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PocketCasts Hershey Opens As Diesel Hits A Record And The Industry Reshuffles
Diesel hit $6.05 a gallon Friday. That has never happened before. Not in 2008. Not in 2022. Never. I paid $6.29 in Michigan the morning I recorded this. California stations are posting $9.99.
Then Thor Industries dropped a leadership shakeup Thursday night and never mentioned the man who has run Keystone for a decade. Sources close to the company tell me Jeff Runels is out, effective that day, and that big changes are coming to Keystone.
All of it lands the same week America's Largest RV Show opens in Hershey with 1,500 RVs on the lot and dealers who need to move them.
Here is what is in this episode:
Record diesel, why it is not coming back down with oil prices, and six things that cut what you spend on fuel this fall.
America's Largest RV Show opens Wednesday. Dealer lots are not overflowing the way you have been told, and the real reason you have the upper hand this week is something else entirely. Five questions to ask before you sign anything.
Thor reorganizes its own reorganization seven months later. What the announcement said, what it did not say, and what centralizing a decentralized company usually means for the rig you own.
Jason Lippert ran the biggest parts supplier in the business for 32 years. Leigh Tiffin had his family's name on the coach. Both went to work for dealers this year. I think they are seeing the same thing you and I see from the campsite.
And 23 million Americans are going RVing this fall anyway, at $6 diesel, most of them staying within a tank of home.
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RV PODCAST NEWS EDITION
Monday, September 14, 2026
Publishes 6 a.m. ET
OPEN
Hello, everyone. I am Mike Wendland, and this is the Monday RV Podcast News Edition.
This is one of two RV Podcast episodes we do every week.
This one publishes at 6 a.m. every Monday with the biggest news stories affecting the RV lifestyle.
Then, on Wednesday, Jennifer joins me for our Stories from the Road edition, where we have interviews, share RV lifestyle tips and travel ideas, and answer your questions.
Now, a word about how I put this show together, because this week it matters more than usual.
I am a journalist by training. I spent more than 40 years working for big city newspapers, television stations and networks. In that business you learn very quickly that you do not report anything you cannot source.
Jennifer and I came up in the news business, and old habits die hard. We source our stories, we check the numbers, and we try to separate what actually happened from what the press releases want you to believe happened.
You will find links to every story we report at the very end of the transcript for this episode at RVPodcast.com. Go to the show notes page, click the Transcript tab, and scroll all the way to the bottom. Go check my work.
Before we get started, let me invite you to sign up for our free RV Lifestyle newsletter.
We publish it every day, and it is filled with RV news, travel inspiration, campground information, practical tips and the stories that matter to people who love this lifestyle.
It is free, and you can sign up at RVLifestyle.com/Newsletter.
Again, that is RVLifestyle.com/Newsletter.
Now, here is the RV news of the week.
STORY 1: DIESEL JUST BROKE $6 A GALLON FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER
On Friday morning, the national average price of diesel hit $6.05 a gallon. I checked just before recording this episode at the place where I fill up in my Southwest Michigan neighborhood. Diesel was $6.29 a gallon. This is in Michigan. Not California. In California, some stations are charging $9.99 a gallon. The average there is around $8 a gallon and still rising.
That has never happened before. Not in 2008. Not in 2022. Never.
That number comes from AAA, and the federal Energy Information Administration has it going the same direction. Its weekly on-highway diesel reading is the highest in a series that goes back to 1994.
A year ago this week, that same national average was $3.70.
Let me turn that into something you can actually feel.
If you run a diesel pusher or a one-ton truck and you put 100 gallons in it, that fill costs about $235 more today than it did last September. Same fuel. Same tank. Same trip.
Regular gas is up too, at about $4.29, but diesel is the one that has come unglued. It is now running more than a dollar and a half above gasoline, and that gap is not normal.
Here is why, and I want to be careful with this part because it is still moving.
Diesel and gasoline come out of the same barrel of crude, but they are refined differently and they trade differently. Since the war with Iran began in late February, the flow of crude through the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted, and the world's supply of distillate, which is the family diesel belongs to, has gotten tight. Analysts say that refining bottleneck runs on its own clock, which means even if crude oil settles down, diesel does not necessarily come down with it.
That is the part I would not bet against right now. Do not plan your fall on the assumption this reverses in October.
And this is not just a fuel story. It is an RV industry story.
Camping World, the largest RV dealer in the country, told investors this summer that the drop in new RV sales has been driven largely by weakening consumer sentiment, and it named the causes: geopolitical events in the Middle East, high fuel prices, and high interest rates.
That is the largest RV retailer in America saying out loud that what is happening at the pump is showing up on its sales floor.
So what does this mean for you, with a regular rig and a regular budget?
It means the trip still happens. It just gets planned differently.
First, know your real miles per gallon, not the brochure number. Run one full tank, do the division, and budget off that.
Second, slow down. Most big rigs lose noticeable mileage above 62 to 65 miles an hour, and wind resistance climbs hard after that.
Third, look at the 330 Rule, which Jennifer and I live by. No more than 330 miles in a day, off the road by 3:30. It saves your back, and it turns out it saves fuel too.
Fourth, check prices before you cross a state line, not after. The spread between neighboring states right now is real money on a 60-gallon fill.
Fifth, if you drive a diesel, look at the Open Roads fuel card from TSD Logistics. It is not a gimmick. It gets you commercial pricing at truck stop diesel lanes, and at these prices the savings per fill is no longer pocket change.
And sixth, shorten the loop. Two hundred miles out and a week in one place beats a thousand miles of interstate this fall, and honestly, it is the better trip anyway.
The road did not get more expensive because you did anything wrong. Plan around it and go.
STORY 2: AMERICA'S LARGEST RV SHOW OPENS WEDNESDAY, AND IT IS A STRANGE YEAR TO BUY
America's Largest RV Show opens Wednesday in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and runs through Sunday, Sept. 20.
This is the 57th year. Nearly 1,500 RVs from 40 manufacturers, spread across the Giant Center and the lots around it, and this is where most people get their first look at the 2027 models.
I have walked that show many times. It is a good time. Bring comfortable shoes and low expectations about how far you will get in one day.
Now, the part nobody at the show is going to say into a microphone.
You are walking into a weak market, and that is good for you if you keep your head.
New RV shipments in July came in just under 20,000 units, down almost 12 percent from a year ago, and shipments are down about 14 percent for the year. On the retail side, new RV registrations fell more than 16 percent through the spring while used registrations actually rose.
I want to correct something you may have heard, including from me in past years. Dealer lots are not overflowing. Camping World's new vehicle inventory was down roughly 17 percent from a year earlier at the end of June. The dealers got lean on purpose.
So this is not a clearance sale caused by too many RVs. It is a buyer's market caused by too few buyers. Your bargaining position is real, but it comes from a different place: the leftover 2026 units a dealer is paying interest on every single day, and a show quota somebody has to hit by Sunday night.
So here is how you work that floor.
First, get the complete out-the-door price in writing. Not the monthly payment. The total, with freight, prep, fees and everything else on it.
Second, arrange your financing before you walk in. Your own bank or credit union gives you a number to compare against, and it takes away the dealer's best tool.
Third, ask specifically what leftover 2026 units they have. In most cases the 2027 is a graphics package and a trim change, and you are paying thousands for the model year on the title.
Fourth, do not sign at the show. A good deal on Wednesday is still a good deal on Friday, and if a salesman tells you otherwise, that tells you what you need to know about him.
And fifth, ask about service before you ask about price. Ask where the unit gets serviced, how long the current warranty backlog is, and get the answer in writing. That is the question almost nobody asks at a show, and it is the one that decides whether you enjoy the next three years.
Go to Hershey. Enjoy it. Just do not let a five-day show set the pace for a decision you live with for a decade.
MIDROLL: RV TRIP BUDGET BUDDY
Since we just spent five minutes on fuel prices, let me tell you about something Jennifer and I built for exactly this problem.
Here is how it usually goes. You leave with a rough number in your head. You fill up a few times, you pay for sites, you eat out more than you meant to, and somewhere around day nine you quit doing the math because you are not sure you want the answer.
We built a fix. It is called the RV Trip Budget Buddy.
You set your budget by category before you pull out of the driveway. Fuel, campgrounds, food, activities, whatever matters to you. Then you log what you actually spend as you go, and it shows you where you stand while you can still do something about it.
It is a one-time purchase, $19.99, and there is no subscription.
You can find it at RVLifestyle.com/BudgetBuddy.
Again, that is RVLifestyle.com/BudgetBuddy.
All right, back to the news.
STORY 3: THOR SHAKES UP ITS LEADERSHIP AGAIN, AND ONE NAME IS MISSING
Thor Industries, the largest RV manufacturer in the world, announced a round of leadership changes Thursday evening.
Ken Walters, who has been running Jayco, is now president of North American RV operations, and he oversees all of Thor's North American RV companies. Nic Martin, Jayco's vice president of sales, takes over Jayco. Troy James becomes president of Keystone. Thor also named a chief financial officer and a chief marketing officer over the whole North American RV group.
Now, here is the context that makes this interesting.
Back in February, Thor announced what it called a strategic evolution of its operating model. It split North American RV into two groups. That release said specifically that Jeff Runels would continue in his role as president of Keystone.
Seven months later, Thor has collapsed those two groups into one, and it has a new president at Keystone.
And Jeff Runels is not mentioned in Thursday's announcement. Not that he is leaving. Not that he is staying. His name does not appear.
I want to be precise here, because this matters. The trade press is reporting that Troy James is replacing Runels. That is a reasonable read, and it is probably right. But Thor did not say it. The company that has put out two detailed reorganization releases this year did not account for the man who ran Keystone for about a decade, at a company that ships more towable RVs than anyone.
UPDATE Okay, just as this was about ready to get sent up to the cloud and ready to be distributed, I did hear back from some other sources, not from Jeff himself, but some other sources very close to Keystone that say Jeff's gone. He's out as of Thursday. Apparently a lot of dissatisfaction about how Keystone has just not kept pace with Jayco in terms of organization, so a lot of changes coming to Keystone.
Thor's chief operating officer, Todd Woelfer, did say something in that release worth holding onto. He said the company would, in his words, "not simply stand by and pass rising costs on to pressured retail customers."
Good. That is the right thing to say. Let us see it on a window sticker in Hershey this week.
What does any of this mean if you own a Keystone, a Jayco or a Thor motorhome?
In the short run, not much. Your warranty is your warranty and your dealer is your dealer.
In the longer run, it means something real. Thor built its business on letting each brand run itself, and it is now centralizing, and centralizing is how you cut costs. Cost cutting can show up as a better price for you. It can also show up as thinner material, fewer people on the line and a longer wait for a warranty part.
Watch the 2027 units at the show this week and compare them to your own rig. That is the only place this will actually show up.
STORY 4: THE PEOPLE WHO BUILT THESE BRANDS ARE MOVING TO THE DEALER SIDE
Here is a pattern I do not think has gotten enough attention.
On Sept. 1, Fun Town RV, a family-owned dealer chain with 32 stores, announced that Jason Lippert is its new chief executive officer.
If you own an RV, you own Lippert parts. Axles, frames, slide mechanisms, awnings, jacks, steps. Jason Lippert spent 32 years there, started on the manufacturing floor, became chief executive in 2003, and the company says he grew it from about $125 million in annual revenue to more than $4 billion.
He retired from that job in June. Three months later he is running a dealership group.
And he is not the first.
In February, Leigh Tiffin resigned as president of Tiffin Motorhomes. He is the grandson of founder Bob Tiffin, and that name is on the side of the coach. He is now president of National Indoor RV Centers, a dealer group. He told RV News that the talks started back in 2024 and that he was running toward something rather than away from something.
So in one year, the man who ran the biggest parts supplier in the industry and the man whose family name is on one of its most respected motorhomes both went to work for dealers.
You can read that two ways.
The cynical read is that the manufacturing side is where the pain is right now, and smart people go where the pain is not.
The other read, and the one I lean toward, is more interesting. Selling RVs was never the industry's problem. Taking care of people after the sale is the problem. It is the single biggest complaint I get in my inbox, week after week, year after year. If the two best-connected executives in this business both decided that the real work is now on the retail side, they may be seeing the same thing you and I see from the campsite.
What this means for you is simple, and it is not a prediction.
It is a test. Fun Town has 32 stores. National Indoor RV Centers has a service reputation people already talk about. If these two men are right about where the opportunity is, we should see it show up as shorter warranty waits and better communication within a year or two.
If it does not, then it was just a job change.
We will be watching, and we will tell you either way.
STORY 5: TWENTY-THREE MILLION OF US ARE GOING ANYWAY
I want to end on something that surprised me.
With fuel at record prices and the industry in the shape we just spent 15 minutes describing, the RV Industry Association went out and asked people what they are doing this fall.
Twenty-three million Americans say they are taking an RV trip.
More than half of them gave the same reason: affordability. Even now, even at $6 diesel, people are choosing an RV because it is still the cheaper way to travel with your own bed, your own kitchen and your own dog.
More than 9 million people who do not even own an RV say they plan to rent or borrow one this fall.
I will give you the honest caveat, because we do that here. That 23 million figure is down about 15 percent from the last time the association reported a fall number, in 2024. So this is not a boom. It is a lot of people quietly deciding that the trip is still worth taking.
And look at how they are doing it. More than 90 percent say they are staying within a three to seven hour drive of home. Seventy-one percent are bringing pets. And for the first time in a while, national parks and scenic destinations are ranking ahead of beaches.
That is the whole diesel story told from the other end. People are not canceling. They are going closer, staying longer and looking at trees.
Which, if I am being honest with you, is how Jennifer and I have been traveling for the last several years anyway, and our best trips have come out of it. The Upper Peninsula A couple of weeks ago.. A county park two-and-a-half hours from the house where we did not do much of anything for four days.
So here is what this means for you, and it is the last thing I will say this week.
If you have been talking yourself out of a fall trip because of what you are seeing at the pump, look closer to home instead of canceling. Find something within a tank of fuel. Book two nights instead of one. Fall camping is the best camping in America, the campgrounds are quieter after Labor Day, the bugs are gone, and the colors are about to start.
Twenty-three million of your neighbors already figured that out.
CLOSE
That is our RV news for this week.
Thanks for being with us. I appreciate the time you spend with this show.
If you have a comment on anything you heard today, or a question you would like me to answer, use the Contact link at RVPodcast.com. It comes straight to me, and I read every one of them.
We will be back with another episode Wednesday, when Jennifer joins me for our Stories from the Road edition, with interviews, RV lifestyle tips, travel ideas and answers to your questions.
If you have not already done so, please sign up for our free RV Lifestyle newsletter. We publish it every day with RV news, travel ideas, campground information, helpful tips and reports from the road. You can sign up for free at RVLifestyle.com/Newsletter.
And if you enjoy this podcast, would you please leave us a rating and a review?
It only takes a moment, but it helps other RVers discover the program. We read those reviews, and we sincerely appreciate every one of them.
One more quick reminder about the RV Trip Budget Buddy. It tracks what your trip is actually costing you while you can still do something about it, it is a one-time $19.99 purchase, and it is at RVLifestyle.com/BudgetBuddy.
I am Mike Wendland.
Thanks for listening, and Happy Trails!
SOURCES
Story 1: Diesel breaks $6 a gallon for the first time
Associated Press, via Houston Public Media, Sept. 11, 2026:
CBS News, Sept. 11, 2026:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rising-diesel-prices-consumer-impact/
NBC News, Sept. 11, 2026:
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/energy/diesel-record-price-trump-inflation-rcna596843
Forbes, Robert Rapier, on the EIA weekly diesel series, Sept. 9, 2026:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2026/09/09/why-diesel-is-on-track-to-set-a-2026-price-record/
AAA daily national and state fuel averages:
Camping World Holdings second quarter 2026 results, on consumer sentiment and fuel prices:
Open Roads fuel card from TSD Logistics:
Story 2: America's Largest RV Show opens in Hershey
America's Largest RV Show, official show site and hours:
https://www.largestrvshow.com/
Pennsylvania RV and Camping Association show listing:
https://www.prvca.org/events/hershey-americas-largest-rv-show
RV Industry Association July 2026 wholesale shipment report, via RVBusiness:
https://rvbusiness.com/rvia-july-wholesale-numbers-down-11-9-percent-over-2025/
Camping World second quarter 2026 earnings call, new vehicle inventory units down about 17 percent:
Story 3: Thor's leadership shakeup and the name that is missing
THOR Industries announcement, Sept. 10, 2026:
RV News report on the changes, including the Woelfer quote, Sept. 10, 2026:
https://www.rvnews.com/thor-industries-promotes-ken-walters-and-names-new-keystone-rv-president/
THOR Industries February 2026 reorganization release, stating Jeff Runels would continue as president of Keystone:
Story 4: Manufacturing executives moving to the dealer side
Fun Town RV names Jason Lippert chief executive, RVBusiness, Sept. 1, 2026:
https://rvbusiness.com/fun-town-rv-names-jason-lippert-chief-executive-officer/
RV News on the Fun Town appointment:
https://www.rvnews.com/fun-town-rv-names-jason-lippert-ceo/
LCI Industries announcement of Jason Lippert's retirement, June 4, 2026:
THOR Industries announcement of Leigh Tiffin's resignation, Feb. 11, 2026:
RV News interview with Leigh Tiffin on joining National Indoor RV Centers:
https://www.rvnews.com/exclusive-president-discusses-tiffin-farewell/
Story 5: Fall RV travel intentions
RV Industry Association fall travel intentions survey, via Woodall's Campground Magazine:
https://woodallscm.com/report-23-million-americans-are-planning-rv-trips-this-fall/
RV News, including the comparison to the 2024 fall figure:
https://www.rvnews.com/219005-2/
Camper Report summary of the survey methodology:
https://camperreport.com/23-million-americans-plan-fall-rv-trips/
