Electric World is Coming, Ladders are Going Away, a New RV Manufacturer, Labor Day Boom & More

nine national forests are set to close in the west due to wildfire concerns labor day weekend is shaping up to be busier than the 4th of july and memorial day at campgrounds no more ladders on most rvs due to a change in manufacturing standards a new rv manufacturer is coming to elkhart while one of the biggest makes solar packages standard and camping world is set to debut electric world in salt lake city along with big changes to its nationwide chain of retail stores it's time for the latest in rv and camping news did you miss me we took a week off of our news roundups last week as we were visiting the rv capital of the world elkhart indiana where eighty percent of all rvs are manufactured we picked up our new saber fifth wheel took several factory tours had lots of meetings and learned a thing or two to share with you the first being that the rv industry has learned from the parts and material shortages that have plagued manufacturing over the past year and a half most manufacturers i'm told keep parts in storage for about three model years so if you need a replacement you can give them a call and order a new trim piece or a sink throughout the pandemic they've had to cannibalize some of that supply but more importantly they want to be prepared for future supply chain interruptions most manufacturers i've talked to have plans to vastly increase their storage facilities in order to keep more parts supplies and components on hand heartland for example has a massive new warehouse to make sure things keep running when supply chain hiccups occur the second bit of info i want to share with you is about ladders don't expect to see them on many 2022 rvs and beyond rv manufacturers all adhere to a common construction standard and an update to the standard is requiring rv ladder connections to be tested to hold much more weight than before which would require re-engineering the rear walls of most rvs most manufacturers aren't going to find that expense worth it so you're going to see very few ladders going forward this episode is sponsored by the togo rv app and one of my favorite features of the app is the checklist made by professionals that you can edit yourself as we navigate through figuring out our first fifth wheel i can use the rv hitching checklist to help make sure to remember all the things i'm supposed to do and i can add my own steps so that i make sure to buckle down my tonneau cover for instance you can also start your own checklist from scratch the app is free but a 39 per year togo rv plus membership gives you rv specific route navigation the rvillage social network overnight rvparking.com and road trippers plus memberships along with a whole host of discounts on products like tires and lithium batteries you can get 10 off with the code rv miles 10x which i'll also put in the description below the story of the summer in much of the west right now isn't the once in a lifetime pandemic it's the once in a lifetime drought for the first time ever the federal government has declared a water shortage on the colorado river forcing cutbacks to water allocations in western states that will begin in the next several months a quarter of the counties in western states are experiencing what's called exceptional drought it's the actual technical term for it according to the national drought mitigation center along with some of the central plain states private wells are running dry in some california areas and campgrounds aren't immune the dry conditions are a major cause of the massive wildfires that are plaguing california this year and other states and now the u.s forest service has announced that beginning sunday it will close nine national forests from near lake tahoe at the nevada border all the way west to six rivers national forest which stretches north to the oregon border and contains more than one million acres of land all by itself the eldorado national forest already had been closed because of the caldor fire which raised the sierra nevada town of grizzly flats this week it's burned well over 100 square miles of land and is entirely uncontained after growing tenfold in two days it continues to be a record-breaking camping season across the country and it's far from over koa's monthly research report says that 28.46 million households across north america plan to camp over the labor day holiday weekend which is a 60 percent increase over memorial day weekend and 44 more than independence day about one-fourth will camp over the long weekend only one in five plan to add one or two additional days around the holiday and 12 percent plan to camp the entire week the busy season has brought lots of changes to national parks that we've talked about over the course of the last several months and a new change at zion will have hikers planning to take the popular angels landing trail getting a timed permit beginning in january angel's landing will have a lottery system similar to yosemite's half dome the park estimates that during the peak season up to 2000 hikers per day take the hike there's little room at the top and hikers going up and down must navigate the same chains and steep drops passing around each other 13 people have died on angel's landing since the turn of the century across the national park service's 400 plus facilities visitors will now see signs prompting them to don masks once again as the delta variant of covet 19 spreads the agency is requiring that visitors wear masks in all buildings and outdoor areas that are busy rv manufacturers are keenly aware of the changes to the way people camp that have been brought about by the pandemic this first showed itself with last year's model change that offered many different office workspace floor plans and flex rooms there's much more of that coming but this year we're seeing more of a focus on boondocking as customers demand more ability to get away from the busy commercial campgrounds keystone one of the largest travel trailer and fifth wheel manufacturers has announced that every single unit it sells including entry-level budget models will come stock from the factory with at least 200 watts of solar plenty of manufacturers offer solar but this is a well thought out manufacturing focus that will allow owners to expand their solar package up to 1200 watts of solar and over a thousand amp hours of lithium batteries parts that keystone dealers can stock and install speaking of electric camping world is set to preview its new electric world concept store in salt lake city september 15th no word on what the heck will be there but the company was supposed to be working on an electric motor home with lordstown motors and becoming a service center for lordstown trucks but those companies have put those plans on hold while lordstown works to get its trucks ready for market that had me assuming that the previously announced electric world wouldn't be happening anytime soon but it is we'll see what camping world ceo marcus lemonis has up his sleeve in a few weeks camping world separately announced a new focus for its retail locations home on wheels improvement camping world tested design diy and renovation centers at seven locations earlier this year and based on the results they're expanding the concept nationwide camping world stores will be removing low performing items from their shelves to make way for rv bath and kitchen fixtures flooring furniture mattresses cabinets countertops lighting bedding appliances and more also in case you care marcus lemonis has bought the let's make a deal franchise an interesting bit of information i thought a lot of you might like to hear a new rv manufacturer is set to begin production in elkhart this fall ember recreational vehicles is founded by ashley bontrager lehman whose grandparents were the founders of jayco we shared the news of ember earlier this year and in the meantime the company has been operating out of an 18 000 square foot warehouse to build prototypes by the end of september though they'll have opened a 4 million 88 000 square foot facility on 15 acres in bristol indiana i suspect this isn't the only new rv manufacturer we'll be hearing about by year's end finally it's not often that we get to praise road construction but a minor miracle was just performed on i-70 near glenwood springs in colorado back on july 29 unprecedented monsoonal rains showered between 2-4 inches in about an hour throughout glenwood canyon causing substantial debris flows that washed out the highway a surge of heavy mud rock and loose earth trapped more than 100 motorists more rain and mudslides followed the significance of the damage cannot be overstated but after round-the-clock work days c-dot crews successfully reopened i-70 in just 16 days it's one lane only each way with a 35 mile per hour speed limit but still it's a major win for the region which saw a 50 percent decrease in lodging reservations and was cut off from deliveries of supplies like fuel for gas stations and food for restaurants and grocery stores grateful residents even posted thank you signs for workers the stretch of highway is said to need 50 million dollars of repairs and upgrades and work will continue through thanksgiving that's it for this week's rv and camping news please hit the subscribe button if you want more of these and remember likes are free and they help a lot here's last week's news video if you missed it and here's a great video that you haven't checked out yet the continuing and growing municipal pushback on development of new campgrounds is unsettling the rv industry needs to step up its lobbying game thanks a lot will and i can't agree more the rv industry needs to get more involved in getting some of these campgrounds approved we'll see you next time

Channel: RV Miles

Views: 129,681

Rating: 4.9413738 out of 5

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Id: XXtEKg4PGRs

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 22 2021