Despite dodgy weather during the week that wreaked havoc on some manufacturer displays, the 2025 Elkhart RV Open House finished with mostly positive reports from manufacturers, suppliers and dealers alike.
The Elkhart RV Open House is an annual dealer event held by RV manufacturers to give dealers the opportunity to check out new units and make orders for the year ahead.
RVBusiness, sister publication to Woodall’s Campground Magazine (WCM), spoke with a handful of OEMs who were still receiving visitors on Thursday, and the general consensus was that even if traffic was a bit light in some cases — mainly attributed to dealer consolidation — the business activity was good and the camaraderie was great.
A.J. Jones, President, Axiom RV
We had a phenomenal Open House, so we were very excited. So, we were very, very, very successful and solidified almost all of our dealer partners. It was just phenomenal. The traffic out here (along Executive Parkway) was great. We were busy pretty much the whole time during the show. There was a tremendous flow of traffic and I think the product was unbelievably well received. People were really kind of mind-blown when they came out here and saw it. We were super excited to do the debut launch of our Imperium product.
For a new company to come out and have actually four separate floorplans out here that are all brand new and something the RV industry has never seen before — along with all of our industry firsts. We have four patents and another fifth patent on its way right now. Just a lot of things that people have never seen.
It was exciting. It was really, really exciting. So, we couldn’t be happier about what happened during this week.
Honestly, our goal was, first, to solidify our dealer partners. So, we were blessed beyond belief that there’s even been a few different arguments of different people wanting to partner with us — kind of a high-class headache in that whole situation. But, yeah, I mean we were really, really blessed in the whole situation where we were able to get a really solid dealer base with almost all the top dealers in the country.
This week was critical for us We were able to solidify quite a bit of business before Open House — when a lot of the others came in for Forest River’s sneak preview — but this was not even icing on the cake. This was the cake, honestly, for us when it’s all said and done.
A lot of dealers come in here and, honestly, they didn’t even know what to expect. Our units are so different than everybody else’s stuff out there. When they walk in is like, “Oh my gosh.” They walk in and they couldn’t believe the ceiling heights and the mini-split setup. Us being the first manufacturer to be RVAA-certified to actually use the mini-split situation — and with our patent for that as well — it was a game-changer and it was so exciting and so much fun to be a part of.
Jason Hershberger, Forest River General Manager, Prime Time, Cardinal & Wildcat
Well, this week the weather didn’t cooperate, but the dealers did. We had an excellent show and we were very fortunate to be across the way from the Cherokee group, which of course brings dealers in and grabs a lot of attention. We did a really good job. The team did a great job and a significant portion of next year’s production is all spoken for.
The dealers embraced the new Prime Time lineup. They’ve wanted Prime Time to be a family of brands for a long time and it really didn’t look like a family. And now, with the gold windows and the graphics packages that we picked, top to bottom Prime Time is something that is back on track again with a dealer group because you can go from a single axle all the way up to a high-end fifth-wheel now, and it has the same look and the same feel.
This is our Super Bowl. I started this job in January and that’s all I’ve been thinking about since. It is our one week to shine. Everybody’s prepared for it, and now everybody is flat out exhausted and happier than hell.
Keith Fishburn, Sales Manager, inTech RV
It’s been a great year and a great Open House for us this year. We’ve seen a lot of dealers come down to our facility (in Nappanee, Ind.). We did a dinner on Sunday night that had a lot of dealers come through. Usually, we like it if we see about 50% of our dealer body, and I think we’ve already well exceeded that here on Wednesday.
But what’s neat for us is, by having it down here at our facility, we’re able to show new dealers that are coming on board how we build and what’s different about our product versus just seeing a bunch of them out in the field.
We were able to show what we do here that sets us apart, so it gives us the experience. Also, it rains every year at Open House and it’s cold. So, we get to at least stay warm inside an indoor showroom and have concrete versus grass to walk on. We also get a little more focused time with our dealers when they do come because now they’ve made the trip down here to see us. So, we’re going to have an hour or so to spend together. They’ve made the trip, so they’re going to put the time in just to have conversation relationship building.
Absolutely, Open House is a very important part of our business. Being a smaller manufacturer, we aren’t out there all the time at the dealership, so we don’t have those touch points. I mean, obviously we have phone conversations and great relationships with our dealers, but Open House is an opportunity for us just to kind of recap year together, talk about it.
Again, it’s an opportunity to build the relationship with those guys and for them to come and see what we’re doing on our end and what we’re looking forward to next year. So, yeah, we value it a lot. We don’t run programs. We’re not even taking orders necessarily at Open House. It just gives us that time to connect again with them.
We’re not a program company. It’s not, “Come in and buy X amount and get big discounts” or something like that that we do. This is just about building that rapport and that relationship.
Dominique Nadeau, President, Safari Condo
It was our first attendance, and we were very happy. I mean, it was not necessarily in terms of huge numbers — we didn’t know what to expect — but the people we did get were a really good fit with our product. And we have potentially more leads than we can handle, so we’re really happy with it.
It is a long way to come (from the company’s facilities in Quebec), and for us this was a significantly larger investment for a show. However, the opportunity to meet dealers from all across North America, especially all across the U.S., for us it was worth the investment. And, yeah, we have some really interesting potential new dealers.
(On the current Canada-U.S. political environment) Yeah, we were a bit nervous about that. To be honest, we didn’t know how we’d be received. And it’s not like with our accent, we can’t pretend that we’re from anywhere else than French-speaking Canada. But everyone was very nice, which I think just goes to show there’s the politics, and then there are people — and it’s completely two separate things.
We were really happy with the reception; just very nice people on both sides. I think we were happy to be here, and the Americans were happy to see us.
So far, our product is imported under the USMCA, which right now is still being honored. So, we have a limited amount of tariffs — just based on the steel content, things like that — which we can absorb. So, so far, nothing major or threatening to the business itself or to the sales.
But yes, that can change. That’s the only problem with the current situation is that it can change and we don’t know when. So, we’re hoping it doesn’t too much so that we can keep having this plan of expanding more to U.S. dealers.
Fred Hershberger, Forest River General Manager, Palomino & Puma
We had a great week. We had a lot of new products that we were showing off, and starting Monday morning, right off the bat, we got packed with dealers and it seemed like it never stopped — except for the rain.
Yeah, we’re really pumped. It seems like everybody had a really good show, and it seems like we had a really good turnout with a lot of dealers here in town. We’re real excited to wrap up this year and get started on next year.
As far as overall dealer sentiment, everybody thought the market was a little flat this year at the dealership level. Everybody seems to be excited and thinking that maybe next year it’ll be a rebound for them. So, they’re here preparing for that and they’re excited about the products that are out there and real optimistic.
As much as we enjoy the camaraderie and everything — which is important —it’s still a business show. Depending on what your offering was and the changes that you were making for this time of the year, I think certain brands out there could have had a really good show — and we were one of those.
Scott Tuttle, President, Soaring Eagle Campers
For us, the show was amazing. We went into the show hoping to add five or six new dealers — which for us, small manufacturer, that’s pretty significant. We’re going to do well over double that. The response has been amazing, so we’re having fun.
We introduced two new residential colors of cabinetry in our Aerie line, which is our top of the line model. We did a sage green interior, which is kind of a lighter green, and we did a stone blue, which is kind of a medium blue. Both are very residential. They’re very relevant in today’s society, and the ladies are loving it in particular. So that’s probably been the highlight of what we’ve introduced.
We also introduced a new model at this show called the Aquila, and that’s going to give us a product in a price point that we’ve never been in before. We had our entry level, which was the Adlar, and we had the higher end, which is the Aerie, and now the Aquila’s going to land right in between. It’s something that’s going to retail for low $30s, high $20s, and it’s very well-equipped for that and lightweight like everything we build with the aluminum and composites.
Earl Williams, President, Modern Buggy
This is our fourth year out here and, for us, it was a really good show. Not necessarily from a “We added a hundred dealers” standpoint, but from an order standpoint, we took more orders at this show than we’ve ever taken in the four years we’ve been out here. So, I was super happy about that.
It wasn’t like we didn’t sign some new dealers. We signed some quality dealers in the right markets that we weren’t in. But, really, the dealers who came to see us I felt like had maybe been holding off on ordering. They wanted to see what the economy looked like, what’s happening in the world. Now it’s Expo time, shows are coming, let’s get some orders out. So, yeah, that felt really good.
We brought our new Hopper line, which for us is more of an entry level line. I’ve kind of been a “hang your hat on all aluminum, no wood construction.” We decided to go ahead and dip our toe in the hybrid world. So, we still have a lot of our same construction, one-piece aluminum roof, but we went with wood walls and some more of your traditional building. But it’s able to get to an entry level product that can compete with pretty much anybody.
