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Bigger is better is the motto of many RV buyers, but not all.

The Gazette at Canada.com features a profile of Roadtrek RVs, which are manufactured by Canada based Home & Park Motor homes. Roadtrek RVs might be smaller than their Class A cousins, but Roadtrek’s customers prefer their more manageable size, making Roadtrek the number one selling Class B motor home in North America.

Roadtrek RVs are created when General Motors and DaimlerChrysler vans are converted into motorhomes. The challenge for Roadtrek is to fit the accessories of a larger RV into a smaller space. New body panels and parts extend the back of the RV, giving the Roadtrek its distinctive raised fiberglass roof.

Roadtrek seems to be experiencing a similar shift in customers that other RV makers are. While most of Roadtrek’s customers are over 50, younger buyers are now buying RVs too.

Are you looking for a Roadtrek? Find one on RV Trader Online. Do you own a Roadtrek? Tell us about your RV and leave a comment below.

RVs are used by most people as an escape from work, carrying their drivers to vacations and relaxation. The Herald Tribune features a story of the The Jobs Etc. RV, an RV that helps people find work and serves as a rolling job placement service.

Equipped with 13 workstations, Microsoft office software, and a screen for outdoor presentations, the RV serves as Jobs Etc. office away from the office, connecting with employment-seekers in the field.

The RV helps workers who are facing layoffs, suffering a job loss due to a natural disaster, or just need to polish up their resume.

The Jobs Etc. RV is shows how an RV can be turned from vacation shelter to a more business-oriented purpose.

Do you work for a business or a government agency and use an RV? How did you adapt it to your use? Leave a comment or send us an E-mail at rvblog@traderonline.com and share your story.

Having to work while on vacation sounds dreary. Who wants to be looking at a laptop screen while you are out in the great outdoors?

More RVers are changing the nature of work and RV travel. They are hitting the road with their work, integrating traveling and their jobs.

The Kerrville Daily Times features a story about the Prescotts, a retired couple who use their RV as a rolling office, financing their travels with editing textbooks online. They use an onboard satellite system called DataStorm to link up with Internet access, telephone, and TV signals to stay connected and working.

Beyond work and web surfing, DataStorm users are now building a community of RVers to organize during emergencies like Hurricane Katrina.

Do you work from your RV? Do you use a DataStorm system to keep connected? Leave a comment or send us an E-mail and tell us your story. We want to hear how you blend travel and work with your RV.

Looking to travel and stay connected? RVs with DataStorm systems are featured on RV Trader Online.

Baby boomers are big buyers of RVs, but some are deciding to hold off on their purchases for now.

According ot the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, boomers are retiring and want to hit the road in luxury RVs, but high fuel prices and borrowing costs are making some think twice.

RV sales surge when interest rates are low and consumer confidence is high. Uncertainty about the economy and future fuel prices appear to be dampening some buyers enthusiasm.

RV industry analysts hope that sales will be brighter down the road, as more consumers in the 55 and 64 age bracket retire.

Yet some RV buyers are not waiting, buying smaller and more efficient RVs that can be towed with a Sports Utility Vehicle, or chosing to rent rather than buy.

Are you a hesitant RV buyer? What will be your choice? Will you hold off and buy a big RV…or buy a smaller one now? Is renting the way to go for you? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

If you think of a vehicle painted with funky dark flames, decked out with a high powered stereo, Ipod hookups, a sleek metal interior, and a name like Nitrous, you probably envision a slick new car aimed at young buyers from Scion or Toyota.

Actually, it’s an RV…made by Fleetwood. Surprised?

According to an article on the Hardford Courant site, members of Generation X (born between roughly 1960 and 1978) are the newest RV customers, and manufacturers have responded with new models such at the Nitrous.

In the past, RV dealers had expected buyers to be silver-haired senior citizens or newly retired baby boomers. Now RV buyers are hitting the road in their in their 30s and even 20s, and manufacturers are meeting demand with new styles and models.

These new RV consumers want sleeker, stylish RVs and room for their toys, like dirt bikes, custom choppers, and High Definition TVs. Younger RV owners are bypassing quiet campgrounds, taking their campers to football lot parties and into the desert for remote camping.

Are you a new generation of RV owner? Want to share your tales of adventure? Post a comment and tell us about it! Or check out the other Fleetwood RVs and the Nitrous on RV Trader Online.

The RV Trader Insider is ready to travel the Internet in search of RV news and adventure. As we roll along, we would like to tell you about who we are, why we have an RV blog, and how you can help us make this blog part of the RV community.

What is a blog?

A “blog” is an online diary or journal written by a “blogger” to inform others about a particular subject. “Blogging” is when a person uses a blog to share their thoughts and ideas. Businesses use blogs to inform their customers about their services and official news. Others use blogs to create online communities, where individuals with a common interest come together to communicate. The “Blogosphere” refers to the world of all bloggers, or bloggers in a particular community or subject, like sports, politics, or pop culture.

What is RV Trader Insider?

RV Trader Insider is the official blog of RV Trader Online.

RVTraderOnline.com is owned and operated by Trader Publishing Company. Formed in 1991, Trader Publishing Company is the nation’s leading publisher of specialty classified advertising publications. RV Trader Online serves private parties wanting to buy and sell used RVs, yet also serves as a forum for dealers and brokers to advertise their vehicles for sale.

Trader’s print magazines, like RV Trader, are distributed through hundreds of thousands of distribution points in most of the United States.

What does RV Trader Insider do?

The RV Trader Insider seeks to travel the World Wide Web to inform and create an online community for RV buyers and sellers, RV dealers, and all who are interested in RVs.

We hope our readers will use RV Trader Online’s services to buy and sell RVs, but we also wish to contribute to the online RV community through sharing news and information, not just about RV Trader Online, but the recreational vehicles of all types.

If you are a RV buyer, RV seller, own an RV dealership, or just like to read about RVs, we want you to enjoy our RV blog and offer your comments and feedback.

What do we blog about on RV Trader Insider?

While the RV community has so many issues and topics to cover, we want our focus to be on buying and selling both new and used RVs.

For RV owners, the RV is more than just a vehicle, it is their home away from home. RVers live and even work from their RV. Senior RV owners are spending their golden years on the open road. Baby boomers are hitting the road and not looking to slow down anytime soon. Even young families are discovering the RV lifestyle, taking their kids along for the ride.

RVs are riding the wave of high-tech innovation, now often equiped with Wi-Fi Internet access, satellite TV and radio and GPS navigation.

But world of RVs is more than just vehicles and technology, it is the people who use them and who have their own stories. We hope to use our RV blog to share their stories too.

You can help RV Trader Insider!

Do you like our stories? Do you have ideas for RV blog stories? Are you a RVer who has a blog? There are other RV bloggers out there, and we want to hear from you!

You can click on the little speech balloon under each story on our blog and leave a comment. Please be polite and write a comment related to the story.

You can also contact us at rvblog@traderonline.com. Send us your story ideas and comments.

If you have a RV blog, let us know about it! We want to know who is writing about RVs in the blogosphere. Even if you don’t have a blog, if you find an interesting RV related site or news story, send us a link. We need your help and contributions to keep this blog rolling.

If you have a RV blog, feel free to link to us! We can’t promise that we will link back, but if you find your blog informative and complies with our standards, chances are strong we’ll return the favor.

So let’s get rolling! There’s a big road ahead of us.

RVTraderOnline.com, an online showroom of over 85,000 recreational vehicles across the US and a division of Trader Publishing Company determined that what RV buyers are looking for are pre-owned RVs over new ones.

In a recent survey of RV consumers on RVTraderOnline.com, 70% of the respondents told us they prefer to purchase their RVs used. Only 30% of the respondents actually prefer new or never-been-used RVs.

Rick Studley, the Sales Manager for RVTraderOnline.com remarks, “used RVs consistently tend to fly off our site. Most of our dealers are noticing that same trend as well.”

RVTraderOnline.com is the leading online classified ad service bringing RV buyers and sellers together in one virtual marketplace with over 700,000 visitors per month, (WebTrends, 2006). Advertising their inventory on RVTraderOnline.com, dealers and independent owners alike are reaching RV enthusiasts who are interested in researching and purchasing new and used recreational vehicles online.

Headquartered in Norfolk, VA, RVTraderOnline.com is part of TraderOnline.com’s network of websites covering new and used vehicle categories such as boats, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, aircraft, equipment and collector car vehicles, and general merchandise. TraderOnline.com is a division of Trader Publishing Company, the nation’s largest distributor of photo-classified ad publications. For more information about RVTraderOnline.com, call toll-free 888-813-7304 or visit www.RVTraderOnline.com – where buyers and sellers in the RV lifestyle clickTM.

July 13, 2006 Norfolk, VA – RVTraderOnline.com, an online showroom of over 85,000 recreational vehicles across the US and a division of Trader Publishing Company discovered that Florida and California are the most requested states by visitors searching for campgrounds.

After observing campground searches performed on RVTraderOnline.com in the past 6 months, 12% of campground seekers are interested in parking their RVs in Florida. California is also a popular camp destination with 10% planning their trips there.

Trailing far behind the two front-runners are Texas with 5%, followed consecutively by North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Virginia, Michigan, Tennessee and scaling down to New York with 3% of the total campground searches.

“Florida and California have always been the most popular states where buyers go to look for RVs on our website,” says Scott Vollmer, Business Development Manager for RVTraderOnline.com. “As a matter of fact we’ve measured that 40% of our visitors are from the Pacific and Southeast regions of the country, so it makes sense that those states are most requested by campground seekers,” (comScore Media Metrix Ratings, July 2006).

RVTraderOnline.com is the leading online classified ad service bringing RV buyers and sellers together in one virtual marketplace with over 900,000 visitors per month, (WebTrends, 2006). Advertising their inventory on RVTraderOnline.com, dealers and independent owners alike are reaching RV enthusiasts who are interested in researching and purchasing new and used recreational vehicles online.

Headquartered in Norfolk, VA, RVTraderOnline.com is part of TraderOnline.com’s network of websites covering new and used vehicle categories such as boats, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, aircraft, equipment and collector car vehicles, and general merchandise. TraderOnline.com is a division of Trader Publishing Company, the nation’s largest distributor of photo-classified ad publications. For more information about RVTraderOnline.com, call toll-free 888-813-7304 or visit www.RVTraderOnline.com – where buyers and sellers in the RV lifestyle clickTM.

May 26, 2006 Norfolk, VA – RVTraderOnline.com, an online showroom of over 85,000 recreational vehicles across the US and a division of Trader Publishing Company determined that travel trailers are the most requested RV type after observing an April report of class searches conducted by visitors to the website.

In April, 25% of the total class searches performed on the site yield results for travel trailers. Following closely behind with 24% of the total searches are class A motorhomes. However, compared to previous months these figures have recently flip-flopped since the largest percentage have always searched for class A motorhomes.

Trailing far behind the two front-runners are class C motorhomes with 13%, followed by fifth wheels, folding campers, toy haulers, truck campers, class B motorhomes, and scaling down to park models with less than 2% of the total class searches.

Scott Vollmer, the Business Development Manager for RVTraderOnline.com states, “well this doesn’t come as a complete surprise, certainly sales have been trending this way for some time now. We are only a bit surprised to see the Class A finally replaced at the top of our charts. This is certainly a trend we will continue to monitor carefully throughout 2006.”

RVTraderOnline.com is the leading online classified ad service bringing RV buyers and sellers together in one virtual marketplace with over 800,000 visitors per month,(WebTrends, 2006). Advertising their inventory on RVTraderOnline.com, dealers and independent owners alike are reaching RV enthusiasts who are interested in researching and purchasing new and used recreational vehicles online.

Headquartered in Norfolk, VA, RVTraderOnline.com is part of TraderOnline.com’s network of websites covering new and used vehicle categories such as boats, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, aircraft, equipment and collector car vehicles, and general merchandise. TraderOnline.com is a division of Trader Publishing Company, the nation’s largest distributor of photo-classified ad publications. For more information about RVTraderOnline.com, call toll-free 888-813-7304 or visit www.RVTraderOnline.com – where buyers and sellers in the RV lifestyle clickTM.

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RVTraderOnline.com, an online showroom of over 85,000 recreational vehicles across the US and a division of Trader Publishing Company has undergone a website redesign in an attempt to simplify the search process for RV buyers and posting an ad for RV sellers.

Among the alterations to the website is a Quick Search function on the homepage, allowing visitors to begin their search immediately upon entering the site. This function appears above the fold so that it is easy to spot.

Another improvement is a Browse feature that allows buyers to see results by class, location, manufacturer, and also by dealer. Results can be formatted and featured by listing, photo gallery, or tabular view. The Browse feature is ideal for buyers who aren’t yet sure what they would like to see in a recreational vehicle. Each results page provides “bread-crumbs” to lead the user back to a more general results page so that they may continue to browse under different criteria.

Finally, buyers and sellers can find a table containing resources for their recreational vehicles on every page of the website. RVTraderOnline.com recognizes the importance of recommending services like insurance quotes, warranty, escrow, financing, parts & accessories, campgrounds and rental services.

Scott Vollmer, the Business Development Manager of RVTraderOnline.com shares his feelings on the website redesign, “this is a long-awaited change that we have been developing and testing for months. After nearly 5 years of the same website design, we’re ready for a new approach and more streamlined maneuverability for our users.”

RVTraderOnline.com is the leading online classified ad service bringing RV buyers and sellers together in one virtual marketplace with over 500,000 unique visitors per month,(WebTrends, 2005). Advertising their inventory on RVTraderOnline.com, dealers and independent owners alike are reaching RV enthusiasts who are interested in researching and purchasing new and used recreational vehicles online.

Headquartered in Norfolk, VA, RVTraderOnline.com is part of TraderOnline.com’s network of websites covering new and used vehicle categories such as boats, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, aircraft, equipment and collector car vehicles, and general merchandise. TraderOnline.com is a division of Trader Publishing Company, the nation’s largest distributor of photo-classified ad publications. For more information about RVTraderOnline.com, call toll-free 888-813-7304 or visit www.RVTraderOnline.com.