Soulful RV Recaps the Florida RV Supershow

RV Lifestyle

The freezing cold wind welcomed us back to the reality that we are still in the middle of this Winter season. Talk about a welcome home; nothing like below freezing temps to help us realize that, “Dorothy you’re not in Kansas anymore”, or in this case Tampa, Florida. We recently returned from the Florida RV Supershow. Most people know It as the big Tampa RV show. This show is arguably the biggest show in the country. Now I’m going to entertain that debate, we can have that later. To us it’s not only the biggest, but to our family it’s the best.  We love this show and it did not disappoint.

When we tell people how special the Supershow can be, and trust us on this, it can easily suck you into spending more time than you ever intended, and this year was no different. This was the first year we didn’t camp onsite for the show. We decided to make this year’s show more of an abbreviated affair, only spending 1-2 days at the show. I bet you can guess how that worked out for us? The more we saw, the more it drove us to see more. Our plans for a 2 day show,  turned into 4 days attending the show.

We all know that the RV Industry has been on fire the last few years. This year we saw more innovations than I can remember. With the shift in ownership levels to younger more active RVers, what the manufacturers are producing definitely reflects these trends. You can feel and see the millennial effect. This is our fourth year in a row attending the Florida RV Supershow, and It’s time to reflect back on everything that was in the show.

Class B’s and Smaller RV’s Were Everywhere

While Towable RV’s still dominate the percentage of RV sales, you can clearly see that Class B’s and smaller RV’s are the flavor of the year. It seemed like every manufacturer was putting their models out there to capture those millennial’s dollars. The advancement in these class B’s  is very exciting.

There seems to be something for everyone, whether you’re strictly looking for a bed to take off the grid somewhere or something that is actually family-friendly for parents and kids.

It’s amazing to us what they do with such small spaces. Every single inch of these coaches are utilized effectively. We wish prices would come down more, but you are now seeing more options in the under $100k RV’s.

Off the Grid

It seemed like just about every RV we stepped in either had solar installed, was prepped for solar or at least had it as a option. You can clearly see the shift to “off the grid” camping options   solar and the advancement in lithium ion batteries as making their way to more and more RV’s. I have to admit I have a love affair with the solar and would love to have it on our RV. Hard part for me is my wife reminded me that we have not entered into the boondocking stage of RV experience.

And to see prices come down considerably for solar systems and the battery packages that are coming is enticing but we’re not there yet. It’s exciting to see so many people wanting solar lithium batteries as part of their new RV purchase. Maybe I can find a sponsor who wants to help me out with my RV.  Anybody out there I am listening?

The People…..

One of the best things about the Tampa show is the amount of followers or just plain RV enthusiast that we get a chance to interact with.

It was humbling for us to be RV shopping and have someone come up to us and say we follow you. I’m thrilled that we are able to interact with so many people from so many different parts of the country and inspire, encourage, and share our experiences.

Bonus – Meeting RV Content Creators 

This one was really a lot of fun for us. Yes, being bloggers we still follow the blogs podcasts and YouTube channels of many RV content creators. So getting a chance to finally meet in person many of these incredible creators, most for the first time, was so much fun . We had a chance to meet Youtubers like @wearetheRussos, @roadtreking @RVlove, Technomadia etc.

Many times, we like most people, have only  interacted with these creators via social media. It was very nice to have some time to meet these creators and share thoughts and ideas. And every single one of them were open, honest and welcoming.

The RV’s…….

We saw and we heard it with our own ears so many times people stating how nice it is to see the RV industry listening to the consumers. It is a difficult thing you can’t please everybody and these manufacturers are trying to build RVs that appeal to the most or the largest group of buyers. But we saw this year more than any other year was the change in colors, decor, and definitely technology.

We actually stumbled across, for us, we would say a couple of “game changers“. For Family this year was a little bit different than the past couple years of attending the show. We actually were in the market for a new RV for Family. Now we’re not replacing our Newmar class A,  we absolutely love it. But we will consider adding a second RV  to our family mix. We have discovered that a 43 foot class A is a wonderful RV to have especially when you’re staying in for an extended period of time but we miss something that is nimble, something that we could use for short day or two trips.

And we recognized with so many people wanting to get into the RV world and travel in an RV, there is an exciting business opportunity to purchase that second RV to rent out. So with that, our eyes will be on travel trailers and small B pluses.

Final Thoughts…..

So as we left Tampa we left with a smile on our faces. One of the things we love the most about being RV’ers is the community, and the positive community was out in full force in Tampa. We really missed camping on site. We had made a decision to stay closer to Orlando and make the 45 minute drive daily. We will not make that mistake again. I really feel like we missed out on that interaction, fellowship in a post show closing.

And if we’re gonna be 100% honest, we really missed the convenience of a short trip to get into the show every morning rather than a long hour long drive. So if you haven’t attended a Florida RV Supershow before, we think it’s time to make plans for the next Supershow. Is there a better place to be then Tampa, Florida in mid January?

Hopefully we will see you there next year or out on the road this season.  Safe travels everyone and God bless.

Keith and Tia Sims

Soulful RV Family

For more information on the Sims check out Meet the Soulful RV Family.