The local RV industry is beginning to breath a sigh of relief, however hesitantly.

The Recreation Vehicle Industry Association recently released the number of wholesale RV shipments for May, which, despite a shift in types of units shipped, matched the numbers from April at 13,300. Shipments began a turnaround in January, after dropping from a high of 31,400 units in April of 2008 to only 5,600 units in December. That turnaround has not gone unnoticed.

“We’re going through a period right now of relatively good order backlog, which is a significant improvement over what it was three months ago,” Jayco Inc. Director of Marketing Sid Johnson said. “In fact, in the last 60 days, in terms of order intake, we’re at a good 50 percent of what we were doing last year at this time.”

A recent release from the company noted positive dealer attitudes at their “Homecoming” event held last week. And although the company’s RVs are constructed by a 1,200-employee work force, approximately 55 percent of its size a year ago, new products will be coming out. Johnson pointed to a new product line that the company will introduce near the beginning of the year.

“This year is going to continue to be challenging, but I think everyone, at least everyone at Jayco, is enthusiastic about our prospects for next year starting this fall and winter,” he said. “We’re spending a lot of time on product development and aggressive promotion programs throughout North America.”

He added, though, that it’s too early to be counting any chickens.

“There’s no doubt recovery has begun in the industry and the economy as a whole,” Johnson said, “but the bottom line is we’re not out of the woods yet.”

At Keystone RV, demeanors are also bright.

“We definitely saw things pick up about six weeks ago, and we’re seeing it from retail orders on our dealers’ lots,” Bob Martin, Keystone’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, said.

Martin said everything was shut down this week to give their employees a well-deserved break. Next week, four additional plants will be opening back up.

“We definitely got busy, and it happened quickly,” he said.

So far this year, about 150 employees have been rehired due to increased production rates. Where their dealers were having problems selling units early in the year, they are now beginning to sell out.

“It’s been a good feeling and we’ve been blessed this summer,” Martin said. “Earlier this spring, we didn’t know what to expect, so this is a very welcome event for our company and our community.”

He pointed out that company officials are still watching out for the rest of the year, as nobody in the industry can accurately predict what could happen when the weather turns colder and the prime RVing season passes.

“We really don’t know what to expect going into the fall,” Martin said. “Much of what hindered us last year were banks and retail and wholesale financing, and that’s the X-factor we don’t know.”

Local RV dealerships are feeling the turnaround as well, and Wana RV & Engine Center President Gary Martin is excited.

“Our numbers for June are much, much better than what they were last year, and we’re actually starting to catch back up,” Miller said.

Like the manufacturers, he has noticed business picking up recently in particular.

“It’s just been the last four weeks that we have really been hopping that we can’t keep up, which is a good thing,” he said. “Fifth wheel, travel trailers both are good. It doesn’t matter if they’re lightweight or bigger units. Sales are up right now.”

Ewing’s Outpost RV Sales Manager Dennis Johnson has seen much the same at their dealership.

“As of today here, we’ve had more traffic than we’ve had for a while,” he said. “Long story short, we’ve done actually pretty well.”

According to Johnson, they haven’t had all the problems some dealerships have seen, but times have still been tough. He said their business has shifted but stayed relatively constant since the beginning of the year.

“People’s sights have dropped down some as far as dollar amount that they want to spend and the size of the unit they want to purchase. Larger, higher-priced units are not selling as well,” Johnson said. “Over the last couple of weeks that’s changed some, we’re starting back in again with the bigger units.”

They are now up to about one sale each day, or between 30 and 35 units each month.

“We can’t complain,” Johnson said. “We’re still here, and that’s one thing a lot of people can’t say.”

Johnson spoke confidently when asked about the future of the industry.

“I think, from everything I hear, there’s going to be a little lull here for a while yet,” Johnson said. “But I think it will come back and come back a little bit stronger than before because of pent-up demand.”