meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
RV Lifestyle RV Podcast

RT019: Don’t Buy at an RV Show Without Listening to This!

RV Lifestyle RV Podcast

Mike Wendland

Personal Journals, Leisure, Places & Travel, Society & Culture, Automotive

4.7624 Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2015

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Joe Murray has seen a lot in his 40 years of being in the RV business, but the current market is among the best he can remember. It only took one look around the floor at the Grand Rapids Camper, Travel & RV Show this past weekend to see why – the packed aisles were full of potential buyers, from millennials to baby boomers. And to Murray, regional sales manager for Roadtrek, packed shows like this – and RV horns sounding a sale just about every five minutes – signify a great start to the year after a stellar 2014. “There’s an awful lot of money in this economy and there’s a lot of interest in mobility, camping and travel,” Murray told Roadtreking in Grand Rapids. “I think we’re going to have another banner year.” Murray talked to us for episode 19 of the Roadtreking RV Podcast, addressing all-things-RV, from how use of RVs has evolved in the last 15 years (less camping, more touring) and who the typical customer is to what you should hope to take away from your RV show experiences – just in time for the busy RV show season. Murray, with the help of other show attendees, help you understand: What are some questions you need to answer about buying an RV that might not be so obvious Should you even touch anything when checking out RVs at the show Whether you should buy from inventory or special order to get the best price Whether the prices at RV shows really are rock bottom How to "try on an RV" for size at the show, making sure it works for you and your RVing style What is the most important question that you should ask an RV dealer before you buy What kind of RVs have the hands down highest resale value, year in and year out How are today's RV buyers different from those of year's past [spp-tweet "Secrets of buying at an RV show"] [spp-player] Shownotes for Episode 19 of Roadtreking The RV Podcast First Things First: Florida RV SuperShow Sets the Tone The Florida RV SuperShow from Tampa, Fla. sets the tone for the entire year when it comes to all-things-RV. Roadtreking's Campskunk was there for day one and two of the show last week that set attendance records, further distancing us from the dark days of the late aughts. Need further proof? A surprising number of units were actually sold during the show.  But is an RV show the best place to buy an RV? It's the focus of this week's show. Interviews: How to Shop for an RV at an RV Show We were at the Grand Rapids Camper, Travel & RV Show this past weekend and talked to several experts to gain super-insider info on how to shop for and buy an RV and how to use and RV show to find the best deal on the best unit. Questions of the Week: Grilling and Organizing A listener shared feedback on the George Foreman Grill and how much she loves us after reading a post where we shared our use of it. We responded to her feedback with an update about the new grill we use after our old one fell off a table last year. We now use the Cuisinart GR-150 Griddler Deluxe  $159 We then took a question from a reader named Don who wondered about cabinet and drawer dividers to keep things in place in the RV. We  suggested a visit to Bed Bath & Beyond and Walmart for starters, or any Camping world store. TV shows all have lots of vendors who sell such items, too. Travel Tech of the Week: Password Management and Hacker Protection The massive theft of over a BILLION email accounts by a Russian hacker gang has Internet security experts scrambling and ordinary online users wondering what they can do to protect themselves. But there are ways to protection yourselves. The very first thing Internet users need to do is change their passwords. Use a program called LastPass to manage all your passwords. It keeps track of your user names and passwords for you and logins in automatically with them. This is how passwords should be -- very complex. The program will generate secure passwords like fshsgRHF#1kaj# .... just try and remember that one on your own!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello everybody and welcome to episode 19.

0:05.8

It's time for road trekking, the podcast, traveling North America in a small motor home.

0:13.5

Exploring, camping, boondocking, embracing the RV lifestyle, and sharing tips, and where to to go and how to keep things running right.

0:24.7

Here's award-winning journalist Mike Wendland and his network of road trekking reporters.

0:31.3

Hello everybody and welcome to a show that celebrates the RV lifestyle. Whether you live and travel in a small RV like the road trek Jennifer and I drive around in

0:42.7

or a big Class A motorhome, a fifth wheel, a pop-up, heck, even if you dry camp out of your car or tent

0:48.9

and are just thinking about getting an RV, this show is for you.

0:53.0

We talk about getting out there, enjoying God's

0:55.6

creation, meeting interesting people, finding great campsites, exploring the countryside, as well as

1:00.7

sharing tips on keeping our RVs running right and using the right gear and technology to enhance

1:05.7

our camping and RV experience. That's what road trekking the podcast is all about, the RV lifestyle.

1:17.4

Well, this episode of road trekking the RV podcast is brought to you by Van City RV,

1:23.4

where they only sell Class B motorhomes, the Good Sam Club, good friends, good fun, great savings

1:30.1

joined today, and a new sponsor for the program, welcoming them to the program, Verizon Wireless,

1:37.3

the nation's largest and most reliable 4G LTE Network. Well, here we are now. We're heading right into the last couple of weeks of January

1:47.5

in the first month of a brand new year. We are excited about it. We're hitting the road just

1:54.5

in a day or so right after I record this. I'm recording this episode on the 20th of January. It will release on the 21st of January

2:04.1

2015 and then the 22nd. We are beginning our travel north for our annual winter camp out.

2:11.0

And this year, we will be at the beautiful Tequamanan Falls State Park up in northern Michigan in the upper peninsula of

2:21.1

Michigan where as I record this today they tell me there's something like 32 inches of snow

2:27.3

on the ground and we have filled we have filled the state park campground up They only normally keep just a couple of spots open.

2:37.4

And we have units coming from all over, really, I think, from the east coast, from as far east as Vermont.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mike Wendland, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mike Wendland and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.