Every year for the past three years, I have left my tiny apartment in Illinois bound for Elkhart, Indiana, the recreational vehicle capital of America. At the end of September, the RV industry hosts the Indiana RV Dealer Open House, an invite-only sneak peek into the latest and greatest that mega brands like Thor Industries, Forest River, and Winnebago have going on. This year, I didn’t get an invite from any manufacturer, and I suspect it has to do with my honest reporting of the inner workings of the industry, including quality and how manufacturers sell RVs to dealers.
If you have been reading my work for long enough, you’re fully aware that I adore vehicles that have beds and bathrooms in them. My very first post for Jalopnik, which I wrote nearly five years ago, was about a Mauck MSV 1120S bus that had been converted into a weird limo-like RV. From that day forward, I have regularly written about the fun and quirky RVs that I have found around America. I also highlight the awesome new RVs that I think are worth telling our audience about.
I don’t think anyone could reasonably say that I hate RVs! It’s just the opposite. I’m the kind of person who would rather pitch a tent in a state park than stay in some of the nicest hotels. I’d rather tow a camper into a field than stay in a Holiday Inn. However, I suppose I’m also not the most RV brand-friendly person out there. My style of reporting has brought tons of attention to little-known brands that do great things, but on the flipside, apparently, I’ve also caused some headaches at other brands.
How RV Media Often Works
Now, it would be easy for me to just regurgitate press releases. That is exactly how most RV blogs work. Some RV blogs, which I will not name, will brand a rewritten press release as a “review,” which has never sat right with me. It would be like if we wrote a review on the new Honda Prelude despite not having driven it yet.
It would also be easy for me to be like an RV influencer. These folks tour an RV in person, ignore all of the faults, and just talk about how floorplan A is so cool and floorplan B is also so cool. This is not to disparage influencers. It is their job to hype products up. They make money from being positive all the time.
The vast majority of RV media falls into one of those two categories: Rewarmed press releases and influencers. I’ll just pick a video at random:
I come at things from a different angle. My family has enjoyed RVs for generations. Some of my greatest memories were created at a campsite! But I also have some negative memories from camping. Most of those bad memories came from those times when our camper had either broken down, ruining a holiday, or failed, costing us thousands of dollars in repairs. So, while I am happy to write about the cool or historic RVs, I feel that it’s important to point out both the misses and the hits.
An RV might be the second-largest purchase you ever make, and it’s seriously disappointing to spend so much money just to discover that you’ve invested in a real pile of crap. It hurts even more when you realize that RVs suffer from steep depreciation, so if you buy a crappy rig, you’re unlikely to even make your money back. So, I’m not afraid to speak out when I find something I don’t like. For example, I have complained about excessive rust on new Heartland trailers before. But I have made sure that, before I made that complaint, I had a sample size of greater than one unit. I went to RV shows and took note that several brand-new units had surface rust covered up with spray paint:
I don’t do this to beat up the RV industry. Again, I love RVs! My goal is not to use a large national platform to punish a manufacturer, but hopefully, in pointing out flaws, maybe the manufacturer will work to fix what went wrong. The way I see it, this benefits everyone. Customers can buy with confidence, and the manufacturer is rewarded for good work with good sales.
With all of that being said, let’s take a look at how I have seemingly gotten myself blacklisted by the big RV conglomerates.
The 2022 RV Dealer Open House
The first time I went an RV show as media was the 2022 RV Dealer Open House in Elkhart. The Autopian was much smaller than it was now, and I was pretty unknown in the RV world. I received official invites from both Thor Industries and Winnebago, which I happily accepted.
This show was something else. The RV Dealer Open House is one of America’s largest RV shows, and it’s not open to the public. You have to be invited to it, and it’s not configured like your typical trade show. See, the RV Dealer Open House is a show put on by the manufacturers to sell campers to dealers, who will then sell those campers to you, the customer. In other words, dealers go to the Open House to figure out what campers they are going to sell in the future. There isn’t even a real parking lot during the show, but a field that inevitably ends up all muddy:
This changes the format greatly. If you’ve been to an auto show, you know that they tend to be customer-centric. When you go to the typical auto show, you’ll find window stickers on cars featuring pricing and possible discounts, and the people walking around will usually be sales representatives. Auto shows, whether you realize it or not, are pretty much about selling you a car. Another important note about an auto show is that nothing comes free. If you want some snacks, food, or drinks, you have to pay for it.
The RV dealer show was much different. The RVs on display don’t show discounted prices, if they even have prices on them at all. Likewise, the people walking around the displays are salespeople, yes, but they’re also subject matter experts, managers, or hold other high positions at their RV company. These people aren’t trying to sell a camper to the end customer, but trying to convince dealers why they should stock an RV to sell to their customers.
Generally, Thor Industries is somewhat picky about who gets into the Open House. Dealers are let in, of course, but only a select few publications are hand-picked to be allowed through the gate. Usually, those let in tend to be industry publications and only a few influencers. The general public is not allowed. So, I thought it was an honor when I was invited to the Open House.
In 2022, I wrote a story about how going to an RV show is so much cooler than any car show. In that story, I had explained that going to a trade show allowed me to talk to a plethora of RV dealers from the perspective of them being the customer, not me. None of them were willing to go on the record, but many of them had complained that RV quality went into the toilet during the pandemic and wasn’t recovering. I also watched a Camping World affiliate and his employees comb over every inch of a Jayco Jay Flight, and then walk away shaking their heads.
I asked them what they thought was wrong with that camper, and they pointed out every quality issue. They specifically pointed me to these bolts holding the awning on, and told me that this is almost guaranteed to leak water really soon, and that the only true way to fix it would be to tear down the whole wall and rebuild that part of the trailer.
I followed my question up by asking them if they would seriously sell this camper to someone, and they told me that they will not be selling that model. That was an illuminating conversation, and one that I would not have been able to have at a public show.
I continued that article by talking about how awesome it was to tour new RVs without limits and how the RV/MH Hall Of Fame rolled out a bunch of historic RVs and put on a classic RV show. Everything I said in 2022 is valid today in 2025, and RV trade shows are some of the coolest trade shows you could go to.
Free Booze, Music, And Food
Then we get to the part that, I’ve been told, Thor Industries really didn’t like. I noted that the biggest departure between this dealer show and a public show was how attendees were treated. There were alcohol tents, food trucks, and catered food scattered all over the show, and all of it was free and unlimited.
Seriously, you just walk up to a tent, get a beer, and walk away. This wasn’t cheap stuff like Bud Light, either, but great local flavors and other tasty alcoholic beverages. It was the same deal with the food trucks and the catering. Thor Industries had invited skilled pitmasters, pizza makers, and more to this event, and the food was really good.
I began to notice a sort of trend. A dealer and their employees would walk up to a beer tent, get beer, and then walk around the display looking at campers. Then, they’d get more beer or get food, and then do that some more. Since there was so much alcohol flowing and so many places to get food, you could have spent the entire day walking around buzzed and on a full stomach while shopping for campers to sell to your customers. I mentioned this in only a single paragraph in my story, in passing.
At the time, I did not think anything of it, because that’s how automaker press events work. Automakers will happily set up an open bar and let both journalists and reps get totally sloshed. So, in my mind, this was the RV dealer equivalent of a press event.
I also noted that the 2022 show was especially wild because, in celebration of hitting all-time record sales in 2021, Thor decided to treat its dealers and factory employees to a Florida Georgia Line concert. At the time, it was actually the last time the music group had played together. If that wasn’t crazy enough, Nelly then appeared on stage for the remix of the song ‘Cruise.’ My mind was blown that, here I was at a private RV show in the middle of Indiana, and I was watching freaking Florida Georgia Line and Nelly while drinking free beer.
So, my article about that was positive. Because again, I was blown away by my look into the world of how RVs were sold. Apparently, my single paragraph about the beer tents caused major alarm at Thor Industries. Even though I didn’t realize it at the time, I had accidentally revealed the secret that Thor throws free food, beer, and concerts at dealerships while trying to sell them campers. Apparently, they did not expect that I would write about that.
A Different Kind Of Harbinger
The funny thing about this is that it has a sort of “Streisand Effect.” I actually didn’t care about the beer tents and had never intended to make a thing out of it or ever mention it again. However, this, as well as my stories about poor RV quality, have apparently made me a sort of “harbinger of doom” for Thor Industries.
Are the optics of throwing a great show for dealers really that bad? I hadn’t considered it until I heard this irked someone at Thor. Plenty of industries do the same, so I don’t fully understand what the issue is with me casually mentioning it. If you want something to be a secret, don’t make Nelly a part of it, right?
What’s also interesting is how all of this was presented to me. When I got my invite to the 2024 show, it wasn’t directly through Thor itself, as was the case in 2022 and 2023, but through Airstream. I didn’t think anything of this, because Airstream is Thor’s flagship brand and we love Airstream. But when I got there, the representative for Thor wondered why I was there. When I told them that Airstream invited me, I was informed that Airstream doesn’t actually have the power to invite people to shows, and that Thor had really invited Jason, instead.
But since I had made the drive, and since I had written many negative stories about how poorly my family’s camper is built, Thor’s people said that the least they could do was give me a good time. What was weird was that the camper that Airstream had invited me to see wasn’t even at the show. So the whole thing was just strange from start to finish. It was the first RV show in which I did a single-day speed run because I sort of just wanted to get back home.
Later on, it was suggested that the reason I wasn’t invited was that Thor thought I hated them, and that’s why they invited Jason to try out Thor’s new EREV RV, and not me. I wasn’t supposed to be there at all. Of course, the claim about me hating Thor is not true. I don’t harbor any ill feelings toward any brand, and never toward any PR person.
The Show Goes On
This year, we didn’t even get an accidental invite to the Open House. It could be because of the above, or it could just be that the RV industry has less money for beer, or maybe something else. I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that, as of right now, Thor, Forest River, and Winnebago do not really work with us. Airstream and a couple of other brands happily send us press releases, and I have sometimes written stories based on them, but that’s it.
The good news is that I already have a backup plan. I will still be going to the Florida show every January, and instead of going to Indiana in September, I will now be going to America’s largest RV show in Pennsylvania.
Just to clear the air one more time here, I do not hate any brand, any PR person, or anything like that. My goal isn’t to be a hater! I can’t even hold a grudge against my childhood bullies. I love all kinds of RVs, including the big ones, the tiny ones, and the weird ones.
At the same time, not all of what I write will be positive. There will be times when I don’t like an RV’s price, quality, or features. I cannot in good conscience ignore that stuff. I will also continue to write about the sorts of happenings that others do not. If you’re a manufacturer and my words are a cause for concern, maybe it’s a good time to work on fixing what I complained about, because if I notice it, I’m sure your customers notice the problem, too.
If anyone at any of the companies mentioned has issues with anything I wrote above or would like to start over, I know you’ve got my email because I’ve already reached out to you many times.
If they didn’t make rolling landfills, they wouldn’t have this problem, but instead of addressing that, they attempt to bury the negative reviews, much like the politicians they own. This is a direct consequence of a lack of accountability in a society with few values controlled by a group who largely actively celebrates amorality. These aren’t fair products with small quality issues, these are intentionally poorly made junk. They’re built so badly and with such low opinion of their customers that they don’t even put more effort into covering up the flaws on their new products than a shady BHPH lot does to old junkers. It should be criminal to make such bad products and the C-suite parasites responsible should face public lashings and seizure of all assets and future earnings so as to make them homeless and I’m being very generous to what I’d really prefer because these are luxury products nobody actually needs. These creatures are exemplars of the oligarchy as a whole, there is no pride, no real purpose, no deeper thought, they merely exist to suck everyone dry in order to hoard greater wealth to no societal benefit whatsoever. They’re wendigos.
These things are slapped together by young Amish teenagers with no experience and on top of that, using cheap and flimsy materials. No thanks. If they don’t want people to point that out…. make a better product.
24 years ago this month, when flying became impossible or at least difficult due to events (you all know), I took a gamble that people still wanted to travel and bought some Winnebago stock. I did okay, but held onto it a little too long.
Just like many industries, the CEO of RV companies aren’t really beholden to their dealers or customers. Well, barely, just enough to appease the shareholders. And of course, much of the CEO compensation is tied to share price.
Negative press can and will cause immediate drops in share price, which immediately lowers the CEO’s net worth. The entire system of tying CEO compensation to share price is the absolute cause of so many issues in most every industry. The whole system is a mess.
It’s actually worse than that – the Delaware courts have ruled that C-corps can only do things to increase shareholder value – and the timeframe considered is usually not that long…
Integrity is always worth more than access!
But it doesn’t pay the bills sadly.
To be clear for the manufacturers – I wasn’t going to buy an RV even before reading any of your stuff because I believed them to be hugely expensive for what they are and not at all something I wanted to sink money into.
Now that I’ve read your stuff, I still believe that but I also have a lot more awareness of these brands.
Honestly, I’m not surprised at all that you’re dis-invited. It’s a private show designed to sell product (of questionable quality) to dealers and there’s simply no reason Thor or any other company needs (or wants) the risk of bad press. Influencers are paid shills; any writer is probably vetted to ensure they’ll say something positive. The strategy of “show ’em a good time” is a given. Thor, etc. definitely doesn’t want to hear their customers (dealers) anonymously complaining about their product. The fact that you commented on beer and a band probably didn’t cause the ban but may have reinforced their decision.
Except… this strategy actually got them more bad press.
Generally… the way to deal with the possibility of getting bad press is to be genuinely interested in improving and be willing to listen to constructive criticism. Neither of which Thor seems interested in doing. At least for the lower end of the market.
Seems pretty petty.
Then again, they seem to prefer to make crap and sell it (easier path), rather than take your criticisms to heart (right path).
I’d never buy an RV, but I always read your articles. I have a pair of friends with RVs. One gets a new one every five years or so, uses it maybe four times a year. I find that a financially bad investment. The other has a very old one he got for free from a relative. Had to fix it up a bit but otherwise usable. A better “investment” IMO.
I’m not an RV person, but do enjoy your reviews.
My company represents a handful of clients in business development and some brand building. We are not a full marketing agency, but we do get approached by old school media outlets as well as web review sites, or our clients do and they ask us to handle it. I think we have always been given honest reviews and been glad to have the public exposure. While I largely agree with your assessment of influencers, I have also interacted with one person sites where the person is basically an end user of these types of solutions and does reviews as a side hustle to make a few affiliate bucks using their experience. So far, I think they have all been reliably honest.
A few years ago, a review site I knew, reached out to review one of our client’s new products. The review was thorough, but they found a serious design fault. My client asked me to broker a follow up conversation. I didn’t know the reviewer, but I knew the boss and that he was a beer lover. I went to their office with a selection of rare beers, had him call in the reviewer and set up a zoom call with the client. My client had not caught the flaw and based on that call, set about correcting the design and releasing a revision, including offering it to all of their existing customers. The review site in question, unannounced to me bought one at retail and redid the review. They discussed the experience in a great light.
If Thor had any brains at all, they should invite you to their factory, wine and dine you and then have you tour the place with their production engineers (or QC team if they have one) and show them what you see. That would be close to free consulting for them.
Except that Thor and its peers do not want to change the status quo. All are fine with pushing out the lowest cost-to-produce products dealers will accept because volume is a known path to profits.
Low-end RV manufacturers could produce higher quality products. High-end RV manufacturers certainly do and at a higher retail price.
Just don’t talk about their “skid plates”!!!!
I love your coverage and articles on RV’s. Keep it up 🙂
This is why you need to level up and make friends with the nice folks at Newmar so you can get your invites thru them.
https://www.newmarcorp.com/find-your-newmar/rv-show-schedule
Dealer show vs RV show – – seems to be no different from to how auto manufacturers wine and dine their dealers at their annual Dealer Meetings and the Auto Press during Press Days, but put on the sales mannequins and local dealer sales people for public Auto Show days.
My kids and wife joined my in-laws for a few days of “camping” in their trailer a few weeks ago. My daughter sent me a text saying she was stuck inside because it was raining… and that she was bored. I challenged her to take an interesting photo of something in the trailer and send it to me.
Minutes later I got a picture of a large plastic bucket. I complimented the framing and lighting, but asked her why she thought a plastic bucket was interesting. She sent a second picture. Not quite as nicely composed, but clearly showing several inches of rain water in the bottom of the bucket. Apparently one of several leaks inside of the trailer.
Thanks for the honest reporting!
Man 1: [Stares in awe] I thought these were extinct!
Man 2: [Slapping him on the shoulder] That’s what they said about the Ceolocanth. Pehistoric fish thought to be exinct. Then they caught one off the coast of Madagascar.
Announcer: Journalistic Ethics come standard at The Autopian every day.
I’m someone who bought a Forest River 32′ camper for my permanent site last year & I found your articles helpful. I still have some quality concerns but the more I dug into it, the more I can tell you that all the brands I looked at seemed to have the same concerns. The poor quality of new campers is a hot topic around the campfires with all of us & I’m seeing more people giving up their spots this fall vs buying a new camper to replace their worn out ones.
We bought a Berkshire pontoon made by Forest River Marine.( Division of Berkshire Hathaway)
I am not unhappy at all with it. The weld quality is real nice which surprises me a little bit as I figured it wouldn’t be .
We chose the Berkshire because it has no wood on it , the floor is a composite material and the seat bases are a nylon.
Time will tell how it holds up but there’s nothing to rot on it so it will outlast me !
(Any) social media ‘influencer’ = modern carnival barker. Nothing else needs to be said on the topic.
Don’t let ’em get you down. I, for one, am delighted that you and David have gotten manufacturer’s attention. Writing honestly about products is not wrong. Shooting the messenger has never been a good strategy.
I have a friend who has a 20 year-old Newell and that is a quality RV – at a price
I’ve avoided mentioning this incident which is going on (I think) a year old now… But Thor is pretty much on my very short list of companies I won’t do business with on principle, due to how they made the local news when two Thor employees were told to “do something” about a couple of stray cats at one of the facilities, and did so by what I can only call murdering them in a cruel and horrible way. I really don’t want to go into details; you can probably do an internet search if you really want to find out more.
Anyhow, the Thor CEO spoke out without doing any due diligence, and said the guilty employees were just good people doing their assigned jobs and that the media was blowing it out of proportion. Then the charges and evidence came in and he backpedaled fast. Ultimately, the whole thing turned into a nightmare of finger-pointing when the charges got dropped on clerical technicalities and the perpetrators went free and still are.
Animal rights organizations are still trying to get it back into criminal court, but it doesn’t seem to be getting traction. The cynic in me sees going up against employees of one of Elkhart County’s largest combined companies is likely futile if the company chooses to shield them.
And this is why Indiana is considered a business-friendly state!
I didn’t realize that was them until just now. It was a truly twisted incident
That sucks that you got uninvited. The weird part is that the free booze, food, and entertainment is how ALL industry trade shows go. I’ve seen so much money spent on entertainment at conferences used to court contracts from government employees, it makes you wonder if the contracts really go to the best option, or the one that gave the deciders the most free stuff. I’ve seen it at industry shows for petroleum, waste, construction, and even law enforcement. They make it feel like a giant party to court business.
It’s puzzling that reportage of dealers being entertained with food, booze and live music would annoy the executives. It’s standard to wine and dine salespeople in any industry that depends on them. Insurance, beer distributors, airplane parts, whatever. Maybe they don’t invite all the dealers and got a bunch of blowback. “There was free beer?! And Georgia State Line?! All I got from Jayco was a coozie. I’m calling my rep!”
All the wining and dining absolutely happens in any industry I’ve been involved in (mostly various communications technologies). Not being in sales but O&E, it really opened my eyes to what goes on most of us never see.
The government contract officers I have worked with will not allow me to buy them lunch at Subway. Very professional – but maybe they are the aberration?
Thor is able to get enough bad press on their own. Then amount of people that have had serious issues with brand new units then tell the world about it is staggering. By pulling things like that it just shows they dont want to change they are making money and happy to continue screwing things up. But when all the free money dries up and people stop spending people with money won’t buy their junk and that will leave them in a spot.
On the other hand I’ve always thought of camping world as a decent company sometimes over priced but overall decent. Maybe they can get you in they like to show they will do the hard thing if they think it’s right it’s a cheap way for them to do that.
I’ve been to the Pennsylvania RV show a few times and it’s crazy the amount there. Lots of closeouts to be had too.
I really enjoy your RV coverage and it’s a shame that your aren’t invited this year. It’s not like the quality concerns in the RV industry are some big secret. We need someone out there telling the truth in an honest and constructive way.
I actively tell people people who are interested in an Airstream to buy used {with a good inspection) rather than new. Let somebody else work the kinks out and take the depreciation hit. I’ve had far less problems with my 2007 in my 4 years of ownership than all my friends have had with their new ones. The new ones sure are pretty though. RVs are completely nonsense purchase, but I’ve made so many good friends and we really do use it 25-30 nights or 6-7 outings a year. I will often hitch it up rather than staying in a hotel.
It is so damn sad that more stories like this one are more prevalent in every sector imaginable… Although I don’t how much of that is the fact we’re more connected than ever or if things really are just getting worse all around
Press Week at the old Detroit Auto Show (I am thinking of the ones in the nineties) had to be a week because all the exhibitors served so much food and booze to whoever could get credentials that it took days to get through it all. (The food and booze disappeared after Press Week when civilians could get in.) A friend of mine at my old job would get photography credentials through a newspaper he used to shoot for then he’d take the whole week off to shoot, like, eight pictures while getting stuffed and hammered for free. I was jealous.
Thor is the primary sponsor of the Elkhart Grand Prix.
https://www.elkhartgp.com/
It is a fun event (although not quite as fun as the gold-standard Quincy GP). I think the Autopian needs to put together a sponsorship program to win all their races next year. 🙂
Watched the RVGirl video.
Exhausting…
I stopped after 30 seconds. I don’t need that kind of toxic positivity in my life.
I mean come on woman…
If we could post pictures, I’d want to post screenshots of obvious flaws that she turns a blind eye to. I didn’t have to go far into the video to spot one.
But yeah, I also had to stop because I just couldn’t take much more. LOL
I really appreciate the honest reviews as well as the stories on the trial and tribulations of your parent’s RV purchases. I must say, it cements the idea that if we ever want to go RV-ing again, we’ll just do like we did before when we tried it years ago and rent. Even if it is pricier than staying in the sort of hotels we usually frequent.
Sure seems like shooting yourself in the foot to dis-invite folks who give honest reviews. I don’t sense any axe to grind, just your honest informed reviews and opinions. If they really cared properly about their product, they’d take such criticisms to heart and review their business practices. Alas, the long game doesn’t seem to be popular among American businesses these days.