Tampa RV Show

[lawnspecialties]

It's been a long time since that family from Va. Beach bought my F450, toy hauler, and even the golf cart. That was early 2019. Seems like decades ago. But now my youngest will be moving out soon and we're in the early early stages of looking for our next truck and camper.

With demand still pretty high, it sure seems like prices ain't what they used to be. Not to mention finding a new F450 is like finding a rare gem. We'll have to just wait and see how 2022 starts out but it doesn't hurt to just look and get ideas.

I saw the Tampa RV Show is January 19-23. I have a few questions for those who know.

1. Is this show what it's hyped up to be? We're only looking for toy hauler fifth wheels. No Class As or Cs. I can't do the Hershey Pa show because being a landscaper, I'm just too busy in September. My wife and I will drive down from NC on Thursday and head back home that Sunday. That's a long way for a disappointment of a show.

2. We'll only have two days to look at campers. At the Raleigh RV Show, two hours is more than enough. But I remember someone saying one time you need three days to check out all the stuff at Hershey. Just curious if two days is adequate for Tampa. I'm even hoping Luxe does their thing where they set up somewhere off site.

[lawnspecialties]

Just FYI for those interested in future Tampa shows. We did indeed make it. Drove out of central NC early Thursday morning and decided to come back a day early and got home Saturday night right at 11:00.

1. Show was fantastic. Every toy hauler I've wanted to see except the KZ Venom was there. Everyone had their side patio models there, too.
2. I was surprised at how many booths were there for vendors, campgrounds, etc. That was a nice break indoors.
3. The show was run very well. Police and staff were directing traffic and parking as soon as you got near the entrance. It was quick to get parked and since we had purchased tickets in advance, we were inside in no time.
4. It's great to see prices continually falling. They're nothing like they were when we bought our last toy hauler in 2016. But they're also nothing like they've been the past two years. Most triple axle toy haulers are running from the mid-$80,000s to around $140,000.
5. I thought this was primarily offered by the manufacturers. But in fact, it's primarily run by several huge dealerships along I-4 as you come into Tampa. General RV, Camping World, LazyDays RV, Blue Compass RV, and maybe a couple more. But they have so many brands and models, the manufacturer reps are well represented.
6. If you're looking for anything RV, it's probably there. Travel trailers, fifth wheels, toy haulers, Class As, Class Cs, and I couldn't believe how many Class Bs are out there. They even had Spacecraft Mfg. there.
7. Met with Luxe that Saturday morning. All I can say is Wow. But for the price of a new 48FB, I can get a new Seismic and F450 with money left over for camping.

I doubt we'll be getting any toy hauler this year. All good reasons but too much to get into here. But I have business and job opportunities this year to greatly improve things and they're all worth waiting one more year. In fact, if everything works our for me this year, I won't have much time for camping.

Hopefully next year, prices will drop some more and so will prices on the new F450s. But for now, we'll probably look forward to next year's show. 1350 miles round trip in less than 72 hours and they were well worth it.

Not to mention. We are now officially well acquainted with Buc-ees! Excellent brisket sandwiches. 🙂

[lawnspecialties]

agesilaus wrote:
We went the last few times and unless you want to look at RV's it is a waste of time IMO. Nothing worth the trip in the non RV dealer displays. And no good seminars/talks.

We are going almost 100% to just look at new toy haulers. We sold our last one in 2019 when our youngest started college. But now we're in the early stages of choosing our next one. This will make number 6 for us and I'm just as pumped as the first one.

A chance to see everything in one venue is exactly what I'm looking for.

Hoping to really look into:
Alliance Valor
Jayco Seismic
Momentum 399
Riverstones
DRV
New Horizons
Vanleigh
Luxe

If it's a toy hauler with a side patio, we're going to take a look for sure.

[tomman58]

agesilaus wrote:
We went the last few times and unless you want to look at RV's it is a waste of time IMO. Nothing worth the trip in the non RV dealer displays. And no good seminars/talks.

The whole show is for folks looking to buy. Anymore then that is just a few new vendors.
As I stated earlier I was lucky to talk to one of the main engineers, got real lucky on that one.

[agesilaus]

We went the last few times and unless you want to look at RV's it is a waste of time IMO. Nothing worth the trip in the non RV dealer displays. And no good seminars/talks.

[lawnspecialties]

Bringing this old thread back up because we're going to try again this year. Last January, it snowed here in NC the week of the Tampa show. I plow snow for some medical facilities so I had to cancel our trip.

I'm already checking long term forecasts for NC and so far, it's supposed to be in the 60s here which means all should be good.

If all works out, the wife and I are leaving early in the morning of the 19th and returning the 22nd. Two days of camper browsing plus a meeting with the Luxe people that Saturday.

Anybody else planning a trip? Really looking forward to a short getaway.

[tomman58]

We often went in the past. One thing they did then was give you a ticket for today and another for the next day. One year "Good Sam" was a sponsor and all the dealers had heavy duty waterproof goodsam canvas bags. Everyone got several. My wife and her 2 sisters got 45 or more between them. We use them every year the can hold 15 books or a 6 to 10 bottles of wine. Last time we went we only go smaller bags and only a couple at that. Oh as for the event there isn't many dealers that are not there. Before buying my current Jayco TT I had the good fortune to talk to their head engineer for a good half hour. All my complaints on my old Jayco had been addressed fan fixed. We didn't like Jayco selling out but most of the TT still is well made.

[thomasmnile]

lawnspecialties wrote:
Thanks to all for your help. I just booked a room at the LaQuinta right across the street from the fairgrounds. Looking forward to it.

And don't forget the Seminole Tribe will be more than happy to lighten your wallet at the Hard Rock. 🙂

[lawnspecialties]

Thanks to all for your help. I just booked a room at the LaQuinta right across the street from the fairgrounds. Looking forward to it.

[Unobtanium]

Having been to Hershey at least a dozen times and Tampa only once they have one thing in common. Both amaze me they can cram that much shoddily assembled junk into the area alloted. The last Hershey show was a real doosey. One would think the build quality could get no lower, but the RV Industry managed to do it by a longshot. If you buy one of these piles of garbage at the current time you're a fool.

[philh]

It's HUGE

[chindog]

I've been to both, and in my opinion, the Tampa show has more stuff to look at. I just visited the Hershey show, and seems like they only had about 2/3 of the non-dealer vendors as the Tampa show. I didn't look at all the RV dealer areas, but seemed like the class A areas at Hershey was about the same as Tampa. I do know that Tampa has a large selection of pull behinds. They don't have trucks to pull 5ers with much representation, if any.

[agesilaus]

JoeH wrote:

georgelesley wrote:
Do they have travel trailers at the Tampa show?

They have everything from popups to Newells and everything in between.

Ditto on that and many show specials if you are ready to make the jump right then. If so do your reaserch first. The show does last three days so you could look on day one and do internet searches that night on what you liked at the show that night.

I think there may be camping in the parking lot but I'm not sure.

[JoeH]

georgelesley wrote:
Do they have travel trailers at the Tampa show?

They have everything from popups to Newells and everything in between.

[georgelesley]

Do they have travel trailers at the Tampa show?