The RV industry’s largest trade event of the year is underway as North America’s dealer body gathers in northern Indiana for the 2026 Elkhart RV Open House. Manufacturers have thousands of 2027 model year units on display — including several models making their debut — at key locations in Elkhart, Goshen and other locales in and around Elkhart County.
OEM displays — along with the RV/MH Hall of Fame’s Supplier Show inside the Northern Indiana Event Center — will be open beginning today through Wednesday, with some opting to remain open for dealers Thursday and even Friday this week.
Forest River welcomed media and social media influencers on Sunday, and will do so again Thursday morning.
Jerry Sell, a Forest River product manager in charge of Cherokee Division toy hauler brands, said excitement is running high despite whatever the market might be saying otherwise.
“With the economy and the gas prices, it’s real easy for us to be doom and gloom. But I have to say that, coming off of what we found to be an extremely successful Hershey (RV Show) — I can’t speak for the rest of the industry, I can’t speak for anybody else’s toy haulers but mine — but I will tell you that we actually retailed more toy haulers this past year with the Rogue and the Wolf Pack than we did last year at Hershey in this economic condition,” Sell told RVBusiness.
“Our dealer at the Cleveland Show the week even before that was very pleased with the results. So my adage has always been golfers golf, skiers ski, and campers camp,” he continued. “I have a lot of friends that are avid golfers and if their greens fees go up 20%, guess what? They’re still going to play golf. And it’s the same thing with skiing, right? It’s the same thing with almost any activity. An RV is not a replacement for the Holiday Inn. An RV is a lifestyle and the people that buy these, this is what they do. And if they want to buy a new camper and have the means, they will. We really saw that at the Hershey show last week.
Sell was just as excited about dealers getting their first glimpse of some of his new units on display.
“This DB33-15 Wolf Pack is one of about five new floorplans that we’ve got here that our dealers haven’t seen,” he said. “We’ve made a lot of changes to this product from the ’26 to the ’27 from an interior standpoint, from an exterior standpoint, and from an amenities standpoint as you can see here. I know that my crew’s really excited about having the customers come in. They really believe that we’ve got a product here along with the Wolf Pack 350, Pack 15. If you do what’s called a scrape report and look at all manufacturers and all their floorplans, the Wolf Pack 350 is the No. 1-selling toy hauler model in the country. I mean, there’s other brand names that if you say name a toy hauler, they’re not going to name Wolf Pack, but the fact is, because of our price point, because of the value you see in the product right now, the Wolf Pack 350 for the past year has been the No. 1 toy hauler floorplan for any manufacturer.”
