nyone who has ever suffered through an earthquake knows full well what happens to a home when the ground shakes.

Things break.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, when a component on an RV ultimately breaks down. While RV equipment tends to be more robust than its land-locked counterpart, such parts and accessories aren’t infallible — especially when subjected to the earthquake-like shaking created by untold miles of rutted, cracked and potholed roadways.

Fortunately, replacements exist for virtually anything RV-related — and, even better, the past few years has seen a huge increase in new-and-improved components as technology continues to bridge the gap between products used in brick-and-mortar houses and those integrated into traveling homes.

Many of these, in fact, were introduced for the first time during the recent Elkhart RV Open House. While this event continues to be the RV industry’s premier trade show, RV suppliers have made inroads in the program in recent years by staging new product displays around Elkhart, Indiana. And, while the area is home to many of the industry’s top suppliers — with these companies opening their doors to visiting dealers — others have found a temporary home at the Northern Indiana Event Center, part of the RV/MH Hall of Fame & Museum complex. In fact, the RV Hall Supplier Show was so large this year that several of the museum’s RV displays were temporarily moved to accommodate the program — some 232 available displays inside and outside the facility were manned by supplier personnel from nearly 185 companies showcasing new components.

Unfortunately, like the Open House program itself, the supplier show was off-limits to the public — but we spent several days among the suppliers and displays to chase down the top products you’ll find at your local RV dealership and parts houses this year. The following pages highlight nearly three dozen of these components, a group that’s sure to nudge you into replacing or updating certain components before you hit the road this summer.