The RVs We Drive – Woodall’s Bloggers Discuss their Personal RV Choices

The RVs We Drive | This Week Only at Woodall’s Campgrounds, RV Blog and Family Camping Blog! This week in the Woodall’s Blog – The RVs WE Drive! Read our expert bloggers as they share the pros and cons of various camping units – from their own personal experience. These posts are about their favorite RVs! What is your RV of choice, and why do you choose that vehicle for your camping trips? Tell us by submitting a guest blog about it at http://blog.woodalls.com/authors/guest-blogger-submission/ . Here’s what one blogger had to say: Looking for Fun with the Fun-Finder How did we select our current RV? Well, I’d like to report that we had unlimited funds and time to select nothing but the very best that satisfied our every whim and need. I’d like to tell you that, but it wouldn’t be true. Instead, I’ll tell you what is probably a common story. We had camped for ma… READ MORE  Read More →

Meet the GO! by SylvanSport

At SylvanSport, a Brevard, North Carolina-based startup company, Tom Dempsey and his team of designers set out to put the cool back into pop-up campers. Tom Dempsey sits inside a GO camper with a customer's two dogs, Diggidy and Gertie. The GO pop up camper, built by Sylvan Sport, is a highly engineered 800-pound camper that can carry extra outdoor equipment such as canoes and bicycles and be towed by a small car. (Credit: citizen-times.com) As an entrepreneur, Dempsey saw an opportunity to make camping, already a relatively affordable vacation option, more comfortable for a new generation, reported the Asheville Citizen-Times. They came up with the Go, an 800-pound lightweight but solidly constructed platform that turns into a spacious living quarters that you can tow behind a Prius, instead of a huge pickup. The Go is billed as “Mobile Adventure Gear” rather than a trailer, which brings to mind the old-fashioned aluminum box on wheels. “Pop-up campers are part of the entry-level RV world, which hasn’t really changed in the last 40 years,” Demspey said. “We wanted to take the pop-up camper out of the RV world into the REI world.” The Go has proved a hit with enthusiasts eager to drive cross-country to Brevard to pick up their $8,000 campers, ordered online. Dempsey sees “a massive paradigm shift away from SUVs and big trucks to more compact cars, but people still want to play even if they own a Prius, so we hitched our wagon to a trend to more efficient vehicles.” Dempsey... Read more

Coming soon to a Community near YOU?

Rarely a week goes without a media story about some community somewhere in the United States or Canada imposing restrictive rules, regulations, ordinances, and general hassles on owners of recreational vehicles. Parking restrictions on RVs Rusty Powers stands with his son-in-law, Anthony Lyles, by his RV, that is in violation of a city bylaw because it is too big and will have to be moved elsewhere. Image courtesy Maple Ridge News Here’s a typical article that appeared in The Palm Beach (Florida) Post News: For years Wellington has enforced its laws so that a recreational vehicle or boat must be parked on the side or rear of a lot and behind a 6-foot wall, fence, or landscaping—the maximum height village rules allow. But, perplexingly, village rules also say that the vehicle must not be “clearly visible” to drivers or neighbors. “If it’s 15 feet high but behind a six-foot fence, then I’m sorry, but my sight says it’s clearly visible,” resident Donna Weaver said. Are RV Parking Restrictions out of Control? In British Columbia, Leeann Costa lives on a quarter of an acre and stores her 12-metre (39-foot)-long recreational vehicle at the side of her house. Last month she received a letter from the Maple Ridge bylaw department and learned she must remove her RV by April 20, reported Maple Ridge News. “We’ve lived here for 25 years. We’ve had an RV ever since we lived here,” said Costa. “All of a sudden because somebody complained,... Read more

Sutton RV: Top Airstream Dealer in West

George M. Sutton RV has become the premier one-stop dealership for unique, high quality lightweight products. Their flagship brand is Airstream. Airstream has released its list of “Top Ten” dealerships for 2010-2011 and has named George M. Sutton RV “Number Two” behind an East Coast outlet. Located in Eugene, Oregon’s third-largest city, Sutton RV has sold nearly 100 new and used Airstream products this past year. Coupled with its sales excellence, George M. Sutton RV is Airstream’s West Coast leader in service, parts, and both warranty and body repairs, according to a company news release. Founded in 1996, Sutton RV is a family-owned business, a tradition in the Sutton family since 1921. Both George’s father and grandfather owned and operated George M. Sutton Ford, Inglewood, California, for 37 years. The Sutton family was featured in Life Magazine as an example of American Life in December 1956. George and Martha Sutton In addition to Airstream’s tribute, George M. Sutton was elected President of the Oregon RV Dealers Association (ORVDA) at their Spring Meeting in Salem, Oregon. An association of dealers, suppliers, lenders, and associates who are dedicated to promoting the welfare of the RVing public, ORVDA is also focused on legislative issues that affect their ability to do business. “For example,” explains Sutton, “the laws that define an RV versus a manufactured home are convoluted. Currently, when an RV is larger... Read more

Attend a Local RV Show

January through early April is prime RV Show Season. Toy haulers have become increasingly popular in recent years. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved RV Shows present a rare opportunity to view many recreational vehicles without the need to drive from dealer to dealer. You’ll have an opportunity to check out a wide-range of motorhomes, fifth wheels, travel trailers, truck campers, conversion vans, and pop up trailers in one location, often at special “show prices”. Some bargains are the real deal; others are simply prices an RV dealer would accept back at the dealership once the show is over. When viewing recreational vehicles, ensure you’re comparing prices of similar models with similar features from different manufacturers. Consider the options, quality, and type of construction, floor plan, standard and optional equipment, features offered, amount of interior and exterior storage, carrying capacity, and reputation of manufacturer and dealer. Not all manufacturers and dealers are created equal! Determine who offers the best bang for the buck but ensure that the dealer provides quality after-purchase service. Talk with other RVers at the show. Many have years of experience and knowledge of different manufacturers and dealerships. Most will be honest and tell you where they’ve received the best deals and quality service. It is always a good idea to visit the dealership’s physical location before you buy and check out their service department. Visit the dealership... Read more

RVIA Show, New Product Introduction

One subject that will always create a lot of conversation on the various RV forums is when someone asks about running their air conditioner via an invertor, powered by batteries.  The educated consensus is typically that you can probably do it, but the energy storage capacity of a battery bank will not power the A/C unit for any significant amount of time, thus rendering the system practically useless.  I worked a little math on this and, assuming my math is correct, a typical 13000 BTU coleman A/C unit will consume about 3800 watts per hour and a set of Trojan T-105 6 volt batteries, fully charged, has about 5400 watt hours available, or less than 2 hours of operation until the batteries are fully discharged.  Since we don’t want to discharge our batteries more than about 50%, or about 2700 watt hours, or in terms of a cold RV, about 42 minutes of operation.  In other words, not a very practical arrangement. Enter the Topleader Group Limited our of Dongguan China who were showing their line of DC operated roof top A/C units.  The photo below shows their DL-1200 unit. According to their literature, the AC unit operates on 24 volts DC, at 600 watts, and produces from 6200 BTU cooling.  I am going to assume that in the air conditioner has an internal inverter which converts the battery DC voltage to AC in order to run the compressor, either that or it actually operates with a DC motor.  Either of these schemes would be different from the typical US made A/C unit which... Read more

RVIA Expo 2010 Wednesday Dec. 1

Greetings from Louisville, Kentucky! Wednesday, Dec. 1.  Today was a very busy day at the RVIA Expo here as we prowled the aisles of the show for about 8 hours, looking at an amazing array of RVs and RV accessories.  Yesterday I posted some photos of a recent innovation from Monaco using a telescoping slide to provide a wider floorplan on their motorhomes.  Today I took a photo of the outside of the slide which I think, shows the operation of the slide a little more clearly. The slide depth totals 50 inches, consisting of a 32″ main slide and an 18″ second section.  When coupled with an 18″ slide on the curb side, the total slide width measures 68″, which I believe is the widest in the industry. Read more  Read More →

RVIA Expo, Nov. 30, 2010

Greetings from Louisville, Kentucky! Today was the opening day for the annual RVIA trade show here, and our initial impressions are that the industry is very upbeat about the future.  The day started off as usual, with the opening breakfast and industry presentation by the RVIA.  The reports indicated that all segments of the industry, motorhomes, towables, etc, experienced a significant increase in sales compared to 2009.  Of course, 2009 was by all reports, a disaster, so beating that sales level wasn’t too difficult.  Forecasts for future sales do indicate future growth, and hopes are high that will in fact be the case. Read more  Read More →

RVIA Expo. Monday Nov. 29

Greetings to all from Louisville, Kentucky!  Linda and I are parked at the Expo center campground.  (Under the topic of “name dropping”, we are next door to Bob Tiffin’s son’s motorhome)  It is nice to see that at least some of the manufacturers actually “go rv’ing”! Since  the actual show doesn’t start until tomorrow, we went over to the center, registered, and then went on a tour of Louisville, and our main objective was to visit the Louisville Slugger factory and take the factory tour.  If you are in the Louisville Ky area, and if you have ANY interest in baseball (and what good American doesn’t?), this is the place to go.  The factory, museum, and gift store are all located together, downtown, near the Ohio river.  The downtown area is very clean, and parking in this area is plentiful.  We parked right across the street from the museum, and of course took the requisite photo of the world’s largest baseball bat. Read more  Read More →

RVIA EXPO, LOUISVILLE KY

Linda and I are getting the motorhome ready for our annual trip to Kentucky to attend the RVIA show in Louisville to gather information on the general state of the RV industry, and to view new products at the show.  We will be reporting on events as they occur, here on RV.net blog. Read more  Read More →

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