If You Have A Motor Home and Love Touring This Great Land Called America, They Hate You and Want It to Stop!

California has now fashioned a back-door prohibition of motor homes, and the copycat tyrannical states of Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, like the lemmings they imitate, are right behind it. Yes, they hate the idea anyone would want to tour this great country in such a gauche manner. It’s the same sort of antipathy to ordinariness that leads politicians to label them deplorables and worse.

The story is told at RVtravel.com and here are the basics:

On Monday we broke the news about what boils down to a ban of motorhome sales in California and five other states. At the time, our understanding was the clamp-down would affect only diesel motorhomes. It does not, as many gas motorhomes will likewise be affected. And, hold on. While sales of affected motorhomes in those states will cease in 2025—several other states will follow suit thereafter. The RVIA has rung in with more information, which we’ll cover here.

This morning, the RV Industry Association (RVIA) released a fact sheet on the motorhome near-total “ban” situation. You can read the entire fact-sheet here, but we’ll boil the matter down in this story.

What created the situation? This year, California’s Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) regulation, which aims to promote zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), will effectively create a near-total “ban” on motorhome sales in the state. Other states that follow California’s ACT regulation will see a similar shutdown.

The regulation doesn’t directly spell out a ban on motorhomes. But it does force medium- and heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers to increase the percentage of ZEVs they sell each year. Result? These manufacturers simple turned off the supply of old-fashioned internal combustion engine chassis. They’ve done this simply because they don’t have a supply of chassis fit for motorhome use.

The RV industry saw it coming. Since 2020 it’s been working with CARB (the California Air Resources Board—creator of ACT) on how these regulations would affect the industry and RVers. Industry had hoped CARB would work in an exemption for recreational vehicles. That didn’t happen. The situation is further complicated by more than just the ACT regulation. It also involves a trio of regulations passed in the last two to three years: the ACT, the Omnibus Low NOx rule, and the Advanced Clean Fleets rule. Together, these regulations are designed to transition medium- and heavy-duty vehicles to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) by 2036…

“If nothing changes.” If the RV industry and CARB can’t come to a meeting of the minds—and at this point it looks like a deadlock—many motorhomes simply won’t be sold or registered in California as of sometime in 2025. When we say “many” motorhomes, just what are the brass tacks?

Here’s the answer, according to the RVIA fact sheet. “While the majority of the attention thus far has focused on Class A and Class C diesel motorhomes, the regulation, with a few exceptions, applies to all medium-duty or heavy-duty vehicles with combustion engines. Any non-exempted on-road vehicle over 8,500 GVWR is included [and] is covered by the regulation, including Class B motorhomes most of which have a GVWR over that amount.”

…CARB has made it clear that these regulations apply to new motorhomes. Pre-owned motorhomes are exempt, even if built after the ACT regulation went into effect. So just what constitutes “pre-owned” or used vehicle?

That was a question that RVIA for the board. According to the fact-sheet, “CARB said that a used vehicle, defined as one with more than 7,500 miles on the odometer, could be brought in and registered. Any motorhome with less than 7,500 miles would be considered a new vehicle and would have to be compliant in order to be registered.”

In RVIA’s view, next year California and these other states will essentially see a shutdown of sales of most motorhomes, diesel or gas. The other states are: Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington. However, four more states also observe the ACT regulation. The RVIA predicts Vermont will see a similar shutdown in 2026. And come 2027, the same situation will affect Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico, and Rhode Island.

Of specific interest to California residents is this. What if you buy a motorhome in a state that doesn’t comply with ACT and try to register that rig in California? It won’t happen. The RVIA says, “In response to a question at the hearing about non-compliant vehicles coming in from out of state, CARB said that a used vehicle, defined as one with more than 7,500 miles on the odometer, could be brought in and registered. Any motorhome with less than 7,500 miles would be considered a new vehicle and would have to be compliant in order to be registered.” (Italics ours.)

There are three disgusting things going on here. One is the elitist perspective of the CARB outfit that won’t work with the RV industry to arrive a reasonable solution. Another is the manner in which this anti-motorhome situation has been come about with mandates on manufacturers to sell ZEVs few want. The third is the lack of leadership on the part of other states who blindly follow California’s Marxist lead and can’t think for themselves.

And, who serves on CARB as the “Automotive Member” you might ask? Well, it's Susan A. Shaheen, Ph.D. who is an academic with a graduate degree in Ecology. She's appointed by California's trust-funder governor and, of course, has never done anything but write about transportation. She represents no one's views but her own, which are distinctly leftist. Such is the nature of motorhome owners’ enemies.

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