RV Sales

[75thRanger]

Just saw on the FOX Business Channel that RV sales are "thru the roof" now. Being a bit skeptical of that, I called my friend in Corpus Christi in the business and he confirmed that it was so and he was not discounting them.

I would have never guessed it with Covid still very much a threat.

Buying and parking, I guess.

[Red Dog]

That does not make sense to me. Crazy!

Fred M.

[NEWYORKHILLBILLY]

Originally Posted by 75thRanger

Just saw on the FOX Business Channel that RV sales are "thru the roof" now. Being a bit skeptical of that, I called my friend in Corpus Christi in the business and he confirmed that it was so and he was not discounting them.

I would have never guessed it with Covid still very much a threat.

Buying and parking, I guess.

This surprised me also I figured they be giving the stick built trailers away like they did in 2008 . Must be everyone figures if they do travel they will not want to be in a motel.
I was going to keep my casita until july, then i got thinking by then people might realize there probably be no camping this year and it might not sell. I listed last week and had several buyers the first day.I was surprised.Nice family showed up masked up and bought it. problem is i had to take it to there house because DMV is not open and they have no idea when they can get the plates. I think they wanted to put the kids in it in the yard.

[GaryandEllen]

I read an article the other day that suggested people will be very uncomfortable flying for awhile. So families maybe be hitting the road instead of flying. And camping instead of hotel stays.

[Vermilye]

Certainly the opposite of car & truck sales. Our nearby county are pushing to open car dealerships - auto sales provide the largest sales tax collection for them.

[Eggscape]

I was just saying to my wife yesterday that I thought RV sales would be climbing as many people will not fly, cruise or stay in hotels for a long time to come. Your own trailer is one of the places you have control over how clean it is.
I also said that when camping does open that everybody is going to want to hit the road making for some very full camp grounds.

[sherminator]

Bugout. I think a lot of people like the idea of being able to pick up and move temporarily if they want to. Park the rig in their kid's driveway or whatever. Escape to the hills.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by sherminator

Bugout. I think a lot of people like the idea of being able to pick up and move temporarily if they want to. Park the rig in their kid's driveway or whatever. Escape to the hills.

A neighbor was walking by when I was working on the trailer the other day. Said name is fitting...Escape 19 on the front is more like “Escape COVID-19”.

[Merlin]

"Bug out" might be part of it. We found a bunch of campers hiding out in one of our forests last weekend. Or, closing state parks to camping might be pushing the dooms day type to more primitive thoughts...

Who knows. I like camping but creature comforts are nice too.

[Iowa Dave]

I don’t see the flow of disposable cash being all that widespread but I’m sure there are
Sales driven by the reasons everyone has offered up. Some might be betting on continued government payments to help them and in addition financing and no payments till whatever are out there on everything from cars and trucks to home remodeling and new windows for your house. When the virus dies down a little more and governors open up all facets of business that have been closed the discretionary spending will redistribute once again.

Once when I was about 12 or 13 I asked my uncle who owned a Phillips 66 station how business was. It was the middle of January or maybe a little later. He said business was very good and he was selling a lot of gas and oil. My dad didn’t say much at the time. He worked every day in a filling station too. On the way home I remarked that it was good that George was doing well.
Dad couldn’t take it any more. He gave me the facts of economy in the upper Midwest in January where people were: 1. Paying for Christmas, 2 paying higher heating bills because it was cold, 3. Not traveling because it was snowy and icy, 4 In their homes more hours with the lights on 5 Thinking about Federal taxes and property taxes which came due in March. 6 Just having had to buy new license plates (Iowa was not staggered at the time). And if all that wasn’t enough, it had been cold and the chickens weren’t laying and eggs had gone up a nickel. He finished with “ Your uncle George is a good guy but he’s full of BS, always has been always will be.

So the RV sales through the roof Hmmmmm. I view that with some skepticism. I don’t follow the publicly traded RV companies, don’t even know the names. Are they a recommended buy buy buy or is it a good stock because if it’s the only housing you have you can’t kill yourself jumping out the window if the market goes further to hell.
Iowa Dave

[cpaharley2008]

particularly if the rv sales guy had brown eyes...............

[Donna D.]

I wonder if RV manufacturing is considered essential? I know Keystone is closed. I received an email earlier today from Camping World that says I can buy an RV from them for their cost. I belong to a large camping group on Facebook. About every fifth or sixth post is about someone trading their current trailer in on a new one.

[fudge_brownie]

Some observations from what I have read: there was a large supply of unsold RV’s at the start of the pandemic, most manufacturers closed, overall sales have not spurted due to the lack of places to travel and for some reason Class B’s are the exception, their sales volume is up.

This could change quickly as the warmer weather spreads across the US. All of us have an RV, do we have a place we can or want to go at this moment?

Here is a link to the March sales comparison. RVIA

[padlin]

When I bought my sticky I bought in the fall, the dealer told me he was waiting on the next years trailers and needed to make room for them. They want them on hand before winter for spring sale as weather can hamper deliveries closer to spring. Don't know if this is industry wide or not, but it would explain why the dealers already had loaded lots at the start of the pandemic.

[Steven M]

Not necessarily about RV manufacturing but it may have something to do about it. SKIFT is an online travel industry magazine covering all aspects of travel, hotels, airlines, apartment rentals and even occasionally RVs. Make of it what you will.


https://skift.com/2020/05/29/rv-and-...ource=hs_email

[C&G in FL]

My prediction can be summed up as follows;
When the COVID-19 situation has subsided either due to natural herd immunity or wide scale inoculation if an effective vaccine or some other therapy can be developed there will be thousands of preowned RVs, primarily stickies on the market which will be difficult to sell without taking a huge financial loss with 90% of the sellers bemoaning the fact that they bought the RV in the first place. These sales are not being driven by long-term RVers and many of the buyers are going to realize they really do not want to be bothered with “camping.”

[Iowa Dave]

Hi Carl
I’ll agree with your predictions. I also believe that campground crowding which the new owners did not realize happens will frustrate many owners.

We drove down to a local campground the first weekend it was open. It was full and an owner was talking to the host and the host was shaking his head no. That’s as close as we got. We went down to the boat ramp for a couple minutes and then headed home. We soon came upon the guy who found the campground full and once we got to the interstate we followed him until he exited into a residential area.

And don't forget still having payments on a 12 year financed camper that’s setting in the weeds after a few years but the payments on that dead horse keep on coming.

I am not concerned that new owners, especially previously non campers are going to have much effect on camp ground camp site availability.
Just my thoughts on cool rainy Iowa morning.
Be Safe
Iowa Dave

[Vermilye]

I'm not sure I'd trust Fox Business News over the RVIA, at least for March. Here is a link comparing 2019 to 2020.

[felix2]

I remember decades ago, working in an outdoor supply store, when I reflected on the literally thousands of backpacks I had sold...yet when I went backpacking, I didn't see anything near a reflection of that quantity in use. I imagined then that a majority of those backpacks saw one weekend of use, then sat in the garage or attic until eventually being given to Goodwill.


I think there could be a parallel here. Keeping in mind that most of the purchasers of these RVs are employed also means that at best the majority of those RVs will see occasional weekend use fairly close to home, and a vacation week in the summer, and maybe a tailgater now and then. All those employed people are more restricted in use than full-timers and retired folk.


Plus rv sales partially offset older units - does the data account for how many are "sold" to peple who are trading in older units, effectively NOT adding to the mix of in-use units? One would need to look at all the data to say whether this is a real uptick in RV interest or just a mild rise that's pumped up by the RV industry.

[Steven M]

As I said in my post make of the article what you will. My take is that with the stay at home orders many people simply want out, anywhere out, outside is what people want.



The article doesn't talk of retail sales it talks of RV rentals, whether from a company that stocks them or a company like Outdoorsy which is the AirBnB of RVs. Ownership isn't the question or answer. The question is how does this affect campground availability, an answer which I don't have. I foresee, at least for the rest of the year, crowds of people at campgrounds. Hopefully I'm wrong and can go out and enjoy a quiet week or weekend with my trailer.