Household Word Celebrates 50 Years of RV Building

They've been building motorhomes for so long, some non-RV folks call every motorhome, "a Winnebago." It's hard to believe the Iowa RV builder has been around for 50 years. For some of us, that may be the age of a spring chicken, but in this volatile industry, 50 is a pretty ripe age.

Those early Winnebago motorhomes certainly don't have the aerodynamic "feel" of what we've come to expect today. In fact, the accompanying photo shows the 1967 D-22 model. Winnebago refers to them as their "Eyebrow" units, but hey, somehow they remind one of a character out of a Star Wars episode.

Here's some interesting Winnebago factoids:

While Winnebago is well known for its motorhome line, the company actually started building a different kind of RV: Travel trailers.

The first Winnebago motorhome came off the production line in 1966.

About 10,000 'whinnies' are built every year. That's over 27 per day, or more than one an hour. Production line folks must not be horsing around to make that quota.

Photo courtesy Winnebago Industries

Winnebago Rolls 22 MPG Motorhome

With fuel price concerns worrying Americans, Winnebago Industries is set to roll out a motorhome that claims 22 miles per gallon. Admittedly, the "Class B" (van conversion) motorhome won't be a hit with fulltime RVers, those who do want to get out and about while not breaking the fuel bank may find this the katzmaow.

The 2009 model ERA powers up on a small turbo-diesel engine, built on a Sprinter platform. List priced at $91,000, eager buyers will have to wait until after the turn-of-the-year to put their money down.

Motorhome Europe, Asia, Australia . . . .?

For decades folks from around the world have "swapped holidays," by making arrangements to "loan out" their home in one country for a home in another. Now the concept has taken another stride: Loan out your motorhome in the states for one in say, New Zealand.

MotorhomeHolidaySwap.com asks an anual fee of about $90 to register on their service. Members provide information and photos about their motorhomes, and a computerized database "matches" up potential swaps. After that, it's up to the individual members to contact one another to ensure they're happy with the deal. "Borrowers" agree to cover the rig they're loaned with appropriate insurance, and the matchmaking company suggests everyone have a close friend or relative check out the returned rig to ensure everything's in order.

To build the company database, motorhomeholidayswap is offering to waive the first year's fees to the first 175 members. For more information, visit the company website.

Motorhomer Cries "Foul!" at Colorado State Park Policy

An RVer with a motorhome and a "toad car," visiting Colorado's Cherry Creek State Park feels the state discriminates against motorhome owners. On pulling into the state park, the RVer was charged--in addition to his $22 per night campsite fee--$7 for his motorhome and $7 for his towed car. These latter two charges are assessed "gate fees," charged for entering the park. At the same time, he discovered an RVer with a pickup truck pulling a trailer or fifth wheel would only be hit with a single $7 gate fee. Feeling a bit nettled, and in his view, discriminated against, the RVer wrote to our parent website, RVTRAVEL.COM

Our diligent research elves put in a call to the rangers at Cherry Creek. They cheerfully told us, indeed, since the vehicle pulled by the motorhome was a motorized vehicle, there would be an additional gate fee; at the same time since the trailer wasn't motorized, there would be no additional charge. We decided to 'give the dog another bite,' so we checked with the home office. A slightly different version of the tale was related by the agency's public information officer, Clare Sinacori.

Ms. Sinacori told RVs in the News that if the toad car remained hitched to the motorhome, then only one gate fee would be charged--that for the motorhome. We explained that in the "real world," it was highly unlikely a motorhome could be backed into a campsite with a towed car in place. "That would be fine," we were told, "As long as once you were settled, the towed car is hooked back up to the motorhome and isn't used."

Having never visited Cherry Creek, but drawing on our experiences at other state parks around the country, the likelihood of hitching the toad back up to the motorhome once it was "settled," is pretty unlikely. The typical design of campsites would likely not allow for maneuvering the car back around behind a parked motorhome, at least not without driving off onto "sacred" non-paved ground. If that is the case in reality, then RVers, prepare to pay more for the privilege of bringing your toad car with you to Colorado State Parks.

Why such a stringent policy? It may lie with the fact that Colorado legislature reduced its park system's share of general funds by $750,000 for the current biennium. As a result, in the park system's own words, it has, "increasingly focused on cash generation." At $7 per day, per "motorized vehicle," "cash generation" falls primarily to the wallets of motorhome owners.