RV Dealers In Oregon See Uptick In Sales

According to KVAL, goods like toilet paper and hand sanitizer have been in high demand during the pandemic. Now, RV dealers are seeing more units leave their lots.

It’s been six weeks since Oregon Governor Kate Brown issued the Stay Home, Save Lives order.

It mandated closure of campgrounds and facilities and directed people to minimize travel.

“They’ve been starved of vacations for what’s been almost two months now,” said Shannon Nills, the owner of Guaranty RV.

Nills says that customers are starting to get cabin fever, and have sought RV's as a solution.

“RV’s make a good alternative vacation method that gives you that safety and security."

He says RV sales are up. And this is being seen in the entire industry.

“Over the weekend we sold 52 units, that’s almost double what we sell in a given weekend.”

Sutton RV in Eugene is also seeing this soar in customers. General manager Lisa Bottorff says traffic on their website has more than tripled.

“Interest has increased tremendously, some people are making appointments some people are coming in physically,” Bottorff said.

Bottorff says many customers have expressed a desire to social distance and avoid shared spaces while traveling.

“They would rather stay in their own trailer and not visit the hotels.”

State and national parks – including RV spots and facilities remain closed under the order. But in some parts of Oregon – like Douglas County – RV parks have reopened to the public. But only for self-contained RV's.

“That means they’ve got onboard water and waste storage as well as restroom and showers,” Nills said.

With all this interest in RV's, Bottorff says manufacturers have their work cut out for them. She says many of them closed when the pandemic first started – but have since reopened.

“They’re going to be about 30 days behind, but they’ve assured us they’ll catch up and we’ll be able to get all of the items that we ordered,” they said.

Summer vacation is still on the horizon for some.