Hey, we tried to help the travel trailer numbers, we bought a 2026 Alliance Delta 294RK

I know this isn’t the most exciting stuff to read about, but it can tell you a lot about the RV industry. Some of it you can certainly leverage if you are looking to purchase an RV. In a struggling market, there is always a buying opportunity.

October Shipment numbers from the RVIA.Org web site are in, and just like last month it continues to be stagnant news if not slightly negative news, except maybe for Fifth Wheels and Truck Campers.

As always let me start by saying that the RVIA is comparing their “growth rate”, only to 2024, which wasn’t a great year.  It would be better if they used a running five-year average as a comparison, excluding the covid years. 

Right now, for all RV shipments for the year, they are at 297,477 Units Shipped. That puts shipments at 3.6% over 2024 so far this year.

Let’s break down the October numbers:

In October Travel Trailer Shipments were down again, this time dropping to -9% over October of 2024.  If you remember last month, they were down 4.4%. For the year they are now in negative territory at -.5%.  Again, that’s comparing to the bad year 2024. This has been a bleak year for Travel Trailers.  As I’ve said before, I’ve never seen a year like this for travel trailers.

October Fifth Wheels were up 24.9% over October of 2024.  Down from last month’s gain of 29.1% over September of 2024. Total shipments were 6198, which is up about 1085 units from last month’s shipments.  YTD compared to 2024 they’ve moved up to 21.2%.

Pop-up Campers moved into negative territory this month at-15.8% and YTD when compared to 2024, they are down -2.8%. 

Truck Campers had that unexplainable positive wild swing last month of 72.9%.  This month they are up again at 34.8% over October of 2024. Again, I’m not sure what’s happening in that category.  These last two month has put the truck campers at 26.7% positive for the YTD numbers. Just like pop up campers the number of shipments in this category is so small (just 368 this month) it hardly takes any increase or decrease to make it look like a huge swing.  That being said, something positive is definitely happening in this category.  This is two months in a row where some really big numbers for truck campers are being generated.

I won’t spend a lot of time talking about Motorhomes, but A’s and C’s were up when compared to October of 2024.  Type A’s up 15.9%, and type C’s up 21.8%.  Type Bs, the Van Campers were in negative territory when compared to October of 2024 at -8.8%.

However, for the year, A’s are barely positive at 3.2%, and B’s are diving deeper into negative territory at -1.4% and C’s are at 5.7%.  Overall, the motorhome market has now dropped to only 3.6% over 2024.

Again, the motorhome situation is a bit like Fifth wheels, truck campers and popups. There are not a lot shipped so a modest swing results in a big percentage shift.

Overall, when comparing October of 2025 to October of 2024, there were 352 less shipments this October.  Even though the RVIA CEO states “This latest shipment report shows that overall, the RV industry continues to make moderate, steady gains for the year and we are on track to surpass last year’s shipment totals,”

Well, the report doesn’t really reflect that, although we do have November and December to get through.  However, are November and December great months for selling RV’s?– probably not.

So, I don’t think this month’s report is great news for the RV industry.  The problem here is that the bread and butter of the RV industry, Travel Trailers, are trending downwards.  Travel Trailers are the most popular RV manufactured. When, Travel Trailers bottom out, that’s not good news for the RV industry at all. Keep in mind, shipments mean nothing as far as sales.

The more reliable indicator is RV registrations compared to last year,( again 2024 was not a great year) and those registrations are now down 4%, according to New Trader Insights. This leads to higher than desired levels at the Dealers.  Again, it also a reflection that the industry is not doing well.

So, this may be a buyers’ market for travel trailers, pop up campers, and Class B Camper Vans, since those categories are struggling.  Just a thought.

Until next time Happy Camping!