Jeff Simms remembers seeing his first 20-foot travel trailer years ago at his family’s Missouri RV park.
It was the biggest unit the young Simms had seen at that point, and more advancement soon followed.
“I recall vividly seeing my first one with a microwave oven, and we didn’t even have (a microwave) in our home,” said Simms, who today works as director of state relations and program advocacy for the Association of RVs and Campgrounds.
Today, most states allow towed vehicles to reach up to 40 feet – twice the size of the 20-footers that amazed the 10-year-old Simms.
In addition to microwaves, many units now boast an array of modern technology. Large-screen TVs, stereos, refrigerators and hot water heaters, have all become standard on modern units.
With shipment numbers on the rise in recent years, more RVs are hitting the road, looking for places to park, but the size and growing electrical requirements of the units means many park owners must upgrade services such as shore power hookups and campground facilities to keep up with the demand from both consumers, who want more features in their park, as well as the RVs themselves.
“(Park owners have) had to accommodate greater turning radiuses and stuff like that,” Simms said, recalling having to cut down trees he’d planted years earlier on his family’s park, “because we never, with our crystal ball, had anticipated slideouts.”
But Simms isn’t complaining. The changes are just part of the changing landscape of running a services business.
“We are a hospitality industry and there are so many aspects of it. We want to be accommodating,” he said of park owners. “The philosophy is: Where do you see yourself in the marketplace, and what’s your market?”
For Ed Mayer, president of Elite Resorts, a network of six high-end campgrounds in Florida and Connecticut, the demand from RVs, consumers and government regulations has left many park owners behind, needing costly upgrades.
“They’re selling more RVs and they’re getting bigger,” Mayer said. “As they get bigger, they need more power and need larger areas, and the guy who’s driving is looking for more amenities, but the (parks) industry has notoriously under-invested in the facilities.”
For Mayer, the solution is RV parks with 100-plus pads built from the ground-up – or overhauled entirely – and capable of supporting the largest, most power-demanding modern units.
“A lot of them are smaller parks, they’re 100 sites, 75 sites; they’re not big sites, and in today’s economics, they don’t work,” he said. “The cost of doing business in a 100-site park, my recommendation is don’t touch it unless you just want to work for the rest of your life. Then the facilities, above and beyond what you buy, need new money to invest.”
It’s not just the growing size of RVs, but also consumer demands for more service and government regulations, Mayer notes. Combined, he said that the cost for upkeep in an aging park can be overwhelming.
“It all can be done if you have money, but if you have an existing park and the lots are too small, it’s very difficult to reconfigure it,” he said. “To bring in the power, you have to bring in transformers, dig up the streets.”
But as units have increased in size over the decades, RVIA Vice President of Standards and Education Bruce Hopkins said the current height, length and width limitations are likely to stand for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t think you’re going to see larger units. I think they’re building them as large as they can right now,” Hopkins said.
One obstacle to unit size are federal and state regulations, but Hopkins said the main deterrent to larger units is simple: consumer safety.
In some states, the maximum size is larger. Several states allow 45-foot towed vehicle length, and in North Dakota, that maximum stretches to 53 feet. In most states, the maximum motorhome length is 45 feet, with some pushing that limit (Montana tops the list at 60 feet).
“If it gets any bigger than that (current maximums), you just can’t handle it,” he said.
Whether parks need to upgrade often depends on the market they serve, according to Mike Nissley, a senior vice president at CBRE’s manufactured housing group.
“I see smaller parks in very good locations that you’ll never see again,” said Nissley, whose company provides real estate services to parks and other industries globally. “If you’re in a great location, and you’re small and maybe don’t have everything, I think you’ll still do really well.”
Simms agreed, saying that upgrades are a matter of course for anyone in the industry, but each business owner is left to make the decision of where to best spend their time and money.
“I’ve seen thousands of parks, but I’ve never seen two that are identical. ... If your market is seasonal, smaller type units, then be the best one that you can be,” Simms said. “I had a park owner in Branson, Mo., that told me, ‘Well, I’m just an overnight park in Branson, Mo.’ I said, ‘OK, well be the best overnight park in Branson that you can be.’ ”