California set to begin emission testing diesel motorhomes

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
L

Lou Schneider

Site Team
Joined
Mar 14, 2005
Posts
13,249
California is set to begin emission testing for "large" diesel motorhomes by July 2023. What's large? Any RV witjh a GVWR of 14,000 lbs or more, which includes almost all Class A and Class C motorhomes, burning any fuel other than gasoline. Basically they're extending the commercial truck testing requirements that begin on that date to RVs. All resident RVs will have to be tested annually, non-resident RVs may be exempt if they're strictly for personal use, otherwise their owners will have the opportunity to open an account with the state to certify their RVs meet the state's emission requirements. It's not clear yet if this will require RVs to stop at a Port of Entry apon entering the state to check the paperwork and/or have an inspection or test performed like commercial trucks do.

https://www.rvtravel.com/california-mandatory-motorhome-emissions-testing/
 
Lou Schneider said:
California is set to begin emission testing large diesel motorhomes (those over 14,000 GVWR, which includes just about all Class A and C motorhomes) by July 2023. Basically they're extending the commercial truck testing requirements that begin on that date to RVs. Resident RVs will have to be tested annually, non-resident RVers will have the opportunity to open an account with the state to certify their RVs meet the state's emission requirements. It's not clear if this will require stopping at a Port of Entry apon entering the state like commercial trucks do to check the paperwork and/or have an inspection or test performed.

https://www.rvtravel.com/california-mandatory-motorhome-emissions-testing/
Click to expand...
Thanks Lou. We knew it was coming some time, but it's still a bit of a shock. Haven't had smog done on a motorhome since we had a gas coach in the 80's/90's.
 
We've had to have emission tests on pretty much everything in the Denver Metro area (was 6 countys, now 7 or 8), including both gas and diesel MH. The test has a sensor stuck up the tailpipe and drive wheels go on rollers. They also test whether your gas cap is good, and perhaps a couple of other things.

A brand new vehicle doesn't require a test for (depending on vehicle) the first 3-6 years (Not sure of all details), but My 2015 Wrangler will soon need its first test, my 2016 Ventana has a year or two to go, the 2007 Beaver I had needed a test every two years, etc.

Most of the rest of Colorado has no requirements yet (that I know of).
 
It is a pain in rear, but I understand where they are coming from. I lived in a high pollution area (Salt Lake City), and the health impacts are significant for many. High population density and lots of mountains to trap smog make California the poster child for both creating smog and coming up with ways to reduce it. As a long time frequent business traveler to CA before retirement, their air has cleaned up radically since the early 80s. I do love visiting the state, so I will do what I have to do.
 
Yet another reason why people are leaving California in droves. They will never learn...
 
UTTransplant said:
High population density and lots of mountains to trap smog make California the poster child for both creating smog and coming up with ways to reduce it.
Click to expand...
In the 70's I went back to college and, during a summer school, one of our lecturers had worked for 10 years in (I believe) the EPA in LA. He showed us a time-delayed sequence of photos taken looking down into the LA basin. It was the first time I'd seen smog, and it was mind boggling to see the smog roll down into the basin and out again over a 24 hour period.
 
I visited at the Rockwell Space Shuttle facility is Downey, CA a lot in the 90s to early 2000s. People there kept telling me there were mountains to the east, but I never saw them. I thought there were many miles away. I arrived one morning just after a rainstorm, and there really were mountains, and they were much, much closer than I imagined! I went back in the 2010s, and mountains were visible even without rain. It was astonishing! And the first time I went to Denver in 1980 we were visiting friends. We had to leave after 3 days because the bad air was making me sick. Another place those painful smog tests have really improved. There is a reason these rules exist.
 
Being born and raised in Ca, and worked in LA for 25 years I can appreciate clean air efforts. My biggest reservation is that they will figure out some way to screw the process up. I have seen it over and over again. Too much bureaucracy and not enough common sense.
 
Thanks for those links Don. When the Prof showed us those time-delayed pics looking into the LA basin, I was living in a part of the UK that had never seen smog. When a California colleague visited the UK, I drove him past our local steel plant, the largest in Europe. I pointed at a sight that looked atmospherically like this and asked why Bay Area folks complained about the "small amount of smog" I'd seen on visits to the Bay area.
 
Oregon, a few years ago, tried eliminating diesel engines older than 2007 although Motorhomes were to be exempt. That bill went nowhere. This year, however, this is a bill that would ban the sale of diesel starting in 2 years (the only available alternative being bio diesel). Hopefully this new bill goes down in flames.
 
As a kid in the 70's we would have "smog days" and school cancelled - the air so unhealthy people were warned to stay indoors and not go out. You could barely see the length of a football field. If you tried running your lungs would burn and you basically could not do it. And I was a 16 year old varsity sports player at the peak of fitness.

The LA basin has some unique features - it basically traps onshore air and then something called an "inversion" would happen. This is basically temperature rising with altitude, colder air flowing across the mountains would "cap" this hot air bubble and we would all cook and swim in the smog.

The Indians called the area land of white smoke or something. This was on-shore "marine" air blowing in and heating up basically becoming like fog. So that's always been there.

In the 70's you mixed in tons of pollution and the the white smog was basically brown.

It sucked and California and its citizens had to pay for the hangover.
 
Ex-Calif said:
The LA basin has some unique features - it basically traps onshore air and then something called an "inversion" would happen. This is basically temperature rising with altitude, colder air flowing across the mountains would "cap" this hot air bubble and we would all cook and swim in the smog.
Click to expand...
Aye, the Santa Clara Valley has an inversion layer, but not as bad as the LA basin.
 
Tom said:
Aye, the Santa Clara Valley has an inversion layer, but not as bad as the LA basin.
Click to expand...
I am amazed at the air quality in LA when I visit my brother. People who "migrated" to CA never experienced it and its easy to say the government is being ridiculous.

I could not imagine LA absorbing the population growth it has over the last 45 years without taking serious measures - everyone would basically be dead - LOL...

3rd generation Californian - Unfortunately I will never go back to live, primarily because of the migration. The California vibe is destroyed never to come back. I'd rather remember it as it was...
 
The LA basin has some unique features - it basically traps onshore air and then something called an "inversion" would happen.
Click to expand...
Yup, unique in its intensity, perhaps. Two places I've lived have a similar problem -- Albuquerque and Denver -- though not as severe. Still, it's no fun when those inversions occur, either visually or breath wise.

In 1972 I drove into the LA area, and as I came down the hill the air was clear, where I was, but there was a brownish fog ahead, into which we soon sunk -- pretty bad stuff, a lot worse than I usually saw at either of the above places.
 
One of the main reasons I moved out of the Salt Lake City area was the winter pollution. Living in a beautiful place with hundreds of outdoor opportunities isn’t the same when you need to stay in the house with the HEPA filter or breathe.
 
We had similar inversions in the Santa Rosa valley north of San Francisco. One winter it was particularly bad, overcast with highs in the low 40s for a couple of weeks.

One day in the middle of this gloom I had to go to our transmitter on top of 4,000 ft. Geyser Peak. When I got up there the sun was out and the temperature was in the low 70s, easily 25 degrees warmer than the valley floor I was now overlooking. Before I left I decided to sneak in some time soaking up the warm afternoon sun. My resulting tan generated lots of comments the next day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tom
Lou Schneider said:
California is set to begin emission testing for "large" diesel motorhomes by July 2023. What's large? Any RV witjh a GVWR of 14,000 lbs or more, which includes almost all Class A and Class C motorhomes, burning any fuel other than gasoline. Basically they're extending the commercial truck testing requirements that begin on that date to RVs. All resident RVs will have to be tested annually, non-resident RVs may be exempt if they're strictly for personal use, otherwise their owners will have the opportunity to open an account with the state to certify their RVs meet the state's emission requirements. It's not clear yet if this will require RVs to stop at a Port of Entry apon entering the state to check the paperwork and/or have an inspection or test performed like commercial trucks do.

California to roll out mandatory motorhome emissions testing - RV Travel
Click to expand...

Still. Encouraging and good news. Good on California.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,210 (members: 35, guests: 1,175)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,968
Posts
1,388,417
Members
137,721
Latest member
Dmac3003
Back
Top Bottom