Let’s quickly talk about how these numbers are calculated. The percentage increases or decreases are a result of comparing shipments from February 2026 to February 2025. And keep this in mind—2025 was already a weak year for the RV industry.

Now here’s where things really stand.

All towable RV categories are now in double-digit negative territory. The only exception is truck campers, which are up 3.6%—but even that is down from last month.

• Travel trailers: down 14.5%
• Fifth wheels: down 13.1%
• Pop-up campers: down 18.7%
• Truck campers: up 3.6%

There’s no way to sugarcoat it—February was a rough month.

And looking ahead, I expect things to get even worse before they get better. Rising fuel prices will likely impact next month’s numbers even more. Add in high interest rates and ongoing quality complaints across the industry, and you’ve got a combination that’s hard to overcome.

If you think it’s not that bad, take a look at what’s already happening—Winnebago Industries and Thor Industries have both started laying off workers.

Even before fuel prices became a bigger issue, this was already a buyers’ market. These new numbers just confirm that reality.  Are you serious about buying right now?  This would be the time to do it.

What About Motorhomes?

The motorhome side tells a slightly different story—for now:

• Class A: down 1.8% They have been struggling for over a year.
• Class B: up 17.2%
• Class C: up 24.8%

But don’t read too much into that yet. Motorhome sales volumes are relatively low—often under 1,000 units per month—so it’ll take a few more months of data to see a clear trend. I predict they will all be in negative territory shortly.

What This Means for Buyers

If you’re in the market for a towable RV, you’ve got leverage—real leverage.

Dealers know what’s happening. Inventory is building. Shipments are dropping. This is exactly the kind of environment where strong negotiation can save you serious money.

Final Thoughts

I’m usually pretty good at reading where the market is headed—but right now, there’s not much guesswork involved.

The trend is clear.

One last thing worth noting: once again, the CEO of the RV Industry Association had nothing to say about shipments. That’s unusual—and it probably tells you everything you need to know about how these numbers are being viewed inside the industry.

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If you remember last year, when I gave you monthly updates, they weren’t good. They weren’t good for a number of reasons.

1. They were comparing last year’s shipments only to the previous bad year of 2024. So even a modest increase appeared positive. 2025 was not a good year for the industry.
2. Travel trailers spent much of the year in negative territory on shipments. Travel trailers are the bread and butter of the RV industry. Five times more travel trailers are sold on a monthly basis than the second most popular RV – fifth wheels.

So, what’s happened since the endo of 2025? Well now we move forward to comparing this year’s numbers to last year’s very mediocre numbers. Right off the bat in January we are in the negative territory in a big way in all the towable categories.

Travel trailers are down 13.9% compared to January of 2025

Fifth wheels down 10.8%

Pop-up campers down 19.8%

Truck Campers down 4.6%

That’s a bleak month. If you remember I said late last year that it would be a buyers’ market on travel trailers. Well, I better start expanding that to cover all towables.

To finish this discussion off let’s talk about how I would measure the RV Shipment success rate. That would be with a rolling five-year average.

Let’s talk about how the RV industry as performed since 2008.

2008 saw a really bad recession and that negatively impacted the industry from 2009 through 2012. they went from producing over 300,000 a year in 2008, to averaging only 289,000 per year over the next five years.

In 2013, we saw them starting to grow again, producing an average of 439,000 units a year from 2013-2018. The standout years being 2017 (504,599) and 2018 (483,672). then in 2019things began to take a pretty big drop but then Covid came in and the numbers went through the roof. That is when the quality hit an all-time low. That’s not to say that their previous banner 2017-year didn’t have a lot of quality complaints, it did. In my opinion, that is why you see that the five years from 2020 to 2023,(which includes the huge covid shipments,) where that the average drops to 434,093.

Now look at 2023,24, and 25 as individual years and they are in the low 300,000 numbers. That hasn’t happened since 2013-2015. So, don’t fool yourselves, they are hurting. Some of this may be due to a saturated market, and my guess is that some of this is due to the bad rap on quality. Interest rates and gas prices haven’t been helping either.

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So what was the impact to towables? Well towables are down 54.4% when compared to September numbers for 2021. Year to date towable number are down 9.9% when compared to 2021. That is a drop of 40,443 units so far. That is quite a drop.

Breakdown:

Travel Trailer Shipments:

September 2021 = 40,254 vs. September 2022 = 17,599. That is a drop of 56.3%. For the year Travel Trailer Shipments are down 10.3%

Fifth Wheel Shipments;

September 2021 = 9,405 vs. September 2022 = 4528. That is a drop of 51.9%. For the year Fifth Wheel Shipments are down 10.7%

Pop-Up/Folding Campers

September 2021 = 642 vs. September 2022 = 514. That is a drop of 19.9%. For the year Pop-Up/Folding Camper Shipments are up 7.8%

Truck Campers

September 2021 = 395 vs. September 2022 = 462. That is an increase of 17.0%. For the year Truck Camper Shipments are up 23.9%

In conclusion, the only real bright spot right now seems to be that Pop-Up, and Truck Camper shipments seem to be up for the year. Given the fuel prices, I think that makes sense as people are probably looking for RV options that won’t be as costly to move from campsite to campsite – just my opinion.

The RV Industry Association President & CEO Craig Kirby stated. “Campgrounds continue to report strong reservations as the many people who bought RVs in the past few years are using the RVs to spend quality time with friends and family this fall while enjoying the many physical and mental health benefits of getting outdoors.”

I certainly don’t disagree with Mr. Kirbys’ statement. However it seems that campground spots seem to be getting a bit easier to find. In addition, more 2020 and 2021 used RV’s are now being sold. This might signify that folks who purchased during the pandemic have decided to leave the life style OR perhaps have decided the quality just wasn’t what they expected. So given that used RV’s are available, that certainly has an impact on new RV sales and of course shipments.

Let me conclude this post with a suggestion. If you are looking at a new or used Travel Trailer, PLEASE spend the extra money for an independent inspection. There is just to much at risk by not taking that important step. In the meantime if you have a travel trailer, get out there and enjoy yourselves!

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Results based on a survey of manufacturers determined that total RV shipments ended the month with 33,783 shipments. This is a 36.0% drop when compared to August of 2021.

Comparing the year to date numbers (2021 vs. 2022 through July); RV shipments are down 2.6% across all types of RVs, but down 3.6% across the towable models.

The August towable shipments were down overall by 41.5% over August of 2021. The exception were pop-up campers which were up 16.5%. Since pop-up campers make up such a small amount of shipments, it only took 95 more shipments to make that 16.5% increase. It would be hard to draw any conclusions around this number since these are shipments and not necessarily sales. So, is it just some dealers stocking up assuming that the high gas prices will have people more interested in lighter alternatives? Or are buyers actually moving in that direction? That information is would be hard to determine without sales numbers.

Motorized RV shipments were up 16.8% compared to the same month last year with 5,757 units. Keep in mind this segment makes up the smallest amount of shipments so it’s hard to draw any conclusions.

If you would like to read the RVIA report, click here.

So to summarize, the slowdown continues.

The new forecast by the RVIA “projects 2022 RV shipments to range between 487,300 and 510,300 units with a most likely year-end total of 498,800 units, a (-16.9%) decline from the record 600,240 shipped in 2021”. It wasn’t that long ago that the RVIA was predicting shipments of 549,900. Looking to 2023, the forecast projects shipments to range between 409,000 to 429,000 units with a most likely year-end total of 419,000, a (-16%) decline from the projected 2022 total.

So there you have it; shipments are going down, and are projected to slide further. I’m positive this is driven by high fuel prices and inflation. If you purchased your travel trailer during the last few years and now feel that you paid too much, take a deep breath. As I mentioned in my last blog regarding shipments: It is still cheaper to travel in a camper than it is to fly somewhere, rent a hotel, and eat your meals in restaurants. So, don’t panic, you are in it for the long haul, or so you should have thought when you purchased your rig. This is more of a lifestyle than it is a hobby. Don’t let this economic downturn keep you from enjoying your travel trailer. Remember you can’t put a price tag on memories.

I put some tips for saving money on my June shipments related post. Click here and scroll to the bottom if you would like to read those suggestions.

Travel Safe!

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Well all of that has started to turn around. As a matter of fact Keystone RV, a division of Thor, is closing two of its plants on Sept. 23 in Goshen, Indiana. A total of 334 RV manufacturing and plant management jobs will be lost.

An employee said that Company Officials stated this was directly related to the high fuel prices and dealers orders dropping off. He said “The high fuel prices, and the dealers don’t want to buy, buy the units that that we’re producing. So, I guess a lot of them is just sitting. And so, with the fuel prices the way that they are, we no longer have orders.”

Winnebago Industries is also feeling the economic hardship that is upon us. During their June earnings call, Winnebago President, and CEO Michael Happe warned of the current downturn saying that it is related to “persistent macroeconomic headwinds, including fluctuations in interest rates, gas prices, inflation, and consumer sentiment”. The consumer sentiment that he is referring to is the overall positive or negative feeling buyers have about their own economic situation. Obviously, the current sentiment is negative.

Winnebago also owns Grand Design Trailers and NewMar Motorhomes in their RV Line. They are now predicting a 17% drop in RV sales this year. I would not be a bit surprised to see them follow Thor in a major cutback on production.

Grand Design announced in May that they were building 4 new plants for manufacturing and support on its Middlebury campus. They planned at that time adding 700 new jobs by the end of 2023. It will be interesting to see if that plan now changes.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, the RV industry is a good predictor of the economy in general. The outlook is not good.

My personal opinion is that the quality that came of the RV lines over the last few years has been substandard; and I believe this has also had some effect in the industry. In today’s social media environment the stories about defective new units spreads like wildfire. While that certainly isn’t the main driver in this situation, it hasn’t helped.

So, while the June Shipments report is not in yet, I expect the news to be a downward trend. I will be back to let you know where things stand when that report is available from the RVIA.

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The following is from RVIA.org:

“Results for the RV Industry Association’s January 2022 survey of manufacturers determined that total RV shipments ended the month with 53,290 units, an increase of 16.0% compared to the 45,930 units shipped during January 2021; this January was also the best on comparable record with shipments surpassing the January 2021 shipment total”.

So let’s take a quick look at the breakdown of shipments. I am placing these in the order of number of units shipped, not greatest percent increase over January of 2021; well address that in a minute.

As always, Travel Trailers led the towables group with 38,038 units shipped. That number is 6,265 units more than those shipped in January of 2021, that is a 19.7% increase.

Fifth Wheels came in second place in the towables category with 9453 units shipped. that number is 721 units more than those shipped in January of 2021, that is an 8.3% increase.

Pop-up Campers came in third place in the towables category with 679 units shipped. That number is 91 units more than those shipped in January of 2021, that is a 15.5% increase.

Truck Campers came in fourth place in the towables category with 379 units shipped. That number is 74 units more than those shipped in January of 2021, that is a 23.1% increase.

If we rank shipments based only on % increase we would see that Truck Campers came in first followed by Travel Trailers, Pop-ups, and lastly Fifth Wheels. I don’t recall ever seeing that order before.

Feel free to read more about the January Shipments at the RVIA by clicking here.

As I’ve talked about in many of my other posts, these kind of increases in production are not usually good for the consumer. This kind of increased production comes at a cost, and that cost means less time spent on quality. I am still reading on a daily basis of the flawed new trailers coming to consumers. If you want to protect yourself, please consider getting an RV inspection on any new or used unit you are going to purchase. To read my take on whats ahead for us in 2022 and discussion around NRVIA inspectors click here.

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As I mentioned in January, several factors are fueling the increase in shipments this year, mainly a record number of new people entering the RV market. This is due to the realization that the RV lifestyle is a safe way to travel (post covid). In addition, more folks are working and attending school remotely which opens up more opportunities to work or attend school on the road.

Although you will hear the RV industry complaining about a shortage of parts due to covid or the “Texas Freeze”, the numbers just don’t bear that out. It is more likely that the increased sales numbers are causing the overall shortage of parts. Let’s face it though, how much of a shortage exists if shipments are up over 30%.

Let’s take a quick look at Februarys Towable Shipments:

Travel Trailers a 38.1% Increase

February of 2020 – 25,161

February of 2121 – 34,741

Fifth Wheels a 11.1% Increase

February of 2020 – 7,076

February of 2021 – 7,858

Folding Camping Trailers a 2.9% Increase

February of 2020 – 613

February of 2021 – 631

Truck Campers -21% (the only Category that showed a loss).

February of 2020 – 319

February of 2021 – 252

The net increase across all towables is an increase of 31.1% over February of 2020. This is the best February on record. Of course as I have said before, it’s great for the RV manufacturers but that doesn’t mean its great for the consumer. Someone shopping for an RV right now should at the very least consider and independent inspection on any rig they are interested in purchasing. If you look on-line right now (and we are only in April) there are numerous horror stories around brand new rigs being delivered with leaks, electrical issues, and more. One RV manufacturers Rep allegedly told a new buyer that they were turning new units out so fast that they were relying on the dealers to find and fix their mistakes. That is totally unacceptable – if true.

My current travel trailer was manufactured during 2017, which was another banner year. It had a number of recalls and there were things that should never have passed the Pre-delivery Inspection. It also had a roof that was not correctly applied, which has now become part of a larger story that is ongoing.

Tammy and I love our Imagine and we have made many upgrades to it; so it is not going anywhere. It took us about two years to shake out all the problems. It has been trouble free since 2019 with the exception of the roof saga.

The moral of the story is that a high volume year MIGHT signify lower quality to the consumer. As of this writing on one job site alone , there are 613 open RV jobs in Indiana. That is a sign that the RV industry is struggling to fill open jobs yet putting out a record number of RVs. Should the buyer beware? In my opinion they should be.

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Folks that bought RVs in 2017 remember that was also a boom year. As a result quality took a back seat to production numbers. In January the shipments are up 40% over January of 2020. That should concern anyone thinking of buying a new unit.

There are only three things that can change production throughput:

1. Time (skip steps/work faster or longer to decrease shop to dealer time)
2. Money (add production lines to increase manufacturing output).
3. Add more people to the production line (to speed up each step).

My guess is #1 above is the “go to” plan in the RV industry. I hope this isn’t the case but everyday I read more and more posts of people having serious issues with their brand-new units. The manufacturer caused problems ranging from plumbing and electrical issues to roof membranes that they didn’t glue down. Unfortunately, in most of these cases there isn’t just one thing wrong with the unit, there’s a list of issues.

There was a time when competition really had an impact on this industry but I don’t see that being the case anymore.

Should you be concerned to buy a new unit? The answer is Yes! This type of increase in production is a cause for concern. In my opinion quality has been going downhill for quite a while. I wouldn’t consider buying a new unit without an independent inspection.

One thing that mystifies me with January’s numbers is that we keep hearing that the RV industry is being hampered by COVID related supply chain issues. Really? How is that possible if you just jumped 40% over last January’s numbers? I must be missing something.

Don’t get me wrong, I want the RV industry to do well. However, I don’t want their success to be at the expense of families that buy an inferior product. These units are not cheap; buyers expect to get a travel trailer that is not thrown together in haste. Buying a camper and then having it in the shop during camping season does nothing for that family. Long term it doesn’t help the RV industries reputation either.

It’s a sad state of affairs when a manufacturer is fine having new travel trailers with blatant issues fixed at dealerships after the sale. It’s what we used to call a “leave it for third shift” mentality. In other words “let someone else fix our mess”.

Please, if you are considering a new travel trailer get an independent inspection. The cost is more than reasonable for the service they provide. It may be the only way to insure you are not buying a project!

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The RV industry is now only down only .8% over 2019 for all “towable RV’s” and down 3.2% for all RV shipments which include all classes of Motorhomes. This is amazing given the two month shutdown for COVID19. The RV Manufacturing boom continues.

Only three months of manufacturing are remaining for 2020. There is little doubt now that the RV industry will exceed 2019’s numbers. Let’s take a quick look at the numbers for September.

Septembers Travel Trailer shipments (the most popular RV of choice) were up 38.7% over September 2019 numbers. September of 2019 = 21253 vs. 29476 for September of 2020. That is a 16 point gain over last month alone!

September’s Fifth Wheel shipments were up 20.4% over September of 2019. 2019 = 6282 vs 7564 for September of 2020.

Folding Campers shipments were up 123.3% over September of 2019. You read that correctly 123.3%. September 2019 shipments were 287 as compared to 641 for September of 2020. Again my opinion is that many families are starting our with Pop-Ups trailers to see if this is a lifestyle they would enjoy. The risk’s are somewhat minimal as you don’t have to invest in a heavy duty tow vehicle, or spend a fortune (although some of these folding campers are not what I would call inexpensive either).

There was even a rise on Truck Camper Shipments, up 17.5% over September of 2019. September 2019 shipments were 263 compared to 309 for September of 2020.

So what do the numbers tell us? Just like last month, People are still buying RVs and there is still a shortage. While Tammy and I have seen the parking lots at the dealerships starting to fill up a bit, they are far from reaching the inventory levels they had pre-covid. Sales are also being driven by the fact that folks have discovered it is a safe way to travel with the family or work remotely plus the interest rates on loans are at an all time low. As a result, manufacturing is off the charts!

The RVIA is very optimistic regarding the shipment numbers. As a matter of fact the RVIA predicts that by the end of the year not only will they have made up for the two month COVID shutdown but they will beat 2019s numbers by 4.5%.

They predict that 2020 will be the fourth best year on record for shipments. In addition they predict 2021 will be up 19.5% over 2020. If true those numbers would best 2017’s record year.

As I mentioned in last months update regarding the manufacturing numbers, this kind of manufacturing boom could also bring back the same quality issues that were apparent in 2017. So, it might be great for the RV industry but not necessarily great for the consumer.

In conclusion; the surge continues…even into next year from the looks of it. To see the Septembers numbers from the RVIA Click here.

Until next time, stay safe and happy camping

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While we were on our August trip in Wisconsin, I kept looking for the RVIA to publish the July numbers. When they finally arrived, I was not surprised.

July’s shipments were the highest in four decades for that month. Not only that, shipments were up an amazing 53% over July of 2019 (Pre-Covid19). Pretty amazing when you consider Junes 2020 numbers were up 10% over June of 2019. Now, total RV shipments have dropped only 10% compared to 2019. Last month, they fell 16.8% from 2019—a rebound of almost 7%. A couple more months of this kind of production and they will beat 2019’s numbers. That is amazing given the shutdown driven by Covid.

Fueling the RV numbers are all the new folks coming into the RV lifestyle. Dealers are reporting that 50 to 80 percent of the current buyers are new to the RV lifestyle. Ordinarily they would only make up 25 to 35% of the purchasing market.

In addition, there is the realization that camping is the safest way to travel right now. With a push for folks to work from home, don’t underestimate the number of folks that have taken to the road; they can work just as easily from their travel trailers.

As a result of all of this, there is a huge RV shortage. People are not trading right now, and people have huge waits for new orders. As a matter of fact, I received an email from a nearby dealer that wanted to buy my RV as they have nothing to sell. Obviously we are not thinking of selling our unit at all. So, if you are thinking of selling your unit, it is a sellers market.

The shortage is obvious; Tammy and I have noticed that two major RV dealers near us have almost empty lots. I’m actually not sure how they stay in business with so few units to deal with. My guess is that the units that are coming in are going out almost immediately.

So now that we have talked about the July shipments, lets dig a little deeper into the details. I will only be discussing towables in detail.

Travel Trailers led the shipment numbers with 30,268 units being shipped. Fifth Wheels were second with 8100 being shipped. Folding campers made up 531 units while truck campers made up 261 units. The result is a grand total of 39,160 towable units that were shipped in July. Ordinarily I would say “remember shipments don’t mean sales” but with the market today…who knows!

The balance of the RV Market (class A, B, and C motorhomes) only made up 3,875 units; but that was still up 27% from 2019’s number. So overall a really stellar month from a manufacturing standpoint.

What does the RVIA think about the upcoming months? RV Industry Association President Craig Kirby said this: “RVs have been the ideal way to travel this summer, providing the freedom and fun of RVing while also allowing people to control their environment. As we look towards fall, families and professionals who can work and learn from the road will continue to drive interest in RVing, Our manufacturers are working very closely with their dealer partners and component suppliers to meet the increased demand for RVs.”

I predict the August numbers will blow your socks off. As soon as the numbers are out, I will come back and let you know where the industry is at for the year.

If you want to read the report from the RVIA click here.

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