2015 Minneapolis RV Show

[hanesworthy]

Since Davydd is out on his maiden voyage with his new AARV, I thought I'd mention that the 2015 Mpls RV show began today and runs through Sunday.

http://www.gsevents.com/shows/display.cfm?showid=72

I went to the show this morning. Again the B's were vastly outnumbered by the larger A's, C's and various trailers, but there were roughly 15 or so B's on display, including Pleasure Way, Great West, Leisure Travel, Roadtrek and Winnebago. Of those, only one old van based model - a Roadtrek 210 Popular. Amazing how small it seemed compared to the Eurovan based vans now clearly dominating the Class Bs. I was very impressed with the quality/relative value of the Great West vans. The Winnebago Travato on display was fire engine red - definitely NOT stealth mode!

[booster]

We just got back from the show also. Geezer day so 1/2 price at $5.00!

Was nice to get a look at all the Promaster models, including some class C version, which were kind of suprisingly sitting on single rear wheels. Mighty big and tall for that, I think. It will be interesting to see how they drive for folks.

Looks like the Roadtrek and Pleasure-way versions on the Promaster are going to list right around $100K and Winnebago will be considerable less. Same true with the Sprinter pricing, with the Winnebago considerably less. Some of the C's on Promaster were in the $70K range as as the Travato.

With the pricing of lots of the B's on Sprinters quickly heading toward, $150K, the Great West looked like a good deal by comparison, as did the small Leisure class C.

We talked to folks, and overheard others, really being astounded at the class B prices, when compared to some very well done other sizes. Many didn't stick around to even look much. There was a very nicely done Newmar (different name but in the Newmar booth) front engine gas A for the same price as an Airstream class B (about $150K). It was really impressive in comparison to some others in that range.

When the sticker shocked people got to the Winnebago booth, they were much more willing to look closely at the B's. There does seem to be some price point things going on, and can see why they are getting market share.

We also ran into the folks from Minnesota Mattress Company, who had a booth in the vendor section. We bought our latex home mattress from them. Small Minnesota company, family run, great folks, great service, excellent prices. The are trying to get more of the special size and shape one off mattress business for boats, RVs, truckers. Definitely recommend them.