California Gas Appliance Ban Extends To National RV's

Self Vanity - Rant | August 7, 2023 | self

[redfreedom]

We have a truck camper (slide in pickup camper) and typically camp in remote areas or national forests or national parks where there is no electrical hook-ups. This means, like many other campers, we depend on our gas-operated refrigerator to keep our food cold or frozen. Due to our age it is no longer comfortable to be climbing into the camper and especially out of bed at night, so we decided to get a conventional ball-hitch travel trailer.

To our amazement the majority of new travel trailers we looked at were all 12v batter powered only, that relied on a solar panel to keep the battery charged and the fridge going. Considering our knowledge of how undependable solar power is, the 12v fridges were unacceptable. One dealer proudly showed us a lithium battery setup on a trailer, right beside a propane tank. He said they need to be taken into a warm building during the winter. I couldn't believe it, a fire hazard when you camp and in the home during the winter.

I asked some of the dealers what do the campers do during cloudy days. The standard answer was to just run the truck to charge the battery or run a generator. This is beyond stupid, to run a big V-8 for a few hours on cloudy daya to charge a battery. Imagine the gasoline use not to mention the pollution this solar joke is supposed to eliminate. We've camped around generators for years. Some are Honda whisper quiet, some are un-muffled Harley Davidson loud. The idea of camping in the wild is to get away from all that noise.

I asked the dealers what's causing this major switch. One sales guy said it's because the gas ones are big and bulky and always need repairs. Both answers are outright lies. I got the truth from a dealer in northern Minnesota. He said the California gas ban is leading this. Manufacturers decided to follow their standard nationwide, thus go with solar/12v fridges only. What's worse is 12v fireplaces and water heaters are next making the entire camper gas free and solely dependent upon solar. I asked this guy about RV lithium batteries. He has friends that are outfitters that use lithium batteries for their electric boat motors. It does not even have to be down to 32F for them to quit. They will not work in the cold and they will not charge in the cold.

We bought a brand new 12v model and are having a 120v/gas-operated fridge installed. The dealer is giving us a trade in allowance for the lefty 12v taken out. We are keeping the camper's 200 watt solar set-up for the 12v CPAP and furnace blower - both will kill the battery in one day without a recharge.

[Sequoyah101]

If you want a gas cooktop... Valve, Pipe, Drill.

Make it yourself.

If you want to get snazzy you’ll have to do some casting and or machining.

When I was growing up we had a two burner camp stove that looked like a spider. All cast iron and with valves that has porcelain handles, all black otherwise. I thought it was the coolest thing. Our camp trailer was a green box with the kitchen on back in one of those neat compartments where the lid expanded into cupboard. The stove was fixed in place with bent over nails on the feet.

[Graybeard58]

Complaining about dying from carbon monoxide… sheesh. There’s just no pleasing some people. /s

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Some would complain if they were being hanged with a brand new rope.

[sauropod]

bkmk

[Morgana]

I noticed that a lot of the homeless living in rv’s had solar panels attached to their “homes”.

Would this be an option? Put a few on the roof?

[Morgana]

Also this there is this idea. Yes this would require a slight adapter change but adding a gas generator? It would be noisy but hey it would really piss of california. I knew a guy who had one for his pop up camper and ran a small ac in it.

[iamgalt]

Exactly. Ca has the economic size to bully the country. The commerce clause could stop this.