What’s Ahead? Our Honest, Unfiltered Predictions on 2025 RV Camping and Travel

This week on the RV Podcast:

• We share our no-holds-barred predictions on 2025 RV Camping and Travel. We’ll tell you what to expect and identify 10 trends that will impact your RV Lifestyle in 2025.
• Plus the Social Media Buzz, RV News of the Week and your questions coming up in Episode #527 of the RV Podcast

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RV Conversation of the Week – 2025 RV Camping and Travel

This is the time of year when we look ahead to the next RV and Camping Season, and we give our predictions of the top trends that we think will characterize the new year for RVers.

1. Camping Fees will keep rising – Inflation has really hit the campground industry. Its not that unusual to find nightly full hookup fees in many private campgrounds to be i  the $70 range. Even state parks are upping their rates. And for weekends and holidays, dynamic pricing, which raises prices to meet demand takes the fees to budget-busting levels,
2. Road and infrastructure repairs and construction will cause more traffic jams – Our nation's roads are in worse shape than last year. We know major repairs will disrupt stretches virtually every major north-south and east-west route in the country… way too many for us to list here. Some, like the emergency repairs to I-40 in North Carolina and Tennesee from damage caused by Hurricane Helene, will result in a major closure expected to last until September. But many of the major interstate repairs are multi-year projects with resulting lane closures and massive traffic jams.
3. The sad fact is that bad roads will get worse before they get better. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that through 2025, the United States has funded only about 56 percent of its needed infrastructure spending. That means 44% of the roads needing repairs in 2025 won’t get fixed next year. So it becomes even more important for RVers to carefully plan their routes and ways to Detroit around the bottlenecks.
4. Many State and National Parks will be shut down or have limited space because of repairs and upgrades. There is so much work to be done there. Most state parks are in dire need of repairs. And 2025 is going to see more disruption than ever before.
5. The very controversial and complicated California Clean Air regulations that have threatened to disrupt the sales of new large motorhomes in five states there will continue to be controversial but the public outcry has been so overwhelming that several states have backed adjusted their timetables or are considering exemptions for big RV motorhomes. The bottom line is that we expect that in the end, not much will change for the sale of these big RVs in 2025, though we’re going to continue hearing a lot of conceding information about it until the bureaucrats and the RV industry reach some sort of compromise – which we’re sure they will.
6. The RV Industry itself, will have a a bit better year than 2024. Not great, but not as stagnant as 2024 has been. That's if bank interest rates keep falling or don't start rising again. For consumers, 2025 is shaping up to be more competitive, with manufacturers and dealers more willing to deal. 2025 should be a bit more of a buyer’s market. 
7. Used RV prices are dropping, though. A lot of those RVs bought up during the pandemic are now being sold, and with new models a little more affordable in 2025, used RVs are going to be a bit harder to sell.
8. AI will make it even easier to plan RV travels. With all the tech companies now offering their own versions of ChaptGPT, you don't even need one of those fancy RV apps. In fact, we predict several will go out of business. I just used Chapt GPT to plan our upcoming 1,150 mile trip to Tampa in a few weeks, and it did it faster and better than even RV Trip Wizard… our go-to planning software service. AI, for all its faults and potential abuses, is pretty amazing and as it becomes easier to use for the average person, it's going to make the RV Life a little easier for trip planners.
9. The RV Property ownership trend will continue – Owning their own RV property, be it in a developed campground, resort, or on multi-acre parcels, will attract more RVers in 2025. The advantage is clear. You can camp whenever you want, as long as you want. The challenge is for developers to find big tracts of land that are not restricted in the ways it can be used. Tennessee, Alabama, Arizona, and Nevada are the states where this is happening the most. We expect to see more places opening up next year. And deluxe RV developments aimed at the affluent segment of RV owners will be selling off more lots… some well over $100,000. 
10. RVs themselves will become more luxurious – RV makers are going to be putting nicer furniture, appliances and decor into their products in 2025. Look for more solar and lithium options for boondockers. Starlink and Internet options. Storage space or racks for eBikes. Better tires. In the downturn that hit the industry after COVID, the trend was to keep the prices as low as possible by skimping on the features. That didn't really help much. Consumers demand a certain quality, and the industry is putting that back into the new models. No doubt, we’ll be showing you what we mean when we do our review videos at the Tampa RV Supershow next month.

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.

In the RVLifestyle Community‘s Apps & Trips Planning Space we asked: What and where are the worst Interstates you have driven with your RV?

As you can imagine, there are some bad roads all over this country. But three came up repeatedly, and they were:

– I-10 in Louisiana – some said it is bad all the way to California.

– I-40 across New Mexico – but some said it is bad all across Tennessee, especially in the larger cities like Memphis or Nashville.

– And I-70 in the Indiana and Illinois area.

Also in the Community, I loved a post from Brad in the General Camping Discussions Space. Brad and his wife are getting ready to leave their home in Minnesota and head to the Southwest. Brad prepared a checklist and asked the group if he missed anything.

You have to check out his Snowbird checklist. It was so good and thorough! Here are a few things he included: 

• Make reservations for the Campsite
• Have mail forwarded to the new address
• Stop Trash Service
• Make a packing list of clothing, RV items
• Complete all doctor appointments before departure 
• Confirm with the pharmacy prescriptions can be picked up at the destination 
• Put Gym membership on hold
• Plan route to the Snowbird destination 
• Call Snowbird Park and confirm reservations
• Find accommodations for nights on the road to Snowbird destination
• Lower thermostat in house/ Change furnace filter
• Turn off the water in the house

Randy read that list and said: Great list! I agree, Randy!

What do you think? Did Brad leave anything out?

Then over at our RVLifestyle Facebook Group, Emily is headed to Florida via I-75 and wants to avoid driving through Atlanta.  So Emily asked for thoughts on how to do this, listed some cities as a drive around option, and needed advice.

Ed suggested going through Atlanta at 3 am-5am.

Susan suggested Emily drive on a Saturday or Sunday to miss the commuter traffic, and go early – 5 am ish. And Patrick, who lived in the area for many years, said the best route is to stay on I-75 right through the city but do it very early – say 4 am – 6 am.

RV NEWS OF THE WEEK

A Virginia man raised $750,000 to buy RVs and other supplies for those devastated by Hurricane Helene. Hats off to Bill St. Pierre, a woodworker from Floyd, North Carolina. He created a GoFundMe account thinking he would raise $3,000, and has been blown away by people's generosity. So far he purchased 20 Springdale travel trailers for those who were in tents after their homes were washed away.

AAA is expecting a record number of holiday travelers at the end of December: Will you be one of them? More than 119 million Americans are expected to travel between Dec. 21 and Jan. 1, surpassing the record set in 2019. 

A fire caused by a small space heater destroyed a woman's RV in Oregon. The woman was using a Little Buddy portable heater that firefighters believe was likely not properly set up.

RV QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

QUESTION: We’re newbies and have to ask: When camping with full hook up, do you leave black & gray valve open or do you leave closed and drain as needed to help flush out drain hose?– Parker and Missy.

ANSWER: While you may have your dump hose hooked up to the sewer drain on your campsite, the black tank valve should always be closed except when you are going to dump. You do not want it left open and free-flowing, no matter how logical that sounds. 

As far as the gray valve goes, the majority of people say to leave it closed, too. However, a few say leave it open if you are taking a lot of showers or using a washer and dryer in the RV. Our advice is to leave it closed, too.

The reason is when it’s time to empty the black tank, you want a good strong flow of grey water to help flush out any solids that may be trapped in your drain hose.

Another big mistake RVers make is dumping the black tank too often. The most important thing you can do with the black tank is use a lot of water. You want to dump when it is ¾ full. 

The more water you have, the more things dissolve. The less chance those solids pile up into what is crudely but accurately described as a “poop pyramid.” Water keeps things from drying up and solidifying. That’s the source of odor. Use a lot of water.  And then when you do open that black valve to drain, there’s a strong flow to flush out all those wastes.