RV Trailer Shortage?

**sourdough** · 10-01-2021, 11:06 AM

We have discussed the situation with a shortage of RVs, selling them as fast *** they can, backlogs of inventory, shortage of parts for them etc. Well, get ready because it looks like it's going to get worse before it gets better. Here is an excerpt from a news article stating that FEMA and apparently some state govts. are going to start using "RVs" as temporary housing for those displaced by hurricane IDA....just great. I don't remember which hurricane it was but I remember driving cross country and seeing fields of those FEMA trailers (mobile homes) they had procured for people during that hurricane - thousands of them, and we didn't have a pandemic, shortages etc. then. This ought to be a hoot - better get 'em while they're hot!!

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency just announced "temporary solutions" to provide housing options in areas hardest hit by the storm, including RVs. The Sept. 30 announcement came one week after Fox News met with local leaders in Jefferson Parish and the same day Fox News reached out to the agency for comment.

"To help address the shortage of sheltering and housing options in Southeast Louisiana, the state is establishing some temporary solutions, including a non-congregate sheltering program using recreational vehicles (RVs), such as travel trailers," the FEMA press release stated. "Non-congregate shelters are locations where an individual or family can live safely with some level of privacy."

**chuckster57** · 10-01-2021, 11:36 AM

Your probably thinking of Katrina. Some city/ county govt’s are talking about purchasing trailers for homeless.

notanlines · 10-01-2021, 11:39 AM

We have seen a number of FEMA emergency trailer storage lots across the country. There has been a large storage area in the area of Cumberland, Maryland for years. It seems like we saw a massive storage rea near San Antonio, but I can't remember exactly where.
DW said there was a big one near Hope/Texarkana area years ago also.

travelin texans · 10-01-2021, 12:57 PM

Too bad they couldn't salvage the tens of thousands of those never used trailers they left to rot in fields all across the country after Katrina. Not to mention all of them they sold for next to nothing or gave away.
During our travels after Katrina we stayed at several peaks that had signs posted that they DID NOT allow the FEMA trailers, which I understood. They looked extremely cheap, basically a enclosed utility trailer with a couple windows, a kitchen & a bed in the same space with a tiny separate bath.

**sourdough** · 10-01-2021, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuckster57

Your probably thinking of Katrina. Some city/ county govt’s are talking about purchasing trailers for homeless.

You're right Chuck. After I got to thinking about it Katrina was the one when all those popped (plopped) up.

**sourdough** · 10-01-2021, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelin texans

Too bad they couldn't salvage the tens of thousands of those never used trailers they left to rot in fields all across the country after Katrina. Not to mention all of them they sold for next to nothing or gave away.
During our travels after Katrina we stayed at several peaks that had signs posted that they DID NOT allow the FEMA trailers, which I understood. They looked extremely cheap, basically a enclosed utility trailer with a couple windows, a kitchen & a bed in the same space with a tiny separate bath.

The ones we saw all looked literally alike. Rows upon rows of them. And yes, very basic. I've never been in one but looked a lot like these "mobile home" things they get for the man crews working out in the oilfield. Not much more than a tin metal box with an air conditioner stuck in a window.

jxnbbl · 10-01-2021, 01:25 PM

What was interesting this past week was picking up my new trailer and leaving my past year old trailer. Last year at this time, the lot behind the dealership has maybe 8-10 trailers. This year there is very little space as it is packed with units (some tradein some new).

I noted another large dealership with the same situation (their lot is visible from the highway).

dutchmensport · 10-01-2021, 02:14 PM

As I remember, those original FEMA trailers were nothing but health hazards. The formaldehyde was so bad it made people sick. They came equipped with NO holding tanks, no water tanks, nothing. Just a box with a bed and a propane stove and a shower. They had to be hooked up and were nothing but problems. Once it was pretty much all over, those same trailers went for sale to the public and that's when the REAL problems started. It was a nightmare for everyone.

Now, they are doing it again? Still ... a tin box with a rubber roof is still much better than sleeping under a bridge.

Our government freely gives money away to other countries that wish us all dead. So, I have no heartburn at all when our government does something for our own people! Besides, all they have to do is print more money and all is well!

notanlines · 10-02-2021, 04:43 AM

Dutch, think about what you wrote: "They came equipped with NO holding tanks, no water tanks"
Our forum is absolutely LOADED with members who WANT to be RV'ers who don't know how to use holding tanks, what good would back, grey, and water tanks be on a site that has no dumping facility? What good would a fresh water tank be?
We have two relatives who received FEMA trailers after Katrina. One a one bedroom, one a two bedroom. They were towed onto their property, sewer lines were ran to the existing, a fresh water hose hooked up and they were gone. DW's aunt and uncle were thankful to have theirs and had no complaints. My cousin and his live-in and two adults lived in their two bedroom and bitched about everything under the sun INCLUDING THAT THERE WAS NO WASHER-DRYER INCLUDED.
I'm not opposed to the FEMA trailer idea as a whole, but the country's plan with what to do with them after everything goes back to normal has been pretty lousy. And any idea that all people we try to help will welcome 'any port in a storm' with open arms is ludicrous.

travelin texans · 10-02-2021, 07:20 AM

I think our meaning was/is the FEMA trailers are/were not designed to be RVs, no holding tanks or OTG appliances, but rather temporary, apparently disposable, houses, think VERY cheap hotel room with a kitchenette.

**JRTJH** · 10-02-2021, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelin texans

I think our meaning was/is the FEMA trailers are/were not designed to be RVs, no holding tanks or OTG appliances, but rather temporary, apparently disposable, houses, think VERY cheap hotel room with a kitchenette.

Or consider them "glamorous tents with a bathroom and a kitchenette"...

FEMA trailers were not RV's, they were temporary emergency housing that was built by RV companies (only because they had quick access to the frames and had enough materials in stock/on hand to get the project off the ground)...

Had the mobile home industry been tasked to build them, that industry only had 12' and 16' wide chassis to build on. That would create a problem moving them (in large numbers) on the highways and would cost more/be harder to park in small fields behind damaged/flooded houses and connect them to the existing septic/well/electric facilities. Behind a destroyed house is where the emergency housing was needed and no holding tanks were required....

Where they were "parked in temporary communities" those fields were first laid out with water/electric/sewer systems. Essentially, those locations were "temporary campgrounds with full hookups".... No FEMA trailers were expected to be self contained RV's. They were never built to RV standards.

The only "association" between RV's and FEMA trailers is who built them....

Sort of like comparing Ford/New Holland tractors to Mustangs... Just because they're both built by Ford doesn't make them similar.... Neither is a Keystone Passport and a FEMA trailer both built by Keystone.....

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