500,000th Winnebago Motorhome

[creativepart]

Winnebago has just released this video about building the 500,000th motorhome in their factory in Iowa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYmyzTQTPnA

[bigb]

I'm a little confused if it is the 500,000th RV or 500,000th motorhome, they say it both ways in different parts of the video. Probably motorhome since a trailer is not really a vehicle? 500,000 does not seem like a lot.
(Webster's does not specifically exclude trailers and caravans from the RV definition and Wiki actually includes them in the definition).

[creativepart]

It’s motorhomes. Class B, C and A. I would guess that Class C is the largest share of this pie with maybe B Vans in second place. I wonder if they’ll release those numbers.

Remember Winnebago got into travel trailers with the purchase of Sunnybrook 12 years ago.

With these kinds of milestones picking the exact 500,000th vehicle is difficult. Yes, they have serial numbers but there are always anomalies that make designating which exact vehicle is the “one” more of a predetermined choice. It’s telling, I think, that they chose a Revel B Van.

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by bigb

500,000 does not seem like a lot.

Well, Winnebago is the first and only manufacturer to reach the 500,000th Motorhome production mark.

[bigb]

Well I guess that makes sense since there are so many manufacturer's out there and also many come and go, and only a fraction of the motoring public owns one. For some reason I just assumed it would be in the millions like popular cars and trucks. I wonder how many trailers they have made? I know Winnebago was an early player in the modern motorhome world and still playing unlike GM and Dodge and a lot of lesser knowns. I didn't know they were fairly new to trailers. I love to look at the old motorhomes and trailers, I would probably want one of the old GM front wheel drives or a Clarke Cortez if I had the time and space to collect. Some of the old Airstream motorhomes are appealing too, some guys fit them with a Cummins, to me that would be a dream rig.
What I don't care for on mine is the inability to be able to fix anything on the Mercedes chassis myself. I can fix a lot of it but there are Bluetec things that can go wrong and leave you with no choice but the dealer.

[macnut]

That’s a great accomplishment, and glad Winnie is still going strong. However, I hope it takes them a LONG time to reach a million, as there’s way too many RV on the road and in the parks these days! :-)

[BarryLS]

"500,000 does not seem like a lot."

Our perceptions are funny. I would have never thought they built anything near that number...

[Chaffeekid]

I am happy with my winne, and super happy with the customer service and also the customer care line. Great service even for the older models such as mine.

Now if I could just find a screen door slider for a 2004 Brave, 34D hint hint

[tderonne]

Winnebago Industries includes sales figures in their annual reports.

I pulled numbers from a few and made a quick graph.

In the last 20 years, Winnebago has averaged just over 8000 motorhomes per year.

I *think* the numbers include Newmar motorhomes. I have not read the reports close enough to confirm that. I didn't look for towable numbers either. I first put the graph together in 2014 or so, to look at the drop in the 2008 timeframe. Didn't care about the new to them towable stuff at the time.

[202235f]

500K is an awesome build record. Just think of all the other manufacturers that have come and gone. Winnebago is still here.

[catmandoo62]

my old neighbor has a very early towable.maybe 15ft or so now i don't know if they changed the name way back when or what but on the front and back it says winnbago,there is no E in the name