Why is the Class B forum so dead?

Even in Dallas, we have snow on the ground.

I'd say it's the proliferation and commonplace of $100,000+ Class B's. Same thing has happened to the truck camper market too(They aren't cheap anymore).

I'm sure both the Class B and TC manufacturers are wondering "what happened to our market?" Priced themselves out of their own markets.

Good point yet Sportsmobile claims to be thriving and their rigs approach $100k all the time. I don't get these high priced rigs but then I'm poor compared to those that buy them.

Probably one of two reasons: 1) everyone who currently owns one is 100% satisfied and simply have nothing to say. 2) The cost of purchasing a new one is so much, no one can afford to buy a new one, so there's nothing to discuss there either.

Fewer manufacturers and they seem to compete effectively on quality so there's less for owners to complain about. Most Class B owners are pretty happy with what they have.

The prices of Class B's are higher, but you pay for the smaller size and efficiency. Not unlike backpacking equipment - the lighter, small pack size gear costs a lot more money. The sweet spot for price on RVs tend to be the Class C's and there are a lot of manufacturers in that market.

Maybe another reason for low volume on the Class B forum is that many are out enjoying themselves, not waiting for the weather to break so they can get back on the road. And anyone looking for information or advice on equipment like solar, heating, propane, water heaters, etc can find a lot of that on the other forums, after all the equipment is all basically the same as that used on Class B's.

Personally I find myself posting less (or I think I am) mainly because a lot of the discussions tend to be what we used to call "bike shed" discussions. Someone starts out with a simple question or suggestion and invariably the discussion ends up off-track, i.e. talking about the color one should paint the bike shed.

rtz549 wrote:
I'd say it's the proliferation and commonplace of $100,000+ Class B's. Same thing has happened to the truck camper market too(They aren't cheap anymore).

I'm sure both the Class B and TC manufacturers are wondering "what happened to our market?" Priced themselves out of their own markets.

I think if you have been on the B forum for a while you will notice, in the last year, a trend towards less expensive models of Class B's. Not everyone needs the newest tech, and manufactures are starting to realize that. At least I hope they are.
I don't think price equates to the Class B forum being slow though.
Most of the posters on here never were new B owners. Also, the older the rig, the more help the owners need.
I think the weather, the fact manufactures have their own FB pages, other B forums, and blogs, all are contributing factors to the "slowness" of this forum, as well as the other RV.net forums.
I also think the attitude of people has changed. More argumentative posts, and Trolls. Just not as friendly a place as it use to be,
Another factor may be, not many questions being asked that haven't been asked and answered numerous times, but that is just the nature of forums, and what happens when a forum has been around for 15 years.
I use to try and keep threads on topic, but got tired of people sending me PM's about why posts were deleted, even though I always posted, in the thread, at least a couple of times, to please keep posts on topic. It started to feel like I was teaching a bunch of school kids again. I think most members liked the stricter moderation, but the ones that didn't could be pretty nasty, and after a while I got tired of it. Is this one of the reasons this forum is slower that it use to be, maybe, but I don't know. I know this, I offed the Mod job to several people, and got no takers. :)

Definitely the above, but I'd probably add that it is due to the cold as well. "B"s are not well suited for winter rigs because of the cube square law, and the fact they can't really be that insulated compared to other RV types.

Once people come out of hibernation in 4-8 weeks, I'm sure things will get busy. You will know it is spring when we get the college students asking about living in a van on campus, then getting extremely defensive when people methodically disassemble their cool idea for what they think is a way of living cheap.

MR, I remember you as a mod and when AR Cruiser was the one who alerted me to the PW I bought and shipped across the country (that was at the end of 2007!!). There were never a lot of us Traverse owners here but I remain madly in love with the B way of travel. At some point, I want to get a more self-contained B than the Traverse. I see a difference in rv.net these days but I see it all over the internet including my own guitar related forum (which is now 16 years old). Everybody *seems* to be more on edge than we used to be.

In any event, I'll be around posting topics of interest to me. I hope things pick up here in the spring. While I just got back from a So. Utah run three weeks ago, it's a little cold to go to some of the places I'm anxious to get to again.

I think it is the cold winter. Things will pick up. We Bers are a fraternity.

Stricter moderation certainly does not encourage participation. I grow weary of the thought police on some of them. If you want to check out a dead forum, go over to iRV2. It's basically now a class A only club, and most of the posts are people complaining they bought junk that the manufacturer or dealer won't stand behind (of course, the same people did zero research before they bought). Sad really.

With my B, I bought new and have had zero problems or warranty claims. It's fairly common with B's. So there isn't alot to talk about unless you are looking for a new rig, or modding one you have, or are buying new gear to outfit it.

Frankly, there is a much better Class B forum out there that is fairly well behaved and has a combo of new and old tech, high budget and low budget. I find it quite entertaining and suggest folks check it out. www.classbforum.com