Sign of the times?

Paper plates and plasticware instead of china and silverware. Disposable razors replacing straight razors that need a stropping leather to maintain an edge. “Fast fashion” clothing, designed to be worn just a few times before being thrown out. Maintaining “stuff” is tedious and time -consuming, and who needs that? Far better to use it and lose it, one way or another.

Now some of that mind-set seems to be trickling down into the RVing world, as signaled by a recent story on the RVLife website headlined, “Sell Your RV This Year, Don’t Store It.” As writer Chelsea Gonzalez points out, winter’s approach means many RV owners have to think about winterizing their rigs, which can be a headache and expensive, to boot. “Why spend so much of your time preparing and storing your rig for winter when you can sell your RV and let someone else use it for the cold months or deal with the storage aspect?” she asks.

That puts a whole new spin on the “pay it forward” concept. But as Gonzalez writes, dumping your RV before you actually have to take care of the thing not only saves time and money, but might result in a profit in this time of high demand. Best of all, selling now means “you can start fresh next year.”

“So many people have purchased RVs recently that it’s highly likely a number of used motorhomes and trailers will be for sale next season,” she contends. “This means you can choose an RV that better suits your needs. . . . You’ll end up with an RV that is the style, size, and floorplan that you truly want, without any of the hassle of winterizing one you don’t care for as much.”

It needs to be pointed out that this particular prescription is flagged on the RVLife site as sponsored content, which may not mean anything to some readers, but is supposed to indicate that what looks like a news story is actually an advertisement. In this case the sponsor is National Vehicle–a company that advertises vehicles for sale by their owners. Just the kind of sponsor, in other words, that would love for you to dump that maintenance headache sitting in your driveway–then come back next spring to buy a replacement.

Who would have thought we’d see an age of disposable RVs?

Author: Andy Zipser

A former newspaper reporter who worked at a variety of newspapers, from small community weeklies to The Wall Street Journal, I finished my "normal" work life as the editor of The Guild Reporter, official publication of the union representing newspaper workers. On retiring, I and my wife bought a campground in the Shenandoah Valley and--with the help of our two daughters and their husbands--operated it for eight years, first as a KOA franchisee and then as an independent family-owned RV park. We sold the campground in May, 2021, and live in Staunton, Virginia, a short walk from our grandsons' home.

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