Sneaky Campground Fee Tricks, RV Consignment Scam, Diesel Nears $6, RV Luxury Tax, China RV Boom
RV Podcast - Stories From The Road
Mike Wendland
4.5 • 704 Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Campgrounds are pulling tricks you need to know about. A California RV fraud case just got a lot bigger - and a lot worse.
Diesel prices are doing something that historically makes RVers cancel trips.
A state just tried to quietly hit motorhome buyers with a tax that has nothing to do with luxury. And there's a new campervan from the other side of the world that might just change how you think about where this industry is heading.
Cuttrnt RV stories that matter because they affect your life on the road.
Emmy Award-winning journalist Mike Wendland breaks it all down on this week's RV Lifestyle Podcast Monday News Edition - the longest-running weekly RV lifestyle podcast in the U.S.
New episodes every Monday and Wednesday at RVPodcast.com.
Got a tip, comment, or question? Reach us through the contact link at RVPodcast.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning, good morning, and welcome to the RV Lifestyle Podcast Monday News edition. I'm |
| 0:06.6 | Mike Ronlin. Yes, I did get a haircut. And if you, it's my summer haircut. And if you're new here, |
| 0:12.2 | this is where we covered the stories that matter to RVers, the news, the trends, the things |
| 0:18.0 | nobody's talking about, but should be. 30 plus years in journalism, 15 years on the road, the things nobody's talking about, but should be. |
| 0:23.9 | 30 plus years in journalism, 15 years on the road, |
| 0:26.2 | and I come at this from both angles, |
| 0:28.3 | as a reporter who digs into what's real, |
| 0:33.8 | and as an RVer who's been burned by the same stuff I'm about to warn you about. |
| 0:39.4 | You can find us, subscribe, and see our full show notes at RV Podcast.com. |
| 0:45.1 | And if this is your first time, welcome to the community. This is what we do on Monday. |
| 0:49.4 | So we have another podcast. Stories from the Road comes out every Wednesday. |
| 0:58.7 | But right now, let's get to the news. Story number one, the campground fee game and how parks are squeezing more money out of you. |
| 1:06.0 | All right, let's start with something that's going to hit close to home for every single one of you who has tried to book a campsite recently. |
| 1:08.8 | You pull up a campground website. |
| 1:11.0 | The rate looks reasonable. |
| 1:14.4 | Maybe $55 a night, full hookups, decent location. |
| 1:16.2 | You think, okay, I can work with that. |
| 1:18.7 | And then you start clicking through the reservation, |
| 1:21.5 | and suddenly there's a reservation fee, |
| 1:25.5 | a site lock fee, a resort amenity fee, |
| 1:30.0 | maybe a peak weekend surcharge. And by the time you get to the payment screen, that $55 a night is $85, and you're not sure what half of those charges even mean. |
| 1:37.3 | Welcome to Campground Fee Creep, and it's getting worse. |
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