RV News: Milestones for ORV and Jayco, a Towable for Winter Conditions, and More

The holidays are nearly here, which means things have started to get a little quiet across the RV industry. Still, there were some interesting stories that made their way across our desks this week. Here are a few things you may want to have on your radar as we head towards Christmas week:

• Outdoors RV Manufacturing Had Produced its 30,000th Towable: Congrats to our friends at Outdoors RV Manufacturing (ORV) for reaching an impressive milestone this week. The company says that it has produced its 30,000th towable model, which includes its Glacier Peak fifth-wheels, Blackstone travel trailers, Trail Series toy haulers, and several other models. The RV in question is a Trail Series that was shipped to ORV’s long-term dealer/partner Thompson RV. The hero image at the top of this page shows the ORV team sitting with the record-setting towable.

Photo Credit: Mammoth Overland

• Mammoth Overland Introduces Burly Winter-Ready Towable: Just in time for the first day of winter, Mammoth Overland has announced a rugged new off-road trailer designed for winter camping. The new WLY (pronounced “Wooly,” of course) model is built to take on temperatures as low as -20ºF. It comes equipped with a Truma furnace, a cozy interior cabin with a king-size bed, and solar panels installed at the factory. To find out more, check out our profile of the WLY Mammoth from earlier this week.
• T-Mobile Opens Beta for Satellite Texting Service: Do you routinely find you have crappy cell service while camping? If so, a new service from T-Mobile may be able to help. The company has teamed up with Starlink to roll out a service that allows users to send text messages via satellite. The goal is to help more people stay in contact even when they’re traveling off-grid somewhere. For now, the service is in beta with plans to roll it out fully in 2025. But if you want to see how it works, you can sign up to join the beta test here. This gives existing customers a chance to test drive the new tech, while helping T-Mo and Starlink stress test their network, ahead of its launch next year. Read more in this press release.

• A Couple Buys Their 8th WInnebago Travato on Video: Winnebago’s Travato is an excellent camper van, offering a flexible interior, excellent storage, an innovative onboard power system, and the option for extended-season camping. All of this makes it one of the most popular Class B models in North America, with thousands of units sold across the van’s lifetime. One couple loves the motorhome so much that they’ve actually bought eight of them. You can see them take ownership of their newest model above and learn why they love this vehicle so much.
• Jayco Hits Sustainability Milestone: This week, Jayco announced that it had achieved a major goal in its efforts to become a more environmentally responsible organization. Back in June of 2021, the RV manufacturer partnered with Tactical Energy Group to create a long-term strategy for reducing energy waste across the entire company. Since then, the brand’s Middlebury, Indiana, campus embarked on a number of energy-saving projects, including installing a 1-megawatt solar system, adding a Virtual Energy Manager system, and retrofitting all lights with LEDs. This resulted in a 50% reduction in energy waste, a 23% reduction in kilowatt-hours used, and a decrease of 27% in energy use year-over-year. Now, the organization will move on to Phase 2 of its sustainability plan, which includes enhancing its off-grid efficiency..

Photo Credit: sanfel/Getty

• US Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case Against California Emissions Regulations: If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re already aware of the impending regulations in California that could potentially limit motorhome sales in that state. If you’re not up on this story, then check out our article on the topic. This week, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a case that appeals the enaction of those new rules, essentially allowing them to move ahead as planned on January 1. Find out more here.

That’s a wrap on this week’s news. Join us next Friday for another roundup of all the latest happenings. Happy holidays!

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