However, let me throw in one thought. I have worked in the conceptual design, manufacturing, and production of hybrid gas/diesel/electric vehicles for many years. Within this emerging technology may may be the secret that can overcome the need for torque to move today’s RVs and the cost of fuel. I can attest to the fact (in real terms) of the positive benefit of hybrids over their conventional counterparts.

If RVIA has a few extra bucks to spare, they might want to help set aside the nay-sayers with some positive views on what may be the best alternative on the near term horizon.

GO HYBRIDs…..

I think it’s safe to say that the previous comments (and those to be made after mine) have one thing in common - ‘change’ is never easy. And over the past 6 years, we, as a Nation, have been faced with and forced to deal with A LOT of change, and damned little of it has been for the better.

Now, we have the CAFE issue to contend with. And what does CAFE really portend to? More ‘change.’ But I think the CAFE issue speaks more to awakening a deeper sense in all of us - the matter of more restrictions being foisted upon us and our customers. How much more restrictions are we, as a Nation, going to tolerate before we say “Enough!”

Restriction is THE one word that is totally contrary to THE operational word in the RV industry - FREEDOM! If the lobbyists being hired by RVIA want to hammer ONE thing, let it be that one word - FREEDOM! Because if they go to the Congress and to the Senate with any less of an approach than preserving FREEDOM IN THE RV INDUSTRY and ALL that it stands for, we all can go ahead and make plans for retirement to that fishing camp we’ve dreamed about.

Politicians are not in the business of solving problems (as they create most of them for all of us.) They are in the business of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. If they were in the business of solving problems, then none of them would have [so-called] jobs for very long. They all keep us ‘waiting and wanting.’ I say we need to remind them, in this instance, that if they insist on ‘monkeying’ around with any more of our RV FREEDOMs in this multi-billion dollar industry, it’s going to start costing them votes and backing.

“I’ll give up my RV when they pry the keys from my cold dead hands!”

Ya’ll honk as you go by…..(and remind the politicos who is REALLY in charge.)

We may be washing sweet potatoes before we solve this issue. Your thesis does nothing to resolve a potential energy crisis if we can’t solve the problems in the Middle East or for alternative energy sources, nor does it take into consideration the very serious concerns of RV manufacturers if the government decides to do the “feel good” thing and raise CAFE Standards without ever addressing the core problems.

More importantly, when did the Monkeys teach the humans to start washing their sweet potatoes?

As far as our industry is concerned however, there is a way that does work and can be pulled off by us little guys that just want to have a good time, make an honest buck and enjoy happy customers.

See if you get my drift from the following story.

In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkeys liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant. An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes - the exact number is not known.

Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let’s further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.

THEN IT HAPPENED!

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!

But notice. A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea

Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes.

Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind. Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people. But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!

Namaste,

Mike

We need less government, not more. We need to get rid of these morons in Washington that have never earned a days pay in their entire lives, and we must restore creativity and excitement to the American manufacturing process and all businesses that feed it.

Wake up America.

Mini-vans and the SUV ( some times also classed as a multi-purpose vehicle or MPV) are not legally classed as a car, and thus do not come under the same federal legal requirements as a car. Initially this applied to seat belts, CAFE, crash tests, etc. This made it cheaper to make the MPV than a regular car, so guess which the car manufacturer would want to make & sell.

The SUV and mini-van has replaced the station wagon…it’s the same vehicle…carries the same amount of people & stuff, only the SUV is sexier than the station wagon.

I’ve been in the business of “things that roll on wheels” just about all my adult life…cars or RV’s and I think we should be supporting a higher CAFE average. There will always be a vehicle available for our industry’s need. When the CAFE program was made into law, every vehicle manufacturer in the U.S. was screaming that they could not reach it…notice I said in the U.S., as the Japanese didn’t see this as a problem, but some how, they did reach it.

Unfortunately, most of the U.S. auto manufacturers do not actually make something happen, until they have to or are made to. And, just about the same thought applies to our fellow Americans…perfect example, the seat belt.

How many of us can remember growing up and never even seeing a seat belt in our parents car? How many of us actually laid down in the back package tray looking out at the sky while our parents drove down the road? How many of us ever sat in a child’s safety/car seat? If you’re over 50 like me, the answer to all 3 of these questions is no or never. But, today, we never drive off without having our seat belt on…no way in heck would we drive without our kids being tucked safely away in their seat belt…and my car doesn’t move if my grandchild isn’t in his car seat. But, are we all using these because we got smarter, or because a national organization said it’s safer, or is it because it became law and we had to do it?

When and if 35 mpg on autos & other light duty vehicles becomes law, some how our U.S. auto industry will figure out how to achieve it (and would anyone say I’m wrong in guessing that the Japanese car manufacturers are either already close or there) Some one just has to make the U.S. manufacturers realize it’s important…and that they can make money by doing it. To them, it’s all about the money.

If the RVIA were truely interested in the welfare of their members, they would lobby FOR and increase in CAFE standards, not against them.