Recreational Vehicles

This is not your grandparents' RV -- unless their trailer was outfitted with disco ball lights, Tiki fabrics and a flat-screen TV. Or hauled Harleys, slept a crowd and blasted tunes through iPod-ready outdoor speakers. Generation Xers, who grew up on Star Wars, Ataris and Cabbage Patch Kids, have become the fastest-growing group of RV buyers, a trend that is forcing the $14-billion industry to rethink how it designs and markets the ultimate toys for grown-ups.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed a civil lawsuit against an engine certification company in the City of Industry, accusing the firm of using false or incomplete data to get paperwork needed under the Clean Air Act so its customers could import recreational vehicles. The agency says MotorScience Inc. and its founder, Chi Zheng, started helping overseas vehicle makers and importers in 2006 get the correct EPA certifications to allow them to sell their goods in the U.S. Zheng filed paperwork with the agency stating that such vehicles and engines "meet or exceed the minimum requirements" for federal air-quality-control emissions, according to the complaint, filed Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles.

The Bush Administration plans to propose excise taxes on recreational vehicles, off-road vehicles, camping equipment and pleasure boats despite the concern of some Administration officials that they might be a violation of President Bush's "no new taxes" pledge. The taxes, ranging from 1% to 2.

If the music to the Season 9, Episode 5 installment of Fox's animated sitcom "Family Guy" had a relaxed feel, maybe it was because of the 104-degree mineral water. Glenn Morrissette helped orchestrate the score after a leisurely soak last October in the natural hot springs in the tiny northwestern Wyoming town of Thermopolis. Morrissette did his work from his recording studio on wheels ? a recreational vehicle he calls home as he meanders around the U.S. Using a laptop computer and a WiFi connection, he composes, performs and records music and beams it back to Hollywood sound stages and theaters.

A man who is irritated by his neighbor's large recreational vehicle asked the Planning Commission on Monday to ban such vehicles from parking on city streets. But commissioners refused to prohibit the motor homes, which must be moved every three days to avoid parking tickets, on a 3-2 vote. Theodore Encinas, a resident of Alaska Avenue, told commissioners he became upset after moving into his home last September and discovering that a motor home parks frequently in front of his property.

Take a look at this year's Winnebago Ultimate Advantage with its hydraulic leveling jacks and video monitor for backing up, and you might think it's light-years from the motor homes and camping trailers that first rumbled down America's wooded byways and desert roads. But David Woodworth doesn't think there's much difference. And he should know. The 59-year-old Baptist pastor-turned-historian is arguably the country's foremost expert on the genesis and trajectory of recreational vehicles.

With logistic mischief, Coleman's pop-up tent trailers are displayed across the aisle from a 40-foot Prevost Shell motor home at the 26th annual Anaheim Sports, Vacation and RV show running through Sunday. That's both ends of the evolution of the recreation vehicle into the 1990s--on one hand, for as little as $2,395, the refined but still least expensive mode of living outdoors on wheels; on the other, for $475,000, the dream of total highway luxury, complete with satellite dish.

Looking for dirt-cheap accommodations by the glistening Pacific? At Dockweiler Beach Recreational Vehicle Park, in its first year as the county's only utility-equipped RV-by-the-sea facility, visitors pay $17 a night to sleep as close to the waves as Johnny Carson, Barbra Streisand or Pia Zadora.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Friday opened all but a small portion of the Imperial Sand Dunes to recreational vehicle use, reversing a 3-year-old policy that had set aside a large portion of the dunes to protect fragile plant and animal species, including the desert tortoise. In issuing its management plan for the 160,000-acre dunes east of San Diego, the BLM also for the first time established visitor targets to better manage peak holiday crushes.

He was standing in the doorway of what seemed to be a cruise ship on wheels. It was parked among 900 recreation vehicles in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium at what claimed to be the largest RV show ever assembled. Bob Lee, president of Country Coach Inc., pointed to a small statue sitting on a coffee table in front of the soft leather couch.

"Skins": An article in the Jan. 27 Calendar section about the controversy surrounding the TV show "Skins" said that MTV would probably run all 10 episodes of the series as originally planned. The network has since confirmed that all 10 episodes will air. European property sales: Because of a production error, part of a sentence was omitted from the Column One article that appeared in the Jan. 26 Section A, dealing with the sale of historic properties by European nations.

China is hungry for the kind of recreational vehicles built in Southern California ? at least according to the Chinese entrepreneur who struck a deal with a Riverside firm to build and export $5 billion worth of them. The Chinese government has placed a focus on developing the RV industry as a cornerstone of the Chinese ideal of the happy home life, said Winston Chung. FOR THE RECORD: Chinese investment: An article in the Jan. 25 Business section reported on a deal by Riverside firm MVP RV Inc. to build recreational vehicles for export to China.

Rent an RV, hit the road and save gobs of money on your next vacation. Really? Maybe not, even some advocates concede. "You could probably pack four people in a car, eat at restaurants, stay in hotels, and I imagine it's about the same cost," said Chuck Woodbury, editor of RVTravel.com, a consumer website offering tips and tricks for RVers. But consider the intangibles. "The real advantage of the RV is that the family's together, and you can cook and eat healthy meals," Woodbury said.

For the second year in a row, the California Coastal Commission has denied a request for overnight parking restrictions by Venice residents who have complained about people living in campers and cars on the streets. The panel's 6-3 vote Thursday also quashed a proposed settlement that the city of Los Angeles had hoped would resolve the divisive issue over how to deal with recreational vehicle dwellers, who some Venice residents contend bring noise, public inebriation, crime and litter.

In the realm of conspicuous consumption, few things are larger than the RV, the multi-ton vehicular brontosaurus that has taken generations of families on the great American highway adventure. But in the worst economic crisis since the Depression, the RV is facing perhaps its gravest challenge as sales have plummeted, manufacturers have filed for bankruptcy or gone out of business, and lofty expectations of a grander profile for recreational vehicles have been drastically cut.

For Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., the national housing crisis has been a double whammy. The Riverside company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday, is grappling with sharp declines in demand for its two key products: manufactured houses and the big homes-on-wheels it makes for the recreational vehicle market. The dual hit has forced Fleetwood to drastically cut its workforce, adding to the economic woes in Riverside County.

The typical trip to Europe lasts two weeks and leaves a tourist stressed, jet-lagged and with a blur of impressions and pictures that didn't come out. Ralph and Nancy Rosenlund of Portland, Ore., had a better idea. "At King Ludwig's castle in Germany, three busloads of Americans came in at about 3 in the afternoon," Ralph said. "We pulled in with our Oregon plates. They said, 'How did you get clear over here from Oregon?'

Life for campers at Dockweiler State Beach in Playa del Rey comes with whiffs of the nearby sewage treatment plant and the regular roar of jets from Los Angeles International Airport a mile away. But the recreational vehicle park's loyal patrons like the palm-tree-lined patch of asphalt, where they have ocean views and sand at their doorstep for less than $40 a night during winter. And they say they love its quirky community of renters.

Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., the third-largest maker of recreational vehicles, said it was closing eight of its 24 plants because of reduced demand for travel trailers and factory-built housing. The company expects to cut about 760 jobs, or 13% of the 5,700 positions it had at the end of August, as production is consolidated at other facilities, said Kathy Munson, a Fleetwood spokeswoman.