RV News Weekly: Top 5 Stories Shaping Your 2026 RV Season
RV Podcast - Stories From The Road
Mike Wendland
4.5 • 704 Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2026
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We're excited to launch a brand new podcast to keep you informed faster.
The RV Podcast News Edition drops every Monday morning at 6 AM with the latest developments in the RV industry, camping world, National Parks, and everything affecting the RV lifestyle.
This edition, Episode 580, covers What;'s Changing for RVers in 2026:
From the controversial new "America First" pricing at National Parks that triples annual pass costs for international visitors, to Ford's game-changing 700-mile range extender concept for the F-150 Lightning, to the reality that lithium power systems are becoming baseline equipment rather than luxury upgrades as new alternatives to lithium are about to head to market, this episode gives you everything you need to know about what's happening right now.
Our main show, the RV Podcast: Stories from the Road, continues every Wednesday morning with the deep dives, interviews, and travel stories you've come to expect. Complete show notes with links to all sources are available at RVPodcast.com, your hub for everything we do: blogs, community access, videos, and all our podcast episodes going back almost 12 years.
Hetre are links to the main topics we discuss:
National Parks 2026 Changes:
- Department of Interior Announces Modernized National Park Access: https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/department-interior-announces-modernized-more-affordable-national-park-access
- Higher Fees for Nonresidents: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/us/snplus/news/2026/01/02/changes-to-access-to-the-country-s-national-parks-kicked-off-in-the-new-year--including-higher-fees-for-nonresidents
- Three Big Changes for National Parks: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/3-big-changes-americas-national-080141812.html
- What Visitors Should Know: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Travel/visitors-national-parks-2026-free-days-digital-passes/story?id=128845389
RV Industry Forecast:
- RVIA Market Expected to Trend Upward in 2026: https://www.rvia.org/news-insights/rv-market-expected-trend-upward-2026
- RVIA Forecasts Modest Growth: https://camperreport.com/rvia-forecasts-modest-growth-heading-into-2026/
- Current RV Industry News and Trends: https://crowsurvival.com/current-rv-industry-news-and-trends/
RV Technology and Innovations:
- RV Industry 2026: Used RV Values Reset + New Tech: https://www.bishs.com/blog/rv-industry-2026-used-rv-values-reset-new-tech-new-brands-and-big-buyer-shifts/
- Current RV Industry News and Trends January 2026: https://crowsurvival.com/current-rv-industry-news-and-trends/
New Products and Brand Expansion:
- The Hottest RVs and RV Shows of 2026: https://blog.campingworld.com/news/the-hottest-rvs-and-shows-of-2026/
Camping Trends:
- Camping Trend Predictions 2026: https://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2025/camping-trend-predictions-2026/
- Top 12 Camping and Hiking Trends: https://meetglimpse.com/trends/camping-hiking-trends/
- Australia's Camping Boom Expected to Skyrocket: https://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/australias-camping-boom-expected-to-skyrocket-in-2026-revolutionizing-domestic-travel/
- KOA Annual North American Camping Report: https://koa.com/north-american-camping-report/
RV Shows and Events:
- RV Show Calendar 2026: https://www.rvlifemag.com/rv-show-calendar-2026-usa-events/
- Florida RV SuperShow 2026: https://www.frvta.org/show/florida-rv-supershow/
- Quartzsite Sports, Vacation and RV Show 2026: https://www.stresslesscamping.com/rv-shows-and-rallies/quartzsite-2026
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, everybody. Mike Wedlet here and welcome to a brand new podcast in our lineup. This is |
| 0:07.5 | episode 580 of the RV podcast and this is the RV podcast news edition. We're launching this |
| 0:16.6 | to get the latest news out there to you faster and earlier in the week. And here's how this |
| 0:22.9 | works. Every Monday morning at 6 a.m., you'll find this news edition ready and waiting for you. |
| 0:29.3 | We'll cover the top stories from the RV industry, camping information, national parks, |
| 0:35.1 | everything affecting the RV lifestyle. It's your quick weekly update to keep you |
| 0:40.4 | informed about what's happening in our world. Now, our main show, the RVA podcast, Stories from |
| 0:46.4 | the Road that you're used to, that's not going anywhere that will continue to be released every |
| 0:51.5 | Wednesday morning, just like always. That is where you'll get the deep dives, |
| 0:56.2 | the interviews, the travel stories, and all the content that you've come to expect from us. |
| 1:01.8 | And, of course, video versions of both podcasts can be found on the RV Lifestyle YouTube channel. |
| 1:07.2 | Now, one more thing before we dive in, the complete show notes for this episode with the links to all the sources and the stories that we mentioned today can be found at rvpodcast.com. |
| 1:18.9 | That is our main online hub for everything we do, blogs and community access videos, and naturally all of our podcast episodes going back now for almost |
| 1:29.9 | 12 years. All right, let's get into this week's top stories. The big story, National Parks, |
| 1:38.6 | implementing some major changes for 26. Now, we're starting with this story because it's generating |
| 1:43.5 | a lot of heat, |
| 1:44.4 | both from travelers planning national park visits and from lawmakers on Capitol Hill. |
| 1:50.4 | The Department of the Interior rolled out significant changes to the National Park Access policies |
| 1:56.7 | that took effect on January 1st. The biggest change, a new fee structure, |
| 2:02.2 | we've talked about this on the main podcast. |
| 2:04.9 | They're calling this America First pricing. |
| 2:08.5 | Non-U.S. residents now face substantially higher cost to visit our national parks. |
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