Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2012 09:06:09 -0400
Reply-To: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Failed CA Smog due to Evaporative leak-Motorhomes
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
I happen to be one of those folks who owns, uses, and maintains one of those motor homes. I also enjoy it. Yes it is expensive and yes when it is used there is a greater environmental impact than a small car. But then again it is often used with 4 to 8 folks on board. Not just one or maybe two which seems to be how many folks on this list use their VW campers. As for that type of vehicle making "sense" it could be argued that we should all be living multifamily dwellings (small apartments). Here in the Northeast it is common for a single family dwelling to use >1,000 gallons of fuel oil annually just for heat and hot water. Don't forget the >10,000 kWhs of electricity. More if you have a pool and air conditioning. Efforts are definitely being put into place to clean up these larger engines. Remember 2007 when the fuel changed over to the "ultra" low sulphur. Most 2007 and later Diesels get catalytic converters and particulate filters and don’t forget the special fluid injected into the exhaust to reduce the NOx. Here in NY my motorhome even as a Diesel gets an annual emissions inspection.
Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Dave Mcneely
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2012 7:19 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Failed Ca Smog due to Evaporative leak
Don, I agree with you that there are lots of horribly polluting vehicles and other machines that are allowed. To me, the motorhomes just make no sense at all in today's world.
Big car/small car, same emissions per liter of exhaust gas -- not right. Measure how much exhaust gas by volume. Put a limit on that, limit the liters, as well as the limit on the pollutant per liter. then we'd be getting somewhere.
But I'm not going to complain about the non-factory installations being turned down. We don't know what the pollutant engine does in that non-factory configuration. Emissions control is an integrated system. Well, I guess I do think that if the vehicle puts out less pollutant than another vehicle, second one passes, first one doesn't, that that is wrong. mcneely
---- Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 8:59 AM, John Bange <jbange@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'd be tempted to bring it to another test station. I've had both my
> > vans tested in several places, and each one of them has marked that
> > part of the test N/A.
> >
> Snipped.....
>
> Ok, this is a Friday sort of rap...
>
> This is exactly why I find California and the CARB such a ludicrous
> farce! They make up really arbitrary stupid tests and standards that have
> not much to do with what actually goes out into the atmosphere. Test
> standards that are mainly about what goes into or out of some
> computer, the States cash register, some politicians election fund or
> offshore bank account of corporations who've paid to get the laws they want.
>
> When they fail a vanagon for not being able to find it's charcoal
> cannister (or something) and pass a couple of dozen coal-fired
> powerplants, when they treat a 1.9 liter motor the same as a 9.1 liter
> motor, when you can just go round paying more testers till you luck
> out and find one who'll do it and pass your vehicle, actual results
> being irrelevant or arbitrary...really lame. When you are told it is
> unacceptable to swap in a less polluting motor...."just because" or
> because there is no CARB paperwork saying you CAN....stupid! When you
> think of the hundereds of thousands of gardners, going round, every
> hour of every day all over California... with those two-stroke power
> leaf blowers rather than sweeping with brooms or rakes...it makes you
> wonder..."who makes these rules up, anyhow"?
>
> When I camp around the desert winters and see all those Gi-normus
> diesel motorhomes being driven to the store, with one retired guy
> aboard...getting a few miles per gallon and yet some families can't
> get their 50mile per gallon Honda CRXs to pass because the gas cap
> isn't air tight, or something...Makes no sense to me...but then who am
> I ? I am an outlaw, anti-green who drives a non-compliant 2.0 liter
> 'verbooten' engine in my old vanagon...Guess I should get social
> responsible and drive my big Ford Pickup again..that is compliant in California...
>
> Friday...
> Don Hanson
--
David McNeely
