Outdoor Recreation - Recreational Vehicles

Recreational vehicles (RVs) include a variety of vehicles, such as motor homes, travel trailers, folding camping trailers, truck campers, and van conversions. Motor homes and vans are motorized, while the others must be towed or mounted on other vehicles. According to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA), in 2003 there were approximately 7.2 million RVs in the United States—one for every twelve vehicle-owning households. There were an estimated thirty million RV enthusiasts, including renters of RVs.

RV owners cite freedom, flexibility, comfort, family appeal, affordability, and versatility as the reasons they choose to purchase RVs. Sports enthusiasts value the ability of bringing snowmobiles, motorcycles, and bicycles with them for their outdoor adventures. Fans of this type of vehicle claim that family vacations in a RV improve family relationships and communication.

According to a 2001 study conducted by the University of Michigan, RV ownership increased 7.8% between 1998 and 2001 and grew by 38% between 1980 and 2001. The RVIA reported that shipments of RVs in 2003 were worth $12 million at retail, up from $10 million in 2001. The average price of a folding camping trailer was $6,824; of a conventional towable travel trailer, $16,631; and of a full-size motor home, $143,834.

Some also chose to rent RVs from one of more than 460 rental outlets located around the United States. Rentals of motor homes, the model most commonly chosen, cost between $90 and $200 per day in 2003, according to the RVIA, while folding camping trailers and travel trailers cost between $28 and $85 per day. Rentals of RVs were popular and the rental category was growing, with the RVIA predicting it would increase by 34% during 2004.

RVs Go High Tech

RVs are being outfitted with increasingly sophisticated technology. According to the RVIA, popular electronic items found on RVs included flat-screen televisions, satellite dishes, video game systems, computers, surround-sound CD and DVD players with individual headphones, and global positioning systems. Many also came equipped with automatic leveling systems and closed-circuit television cameras to facilitate backing up the large vehicles, and "slideouts," moving walls that increase an RV's interior space once it is stopped by as much as three and one-half feet. More than 90% of fifth-wheel travel trailers and large motor homes contained slideouts, according to the RVIA.

Who Owns RVs?

The University of Michigan study described the typical RV owner as a forty-nine-year-old married man with an annual household income of $56,000. RV owners were likely to be homeowners, and they tended to spend their disposable income on travel, averaging 4,500 miles during twenty-eight to thirty-five days of travel per year. The highest number of RVs were owned by those age fifty-five and older, 10% of whom possessed one, according to the University of Michigan.

Shifting U.S. demographics—the aging of baby boomers—will likely add to the growth of the RV industry. Increasing numbers of single people, especially women, are also taking to the road in RVs. The University of Michigan study projected that eight million U.S. households would own an RV by 2010, an increase of 15%, outpacing the projected 10% growth in U.S. households.