RVs have always come in all shapes and sizes, in styles from bare-bones to luxuriant, and more and more “hardcore” outdoors people are using them as mobile basecamps from which to launch their adventures.
As vanlife and overlanding surge, serving an overlapping consumer has brought the paper-thin line between outdoor and RV industries into increasingly similar territory, reports snewsnet.com.
According to Frank Hugelmeyer, the outdoor industry has an elitism problem. The president of the RV Industry Association – and former CEO of Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) – believes that both groups need to relax how they define themselves because the outdoor and RV worlds are much closer than brands and retailers are willing to believe.
These fissures are divisive, however, and many of these disciplines have grown closer together in recent years as we all realize that we’re fighting for and supporting the same things. But one category of outdoor adventure remains isolated: RVing.
“RVing was always viewed as something that’s not hardcore enough,” said Hugelmeyer. In reality, the outdoor industry is a pretty exclusive club. To join, you’ll have to adhere to a certain human-powered ethic, which makes it easy for the backpacker to scoff at the RV camper, or at least to see the differences between the two worlds as more than they might actually be. According to Hugelmeyer, in a world like the outdoors, where what you do is so critical to your self-identity, it’s easy to disassociate from the other.
But there is definitely more than one type of outdoor consumer – those types, whether as close as whitewater and sea kayaking or as disparate as the ultralight backpacker and the RV camper, have the same heartbeat. For most, getting outside is the singular goal, with activities changing based on age, season, or weekend. And while some people in the traditional outdoor industry might have a hard time trading in their hiking boots for rugged, off-roading tires, for most consumers, it’s all part of the same thing.
Well Houston, once again we have a failure to disagree. This culture always has to look down on anything that is different, even if only slightly different. I don’t hook-up, and parking in an RV park is parking. I don’t care if you camp, glamp, or boondock, why should you care what I do? Enjoy what you do, and stop trying to recruit everyone over to your team. If it’s right for you, do it. And God bless everyone else…..
I backpacked and slept on the ground in tents for forty years. I’ve done vertical rock and ice climbing and high altitude mountaineering, including on the two highest mountains in the Western Hemisphere, Aconcagua and Denali in my 50s. I worked hard on those trips to keep up with the thirty-somethings. Most of the time I did. Now, in my early seventies I feel I’ve more than earned the comfort my RV provides and unlike the previous adventures, my wife and I can do this together.
I have pointed out I have two bumper stickers on the front bumper of my truck. One says “Escapees” and the other says “Philmont”. Some folks have never heard of either of them.
I have heard of both and supported my son on his journey to Philmont but as much as I wanted to do the campouts all the years leading up to it my physical health would not allow it. I enjoy the outdoors and camping, and that is why we now enjoy not only being part of the Escapee’s, but exploring and adventuring in State Parks, Thousand Trails, and local river parks in our RV so we can be as close to nature as possible.
Congratulations on your Philmont adventure!
I built Freeway Bridges working outdoors in all kinds of weather year round for 37 years. When people tried to tell that having a Motorhome wasn’t Camping, I told them I work in the dirt all year so I don’t Camp in the Dirt. If you work in a office cubicle all year and feel you need to Camp in the Dirt then by all means do it. We Camp without any hook ups almost 100% of the time in So Cal. Parking side by side by side in full hook up parks is just that…you are just Parking. Using your RV anywhere without any hook ups is Camping in my book.
But hey bottom line is do what you like !
++++- I Agree!
Snoopy
This article is right on the mark!
I have always considered camping as “in tents.”
However, as I get older and wiser, comfort is becoming more and more of a priority, even as the pull of nature becomes stronger and stronger. Considering a compromise of one in order to maintain the other may be the best option.
Sounds like the “front country” and “backcountry” groups have a failure to communicate. We use our rig to get closer to the backcountry then strap on the boots and pack to enjoy the backcountry. These are truly complimentary industries. We all want the same thing to preserve the opportunity to enjoy this great country one campsite and trail at a time.
Huh … ?? I’ve read this three times and all I see is a bunch of gobbledegook … it’s the same but it’s not, it’s close but it’s not, each side knows the other, but doesn’t, the industries are the same, but they aren’t …
Whatever you’re smokin’ there … it must be good stuff …