If your following the RV industry shipments you realize that this year is a banner year for manufacturers. In fact, August 2021 shipments were 33.8% greater than August of 2020.  The 52,819 shipments recorded last month set a new monthly record for August. This is the second largest month of shipments. The only larger month was March of this year. That is huge, and a concern, or it should be if you are a buyer.

The numbers speak to the issues that the RV industry is under. Units are being shipped without refrigerators, awnings, valances, just to move them out of the manufacturers’ lot. What does this mean for the consumer? A less than perfect RV and certainly not what the customer ordered. It is also giving the manufacturer a black eye because it shows a lack of honesty on their part.

Do you want to pay upwards of $50,000.00 for an incomplete unit? What about a unit that is supposed to come with a porcelain toilet but comes with a plastic one (because that is all they had)? These are all real examples of what is happening.

Demand is so great that THOR Industries is sold out into 2022 on new units. So if you’re looking to buy an Airstream, Jayco, Keystone, Venture, Cruiser, Crossroads, Dutchman, KZ, Prowler, Highland Ridge, or Starcraft…It will be a long wait.

So what is the RVIA’s projection for this year? They feel they will beat 2017’s record by 73,000 units. If you remember 2017 in the RV world you will remember there were many quality issues due to the number of units produced. We see that it has only gotten worse this year, or so it seems from the online blogs regarding current quality issues.

But wait there’s more! Hold on to your hat for 2022 because the RV industry is projecting that there will be even more shipments that 2021. They in fact predict that they will hit over 600,000 units or a 4% increase.

Do a simple job search on the internet for RV jobs in Elkhart, Indiana. You will quickly realize they have hundreds of job openings from production line to supervisors. How can companies push so much through with so little to do the work? The short answer is that they do the best they can and let the Dealerships clean up their failings.

I would not want to own a Dealership right now. Dealerships are not equipped to handle the amount of flaws headed their way. If I were a mobile RV tech, I might be feeling pretty good about the situation.

Now adding to all of this chaos are the Supply Chain Issues that are currently manifesting themselves. You can see how having outsourced many parts is now having an affect on the market. This is why certain parts that are on the specification sheet for your new Travel Trailer have been replaced with something else. In most cases probably not of equal value in the eyes of the consumer; like the plastic toilet.

So when will this bubble burst? That’s the million dollar question, and what will it mean for the RV industry? I have to say it is a bit reminiscent of the auto company surge quite a few years ago; where they produced and sold an incredible amount of vehicles. Consumers bought way out ahead because the deals were so good. Then all of a sudden the market dried up because so many folks had new cars. That was bad for the auto makers.

Unlike the above example, there are currently no great deals on Travel Trailers due to the demand. Even used Travel Trailers are are expensive. However the impact of the public viewing RV’s as a safe haven for travel in a Covid environment has certainly spiked demand. At some point in the future things will return to some form of normal; and that will have an impact. It’s going to be interesting to watch where the industry goes from here.