Last November, we told you the RV industry was tanking. Back then, Winnebago put a happy face on looming disaster, saying "we still have the demographic wind at our back." Fast forward four months and Winnebago's hanging on by the skin of its Vista. The Wall Street Journal reports that two smaller RV manufacturers have gone Tango Uniform; the big boys are in big trouble. "Coachmen Industries Inc., whose sales have declined 40% over the past three years, is borrowing against the value of life-insurance policies it holds on employees and retirees." Unlike GM's purchase of it's H.Q., "Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., which has posted five straight years of losses, recently sold its Riverside, Calif., headquarters and is seeking buyers for other properties, in an effort to raise $100 million to finance a looming bond redemption." The industry's set to take another hit, thanks to 145k trailers and mobile homes purchased by the U.S. government before and after Hurricane Katrina (shelling-out $2.7b in no-bid contracts, no less). Now known as Toxic Trailers— thanks to their high formaldehyde levels– the products are sure to inspire a class action lawsuit that could be a knockout blow both financially and PR-wise for the whole RV industry.
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I do a lot of cycling, and I remember a couple of years ago being surprised by the few pop-up campers I would see. In McMansion-land there would be huge RVs every second or third house but not a pop-up camper in sight. Not anymore. I am seeing a lot more these days.
My wife and I got out of our collector car last year (finally selling it) and bought a new pop-up with cash last year, with the attitude that we actually want to keep our standard of living within our income.
Yeah, I know, we’re weird. But I think a lot of Americans are going to start getting weird over the next decade or two.
My ulterior motive was that I was sick of sleeping on the ground/air mattress on the ground, inside a **** tent!
But yeah, the RV industry has pretty much been the canary in the coal mine for the US economy since the 1960’s.
The last time the RV industry tanked, it tanked for about two decades (post-1973 fuel crisis).
A cousin of mine just drove back to Michigan from Arizona with a 5th wheel trailer (which goes on the back of a pickup truck) and it set them back a THOUSAND DOLLARS one way.
Well look at the bright side: At least we won’t get stuck behind one of these things driven by some senior citizen weaving in and out of one and a half lanes as much.
Pop ups and small trailers are great…and can be pulled with a decent-sized sedan, minivan, or unibody SUV.
The demise of the RV is due to the market demand dwindling, I just don’t see how some of the RV dealers turn those things over, probably have 2-3 year old models sitting on their lots. These are the same market that grew up demanding the large American vehicles in the 50s and 60s, or at least drove the market for vehicles to get larger and become more adorned with chrome. This is the same market that grew up with new interstates and taking that road trip in a living room.
Now I love traveling and road trips, but there isn’t much to see at 80mph across the western deserts and mountains.
Plus, you have to consider the fuel, the storage, the lack of driveability on tight scenic roads, the lack of mobility or having to tow a car. I’d rather tow a trailer, or get a spacious wagon and stay in some nice B&Bs and enjoy being OFF the interstate.
Give me one of those smaller tear-drop shaped trailers and I’ll pull it with the Mazda 3 wagon, not a bad combo when I stay off the interstates.
That was part of GW’s NTLB (No Trailer Left Behind) act. You know the biggest solution to classroom overcrowding was to hook up a trailer behind the school. That Katrina thing that GW’s best friend Brownie did a “hek uv a job” on by ignoring and hiding from Katrina aftermath. Solution appease them with double wides full of formaldehyde so when they die from the fumes they are already preserved.
There’s a very good episode of caravanning on Top Gear – including a staged fire. Something to check out how much motorists hate caravans pulled by small cars that don’t move over to let faster traffic by.
The toxic trailer story is nothing but another welfare queen grab for free rides at taxpayers expense.
I have lived in RV’s every winter for quite a few years now.
When they are new they smell like new cars and you have to leave the windows open for a while.
Hey, if the prices fall enough I like to upgrade to the 500 horse CAT.
Even with 4$ diesel it’s cheaper then heating and a lot more fun.
Fuel cost has to be a major component here. At one point in time it was probably cheaper to travel by RV, however, hotels are more competitive in price currently.
Hippo, you hit the nail squarely on the head. Come the take-back of our nation, I think the lawyers/liars/politicians are going to be swinging (and I don’t mean in the ’60’s way). That is if there is a nation to take-back.
Got this in an email. Worth contemplating.
Marquette, Michigan – THINK ABOUT THIS FOR A MOMENT
This text is from a county emergency manager out in the western part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan after a snow storm last winter.
WEATHER BULLETIN
Up here in the Northern part of Michigan we just recovered from a Historic event— may I even say a ‘Weather Event’ of ‘Biblical Proportions’ — with a historic blizzard of up to 44 inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10’s of thousands.
FYI:
George Bush did not come.
FEMA did nothing.
No one howled for the government.
No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV.
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
Our Mayors did not blame Bush or anyone else.
Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else either
CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit – or report on this category 5 snow storm
Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
No one looted.
Nobody – I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything either.
No Larry King, No Bill O’Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.
No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.
Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV’s to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn’t ask for a penny
Local restaurants made food, and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snow bound families.
Families took in the stranded people – total strangers.
We Fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is ‘Work or Die’.
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for ‘sittin at home’ checks.
Even though a Category ‘5’ blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.
‘In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world’s social problems evaporate.’
It does seem that way, at least to me.
I hope this gets passed on.
Maybe .. SOME people will get the message .. The world does Not owe you a living.
Agree that we’ll see an uptick on pop-up purchases. Besides, I never though owning a 42 foot land yacht was ever really considered “camping.” I recall the first time I took our Starcraft pop-up out. We were all excited, got to the camp ground, set it up, pulled the awning out, set chairs down and though we were livin’ large. That is until Mr. “retired auto exec” pulled up in his luxo-barge. Without even getting out, he was able to set the levels, roll the awning and slide out the living area and bedroom. I felt so tiny next to that. And yet, there is a certain romantacism with the venerable pop-up. You’re not totally removed from the environment. I can still hear the rain, and I don’t have a La-z-boy lounger sitting in front of a 40″ wide screen tv. Perhaps the rise in fuel prices may signal a shift in our perceptions and actions and return us to a little less complex and needful time. Or am I just sniffing the fumes from the Winnebago next to me??
Maybe the teardrop trailers of the 1930 are going to make a big comeback. I understand that small car-tow-able camping trailers have never gone out of style in Europe.
Check out this modern version: http://www.teardropp.com/
Menno wrote:
‘In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world’s social problems evaporate.
That might have something to do with 90% of the population also disappearing.
How many major urban centers are that far north?
Vancouver, B.C. is one…and they have problems with crime, drugs, traffic, etc. like any major American city. I went there for my honeymoon 10+ years ago and was amused that the city newspaper ran stories that could easily have been plucked from the SF Chronicle.
menno wrote:
Maybe .. SOME people will get the message .. The world does Not owe you a living.
Perhaps not. But perhaps when the government says “Live here, these levees will keep out the lake water”, it owes the taxpayers who paid for those levees ones that actually keep out the lake water.
Similarly, if the government says “Here are some trailers in which you can live”, it owes the taxpayers who paid for those trailers ones that don’t poison the people living in them
menno wrote:
We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is ‘Work or Die’.
Perhaps if the local residents in New Orleans were hired to do the reconstruction work, instead of companies bringing in illegal immigrants and then stiffing them for their pay
.
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/64/22426
.
there would be fewer social problems in the area.
“There is always an easy solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.” – H.L. Mencken
Actually, they make excellent guest quarters for your house, if you have more driveway than bedrooms and bathrooms. All the time I see RV’s that never leave the driveway that I can tell have someone living in them. Perhaps a parent, or a teenager, or a bum brother-in-law? Just cause you buy one doesn’t mean you have to drive it.
^^
That’s how you use them after a few trips around the country.
At home you use them as guest quarters and in winter you drive to TX, AZ or Mexico and have a little apartment with all the conveniences and communication that can be used as a base for free.
Then you take the bike and a tent or rent a jeep or something and go for camping trips.
They also come in real handy if for whatever reason one needs to be completely self sufficient and off grid for a few weeks.
Good counerpoints, Eric. I just posted it; I didn’t actually write it.
But one of the points that I’m sure you’d agree with is that there are a number of folks (no matter where you live) who simply can’t be bothered to do an honest day’s work and yet seem “smart enough” to always find the way to milk the system and get the rest of us to pay their way through life. And lawyers to help enrich them (a tiny bit) and themselves (a lot).
A certain Mr. Desrali, about 130 years ago (when running for Prime Minister of Great Britain) who said “first, we shoot all the lawyers” – he did get elected, then like most policitians, didn’t keep his campaign promises!
Yes, certainly, if folks have been TRULY poisoned by formaldahyde they should have compensation. Isn’t it fascinating and interesting, though, that literally millions of these single wide trailers are built and sold every year with no ill effects? Not to mention double wides, and RV’s.
As for the writer’s comments about 90% of the problems seem to disappear up north, I’m sure he was actually taking population into account. My impression from living in the north is that in bigger, anonymous places, people try to scam the system more, and in smaller towns and especially villages and close knit rural communities, people more naturally help one another out and simply get on with life AND WORK.
Plus, when you live in an area where one wrong turn in the winter time can lead to your dying, and everyone knows it, people tend to look out for one another a bit more and think of it as normal.