RV Loan Traps, Winnebago's Comeback, and What Our Own Fuel Price Poll Really Tells Us
RV Podcast - Stories From The Road
Mike Wendland
4.5 • 704 Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Gas prices are spiking - but are RV travelers actually cutting back? We asked our community, got more than 300 responses, and the numbers tell a surprising story. Plus: the RV loan trap that is costing buyers thousands without them knowing it, why Winnebago's latest earnings report matters to every RV owner and buyer, a behind-the-scenes look at the company that builds the insides of your RV and just invested seven figures in a giant design studio, and a new Washington State law that finally clears up a legal headache for fifth-wheel owners.
In this episode:
- The RV Loan Trap: how dealer financing really works, and how to protect yourself
- Winnebago is back in the black - and here is why that matters to you
- Patrick Industries debuts a massive digital design studio in Elkhart
- Washington State fixes the fifth-wheel length measurement mess
- Our community fuel price poll results: nearly two-thirds are not cutting back
All sources and show notes are at RVPodcast.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning, good morning, everybody, and welcome to the RV Lifestyle Podcast. I'm Mike Wendland, |
| 0:05.2 | and this is the Monday News edition of the RV podcast, your weekly look at the story shaping the |
| 0:11.0 | RV world right now. Six stories for you today, and they all matter. But let me explain how |
| 0:16.2 | we do things here. I spent more than 30 years as a working journalist, and that discipline carries over now |
| 0:22.2 | into everything we do on this show. Every story is source, no rumor, no speculation, no press |
| 0:28.9 | release taken at face value. The links and the documents that we use to build each story are in the |
| 0:35.2 | show notes. You can find them right underneath the transcript |
| 0:37.9 | button at RV Podcast.com. We think that you deserve to know where the information comes from. |
| 0:44.9 | So go check the work. Follow the trail. That's the journalism difference. 15 years in on this RV |
| 0:51.4 | lifestyle, and that's still what we're most proud of in our reporting. |
| 0:55.5 | But before we get to the news, a quick word about something we built ourselves because we needed |
| 1:00.8 | it. You know how trip planning goes? Campground reservations in one place, your route in another, |
| 1:06.9 | fuel estimates scratched on a notepad, emails buried somewhere in your inbox it gets messy |
| 1:13.9 | fast and jennifer and i got just tired of that mess so we built a fix actually we built an app it's called |
| 1:20.2 | the rv lifestyle trip planning dashboard and that's exactly what it sounds like a web-based app |
| 1:26.0 | works on any device that pulls your entire |
| 1:29.7 | trip into one place. Your route, your stops, your campground bookings, your budget, your rigged |
| 1:34.7 | details, your emergency info, all of it mapped out in a timeline so you always know what's coming next. |
| 1:41.4 | Now, we use this on every trip now. If you want to check it out, |
| 1:45.0 | head over to RVpodcast.com slash trip dashboard. RVpodcast.com slash trip dashboard. |
| 1:53.4 | All right. Let's get to our lead story this week because I got an email a few days ago that I |
| 1:59.4 | cannot shake. |
... |
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