Hello Travel Trailer Nation!

Here’s your RV industry shipment update for May!

These numbers are coming from the RVIA shipment report, which you can view at RVIA.org. As always, please remember this report is not indicative of sales, just shipments into RV dealerships.

These numbers are comparing MAY of 2025 to May of 2024 (as I’ve cautioned before, remember 2024 wasn’t a great year for the RV industry). So, when they say that they are doing better than last year, it’s like saying Jimmy did great this year in school with a D because last year he was doing F work. I think it would be better if they graded themselves against the best year they ever had. Anyway, on with the show.

Overall the RV shipments ended the month with only 28,150 units, a -15.1% compared to the 33,150 units shipped in May 2024. This tells you pretty much all you need to know, the RV industry is struggling, and this is only Shipments. Later on, we will talk about sales.

But lets look at the specific shipment numbers:

18,376 travel trailers shipped in May 2025 compared to 23,811 in May of 2024.  If you remember last month they shipped 24,737 units. That’s pretty bleak.  This puts them down 23% compared to May 2024.  YTD they are only up 3.1% compared to 2024.

5,794 fifth wheels shipped in May 2025 compared to 5,751 in May of 2024. That’s only an increase of .7% over last month.  YTD, they are up 22.4% compared to 2024.  That’s a move down from the 28% YTD number last month.

Regardless, these are still good numbers for fifth wheels compared to slumping shipments last year when they were in negative territory.

537 pop-up campers tanked in shipments last month, -20% compared to May of 2024. They are in negative territory for the year at -6%.

Oddly, truck campers took a huge bounce up at 556 units shipped compared to 273 in May of 2024.  That’s an increase of 104%.  This moved them into a 24% positive YTD number.  I have no rational explanation for the bump here.  I’ve never seen a swing like this in Truck Campers before. Perhaps they under-reported last month, and this was a catch-up? It’s odd.

Meanwhile on the motor home front, all models (A B and C) are still in negative YTD numbers even with an increase in shipments of 19.6% on Class Bs when compared to May of 2024.  For the Year:

Class-A  -5.2%

Class-B  -6.9%

Class-C  -6.2%

There is no doubt that the Motorhome market is still struggling with class B’s “sort of” rebounding last month.

In addition to this data statistical surveys.com, which I don’t belong to, has stated that RV registrations are down over 25%.  This WOULD BE indicative of sales! So that reenforces the fact that sales are bad, and inventory is being pushed to the dealerships.

Sales would be the very best indicator of how the RV industry is performing. Judging an industry on shipments is like a food company judging the popularity of their product on how much they can produce on their line. If they produce 1000 boxes of cereal but only sell 50, then the 1000 box number is useless.

RV Industry Association President & CEO Craig Kirby. “While the industry continues to navigate uncertain economic conditions, the long-term pattern of growth for the industry remains with a recent study showing 16.9 million American households indicating they intend to join the RV lifestyle. These potential customers are younger and more diverse than ever before, showcasing the wide and enduring appeal of RVing.”

So, it’s all gum drops and Lolli pops!  As I’ve mentioned before I don’t trust any of the study’s they sponsor and I’ll talk more about that in an upcoming video on my YouTube channel.  He is right about one thing; there is an appeal to RVing.  If you want to make it more appealing, start building a better product – that’s my two cents.

Anyway, that’s your industry update!

Until next time – happy camping.