. We hope to see many of you there or on some trail in this great country of ours.
Regards,
Tom Richardson
Warrior, Inc.
President
