Tom Schaeffer's Camping and Travel Center

Tom Schaeffer's Camping and Travel Center is a recreational vehicle dealership located at 1236 Pottsville Pike in Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania. The business operates as a full-service RV dealer, meaning it handles the entire lifecycle of ownership rather than sales alone: new and pre-owned units, financing, hitch and towing setup, warranty and repair work, parts and accessories, and ongoing owner education. The dealership can be reached at +1 877-235-4422, and additional inventory and department information is available through its website at tomschaeffers.com.

The dealership serves a region where camping is a long-standing tradition. Berks County sits within reach of the Pennsylvania state park system, the Poconos, the Blue Ridge corridor and the campgrounds of the Susquehanna and Delaware river valleys, and it is within a reasonable drive of the Jersey Shore, the Chesapeake Bay and the Finger Lakes. That geography shapes the customer base, which includes weekend travel trailer owners, seasonal campers who keep a unit parked at a site all summer, full-time RVers, and first-time buyers moving up from tent camping.

Location and Service Area

Shoemakersville is a borough in northern Berks County along the Schuylkill River, positioned on the Pottsville Pike corridor (Route 61) between Reading and Hamburg. The location places the dealership roughly ten miles north of Reading and a short distance from Interstate 78, which makes it accessible to buyers arriving from the Lehigh Valley, Lancaster County, Schuylkill County, Harrisburg and the Philadelphia suburbs. The highway frontage also matters practically: towing a new travel trailer or fifth wheel away from the lot is more straightforward from a main road than from a congested urban site.

Customers regularly travel from across eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and New York to view specific units, a pattern common among RV dealers whose inventory includes brands with limited regional distribution.

New and Pre-Owned RV Inventory

The sales inventory spans the towable categories that dominate the eastern Pennsylvania market, including travel trailers, fifth wheels, and lighter couples' or half-ton towable models designed for buyers whose tow vehicle is an SUV or a standard pickup. The dealership carries recognized manufacturer lines, among them Grand Design, and stocks units across a range of floor plans: bunkhouse layouts for families, rear living arrangements for couples, toy haulers for owners bringing motorcycles or off-road equipment, and compact models suited to smaller state park sites.

Pre-owned inventory is a significant part of the business. Used units are typically reconditioned and inspected before they are listed, and they give buyers access to larger floor plans or higher trim levels within a modest budget. Because a used RV's condition depends heavily on how it was stored and maintained, a dealer with an in-house service department is positioned to identify and correct issues that a private-party sale would leave to the buyer.

Practical considerations that come up during the shopping process include dry weight versus loaded weight, tongue weight, cargo carrying capacity, axle ratings and the towing limits of the customer's existing vehicle. Sales staff at the dealership routinely work through those numbers with buyers before a purchase rather than after, which is part of why matching a unit to a specific truck or SUV is treated as a core step rather than a formality.

Service, Parts and Hitch Work

The service department handles warranty repairs, seasonal maintenance, roof and seal inspections, appliance service, electrical and plumbing work, winterization and de-winterization, and collision or storm damage repair. Certified technicians are able to perform manufacturer warranty work, which spares owners the trouble of arranging repairs through a third party.

Hitch and towing installation is a notable specialty. The dealership installs weight distribution hitches, sway control systems, brake controllers and related towing hardware, and calibrates the setup to the specific combination of tow vehicle and trailer. Proper weight distribution affects braking distance, steering response and sway behavior at highway speeds, and getting it right is one of the most consequential safety steps in the entire purchase.

A retail parts and accessories store on site stocks the consumable and upgrade items that owners need through the season: sewer and water hoses, leveling blocks, surge protectors, stabilizers, awning hardware, vent covers, holding tank chemicals, RV-safe toilet paper, outdoor mats, folding furniture and camping supplies. The store is open to any RV owner, not only to customers who purchased a unit at the dealership.

Delivery, Orientation and Owner Education

Pickup day at the dealership involves a structured walkthrough of the unit rather than a quick handoff of the keys. The orientation covers the water system, waste tanks and dumping procedure, electrical panel and converter, propane system, furnace and water heater operation, air conditioning, slide-outs, awning, leveling and stabilizing, and the winterization steps that Pennsylvania weather makes mandatory. For first-time buyers, this session is often the single most useful hour of the purchase.

The dealership also runs periodic owner workshops and clinics, which give recent buyers a setting to ask questions that only surface after a first or second trip. Inspection programs for units purchased at the dealership extend that support past the initial sale. Together these programs function less like an add-on service and more like a continuing relationship with a local camping community, and many owners return for parts, service and upgrades years after their original purchase.

Financing and Paperwork

An in-house finance office arranges RV loans through lenders that specialize in recreational vehicle terms, which differ from automotive financing in length and structure. Staff handle titling, registration, tax documentation and trade-in processing. Extended service contracts and protection products are available, though the dealership's reputation rests on presenting those options clearly rather than pressing them.

Visiting the Dealership

• Address: 1236 Pottsville Pike, Shoemakersville, PA 19555
• Phone: +1 877-235-4422
• Website: tomschaeffers.com
• Business type: RV dealer with sales, service, parts and financing on one site
• Wheelchair accessible entrance
• Wheelchair accessible parking lot
• Pet friendly: dogs are welcome on the lot and in the buildings

Visitors planning to tour multiple units should allow ample time, since walking through a dozen floor plans takes longer than most people expect. Bringing the intended tow vehicle, or at minimum its make, model, engine, axle ratio and payload sticker information, allows staff to confirm compatibility on the spot. Buyers scheduling a pickup should plan for a lengthy orientation appointment and, if possible, arrive during daylight hours so the hitch setup and a short towing check can be completed comfortably before the drive home.