I’m Going To Race A Motorhome Around A Track And Then Visit One Of America’s Largest RV Shows. Here’s What I’m Expecting

One of my favorite times of the year is finally upon us. The Florida RV SuperShow is here again, and this year is going to be a special one if you like weird and fun campers. Not only did I just absolutely send a motorhome around a racetrack at race pace, but the RV show itself should be a real stunner this year. Here’s what I’m expecting to see and do.

The Florida RV SuperShow works so well on so many levels. It’s a great mid-winter escape from the frozen tundra that is the Midwest. But more than that, Florida is the place to be to see the latest and greatest that the RV industry has to offer. I also love coming to this show to talk with real RV owners and buyers, not just dealers and PR arms of the manufacturers. Real people are happy to tell you if their unit is garbage, and real people are happy to tell you why they bought a certain rig.

A show like this is also great to get a glimpse into current trends and perhaps new ones. But perhaps most important to me is the fact that nearly all of the RVs at a show like the Florida RV SuperShow are customer units that were hauled in from factories or dealerships. This is not a show for the media, but a show to sell campers to buyers. I like this because I get to see the quality of the RVs that are being sold to the public.

In a big way, all of this means that while auto shows seem to be dying, RV shows are still strong. You might be able to buy a new car after having only seen it for a few minutes in a dealership, or perhaps even entirely sight-unseen. But that’s the worst possible idea with a new RV. You have no idea how well a unit is built or how well it’ll work for your life until you touch it and explore it. There are also countless brands out there that you might have never heard of. Honestly, “touring” an RV online just sucks, period. So RV shows are still important.

The Numbers

The RV industry hasn’t yet recovered from its fall from the COVID-19 pandemic boom. In 2021, RV sales hit an all-time high of 600,240 units. When resorts reopened, cruises restarted, and other vacation spots resumed operations, Americans left the open road and campgrounds for what they used to do. Further, return to office initiatives meant that people who worked their corporate jobs from their campers had to give up their “digital nomad” lifestyles. Of course, other challenges hampered sales, like high interest rates and uncertainty about the economy.

All of these reasons and more have driven hundreds of thousands of buyers away from new RVs. As a result, sales fell hard from the 2021 peak. The RV Industry Association has not published 2025’s sales numbers yet, but it was expected that the industry would finish the year having sold between 334,000 and 345,400 units. Those numbers would either show pretty much zero growth or shallow growth, given 2024’s reported 333,733 RV shipments. The last time RVs were sold in these numbers was in 2013, when the industry was still climbing back up from the RV industry crash during the Great Recession. The industry expects to crawl its numbers up, but it seems as though that is going to take some time.

The change in sales also appears to be reflected in RV show attendance, too. In 2023, 79,813 people attended the Florida RV SuperShow. That number fell to 75,123 in 2024 and then fell again to 68,612 people in 2025.

New Trends

Some manufacturers are doing what they can to reel people back in. I have noticed some interesting emerging trends in the market. The most noticeable is that a lot of companies are beginning to focus a little less on their most expensive flagships, and instead, when you go to a show like this, you’re now likely to find more affordable models front and center.
Likewise, I also noticed some levels of downsizing. In the recent past, these shows would be filled from corner to corner with the largest units a brand has on offer. These huge units haven’t gone anywhere, and they’re still all over these shows. However, I have also noticed that there are a lot more smaller units on display, too.

I have been talking to a lot of RV owners and buyers over the past few years and a lot of them have told me that they are not interested in driving a gigantic bus or towing an entire Holiday Inn behind a three-quarter-ton truck. These people want a motorhome that could fit in a parking space, or a trailer that could be hauled by something like a Volkswagen Atlas. The data seems to back this up to a degree, as some of the biggest RVs have also been some of the biggest sales losers in the post-pandemic era.

At the same time, I’ve also noticed that some companies are trying harder to do something different. There’s a flurry of new companies out there that offer some sort of new feature, better construction method, or techy engineering that you won’t find in a typical unit from Indiana. The companies from Indiana are also trying new things, such as Thor Industries and its Entegra Embark, which is the world’s first production extended-range electric motorhome. Then there’s Forest River’s Coachmen, which put out the innovative all-electric RVEX motorhome right in time for GM to kill the BrightDrop platform.

Yes, a lot of the new efforts above are very expensive, but at least you got something different out of the other end.

Still A Party

This year, Tampa is heating up with a ton of fun. I will be starting my stay in the Bay by visiting the folks over at Wingamm. The company has launched two new models in America. You’ll get to read about those really soon. But I was also offered a wild opportunity. The new RVs are being launched at a racetrack, and just a couple of journalists were allowed to take one of the coaches out on the track for hot laps. I mean real hot laps, too, or at least as hot as you can get with an apartment bolted to wheels.

You will absolutely get to hear about all of that the moment I get the chance to write it. Beyond the fun of Wingamm, I’m excited to see some fresh brands and faces in Tampa. Lightship is here, as is Pebble. You might remember these companies as the first two companies to build the first travel trailers with built-in traction motors. Both Lightship and Pebble used to go to tech shows, but they’ve finally made the RV circuit, which is something I recommended to both companies when they were both in their prototyping stages.

My eyes have also spotted some newcomers to the Tampa circuit, like Bowlus, and some completely new brands that are making their debut in Tampa, like Awaken.

I’m also seeing some old faves like Airstream and new takes from other brands, as well. What I’m getting at here is that I’m going to put some serious miles on my shoes this week and will put my phone to work.

If you’re interested in meeting me, I did not sign up for the influencer meet and greet thing. If you will be at the show tomorrow, send me an email at mercedes@theautopian.com, and we can arrange to meet up!

Otherwise, the public show begins tomorrow, January 14, and ends on Sunday, January 18. Tickets will cost you $15 per person for adults, and that’ll get you a two-day pass. Minors under 16 get in free, first responders get $2 off, and seniors get a $2 discount on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

This year is already a ton of fun, and I’m not even halfway through the show yet. If you are not into my RV content, don’t worry, I’ll get back to my many other interests soon. But if you like reading about wheeled hotel rooms to sleep in and whether they’re built well or not, I think you’ll find this year’s show to be a fascinating one.