Free Republic

A fireball from a parked RV sparked a fire that tore through an iconic Queens diner from the movie “Goodfellas” – and now one mayoral candidate is calling for a camper crackdown. The fire erupted at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at GoodFellas Diner in Maspeth with 60 firefighters eventually arriving to put out the flames, according to the FDNY. The blaze came seven years after the same diner caught fire. Two civilians were evaluated on the scene and refused medical attention, the department said.

Representative Dusty Johnson has re-introduced the Traveler’s Gun Rights Act, a bill attending to a Second Amendment issue constraining firearms rights of those who do not use a permanent physical address, such as many active-duty military personnel and those who live and travel via RV. Companion legislation currently in the Senate is being led by Senator Mike Rounds, and both of these gentlemen are representatives of South Dakota, the state I like to call home and one that still represents strong American values and traditions. Johnson’s Traveler’s Gun-Rights Act seeks to correct the firearms purchasing process and strengthen Second Amendment...

A national RV dealer is in hot water again for flying a mammoth American flag at one of its lots — and company CEO Marcus Lemonis of TV’s “The Profit’’ says this one isn’t coming down, either. Camping World — which runs more than 250 RV dealerships across the country — raised the new gigantic flag at its Greenville, NC, location in October, according to WLBT. Local zoning officials say the Stars and Stripes fluttering over the RVs is 15 times bigger than allowed. Even the 120-foot flagpole is too big, coming in at nearly twice the height permitted by...

Starting Jan. 1, Washington may halt sales of new motorhomes and large trucks powered by diesel or gasoline due to emissions regulations modeled after California’s standards. The new rules apply to vehicles with more than 8,500 pounds gross vehicle weight, impacting most RVs, medium- to heavy-duty trucks and interstate tractor-trailers. “This has caused quite a disruption in the industry,” Washington State Truckers Association CEO Sheri Call told KIRO Newsradio Thursday. The changes stem from California’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) legislation, which Washington lawmakers committed to follow in 2020. The RV and trucking industries are now bracing for a major shift...

California motorhome sales may grind to a halt if new emission rules concerning diesel vehicles go into effect.

...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)...

Business Insider's Monica Humphries spent two weeks traveling around America's west in a camper van. Around every corner, she discovered hidden costs like paying for showers and eating out. Before embarking on a two-week van trip, Monica Humpries had romanticized the lifestyle. She pictured waking up in breathtaking places, spending weekends isolated in nature, and seeking out spontaneous adventures. She also pictured a full bank account. Humphries naively assumed that once you had your van and shed unnecessary possessions and the burden of monthly rent, there wouldn't be many other costs to consider. So when she picked up her rental...

At this time of year, a reservation with Chill RV Rentals isn’t usually the easiest to come by. The Los Angeles-based company’s 16-camper fleet is typically booked solid, with the RVs oftentimes reserved weeks in advance. That’s just not the case this year, said Nika Shneyder, who started the recreational vehicle rental business with her father in 2016. Bookings are light; plus, the people who are traveling are taking shorter trips, she said. “We’re definitely seeing demand for RV travel slowed down compared to previous years, and I don’t think it has to do with people coming out [the pandemic]...

It’s not quite a replacement for diesel RVs, but the latest all-electric camper van from Grounded is getting there. The G2 claims a fully loaded range of 250 miles from its 165kWh vehicle battery, which easily trumps the Grounded G1’s range of 108 miles. It can be configured with up to 640W of rooftop solar and a hefty 10kWh house battery that can be charged from the main battery. It’s not cheap, with a starting price of $195,000, but living in the future never is. “The G2 is radically different from any other offering on the market,” said Grounded CEO...

San Francisco is pouring $12,000 a month into an RV park for the homeless, while young people trying to get a break in their careers are reduced to living in 4-feet high by 3.5-feet wide “pod” spaces for $700 a month.

A man says he is being forced to sell his home due to an 'illegally parked' caravan next door. George Collins says he feels like he has tried everything to solve the issue which has been going on for a year after the RV first appeared near his home. The disgruntled homeowner even claims the RV's resident disposes of his human waste in the shared residential street in Portland, Oregon. Fed-up George says he also regularly loses sleep due to banging coming from the caravan, with waste also causing a rat problem. After coming to his wit's end, George says...

Wife, son and I are doing the permanent RV life. TBH, the hardest part has been the downsizing; you never truly understand just hom much you accumulate over 30 years of marriage until you do something like this. As it stands, we are investigating mobile internet services and are seriously considering Starlink

Our one and only RV trip. Husband was stopped by the Mississippi River, so we watched soybeans grow for a month while searching the web for a lower bridge or a higher guardrail. The RV now sits as our house addition.

These new electric pickups are wonderful towing companions, aided by massive horsepower and torque that allow for easy merging with the flow of interstate traffic, and their heavy curb weights (between 6855 pounds for the F-150 and 9640 pounds for the Hummer) lend an impressive stability when lugging a three-ton trailer. But you won't want to be going far, as a full battery will take you a mere 100 miles in the Lightning, 110 miles in the R1T, and 140 miles in the Hummer. Although the Hummer consumes electricity at the highest rate of the three, its considerably larger battery...

Eight RV manufacturers, 37 models and 22,021 RVs from model years 2021 and 2022 have dangerous RV cracked and porous LP gas fittings that can lead to a fire, and they don’t know it. Worse yet, almost all of the RV factories say they will not send notices to tell dealers or the public about it until July 1st. The recalls were quietly announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but virtually all factory warning letters to the RV dealers and owners of these RVs will not go out until July 2022, according to filings with federal safety regulators....

Nine days after Ronnie and Beverly Baker were last seen in their RV while driving through Nevada, the missing Indiana woman was found alive on Tuesday. Although family members say Beverly is "doing okay," her husband has died. Ronnie, 72, and Beverly, 69, were located in a "remote mountain area of Esmeralda County near Silver Peak, Nevada," Tuesday afternoon, the Esmeralda Sheriff's Office said in a statement on Wednesday. "It was determined that Ronnie had passed away. Beverly was alive and in good spirits considering what took place," police wrote, noting that she was airlifted out of the area and...

New RV shipment data from the RV Industry Association’s (RVIA) February 2022 survey of manufacturers revealed demand for this time of year is at some of the highest levels ever. RVIA said total RV shipments last month topped 53,722 units, an increase of 11.3% compared to the 48,286 units shipped during the same month last year. RV shipments jumped 13.6% through February versus the same point last year with 107,012 wholesale shipments. Red hot demand for RVs continues through 1Q22, well above a ten-year average. “Our latest shipment report shows the RV industry is continuing its strong start to 2022,”...

It was one thing when Americans panicked hoarded food and toilet paper during the early days of the virus pandemic. Then guns and ammo after social unrest broke out, but 20 months later, recreational vehicles continue to be hoarded at levels never seen before. A new RV Industry Association (RVIA) report released Tuesday shows shipments for towable RVs jumped 14% in November to 43,881 from 38,485 the same month last year. All motorhome shipments soared 30.4% to 5,254 vehicles for the month, and total RV shipments increased 15.6%. Like all of 2021, November’s sales are a record for that month…For...

Bruner, 67, of Albany, Minnesota.. was attempting to move the vehicle to straighten a trailer it was pulling when he fell out of the driver’s side door... “The driver landed in the path of the motor coach’s rear tires. The motor coach was still in drive and slowly moving forward.” The Clark County coroner’s office said Bruner died from head and neck trauma. His death is listed as an accident.

A few seconds into John & Mercedes Condon’s latest YouTube video, this famous RV couple states the cold, hard truth. Known as the RV Odd Couple, the Condons are known for telling it like it is. In the recent video, Mercedes starts by saying, “I bet you can’t wait to go camping this year.” John’s direct realization follows, “Good luck, guys! ‘Cause America’s pretty much sold out already.” Is this true? Are most of the campgrounds in America sold out? Well, while we know there’s still availability (in Kansas, maybe), the tourist hot spots are booking quicker than ever this...