Friday, March 07, 2008
ARGUMENTS OVER INCREASE OF SQUARE FOOTAGE IN TRAILERS
RV Business
Thursday, March 6, 2008
The Recreation Park Trailer Industry Association (RPTIA) took the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) to task in a full-page ad in the Elkhart (Ind.) Truth this morning (March 6) over RVIA’s authorization — contrary to the ANSI code — to allow manufacturers to build larger travel trailers.
"As a result, dealers in at least 15 states ... may be putting themselves and their customers at risk, even if these units display an RVIA seal," the ad said. "It may also be difficult for dealers and consumers to insure or finance these units."
Coincidental to the ad’s appearance, the RVIA board, during the association’s annual meeting March 1 on the Big Island of Hawaii, voted to exclude park trailers from the National RV Trade Show at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky., effective with the 2008 show the week after Thanksgiving.
"The RVIA board ultimately felt it was unfair to provide space to park trailer manufacturers (who are not RVIA members), when RV manufacturers have been unable to exhibit or have had their booth size reduced because of space constraints," said an RVIA spokesman. The spokesman had no comment on the RPTIA ad.
Garpow said he received word of the RVIA board’s action Tuesday in a telephone call from RVIA President Richard Coon after The Truth ad already had been scheduled.
The square footage dispute centers around RVIA granting members the authority effective Jan. 1 to build travel trailers up to 400 square feet in size, rather than the 320 square feet they’ve been limited to since 1987. RPTIA fears that larger travel trailers will compete unfairly with so-called park models between 320 to 400 square feet that are manufactured by it members, some of which also build travel trailers.
After RPTIA objections last fall, RVIA abandoned a concurrent plan to ask Congress to allow fifth-wheels to be larger than 400 square feet, a limit now established by federal statute.
"The ad is a way to show that we are serious about what we are saying," William Garpow, RPTIA executive director, told RVBusiness. "We published it in the hometown paper of the RV industry to get the industry’s attention. We hope to alert the dealers and RV consumer that what RVIA is doing is putting them at some risk."
RPTIA was even more critical in an accompanying press release that said RPTIA was "exposing" RVIA for allowing the "production of supersize travel trailers that violate state and federal building and safety codes."
"We think dealers should be alarmed," the press release said.
RVIA has acknowledged that travel trailers larger than 320 square feet will not be in compliance with the ANSI code, but that compliance on the part of the association and its members is voluntary, even though a number of state regulations cede their authority to regulate RVs to the ANSI code.
RVIA said it will work to change statutes in those states — including California, Arizona and Florida — where a large number of RVs are sold, and to seek to revise the ANSI standards during the next review cycle which won’t be completed until 2011.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
The Recreation Park Trailer Industry Association (RPTIA) took the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) to task in a full-page ad in the Elkhart (Ind.) Truth this morning (March 6) over RVIA’s authorization — contrary to the ANSI code — to allow manufacturers to build larger travel trailers.
"As a result, dealers in at least 15 states ... may be putting themselves and their customers at risk, even if these units display an RVIA seal," the ad said. "It may also be difficult for dealers and consumers to insure or finance these units."
Coincidental to the ad’s appearance, the RVIA board, during the association’s annual meeting March 1 on the Big Island of Hawaii, voted to exclude park trailers from the National RV Trade Show at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky., effective with the 2008 show the week after Thanksgiving.
"The RVIA board ultimately felt it was unfair to provide space to park trailer manufacturers (who are not RVIA members), when RV manufacturers have been unable to exhibit or have had their booth size reduced because of space constraints," said an RVIA spokesman. The spokesman had no comment on the RPTIA ad.
Garpow said he received word of the RVIA board’s action Tuesday in a telephone call from RVIA President Richard Coon after The Truth ad already had been scheduled.
The square footage dispute centers around RVIA granting members the authority effective Jan. 1 to build travel trailers up to 400 square feet in size, rather than the 320 square feet they’ve been limited to since 1987. RPTIA fears that larger travel trailers will compete unfairly with so-called park models between 320 to 400 square feet that are manufactured by it members, some of which also build travel trailers.
After RPTIA objections last fall, RVIA abandoned a concurrent plan to ask Congress to allow fifth-wheels to be larger than 400 square feet, a limit now established by federal statute.
"The ad is a way to show that we are serious about what we are saying," William Garpow, RPTIA executive director, told RVBusiness. "We published it in the hometown paper of the RV industry to get the industry’s attention. We hope to alert the dealers and RV consumer that what RVIA is doing is putting them at some risk."
RPTIA was even more critical in an accompanying press release that said RPTIA was "exposing" RVIA for allowing the "production of supersize travel trailers that violate state and federal building and safety codes."
"We think dealers should be alarmed," the press release said.
RVIA has acknowledged that travel trailers larger than 320 square feet will not be in compliance with the ANSI code, but that compliance on the part of the association and its members is voluntary, even though a number of state regulations cede their authority to regulate RVs to the ANSI code.
RVIA said it will work to change statutes in those states — including California, Arizona and Florida — where a large number of RVs are sold, and to seek to revise the ANSI standards during the next review cycle which won’t be completed until 2011.
