Let’s look at how the RV industry is doing in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the first quarter of 2023. If you will remember, the RV industry did not have a great year last year when compared to their own projections.

Remember shipments are not related to sales!

Let just look at the percentages for towable units:

Travel Trailer Shipments up 8.2% over 1st quarter of 2023

Fifth Wheel Shipments up 3.3% over 1st quarter of 2023

Pop-Up Campers Shipments down 36%

Truck Camper Shipments down 11%

Click here to see the report from RVIA.

So, Travel Trailers led the group in shipments as always and had an increase of 8.2% over Q1 of 2023. Fifth Wheels were up 3.3% over Q1 of 2023. Then Pop-ups and Truck campers lost ground over 2023. The overall result is that shipments are up 5.9% over Q1 of 2023.

I just want to caution you when looking at the numbers that these are “Shipments” reported by the manufacturers. A shipment does not mean a sold travel trailer/towable. It only means that production pushed to dealers is up. So, where the sales numbers would be harder to know.

These numbers are surprising given the current state of the RV industry which is under fire for issues related to frame flex on fifth wheel trailers. In addition, there are just a growing number of RV buyers that are realizing that the quality across the board is terrible.

Lazyday’s earning call reflects they type of trouble the industry is in, losing millions of dollars in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to 2022. Winnebago Industries revenues for the first quarter of 2024 ended with $763.0 million, a decrease of 19.9% compared to $952.2 million for 2023s first quarter. There is a lot of speculation that the frame flex issue is driving these losses. I’m not going to do some in-depth analysis on these numbers or the earning calls but obviously things are looking bleak for the RV industry.

There are certainly a number of ways that dealerships and RV manufacturers can lose money quickly, and that’s through warranty repairs. If you have a lot of rigs coming back for major repairs, you start hemorrhaging money.

I have complained for a very long time that the RV industry needed to, and could make, a better trailer. They are more interested in pushing as many trailers out as possible. Now with the large outcry on social media, perhaps the house of cards is about to collapse. Hopefully, then, there will be a re-set.