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The News Update is all about getting up-to-speed on the latest RV news that may impact you. We look at various sources and try to boil the news down to a few main items to review. First up…
Traditional forms of travel continue to be hit hard…
TSA checkpoint numbers are showing air travel is still recovering very slowly. The past four weeks (2019 vs 2020) saw 71.5M vs 19.2M travelers (27.0%) trending up this past week. The latest week has seen three single days greater than 30% of last-year’s volume, which we haven’t seen since March 18th.
RV Sales Remain Robust
Meanwhile new and used inventory on RV Trader continues to decline. There has been a 23% decline of new and used RVs for sale since May 20th (from 156k to 120k). While there are plenty of RVs still available, the drop shows a continuing strong increase in demand.
Travel Restrictions
The U.S., Canada and Mexico have extended travel restriction of non-essential travel on their shared borders until Sept. 21.
The following categories do not fall within the definition of “essential travel:” Individuals traveling for tourism purposes, such as sightseeing, recreation, gambling, or attending cultural events. – https://mx.usembassy.gov/travel-restrictions-fact-sheet/
GAOA Signed into Law
Last month the House passing the GAOA. As a reminder, the act funds the backlog of park maintenance up to $9.5B over five years funded by exploration on public lands. The president signed the bill into law on August 4th.
Jayco Feather Micro
On to small travel-trailer RV news… Jayco is entering or reentering the small travel trailer market launching several sub 4,000 lb. trailers that will directly compete with R-Pod. The Jay Feather Micro trailers look to have similar amenities vs the R-Pods and will carry Jayco’s 2+3 warranty.
According to Jayco, “The Jayco 2-Year Limited Warranty covers you for 24 months, or 24,000 miles for motorized products, whichever comes first, from the original date of purchase. Starting with our 2020 models, a third year of structural warranty coverage is also included, standard. This includes any structural components such as laminated walls, roof and floor assembly.”
Jayco warranty info: https://www.jayco.com/products/travel-trailers/2021-jay-feather-micro/warranty-info/
Besides the warranties, the new Jay Feather Micro is slated to have a huge 55-gallon freshwater tank on most models and Azdel not only on the outer wall but also in the inner wall structure.
Here are two of the new floorplans available:
171BH:
199MBS:
My Take
I think Jayco is reentering the small travel trailer game at the right time. The floorplans look fairly robust in terms of versatility. With R-Pod moving slowly to larger floorplans, there appears to be an opening for a large player like Jayco to move into the market. Jayco’s warranty is obviously something to be considered in the calculous, as well as having dual layering of Azdel in the walls and larger fresh-water tanks sizes. There is a video tour of a prototype online done by Haylett RV. We’ll put the link in the description.
Here is a YouTube video from Haylett RV discussing the new Jayco: https://youtu.be/PnSAFq27s-Y
The real challenge is how quickly Jayco can ramp up production that isn’t of a poor quality that may inoculate new RV buyers. They may have an opportunity to establish the Jayco line with new RV buyers if the launch is done well. Personally, I would be open to a couple of these models, especially having gone through the warranty problems I have encountered with my R-Pods. The additional warranty is enticing, as well as having Azdel on both sides of the walls. Of course, the missing piece on both the R-Pods and any new Jayco are the continued use of luan-based floor materials. Jayco is a Thor RV company as is Keystone RV, who is already employing the new HyperDeck flooring. It would a feat of great note if Jayco added HyperDeck as well as the Azdel walls.
All the best in your camping endeavors!
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