If you go
› What: Chattanooga RV Super Show.› When: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Jan. 20-21; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22.› Where: Chattanooga Convention Center, 1150 Carter St.› Admission: $8 ages 16 and older, ages 15 and younger free. Parking is free within the Marriott garage by asking for a parking pass at the show entrance ticket booth when buying show tickets.› Website: www.thechattanoogarvshow.com.
RV Super Show Seminars
FRIDAY2 p.m. Preparing To Full-Time4 p.m. Working on the Road: Free campsites and supplemental income6 p.m. Buying an RV: Choosing what is right for youSATURDAY11 a.m. Buying an RV: Choosing what is right for you1 p.m. Financial Benefits of RV Ownership3 p.m. RVing Basics I: Driving, towing, parking, hitching and unhitching5 p.m. RVing Basics II: Hooking up utilities, RV systems overview, safety and checklistsSUNDAY11 a.m. Financial Benefits of RV Ownership1 p.m. Preparing To Full-Time
A visitor to a previous RV Super Show admires this rolling suite with a canopied outdoor living area.Television shows such as "Going RV" on Great American Country and "Extreme RVs" on the Travel Channel have amped up interest in living life on the road in a rolling mansion with all the amenities of home.
"We've seen an upswing in interest since those shows started," says Sonya Yates, co-owner of Northgate RV Center with her husband, Billy, who has twice appeared on "Going RV."
A caravan of motor homes, travel trailers, fifth-wheel towable trailers and toy haulers will roll into the Chattanooga Convention Center for the Chattanooga RV Super Show on Friday through Sunday, Jan. 20-22. This expo of recreational vehicles also includes products and services related to the industry, as shown by 30 vendors, along with displays by seven RV dealers.
Additionally, Howard and Linda Payne - who blog about their adventures as full-time RVers on their website RV-Dreams.com - will lead seminars each day. Their topics will range from preparing to go RVing full-time to basic information such as towing, hitches and hooking up utilities.
"RVs aren't just limited to motor homes," says Yates. "They are travel trailers, fifth wheels, even A-frame and fold-down campers. You can get them as small as 15 or 16 feet up to 44 feet in length. When you add slide-outs to them, they are even larger."
Slide-outs, or slide rooms, are additional spaces added to a coach that push outward from a side wall to add to a coach's interior living area. Yates says that slide-outs aren't really new - they've been around since the mid-1990s - but new models of residential coaches might have four or five slides on them.
"Now there is actually a slide within a slide. For example, you have a bedroom slide that adds space, then the bed itself is in a slide on its own that gives even more room," says Yates.
Northgate RV Center will have a large display on the exhibition floor for several manufacturer units the company is displaying.
"We actually have a new line, Grand Design, that's taken the whole market by storm. We will be bringing a lot of manufacturer units to the show," says Yates. "One of them has a 101-inch-wide body (as compared to the traditional 96-inch width of a unit) so it gives you more interior space. They have the quietest air conditioners in the industry, and the furnace does not have ducts in the floor."
Other RV companies with displays are Camping World of Chattanooga, Dunlap RV, Choo Choo RV, Buddy Gregg RV, RVs for Less and Augusta RV-MFG. Visitors are encouraged to step inside these models and learn more about new features.
Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6284.