RV Industry slump

[Dave e Victoria]

The latest issue of Slate has a short article on the RV industry slump.

http://www.slate.com/id/2191492/

The story parallels what is being said in other topics around the campfire.

Dave

[Hemlockusa]

I think by the end of the year, Dec Jan, there are going to be a lot of bargains to be had. It's really sad the amount of folk's loosing their jobs and good businesses going under. IT IS SAD.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

It's a fact that all RV sales are in a bit of a slump but it's actually the Class As and Class Cs that are feeling the biggest hit. The Towables are down but nothing comapred to the MHs.
Back when I first considered fulltime RVing as a lifestyle I was, like most newbies, wondering which way to go. Do I get a TT, a 5er or a MH. I reserached every type and quickly dropped the TT from my consideration. But that still left the 5er and the MH. Through many hours of reading every RV forum I could find I still didn't have a difinitive answer. Than I discovered the MOC forum and quickly joined. It was just a short time later when I had made up my mind. NO MH for us. It was going to be a 5er for sure but not necessarily a Montana. Our first thoughts were to get a Cougar but after even more research we ended up with a 2004 2955RL Montana 5er and we haven't looked back.
As a full timer there were way to many Pros to owning a 5th wheel and far to many Cons to owning a MH. Today with fuel prices being what they are I know we made the right choice.
Take a close look at Fleetwood, Coachmen, and Winnebago. All 3 are big in the MH sector of RV's. Being that Keystone RV is strictly Towables, I would like to see just what their sales numbers are like. I'd be willing to bet they are not down near as much as the 3 mfgs mentioned.

[SlickWillie]

Seems I read where Thor Industries RV sales were down 12% for the first quarter of 08. Of course that covers several brands they build. I never did find a break down by brand. Hopefully Keystone will not be one of the brands to go by the wayside. I sure would hate to own a product that's manufacturer is out of business.

As far as the Motor Homes go, I talked to a fellow yesterday that was telling me about another Winter Texan that couldn't afford fuel to go home. So sad that folks worked all the years to be able to travel and fuel costs disrupts their life.

[Dave e Victoria]

Glenn, as I mentioned in another post, the big driver in the RV downturn is the housing market. People planning to retire have traditionally used the home equity to finance RV purchases. Having less equity, in many cases, means going a less expensive route -ergo 5ver or class C vs Class A. Thor industries is much more into towables than MH's. As Will said, Thor sales are down 12% but that compares to 35 to 50% for others such as Alpha, Fleetwood and Monaco. Fuel cost is sort of nailing the lid to the coffin and us old farts truly understand that metaphor.
Dave

[Glenn and Lorraine]

In Florida there maybe a slight up surge in TT sales. The folks down there in stick homes have discovered they can buy a TT. Put it in an RV park for around $300 plus electric a month. A lot cheaper than renting or buying, maintaining, insuring, taxes, etc for a stick house. Most RV parks have all the immenties.. swimming pools, recreation halls, lawn mowing, security, etc.