Month: January 2014

U.S. consumer confidence has risen to its highest point since August on the strength of a brighter view of the job market and business conditions. The Associated Press reported that the Conference Board, a business research group, said its consumer confidence index rose to 80.7 in January from a December reading of 77.5. It was the second [...]

The jobless rate in Indiana’s Elkhart County, home to the RV industry’s manufacturing hub, continues to tumble. According to a report by the Elkhart Truth, the county’s jobless rate fell to 6.7% in December, its lowest level since June 2008, according to state figures released Tuesday, Jan. 28. The county’s 6.7% rate was down from 7.6% unemployment in [...]

The good news Idaho Parks Director Nancy Merrill had for lawmakers at the department’s budget hearing this morning: Idaho has sold more than 95,000 of its new parks passports in the first 12 months of sales, “bringing in over $1,077,000 – and that’s new money for the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation.” As reported [...]

Based on new figures on recreational vehicle sales in 2013, Florida RV dealers say attendance at the Jacksonville RV MegaShow next month could reach pre-recession levels of more than 12,000 over the four-day event. The Florida Times-Union reported that RV sales projections have held up, led by sales growth for towable RVs and pricier stand-alone [...]

RV Tech Tips, a new newsletter from RVtravel.com, will debut in late February. The twice monthly online publication will be edited by certified RV technician Chris Dougherty of Springfield, Mass. Dougherty is the editor of the blog RV Maintenance Tips and a frequent contributor to a number of consumer and trade websites and printed magazines. With the [...]

The board for the Southeast Area Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) decided Tuesday (Jan. 28) to move its annual winter rally from Florida’s Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport to the Sarasota County fairgrounds next year. As reported by the Tampa Bay Tribune, the organization’s president, Jim Duncan, said the decision to leave the airport site after [...]

(Jan. 28, 2014) -- We should be excited that an esteemed academic got his numbers wrong -- or did he? On March 8 of last year, the RV Industry Association submitted a press release in which its long-time researcher, Dr. Richard Curtin, with the University of Michigan, predicted that total RV shipments would rise to 307,300 units by year's end, an increase of 7.5 percent over 2012. A report issued yesterday showed the RV industry blew past Curtin's early prediction by an astonishing 14,000 units -- a 12.4 percent increase over 2012's totals.

(Jan. 28, 2014) -- “Our intellectual property is critical to fostering innovation, and is important to us as a company and to our customers,” said Tom Benson, president of TriMas’ Cequent Performance Products. “We take our IP protection seriously and do everything we can to defend it.”

(Jan. 28, 2014) -- In the heating system category, Truma was the clear winner for the seventh year running with 84 percent. As in previous years, the readers also voted Truma as this year's best brand in the manoeuvring system category with a score of 64 percent.

Truma Corp., a German-based supplier that recently entered the U.S. RV marketplace with its LevelCheck product, was awarded four prizes in the Promobil and Caravaning readers’ choice survey “Best Brand 2014.” According to a press release, the two German special-interest magazines annually name the European industry’s most popular accessory brands among their readers. In the [...]