Why is there not more?

Our Avion rebuild string is a true phenomena. No one expected it to have the agility and diversity it has displayed - not to mention the interest level that has sustained it for the past few years. We have learned a great deal about keeping the thread accessible. For instance, there has not been one instance of angry dialogue. Not one out of over 2500 posts. Moreover, the posts are all about a highly selective subject: the rebuilding of a classic American truck camper. People come to the thread because of curiosity - but they stay because of the high level of expertise. I think it is probably the single best spot anywhere to think about these coaches and their restoration.

I caught up with Exhaustipated at the Texas Truck Camper rally, and as I recall we both were surprised how few of our fellow ralliers read RV.Net. There were a number of us including Jumbojet who post on this forum...but we were rare.

I honestly think that most TC owners are relatively knowledgable about their rigs and somewhat set in their ways. They are not overly curious about what other people are saying on the net. But, in person, they are as intense as white on rice. Thousands of questions, lots of opinions, hard earned wisdom. But, they seem to prefer face to face contact...and a concrete issue to discuss.

Having said that, I note how thoughtful and complex so many of the people I have met are personally. Including funny. When I say funny, I mean unbelieveably funny. I remember that I was laughing so hard at one of the tales told by a fellow tc'er - how he had mistakenly wandered into a campfire surrounded by tt folks and their reaction when they learned he had a TC - that people thought I was having a heart attack. Of course, it was my first experience with some sort of thing called "shots" that tasted like apple pie. But, that man was FUNNY..

So, maybe its a combination of preference for personal contact plus the difficulty of being humorous - just look at how Whazoo can charm a crowd online as few can - that render the net a bit pallid.

But real info? Like with the Avion builds? That has a highly dedicated crowd.

BTW, thanks Exhaustipated for being the OP.

And don't get me started about my fellow TT folks -- when this subject comes up, very, very few of them have ever visited RV.net or Woodall's or Trailer Life, and they are just stumbling around in the dark, trying to reinvent the wheel,...

....in my impromptu surveys while traveling, very few campers and RVers over the age of roughly ~mid 30s frequent the Internet to do anything substantial (this includes Facebook, and other similar genre). In light of this, almost no one we know (working kids in their late 20s and 30s) have disposable income, let alone enough to buy a $20,000 (used) to $90,000 (new) truck camper rig. This cohort typically tent camps, or, borrow a tent trailer to camp.

Most of those doing motorized RVing or hauling big TTs/5ths are well established in their careers (earning enough to accumulate disposable income substantial enough to buy an RV), and are typically in their 40s+, and just don't frequent the Internet nearly as much as 20 somethings...and teens.

Anyhow, this is my experience, and not gospel (read it as anecdotal).

Silver-

I haven't been here long, maybe a year as a TC owner and some time before that. However many folks there are it seems like a suitable amount in the sense that I have gotten multiple answers to questions in a day but don't find the posting numbers to be so high as to lose track of what's here. Pretty good all around

When I began looking for the "right" TC, I found RV.net. And I got a lot of advice. Some good, some bad, some biased, some not.

After I bought my TC and truck, I always looked on RV.net for answers to questions, cool mods to make my TC better, and of course, Wazoo's trip reports! Again, what I found was good answers, bad answers, biased answers, and sometimes even some flaming answers. I hope that I was able to provide good answers when asked and minimized the bad answers, the biased answers, and the flamers.

You meet all kinds of people in life, some that you want to know better, some that you want to stand back from but still converse with, and some that you just cannot run away from fast enough. Same goes on RV.net. Overall, I find that there's people on here I want to know better.

I got nothing out of Faceplant (Facebook) like I get out of this forum and others I subscribe to (astronomy, electronics, trucks, motorcycles, guns, etc). I don't tweet. Maybe it's a generational thing. Kinda like ham radio....and it's decline.

I get a lot out of this forum and I hope I contribute good stuff.

The number of posts may also related to the simpler form of RVing that truck campers represent. (That's the primary reason I own one) Towing adds a lot of complexity, and questions, to the usual RV situation. Generally, we are either overweight, or we are not. There are hundreds of posts on RV.net pertaining to the various equalizer and fifth wheel hitch problems. We avoid most of that.

I enjoy RV.net and run a teardrop. I learn a lot but mostly look for trip pics and camper rebuilds.
I have found most people just don't think about joining a forum for information. At least some of the people I talk to.

RV net posting volume ebbs and flows with the time of year, economy, price of fuel, weather, and a host of other things. There's also how many members have something to write about and then actually write then post a contributing thread. Lots of folks are only interested in reading topics they are interested in but would never dream of posting. Most everyone likes a Trip Report which is the first thing I check for myself to see who went where and gain a little information about it.

I think the forum format is good for what it is. Facebook alerts your friends of every little thing you write but most of the people I know via Facebook are not interested in RVing so there is no other contribution nor demand for information. Just not a good place to share the interest.

RV.NET is great in that way because we all share the interest. The user numbers will go up and down but because it is a specialty interest website, it may never have a huge following but it will have a consistent dedicated following.
I imagine the best way to increase numbers is to be sure to share the information about the website with those you meet along the way that would be interested.

RV.NET is in my opinion one of the best sites on the web.

FWIW, I was a lurker for some time... Long story short, I'm still one of those young guys that- after reading then re-reading posts from those seasoned members- didn't think he had much to offer. The OP's post was a bit of a wake up call to this TCguy. Gotta try to pay it forward and keep learning. I bet there are many just like me that are still on the sidelines.
BBF

mkirsch wrote:

Pretty much what everyone else has said, is the reason more people aren't on here. It's not widely advertised. I only stumbled across this site in a google search. The forum thing is not for most people...

As far as media goes, for younger people *cough*, "forum posting" is somewhat passe and low on the social interaction scale. This particular forum format here is pretty antiquated in comparison to say the VBulletin type format. I understand for reasons of bandwidth, they have to keep it simple. YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter etc., are just more popular to use and rightly so. Nowadays, people want to see what you're talking about. They don't want to sift through hundreds of written postings. That's likely why we see the same questions come up over and over again. Not just about RVing, but across many forums.

Prior to a couple years ago I had no idea this website existed. When the wife and I were in the "what to get?" and "new or used?" stage, we happened upon Sean Michaels 'Long, Long, Honeymoon' and 'The RV Geeks' YouTube pages. Sean was advertising RV.NET. Came here, looked around, started reading, and decided on a TC.

THEN came the daunting task of narrowing it down and selecting one. That wore me out almost to the point of giving up. Maybe that's part of it? There's inherently more to consider than just hitching up and driving off with a TC vs. a TT. I'd be willing to bet, a lot of folks just lurk a little, get some basic info., and either decide against a TC or they go buy one with limited info. Unfortunately, those people also tend to learn the hard way by not properly researching their truck/camper combo and eventually have problems. Okay, I'm starting to ramble on and on......Maybe I should just go make a video about it. LoL :B

garryk6 wrote:

exhaustipated wrote:
I am curious to know why there are not more TC'ers on this Forum. I recently got back home from a two month TC adventure covering seven states and five thousand miles starting out with the 2014 2nd Annual Texas Truck Camper Rally in Kerrville, TX. During those two months the wife and I saw a lot of truck campers especially in Arizona, Colorado and Utah but when I asked if they ever go on-line to RV.Net Open Roads Forum for Truck Campers they would look at me and say that they had never heard of it before. Is this a common reply for everybody else also? I don't quite understand why these fellow TC'ers have never heard of this great Forum that we all have here. This is a wonderful Forum with plenty of interesting topics and trip reports and is also a great way to post questions and get answers to those questions from the experts on here. I'm hoping to have generated a little interest in this Forum to those fellow TC'ers out there to want to become new members in the future.

To get back to the OP's topic,
I came to RV.net back when I was looking at upgrading from my 1977 22' TT to a 2001 Nomad 308 TT with slideout.I learned much in that time, but then departed for awhile. Later after purchasing a Class-C after moving to Alaska, I was disappointed in how limited I was to access much of Alaska. Later I got my F350 for work, and started to contemplate moving from a Class-C to a truck camper... Most people thought we were off our rocker to cram a family of 6 into a truck camper.
Fast forward to today... After buying a gutted 1966 Avion TC, I met 67 Avion here, and so was created the Avion Rebuild thread. I frequent that thread now more than the TC forum even, but I do like to drop in and see what is going on. Life does start to get in the way occasionally, so I drop out for awhile, then return.
In my opinion (and we all have them) the TC forum can be a bit like your own family. Things go great for awhile, then there may be a tif, or an argument, or you get busy and don't talk for awhile, but eventually you come back, because you have one thing in common. Your family. The TC forum is much like that. We still learn things from each other. And we try to help each other out. The TT forum is not like this. I think it is too big, and too many varied TT's from little to BIG. Though, when TC'er's get together, we can be almost as varied. From the little pop-up TC to the Huge quadruple slide behemoth, from the brand-new off the factory showroom to the rescued from the trash-heap and lovingly rebuilt. Each of us has out niche, and comfort levels. That is what makes this so much fun! I hope it continues for many years to come!
Garry in Kodiak, AK

Well said, but sometimes it gets a little too serious on this forum and a levity / sarcasm placed in the mix helps put things into perspective, after all it camping is a hobby to most people and it should be just as enjoyable to talk about it as to do it. Variety is the spice of life isn't it?