More than 110 people representing many facets of the RV industry gathered beginning Aug. 13 at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort in Cedar Creek, Texas, for the Texas RV Association (TRVA) annual convention.
Themed “The Next Big Thing,” the event marked TRVA’s 47th anniversary. The event kicked off with a welcome reception Friday night followed by events Saturday. An informal sponsor appreciation gathering Saturday night included several fundraisers to support TRVA’s legislative agenda.
“Sponsors are our partners in business. Without them, we could not do what we do as dealers,” said United RV’s Kevin White, the TRVA president. “It is nice to be in the room with so many different business partners.”
Convention Recap
The convention’s business portion began Sunday with a presentation by Scott Stropkai, president of Statistical Surveys Inc. Stropkai reported that Texas led the states in RV sales for the 10th consecutive year. The state sold more than twice as many new RVs in 2020 as it did before the Great Recession in 2007.
Texas leads the nation in every RV category except fifth wheels, Stropkai said, adding that sales are up 38% in Texas compared to 36.6% nationwide.
“2020 was the greatest year ever for the RV industry and 2021 should close with similar results,” he said. “The RV industry is absolutely booming.”
Motorhomes account for about 10% of RV sales, which Stropkai said is down from the longtime 20% standard.
“A lot of hard work has been put in by dealers, manufacturers and suppliers in Texas and it shows in the statistics,” Stropkai said. “Towable numbers are through the roof and there are more motorized sales in Texas than statistics show because a lot of those dealers sell units to customers who register them in other states.”
New RV sales are dwarfed by used RV sales, Stropkai said. “There were 780,000 used RVs sold last year and we are creeping up on 800,000 for 2021. In fact, there were 470,000 used RVs sold from January to June.”
National Updates
The TRVA convention was the first in-person RV-related gathering of any size since the COVID situation began, said Phil Ingrassia, RVDA president.
According to RVDA’s Dealer Sentiment Index, several big problems plague the industry today, including:
- Inability to get inventory, especially towables
- Parts availability due to disruptions in the supply chain
- Reducing repair event cycle time
- Product quality needs to improve
- Working to make the warranty reimbursement process smoother
“The warranty process remains a real pain point for RV dealers,” Ingrassia said. “We are looking into how we can work with OEMs and suppliers to make the process smoother and improve the timeline of approvals. We are seeing some progress, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
To address issues, RVDA wants to identify the 100 most commonly used parts dealers stock and encourage RV manufacturers to consolidate parts used to assemble RVs.
“Why do we need 700 different types of windows in the RV business?” he said. “We hope to see manufacturers thinking about that when designing new units and to use a family of available parts.”
Jay Landers, RVIA vice president of government affairs, briefed participants on RV industry legislative efforts. He commended the work of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable for its effort to attract federal lawmakers’ attention.
“The outdoor industry generated $788 billion annually – 2.1% of the nation’s gross domestic product in 2019. It is larger than all of agriculture,” Landers said. “The outdoor recreation industry creates 5.2 million jobs.”
Work is proceeding slowly to get Congress to fix a four-year-old unintended problem that allows RV dealers to deduct 100 percent of interest for towable floorplans, but only 30 percent for towable units, Landers said. He cautioned it could take months, if not a year, for Washington to fix problems with supply chain shortages caused by fewer workers being available to process containers at shipyards and ports.
Other presentations included a session by Wayne Walker and Natalie Graham from Branding Plus Marketing. The pair explained how cord-cutting is affecting traditional TV marketing.
Amanda Rawls, south central district manager for KPA, discussed how RV dealerships could prepare for an Occupational Safety and Health Administration audit.
The event finished with the president’s dinner Aug. 15, where three Champions Awards were presented, and the annual membership meeting Aug. 16.
At the membership meeting, TRVA announced membership increased by two companies in 2020, bringing the total to 165 firms representing various RV segments. The board approved nine new members during the meeting.
Legislative liaison Mark Borskey reported on the “weird” legislative session that included two special sessions already with hints a third will be called this year. Bill Koster, the board’s insurance representative, encouraged dealers to sell warranties especially to first-time RV owners who may quickly become discouraged if they have to shell out a lot of money to fix an RV they have not had much opportunity to use.
