Already bad, RV sales worsened in June

The memorable tagline to the movie “Jaws 2” ran, “Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water.” It might apply to RV dealers and salespeople now. As we reported, May 2024 retail RV sales were bad enough, down 16% from May 2023. Couldn’t get any worse, right? Wrong! RV sales worsened in June, diving nearly 21% overall.

The numbers are in, as reported by industry watcher Statistical Surveys Inc. Registrations of new RVs for June 2024 amounted to only 35,014, a full 20.7% down from the same month last year.

Looking for a bright spot in year-to-date retail sales doesn’t provide much comfort. Through June, 188,843 new RVs sold. Compare that to the 212,691 that left dealer lots in the hands of new buyers from January through June in 2023. The fall-off is 11.2%. In our last report, we noted January through May 2024 sales were down, too, but only by 10.4%. How about those RV manufacturers? We’ll compare their movements in a minute. First, let’s look at the carnage breakdown.

Terrible towables

Travel trailers had a rough month. June sales amounted to 21,523, off 19.9% from the 26,258 sold in June 2023. Last month we reported that May sales were off by 12%.

Fifth wheels came away with a significant headache as well. Only 4,983 fivers sold, dropping by 22.1% when compared to 6,394 sold in June last year. For comparison, May 2024 sales were only down by 15.9%.

Pop-ups pulled in last place, the minuscule trailers mounting a minuscule sales total of 523 units. Sales in June last year were 830, meaning pop-ups crashed down 37.7%. Last month they lost 29.4% compared to their May 2023 sales.

While not easily towed, park models had the best numbers in the race to the bottom. While only 239 units sold, that was down a mere 9.5% when compared to the 264 park models that sold in May 2023.

RV sales worsened in the motorized division

With one exception, motorhome sales tried to mirror the falloffs towables suffered this month.

Class A’s rolled off the lots to the tune of 740 units in June. That compared to the 941 that sold in June 2023, showing a loss of 21.4%. As we reported last month, the sales drop at that time was 20%.

Showing the only “sort of” improvement were Class C sales. Dealers rolled 1,727 units out in June, compared to 2,104 in June last year. That meant only a decline of 17.9%. That was a relative bright spot, as in May the sales drop-off was reported at 21.9%.

And if the “B” in Class B meant “bombed,” they would live up to that name. Only 850 “van campers” sold, compared to 1,318 in June 2023, marking a huge 35.5% drop in sales. Far worse than the dismal report from May, where Class B unit sales slid 29.8% compared to the previous year.

How do “dealers versus retailers” shake out?

So how does this all tally up when we compare “wholesale sales to dealers” to what moved off retail lots? In its report, the RV Industry Association says in June manufacturers shipped out 25,308 units to dealers. Dealers came out ahead, with their sales of 35,014. RV dealers sold nearly a third more (32.2%) new units than they took in from manufacturers.

Will we report next month that RV sales worsened in July? Can’t say for sure—we’re not prophets. But dealers must be worried about profits. Hang on and we’ll see.

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