2025 RV Models: What Real RVers Like and Dislike

This week on the RV Podcast:

• This year's RV Supershow in Tampa is a wrap. We’ll hear from real RVers about what they liked and didn’t like about the 2025 models
• The crazy winter weather continues this week, disrupting travel plans all across North America
• California has hit the pause button over some of its clean air regulations 
• What’s with Campground WiFI? Why is it so bad?
• All this plus Mike & Jen’s Storytime and your questions coming up in Episode 531 of the RV Podcast

You can watch the video version from our RV Lifestyle YouTube Channel by clicking the player below.

If you prefer an audio-only podcast, you can hear us through your favorite podcast app or listen now through the player below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:03 — 23.0MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS

Conversation of the Week: The 2025 RV Models

We talked to a lot of RVers at this year's RV Supershow in Tampa, and they were not shy in saying what they liked and disliked.

Can you guess what the biggest dislike was?

If you said the price of new RVs, you'd be right. Overwhelmingly, that was the chief complaint. Everyone said they cost too much and that prices were dramatically higher this year than last.

As to likes, RV shoppers were appreciative of beefed-up suspensions, better tires, fresh new interiors, and the bold and bright new exterior colors sported by some models.

Listen or watch the conversation in the player above.

SOCIAL MEDIA BUZZ – Wendy Bowyer

Wendy Bowyer reports on the hot issues most talked about this past week on social media and our RV Lifestyle Community group.

Since Wendy was with us all week at the Tampa RV Show and off social media, she has a fun conversation with Jennifer in the podcast, sharing her “RV Show Buzz.”

And guess what? The high costs of RVs are prominently figured in the RV Show buzz, too.

RV NEWS OF THE WEEK

California’s Air Quality Board hits the pause button

First, a word about Califoria’s clean air regulations and the big controversy over regulations that could limit the availability of big 2025 diesel and gas motorhomes in California and several other states.

There’s no news on those regulations involving motorhomes, but as a sign of the uncertainty over the new Trump administration, the California Air Resources Board has withdrawn its requests for federal approval to implement stricter emissions rules for locomotives and semi-trucks because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had yet to approve them.

Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph said the agency is assessing its options given the “uncertainty presented by the incoming administration that previously attacked California’s programs to protect public health and the climate and has said they will continue to oppose those programs.” 

What that means to the regulations affecting big motorhomes remains to be seen, but it looks like California has at least hit the pause button for a bit.

We’ll know more in the weeks ahead. 

Modern Campground America just purchased King Phillip’s Campground in Lake George, NY. King Phillip's has 220 sites and was a family-owned campground, but now is the 30th campground purchased by Modern Campground America in the past 2 years. 

An RV fire at Arizona's Crazy Horse Campground in Lake Havasu City is being blamed on a faulty propane stove. The owner was cooking a pizza when the stove overheated and blew up. The owner, thankfully, was not hurt.

Visitation at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is going to look like it dropped by more than a million in 2024 compared to 2023. But the drop isn't what you think. Park officials changed their visitor counting mechanism so re-entries would not be counted more than once, resulting in what looks like a visitor drop.

Maine state parks experienced a more than 6% attendance increase between 2023 and 2024, leading officials to discuss ways to limit overcrowding at some popular spots. This was the third time in more than four years that visitation surpassed 3 million. 

RV Question of the Week

QUESTION:

I’ve seen that Starlink is the top choice internet option for many RVers on the road and in remote areas, but have you seen or used the WiFi option that many state parks and other campgrounds offer internally? Or, have you heard from others that use the campground WiFi?

I was at South Padre Island KOA in Texas last year, and they had pretty good WiFi for the campground (it was free for the basic plan and $5/day for high-speed video calls and streaming). Do you think campground WiFi might become more popular in the future for people who want to either camp, RV, or work from the outdoors? Or do you think Starlink is eventually destined to take over the internet market at campgrounds?

–From Conor

ANSWER:

There’s no doubt that Starlink is very popular with RVers. I’d say one-third or one-half of all the RVs we’ve camped near over the past year or so use Starlink. It’s compact, easy to set up, and delivers fast and super reliable connectivity, usually much better than campground wi-fi. The new Starlink mini has been extremely popular. 

Starlink’s biggest liability is cost.

The regular-sized Starlink antenna is now $349. The mini is now back up to $599 after a big discount at the end of the year.

It costs $165 a month for unlimited Internet, no matter what size antenna you get,

In terms of coverage, Starlink needs a clear sky above the antenna to reach its satellites and deliver the internet back down to you. So if you are camped under trees, forget about it. And it generally performs best west of the Mississippi than the more populous eastern states, though that disparity is disappearing now that new satellites are joining the Starlink constellation each week.

Campground Wi-Fi is pretty bad in most places. The more people online in the campground, the slower it is. Many campgrounds still won't let you stream movies because their system bogs down.

It’s true, like the campground you visited, that some campgrounds have upgraded with Wi-Fi systems. Some. 

And we’re seeing that many of those that have upgraded now offer a basic and high-speed tier, with premium prices for better service.

You will see more of that. But the majority of campgrounds still have pretty spotty Wi-Fi, and even cellular Wi-Fi over a Wi-Fi hotspot is better than most campgrounds' Wi-Fi. More and more improve their service each year, but it is a big cost, and it's going to take a long time for anything close to reliable campground WiFi to be the norm.

So we recommend Starlink if you really need connectivity on the road and want to be able to stream music. 

Mike & Jen's Storytime

One night, on a lonely stretch of US Route 212 in Montana, we looked in vain for a national or state campground. There were none. Most of the area belonged to the Crow and the Cheyenne Indian Reservations.

Finally, about 11 PM near the town of Broadus, we found a state rest area and turned in. We even saw another RV like ours parked there, along with a handful of trucks.

We blissfully went to sleep, only to awake at 1:30 AM to the sound of rumbling engines and the overpowering stench of diesel fumes. 

The place was bathed in light. Besides running their engines, many trucks keep their lights on. Every inch of space was taken up by trucks.

There was no more sleep that night in that place. We left and drove all the way through into South Dakota, finally finding a KOA near Spearfish a little after 3 AM.

We’ve had variations of that experience at many a Wal-Mart and now know that one of the big RV rules for the road is,,, to stay away from trucks.

They run their engines all night long. They pollute everything around them. They are noisy.

The Lesson: Don't park near trucks if you are overnighting and want a peaceful sleep.