By Jordan Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PITTSBURGH — At the start of the pandemic, Adriana and Ken Fedunok’s daughter decided to join the RV craze, spurred by newfound flexibility found in work and home life.
They playfully teased her, saying, “Oh, we’ll get one and park it right next to yours,” expecting some pushback. Instead, she enthusiastically supported the idea.
Soon after, they purchased a camper from a friend and dove headfirst into the lifestyle.
“When you go up to camp, it’s like you’re on vacation all the time,” said Ken Fedunok. “Our neighbors ask and say, ‘You still live here?’ ”
Now they plan to sell their home in North Strabane and embrace recreational vehicle living full time after retirement. That’s what brought them to the Pittsburgh RV Show last month, where they could explore the latest models and think about what they want their future home to look like.
One model, featuring a king-size bed, garage, fireplace and 55-inch LED TV, caught their eye.
“We hope when we retire, they’re still making that design,” Adriana Fedunok said.
Each year, the Pittsburgh RV Show, the nation’s longest-running indoor RV exhibition, transforms the 350,000-square-foot David L. Lawrence Convention Center into a haven for RV enthusiasts.
With 150 models on display, options ranged from modest $25,000 travel trailers to luxurious motorhomes costing more than $300,000. The event usually draws 25,000 people, said show promoter and organizer Randy Giancola.
The pandemic fueled an RV boom as Americans embraced remote work and a more nomadic lifestyle. RVs also offer an alternative to costly hotels and the unpredictability of air travel. “I’ve never heard of an RV trip being delayed,” Giancola said.
Sales are normalizing back to pre-COVID times, with RV shipments dropping by nearly 92% from 2021 to 2023. But that doesn’t mean Americans don’t still love camping.
Today’s buyers want more than vehicles — they want homes on wheels, said Giancola, who sold his RV dealerships in 2015. He’s noticed that the tech and amenities in recent models now mirror comforts found in a standard house.
“It’s amazing — when I was in business, there wasn’t one unit that had a residential-style fridge,” he said. “You go in a lot of the bigger fifth wheels and the motor homes, I mean, you’re gonna see GE home-style fridges.”
And he said the demographics of those seeking out the vehicles are evolving too. He said he sees significantly more families at the shows compared to the boomer crowd of the past.
As self-described “big hikers” and “outdoorsy people,” Courtney and Kodie Claypoole headed to the show along with their 2-year-old son, Cooper, with hopes of upgrading their current camper. A grueling road trip to Florida made the North Side couple desperate for more space.
“We want to go from a camper to the RV, because there’s a little more freedom to move about, and he’s not sitting in a car seat for 20 hours,” Courtney Claypoole said.
The couple said they appreciated the opportunity to browse without the sales pressure felt at dealerships. Their son had simpler priorities: playing with all the steering wheels.
“We love coming to this event to just learn more about exactly what we want,” she said. “I want to just see stuff without being pitched.”
Of course, they had to browse the luxury options, too, some of which featured second-story lofts. “We like to go look at the fantasy ones. Like, yeah, we’re not gonna do that, but they’re pretty cool.”
Longtime RV enthusiast Kim Volpe was eyeing one model that featured a large outdoor patio. But her husband, Emmett, felt it was a bit out of their price range.
“You could put ours inside that thing,” he said.
Just in the past few years, RVing costs have risen significantly, from $1,100 to $2,400 in annual fees to stay at campgrounds, the couple said. “It used to be cheap to go camping. Now it’s pretty elaborate,” Emmett Volpe said.
For many, indeed, RV shopping is about balancing aspiration with practicality. Mike and Tiffany Christie want to sell their camper to possibly upgrade to a larger toy hauler. Their son, Nick, and his wife, Bethany, are looking to start small.
“We’re starting from scratch. We almost need the cheaper one, kind of like a starter home,” Nick Christie said.
And seeing the models in person has been much more fruitful than online shopping. “You can only Google so much,” he said, adding that he might be willing to buy today if he saw a good enough deal.
For some, the social side of RVing is what makes the investment worth it. That’s the case for Mike and Christina Stewart, who said the campsite they stay at each summer, Vacation Land in Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania, feels much different than what its name implies.
“You build this community,” she said. “You just go outside, and it’s like back in the day, you have your block of neighborhood kids. My kids have ’80s-style summers.”
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