RV Shipments Up 54% in July over 2019

A Record Month for RV Shipments

Posting the highest July shipment numbers in four decades, the RV Industry Association’s monthly survey of manufacturers found that total RV shipments ended the month with 43,035 units, an increase of 53.5% from the 28,044 units shipped in July 2019.

“RV shipments continue to show impressive gains again this month,” said RV Industry Association Chairman Garry Enyart. “Reflective of the booming RV sales across the country and the appeal of RVs to a wide range of consumers, production is up this month for both the towable and motorized segments of the industry.”

What Caught Our Eye

The RV industry measures shipments to dealer lots, rather than sales, which aren’t exactly the same thing. The eye popping increase is clearly mostly attributable to the increase in interest in RVing during the pandemic. But another factor is that most manufacturers were shut down for a period of several weeks and couldn’t ship anything. When the factories came roaring back to life, they had some catching up to do.

Another interesting insight: only about 9.5% of RVs shipped to dealer lots this year have been motorhomes. Towable RVs have always drastically outpaced motorhomes, but that’s down from 11.5% last year and about 14% 5 years ago.

Wholesale RV Shipments

	JULY 2019	JULY 2020	YOY Last Year	CUM. 2019	CUM. 2020	YOY To Date
Towables
Travel Trailers (ALL)	19,835	30,268	52.6%	166,268	151,191	-9.1%
Travel Trailers – 5th Wheel	4,603	8,100	76.0%	43,789	41,905	-4.3%
Folding Camping Trailers	301	531	76.4%	4,247	3,451	-18.7%
Truck Campers	263	261	-.8%	1,792	1,672	-6.7%
All Towable RVs	25,002	39,160	56.6%	216,096	198,219	-8.3%
Motorhomes
Conventional (Type A)	1,050	1,012	-3.6%	10,107	6,550	-35.2%
Van Campers (Type B)	330	633	91.8%	2,109	3,151	49.4%
Mini (Type C)	1,662	2,230	34.2%	16,313	11,182	-31.5%
All Motorhomes	3,042	3,875	27.4%	28,529	20,883	-26.8%
Total RV Shipments	28,044	43,035	53.5%	244,625	219,102	-10.4%