Only if you let it affect you. That’s what many RV lovers and
vendors say about high gas prices and their impacts on family trips
and the recreational vehicle business in general, but there are
still some who feel the pump pain more than others.
Only if you let it affect you. That’s what many RV lovers and vendors say about high gas prices and their impacts on family trips and the recreational vehicle business in general, but there are still some who feel the pump pain more than others.
Businesses generally note that sales are down slightly – anywhere from a 10 to 20 percent – for campers and trailers, but the market has been expanding so much in the last decade that many said the decline’s just relative. Then there are those like Judy and Clarence Nixon, a retired couple from Walnut Creek who last week were leading the “Rossmoor Road Runners,” an annual caravan of 13 motor homes, or “rigs.”
“We’re the wagon masters,” said Clarence Nixon, 74, as he knocked gently on his diesel rig that has about 76,000 miles on it. Since he retired in 1994, Clarence and his wife have seen diesel fuel go from $1.10 to more than $4.50, all the while traversing the country six times, taking trips to his home state, Tennessee, and excursions to Mexico, Canada and everywhere in between.
Even though the Nixons are less inclined to take longer trips now because of their ages and higher fuel costs (it costs more than $400 to fill up their 90-gallon tank), the couple said they still plan to travel to Arizona and New Mexico this year, cutting costs here and there by eating in more or staying a few days longer at places like the Gilroy Garlic USA RV Park in east Gilroy.
“Even with gas prices the way they are, if you manage your trips properly, this is still the most cost effective way to vacation with your family,” Clarence said inside his neat motor home. “You’re not going to get out of RV trips anymore than a commuter will stop driving to work.”
Through the screen door, the peeling of a cow bell faded in and out as George Winterton notified the rest of the caravan that their barbecue dinner was almost ready (thanks to Judy Nixon).
“Gas doesn’t really affect us that much, at least if you stay some place for a longer time or don’t eat out,” Winterton said. “Plus, it’s nice to have a bathroom on the road for my wife.”
Inside the park’s station Joan Frasco sipped white wine out of a paper cup as her friends trickled in, sniffing with delight.
“Gas is definitely affecting me and my budget. I stay closer to home now when I take trips,” Frasco said. “My social security check doesn’t go up like gas does, but it’s still fun to come on these trips.”
Outside in the heat, Chuck Abbot fiddled with his stand-alone satellite dish outside his trailer, trying to get reception.
Abbot was not vacationing, but working as a contractor for PG&E, he said. As a younger man still working, he said he definitely felt the cost of gas and even postponed his last planned vacation because of it.
“I could go anywhere a few years ago, now I can’t go nowhere,” Abbott said.
“Everyone’s feeling the crunch somehow,” said Lou Dominguez, the manager at the park, where RVs occupied 138 of its 176 spaces. Dominguez said the park was booked through 2010 and added, “People are staying longer here, and more Germans, Spanish and English people are coming through because of the Euro.”
Since 2006, when one Euro fetched $1.19, the value of the dollar has declined. As of Friday, European vacationers in the States could get $1.56 for every Euro, according X-Rates.com, a Web site that monitors the world’s currencies. This means they are more apt to spend (and drive) where Americans are not, Dominguez said.
At Alpine Recreation in Morgan Hill, owner Mike Jacque said sales were down slightly, but because the RV business has expanded throughout the past decade as more Americans take up the hobby, this current slowdown is nothing to panic about. An elderly man and two mid-30-somethings studied specs in the showroom, respectively representing the traditional and growing markets for RVs.
“It comes down to the question, are you going to vacation or not?” Jacque asked rhetorically. “Well, you’re still going to vacation, and before this, there was a huge boom in the RV business, but now we’re just back to normal.”
Last year Lance McAlpine planned to open a new recreational vehicle business at 5990 Travel Park Circle, near the Garlic Farm Truck Stop just off the Monterey Road exit of U.S. 101, but Jacque said he has yet to open. McAlpine could not be reached for comment, but if and when his business comes online, it will essentially replace Guaranty RV Center, which used to sit across the street from McAlpine’s lot before it shut down last year.
That leaves Bonessa Bros RV on Monterey Road, where salesman Michel Baumbach said business was down about 20 percent. As he smushed his unfiltered cigarette on the pavement, the former Marine said part of the reason sales are down is because people live so far away from their jobs and have to pay more to commute now.
Still, like Dominguez and Jacque, Baumbach said the company was looking at the larger picture.
“We just signed a seven-year lease,” he said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
