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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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. They lost 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.

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For July of 2023 the total RV shipments were 20,520 units, that is a decrease of 30.5% overall when compared to July of 2022. Year to date, RV shipments (185,350) are down about 48% when compared to this point in 2022 (354,093). That is a huge drop!

Contrast those numbers to the RVIA’s prediction that 2023 would finish north of 400,000 units. In my opinion, that would take some sort of divine intervention.

Let’s look briefly, just at the towable market for July shipments:

Travel trailer manufacturers shipped 13,293 units, marking a 30.8% decline from last July.

Manufacturers shipped only 3,987 fifth wheels, a 20.3% decline compared to last July.”

“Pop-up camper manufacturers shipped just 161 units, a 69.6% drop from last July.”

“Truck camper manufacturers shipped only 257 units, marking a 48.5% decrease compared to last July.”

To see the July shipment report at RVIA, click here.

So as you can see the RV industry is a good reflection of what is happening in this economy. High fuel costs along with high inflation rates, and high interest rates are having an impact. At least 700 workers in Indiana’s RV manufacturing are going to lose their jobs.

Complicating new sales is the huge inventory of used units entering the marketplace.

Also possibly impacting the numbers is the reputation that the RV industry is building and it is not a good one. Quality complaints are rampant. This has been an ongoing issue for a long time. The RVIA is fighting to make sure that the RV industry is status quo. That is why they lobby against lemon laws for RVs. Take a look at this video highlighting that fact from RV Travel.

Let’s face it: RV manufacturers follow construction standards that fall far short of the codes required to plumb and wire a house. That gap in standards has put the industry in its current mess of quality complaints. Just look at the flexible tubing manufacturers use for plumbing. It often connects to pex fittings which is a leak waiting to happen. This would never pass code in a residential construction.

So if you own a travel trailer, you should be handy…or know someone who is! Things will break! In addition, you will need to do regular maintenance.

Let’s see how this year progresses for the RV industry. In the meantime, if you plan on buying a travel trailer, new or used, get an independent inspection. If you have a travel trailer, do your maintenance and get out there and camp!

Happy Camping!

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The first time that the RV industry exceeded 500,000 units in a given year was 2017. As a matter of fact our current Imagine Travel Trailer was made in February of that year.

Producing half a million trailers comes at a cost, and many people who bought trailers in 2017 found their quality disappointing. Some of this may have been due to a ramp up period, where quantity was more important than quality. The factory should have caught many of the issues on our Trailer at the factory. That said, we bought a trailer that had fewer flaws than what some others experienced. I am not excusing the RV industry for the quality issues, they alone are responsible for their product. Click here to read my opinion on the RV industry’s decline in quality.

2018 came and shipments declined by a little over 4%. The projection was that the industry would have the same or slightly less shipments in 2019. In fact, in 2019, the shipment numbers were down about 16% from the 2018 numbers. Then Covid came. By October of 2020, sales were climbing so fast that October became the largest shipments month on record. November of 2020 shipments were 46.3% higher than the previous November. Overall, manufacturers shipped 3% more RVs in 2020, even though the industry shut down for two months to deal with the pandemic. By the end of 2020, shipments were up 16% over 2019. November and December of 2020 were also record shipment months.

In 2021, the RV market exploded, and manufacturers shipped 600,240 units. While Shipments are not the same as “Sales”, one only had to drive by an RV Dealership to see the lots were empty. There was a shortage of new and used RVs, and both were selling at high prices. With folks working from home and children connecting remotely to school, a new opportunity arose for families to travel while working and learning from the road.

In 2022 we started seeing a cooling off of the market, but it was still the third best year on record. The projection for 2023 will be slightly north of 400,000 units.

Having followed this industry for many years, I can tell you with great certainty that record shipments are only good for the RV manufacturers. Many folks can attest to the fact that they are happy they didn’t buy a “Covid Trailer” (A travel trailer manufactured during the pandemic). The quality complaints were overwhelming during this period. Several factors caused this, but manufacturers could have prevented the problems. Instead, they shipped travel trailers incomplete or with substitute amenities due to parts shortages. Keep in mind the RV manufacturers had no control over the parts shortages.

To be fair, we saw some of this happening in the automobile/truck industry at the same time.

Meanwhile, dealers scrambled to handle warranty repairs they weren’t equipped for. Manufacturers and dealerships couldn’t find enough workers, which only made the situation worse. Everyone ended up sharing the nightmare.

As I have said many times a great customer service from a manufacturer is nice, but no one looks forward to dealing with warranty issues or having their travel trailer in the shop while their warranty and vacation time evaporates.

So where are we today? The RVIA projects a 21% decline over last years numbers for 2023. They refer to this as normalizing to pre-pandemic shipment levels. The RVIA President, Craig Kirby, went on to say “RV shipments are expected to continue to retreat through the first half of 2023 due to economic headwinds to consumer finances stemming from inflation, financial market weakness, and higher interest rates. The industry will begin to recover in the latter half of 2023 with shipments expected to trend upward”.

I do agree with what Mr. Kirby said regarding the economic problems facing the industry. Those factors are affecting all of us, not just the RV industry.

In a nutshell, the RV March shipments were down 50.8% over the previous March of 2022. So the anticipated slide continues. However, don’t expect that a move downwards in production means an increase in quality – I don’t think those two things will go hand-in-hand. Like most of you, I know travel trailers and all RVs could be made better. It is frustrating to watch the complaints about brand new units on-line.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not here to bash the RV industry. I still think there is no better way to see the country, than in a travel trailer. I would just like to see us return to a time when the quality was much better.

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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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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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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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First let’s just start with the June Shipments. Remember that shipments do not equal sales, but are a very good indicator of how the market is doing.

June 2020 Shipments of Travel Trailers were 28,340 as compared to June of 2019 (pre-covid) of 25,559. That is an increase of 10.9%.

June 2020 Shipments of 5th wheels were 8,125 as compared to 6,818 in 2019; an increase of 19.2%

Folding trailers were 636 vs 463 in 2019, an increase of 37.4%. Even truck campers were up, 338 vs. 331 in 2019, a 2.1% increase.

These are very good numbers for the RV industry. Especially given that due to the pandemic they are down roughly 26,000 units YTD or -16.8%.

I’m not going to talk at length about the Motorhome market. I really only concern myself with the towable market. However, the Motorhome market is down 38% across all types except Van Campers which are up. My thought at first glance is that the economy is still not in a position where folks are ready to drop that kind of money on large motor homes.

Now a very interesting side note as it relates to the current sales. 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. That is a huge increase, and I think its fueled by a number of things.

1. The increase may prove that people have finally discovered that RVing is a safer way to spend time with their families during the pandemic. Many families probably do not feel safe going to hotels, amusement parks, etc.
2. The increase of 37.4% in folding campers probably supports the reported increase in new comers to the RV market, why? What better way to try out RVing than starting with a pop-up camper; and not having to worry about spending money to upgrade a tow vehicle.
3. The workforce being encouraged to work remotely and with schools moving, at least for the current time, to virtual classrooms; why not do it on the road where you can combine work and leisure?
4. The fact that trade-ins are down reflects the fact that folks are not trading up. Perhaps due to the fact that there is a shortage.

RV Shipments are up and one has to wonder what the second half of 2020 will be like for the RV industry. Perhaps, if the supply chain can support it, they will overcome the current shortfall in shipments for the year. Either way, my guess is that the 2021 year will be equal to if not greater than 2017 as more people retreat to the safe lifestyle of Camping.

It may also be a stressful time for campgrounds as a new surge of campers fight for a space to set up their rig. If you were thinking of building a campground, this might be the right time!

If you would like to look at the number of shipments reported for June by the RVIA click here.

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