began booming.

Once considered a pretty dowdy way to travel.

RVs have benefited from slick industry ad campaigns, relatively

low gas prices, and a renewed interest among Americans of all

ages including retiring boomers and younger RVers lured by a

chance to live the so-called van life.

Sales began to drop in 2018, but the latest boon to the business

might be the coronavirus pandemic.

So it's a common thing that we've been hearing from our dealers,

from customers, friends of mine, the same way that maybe never

considered the lifestyle, but they needed a place to get from

point A to point B and an RV truly is the safest way to do it.

We've been wanting to buy a camper for a while now, and we knew

that if we got a camper or the sooner we got a camper the more

we would go camping, just in general.

And so this gave us the nudge to do that.

RV companies such as Winnebago and Thor Industries have seen

revenues soar over the last decade.

RV sales grew from 2010 to 2017 in most years by double digits

annually. The new boost from the pandemic could fuel growth for

months if not years to come.

But it also risks straining the industry's capabilities.

Some longtime RVers and industry watchers say the RV industry's

rapid growth has come with its share of pains.

Some say they are seeing reports of quality issues with RVs

bought in the last several years.

They attribute it to the boom in production and intense price

competition among manufacturers looking to lure new customers.

Surging demand has strained the supply chain and production

capacity of the RV industry's heartland.

Elkhart, Indiana, where the vast majority of RVs are made.

Data indicate first time buyers are pouring into dealerships and

shows looking for their own happy home on the road.

This is a promising sign for a business built around a lifestyle

even RVers admit was once seen as deeply uncool.

But long timers say new customers need to do their research

before signing and understand what the RV life is really about.

It can be wonderful, but people need to do their homework first

just to make sure it's a dream come true rather than a

nightmare.

A recreational vehicle, broadly speaking, is one that has spaces

and features that enable people to essentially live in it

comfortably, at least for a time.

There are many types that fall under this banner.

The two main categories are towables and motorhomes, which each

break down further into different subcategories, such as camper

vans, fifth wheels and so on.

Vehicles in these different segments range in size, the

amenities they offer, and in their sticker prices, which can run

from thousands of dollars to more than a million.

Towables which are hitched to the back of cars or trucks, make

up 90% of the market, according to the RV Industry Association.

Motorized versions make up the other 10%.

Towables allow consumers to get in at a lower price point because

you're not paying for the engine in the automotive portion.

So as long as you've got a vehicle that can tow it, it allows

people to get in and a little more affordably way.

As the industry has grown, RVs have become larger and more

sophisticated with features that ever more closely resemble

those found in an ordinary home.

The RV industry is as old as the automotive industry itself.

Historians place its birth in the year 1910, just about seven

years after the Ford Motor Company was established.

1910 was the year the first motorized campers were made.

Up to that point, people who wanted to sleep comfortably on

wheels had to resort to outfitted railway cars.

Most of these early designs were pretty simple, and they were

devoid of many of the conveniences found in contemporary RVs,

such as fully functional kitchens and bathrooms.

Yet these new campers found a market among Americans eager for a

new tool to help with comfortable travel.

A culture of tin can tourists began to sprout in America in the

1920s. By the 1930s, RVs included beds, dining tables, water

and electricity. Progress continued into the 1950s and 1960s,

around the time many of the current RV manufacturers were

founded. RVs became an established American cultural phenomenon

by the latter 20th century.

Despite this, they were for a long time considered, well, not

really hip. People thought that RVing was young people thought

it was very corny and just for retired people.

And of course, that's change now in the last few years.

As the U.S. economy recovered from the recession, spurred by the

financial crisis of 2008, the RV industry saw several years of

impressive growth. Sales of the iconic brand Winnebago grew from

$449.5 million in 2010 to around $2

billion in 2019.

Sales of market leader Thor Industries, which owns the also

iconic Airstream brand, grew from $2.3 billion in 2010 to

around $8 billion dollars in 2018 and 2019.

Part of what fueled this is a dramatic spike in interest among

members of very different generations, say industry analysts.

So-called baby boomers are retiring and looking to spend more

time traveling. These customers fit industry analyst Chuck

Woodbury characterization of road going grandparents eager to

enjoy their golden years.

But there has also been a sharp rise in younger buyers, fueled

by what some call the van life trend.

Van life is often rendered with a hashtag signifying the role

social media has played in the movement.

A fair number of younger buyers see an RVs and converted vans

the promise of a life of greater freedom and simpler living.

Others are just looking to get away from home for a bit.

There really is a large resurgence in wanting to get back out in

nature. Everybody realizes it's good for the soul as well as for

the physical body, and the RVs allow you to get there, set up a

base camp, do what you enjoy doing, hang out with friends, hang

out with other families, and get that break away before you

return to those very active lifestyles that pretty much all of

us have today. We love the camping lifestyle.

We both grew up camping.

We love-there's so many, like family values that go behind

camping between, you know, teamwork and organizational skills,

and enjoying the great outdoors.

And so we really wanted to still have that element of camping

and instill those values in our kids.

There is an important point to make here.

Many of the people living the so-called van life do not buy

ready made RVs.

Instead, they often buy conventional transit or cargo vans.

The Mercedes Sprinter and Ford Transit lines are popular

choices. These vans are then converted either by the owners

themselves or by shops that specialize in van conversions.

This is often a lot cheaper than buying a ready made camper van.

Like conventional RVs these can range from these simple and

spartan to the luxurious.

Perhaps the most famous camper van of all time is the Volkswagen

bus, formerly known as the Type Two which became a symbol of the

counterculture and at home on the road for a generation of

hippies. The camper version of the Type Two was called the

Westfalia, named for the company that converted the van for

camping. Volkswagen has been making camper vans since the

original VW bus era.

Among others, there was the Vanagon, the Eurovan, and the

California camper, which, despite the name, is not sold in

California or anywhere else in the United States.

VW has said it plans to revive the original VW bus concept as a

futuristic, fully electric van in 2022.

The major RV manufacturers also make their own camper vans,

often built off platforms such as the Mercedes Sprinter.

And the RV Industry Association says the average age of RV owners

has been dropping from the age of 48 in 2015 to 45 in 2017.

We see a lot of people that do the van life for a number of years

and then move into a little more traditional RV, even if it is

just the van camper or small, motorized or even a towable

product. That means the industry is connecting with younger

consumers and suggests more good years are ahead if those

customers keep coming back.

Many of these younger are RVers have jobs that allow them to work

remotely, widespread internet connectivity helps.

About 1 million to 1.5 million live in their RVs full time.

According to the RV Industry Association.

RVs have become so popular in fact that some people say RV parks

and campgrounds have become pretty crowded.

Stories abound of travelers struggling to find space to park

their vehicles. RV parks are not growing very fast and very

expensive. $20 to $25 thousand a space is where it costs

somebody to build an RV park when you figure all the hookups and

everything that goes into it.

So they're very expensive. It takes a long time to get that

money back. So there's not that many RV parks.

And yet you've got all these people that want to stay in them.

And then you've got the full timers that are staying in and

you've got the traveling nurses, the pipeline workers, all these

people. So where are these people going to stay?

Those in the industry say the explosive growth of RV sales has

exposed some other troubling phenomena.

The fact is RVs.

What you don't see, what you don't see beneath the surface, the

staples and the glue that's holding them together on the cheap

ones and the short cuts that people take.

Industry watchers such as Chuck Woodbury say they have heard

tales of RVs cheaply and hastily made.

I went out on a press trip once with a they gave us these bottom

line, RVs to use.

And I'm telling you, the bed was it was like a normal bed at

home but without the mattress, just the box springs.

I mean, it was awful. Critics attribute the troubles to the

dramatic spike in demand, and intense price competition among

the few manufacturers in the business.

Today's RV industry is heavily consolidated, a trend that

intensified during the financial crisis, when many smaller

makers were either gobbled up by larger competitors or simply

went out of business. Now, three makers control the vast

majority of market share, Winnebago Thor Industries, and Forest

River, which is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway

holding company. Thor Industries has about 48% of the market

alone, according to Jefferies analyst Bret Jordan.

Forest River has about 33% and Winnebago about 8%, with the

remaining 11% made up by smaller players.

83% of RVs are made in Indiana, mostly in Elkhart County, the

heart of the industry.

So the soaring demand has left what was once a small, very

regional industry, struggling at times to ramp up production

and to service vehicles in need of repairs.

RVs have also become a lot more complex.

It seems obvious to say it, but it is worth remembering that RVs

are more like houses than they are like cars.

They have bathrooms, sinks, refrigerators, complex lighting

systems and unique construction.

That means servicing one of these things requires a pretty wide

skillset, including a familiarity with automotive maintenance,

electricity, plumbing, and other things.

In 2018, the RV Industry Association invested $10 million in the

creation of the RV Technical Institute in Elkhart, Indiana.

The institute launched in the fall of 2019.

The goal is to create more trained technicians, help current

practitioners strengthen their skills, and reduce service wait

times for customers.

With respect to quality issues, the RVIA said it maintains teams

of employees that regularly make unannounced safety inspection

visits to RVI member factories, which comprise 98% of RV

manufacturers in the country.

A recent survey of owners by the RVIA showed that less than one

percent of them plan to stop RVing.

Thor industries in Winnebago were not available to comment on

this story.

In 2018 and 2019, RV shipments had shown signs of decline after

years of growth. But the onset of the global pandemic has

boosted consumer interest.

According to those in the industry, campgrounds and RV parks

have seen jumps in reservations.

On June 10th, KeyBank analyst Brett Andress said in a note that

RV demand has stabilized and has shown signs of accelerating.