We spent most of the past week touring the 2013 edition of the Florida RV Supershow, arguably the nation’s biggest and best RV shows.
Some 1,100 RVs spread out over 16 acres were on display this year from just about every RV manufacturer in North America.
Since we concentrate our coverage on small motorhomes and Type B coaches in particular, we had lots of time to inspect the 2013 models from the leading Type B manufacturers.
Jennifer and I saw the lineup from Pleasure-Way, Leisure Travel Vans, Great West Vans, Airstream and Roadtrek Motorhomes, as well as the new Ocean One model from Type B start-up manufacturer Advanced RV.
The vans are beautiful, the interiors varied and the colors and options many.
Here are a few of the top Type B trends we identified at the show, as well as some of the things we liked the most:
- Solar – Everyone s jumping on the solar option, as led by Roadtrek and its new eTrek
- Bigger Refrigerators – The fridges are getting bigger, 7 and 7.5 cubic feet will be common in 2013
- Stainless appliances – The galleys are sparkling this year thanks to an abundance if stainless
- Heated floors – Hydronic heating is offered by several Type B manufacturers, heating the coach interiors, water tans, bathrooms and floors.
- Keurig coffee makers – This seems to be the choice for Type B coffee-making, typically on a slide out shelf
- Touch screen control centers – Advanced RV has the Silverlight flat panel touch screen. It’s expensve. But sales and RV industry folks we talked to said other manufacturers will be implementing other versionsof this technology, utilizing iPad and Droid tablets.
The video above shows some of our favorites.
A few observations and questions:
1. How will that solar panel on the roof hold up in a hail storm? Is it made of gorilla glass? Is it absolute black and thus the most efficient?
2. Some stainless steel will rust. How do we assure ourselves that the stainless used is of high quality and truly stainless?
3. I like the idea of in-floor heat. We have it in our home in Minnesota and it is great, and warm from bottom to top. So, the question is, with the in floor and tank heat, how low a temperature can we now camp in without freezing our water lines?
The standard for solar modules is 1″ hail @ 52mph terminal speed, never have broken a panel yet on our coach in some pretty nasty hail storms.