RV News Feature
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| April 2004 | Volume 29 - Number 9 | |
RV News Feature | ||
The best kept secret
in the RV industry!
RPT. That’s right, Recreational Park
Trailers continue to be one of the best
kept secrets in the RV industry today,
and it’s mystifying why this is
so. In fact, despite its
individual success
and high satisfaction
levels
with those
who do
buy
them,
the
level of
sales
has
remained
stagnant
for several
years.
The total U.S.
market peaked at 8,002
units in 2000 and has averaged
only 7,423 units over the last five years,
only 7,129 over the past nine years, and
shipments dropped to 6,754 units in
2003.
The Recreational Park Trailer
Industry Association may need their own
version of the very popular and very successful
Go RVing campaign. Either that,
or get on the Go RVing bandwagon and
get their fair share of attention and
exposure to the millions of people who
are learning more about the RV lifestyle
every day. RPTIA defines their products this
way: A Recreational Park Trailer is a
recreational vehicle that is primarily
designed to provide temporary living
quarters for recreation, camping, or seasonal
use; built on a single chassis;
mounted on wheels; which has a gross
trailer area not exceeding 400 square
feet in the set-up mode and is certified
by the manufacturer as complying with
ANSI A119.5.
That’s a mouthful … but it’s also an
RV, no matter how you look at it, or
what you think about them. RPTIA is as
much a part of our industry as
is RVIA, RVDA and
ARVC.
There were 320 shipments outside the United
States. Canada received 277, Japan had 40, and
three went to countries not identified.
Of the 7,074 total shipments, domestic and
international, 2,749 were 8’ or less in width, and
4,325 were greater than 8’ wide, with most being
the 12’ wide variety.
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