LA GRANDE — An Island City-based recreational vehicle dealership is under new ownership.

Legacy Chrysler Jeep Dodge RAM purchased Thunder RV and will move its Legacy Powersports product line into the Thunder RV building, 10401 S. Walton Road, under the new business name, Legacy Powersports & RV. There will be a grand reopening this spring at the Walton Road store.

Legacy Chrysler owner Robert Bates and Thunder RV owners Dan and Moneta Woollard sealed the deal on Monday, Jan. 16. For the Woollards, it was the close of 25 years of business.

“My wife, Moneta, and I started Thunder RV back in August 1997,” Dan Woollard said. “Our company name was Damo Incorporated doing business as Thunder RV.”

Thunder RV started operating across from C&M gas station in Island City, where the business shared a building with Island City Trailer Sales. Thunder RV began with just 10 units, and the business grew from there. Then in 2001, the Woollards moved the business to its present location on Walton Road in Island City.

“I retired four years ago,” Dan Woollard said. “I decided it’s time to fully retire and sell the business.”

The Woollards are snowbirds, heading south to Arizona each winter, where they’ve had a home for the past five years. Then each summer, they return to Northeastern Oregon. They do a lot of camping, and they will continue to enjoy their recreational vehicle for years to come.

The Woollards had family to help them manage the business while they were in Arizona.

“My daughter, Melissa Sampson, and son-in-law, Caleb Sampson, were running the business,” Dan Woollard said. “They didn’t feel like they could buy the business, so my daughter suggested we go ahead and sell it.”

As part of the sales agreement, the Sampsons and other Thunder RV employees will remain on the payroll with the new ownership. Those employees include two service technicians and a service manager, Wayne Barnes.

Woollard feels good that all his employees are cared for and their jobs are intact.

He’s looking forward to the future, but he still looks back over the past 25 years with some sentimentality.

“I’ll miss seeing all the customers we had over the years,” he said. “We had customers literally all over the world, Norway, England and Australia.”

It was Woollard who reached out to Bates, inquiring if he would like to buy Thunder RV. Bates considered it, and he thought combining Legacy Powersports products with recreational vehicles was a good fit all under one roof and a new name.

“By March we will be fully integrated at the 10401 S. Walton store,” Bates said. “We’ll display RVs outside and utilize the showroom space inside the store for powersports products as well.”

Legacy Powersports sells the full line of Suzuki products, including four-wheelers, dirt bikes and street bikes; a Euro brand called Sherco dirt bikes; and Hisun products, including both sports and utility side-by-sides and four-wheelers.

“That’s been a huge acquisition for us because previously the store had not been a side-by-side dealer,” Bates said. “They are really popular, and people have been really enjoying them.”

Another new powersports acquisition brand is Volcon, a full electric powersports line. Bates said Legacy currently has kids’ electric dirt bikes on the way and an adventure bike, geared toward outdoor enthusiasts for hunting and fishing. A full-electric side-by-side is coming out next year that Bates is excited to offer to the public.

“We have a full line of specialized bicycles from little, tiny kids’ bikes without any peddles to full electric-assist, complicated and very premium level bicycles,” Bates added.

SSR & Benelli is another brand that Bates sells. It’s an entry-level option and an affordable way for families to get into powersports and enjoy getting out in the mountains together.

Legacy Powersports & RV has a full-service department that will fix and repair or do warranty work and regular labor work. Bates said there is a small customer service department right now and the business will be looking to hire more help. Anyone who is interested in working in any of the departments should come in, complete an application and submit a resume, he said.

Between Legacy Chrysler Jeep Dodge RAM and Legacy Powersports & RV, Bates has created a full range of products for his customers.

“We have every option of vehicle for sale. We have the vehicles to tow the trailers,” he said. “We have side-by-sides and powersports equipment that you can put in the trailers, and we have the trailers themselves.”

A native of La Grande, Bates has been owner of Legacy Chrysler since April 2020. He is a 2006 graduate of Eastern Oregon University and currently serves as an EOU Foundation trustee.