Why Powersports, RV and Marine Dealers Need a Second Floor Plan Line

RideNow Group, a publicly traded powersports dealer group, reported floor plan notes payable of $218.4 million at the end of 2025. By June 30, 2026, the balance was $273.9 million, according to its second-quarter 10-Q. That's a 25% jump in six months, across the months when powersports dealers stock up for the riding season.

A dealer group that size can renegotiate capacity with its lenders. A three-store powersports dealer usually can't, at least not in April. When its bank line fills before the season does, it stops ordering. The manufacturer sees a dealer who's "cautious." The dealer sees a limit.

Seasonal dealers hit the ceiling first

Powersports, RV, marine and golf cart dealers sell hard for a few months a year. Their floor plan lines are typically sized for something closer to the yearly average, because that's how the bank sees the risk. So the line runs out in the busy months and sits half-empty in the slow ones.

The RV side has had a softer year, which makes the problem sharper rather than smaller. Wholesale RV shipments through June 2026 were 163,644 units, down 14.2% from the same point in 2025, according to RV PRO's coverage of RVIA's survey. In a year like that banks get careful about raising limits. Dealers get careful about asking. The units that do sell still need to be replaced on the lot, often with a line that has no room left.

Marine shows it most clearly. A boat ordered in January for a spring launch can sit on the line for months before it sells, and every one of those boats takes room from the next order. That's when a second line earns its keep.

The usual answer is to ask the bank for more. The bank usually says no, or says yes in six weeks. Neither helps a dealer whose spring order is sitting at the factory.

How a second line works

A second line sits beside the one the dealer already has. One of our lenders underwrites the dealer and adds a line. The dealer moves units onto it as the bank line fills, and decides which units go where.

Nobody gives anything up, which is why all three parties tend to say yes:

• The dealer gets room for the next order without waiting for the last one to sell.
• You keep shipping through the busy months, and your sales team spends less time hearing that a dealer's line is full.
• The bank keeps its relationship and its limit.

We run the second line day to day on VeroOS. The dealer requests funding and pays off units in a portal, and the lender's bank releases every payment. The lender sets the terms and makes the credit decision on each dealer.

Used units and trade-ins

Franchise dealers take in trade-ins all season, and their main line often won't cover them. A used side-by-side or a three-year-old pontoon sits on the lot unfloored, tying up the dealer's own cash.

Whether a second line can floor used units is the lender's call, set program by program. For franchise dealers it often can, and that alone can justify the second line for a busy store.

Independent dealers

Some lenders work with independent dealers, usually after they've seen the dealer's retail history. If your network mixes franchise and independent stores, tell us which is which up front. It changes which lender fits, and how fast the independents can be added.

Bring dealers in groups

Lenders review and launch dealers in groups. A manufacturer that brings five or ten dealers gets a program moving faster than one that sends dealers in one at a time. Start with the dealers who run tightest in season: you probably already know their names, because they're the ones calling your sales team in March.

For each one, a lender will want the current line size and the bank behind it. It'll also ask roughly how full the line runs at peak. That's it for the first conversation. The tight-in-season dealers are also the easiest case to make to a lender, because their problem is room rather than demand.

Retail and wholesale with one lender

Plenty of powersports and marine manufacturers already subsidize retail rates through a lender. If that's you, ask whether the same lender can floor your dealers' stock. Some of ours do both. Some will run both under your name as a private-label program, so you don't have to build a captive to get one finance brand across retail and wholesale.

Quick answers

Do dealers have to leave their current floor plan lender? No. The second line sits beside the one they have.

Can used units go on the line? Often, for franchise dealers. The lender decides, program by program.

Does Vero lend the money? No. The lender underwrites and signs every dealer and funds the line on terms it sets. We run the program day to day inside the limits the lender sets.

Construction dealers hit the same wall in February and March. We wrote about why construction dealers run out of floor plan before spring.

Vero runs floor plan programs for lenders on VeroOS. See how the second-line program works for seasonal dealers.