Posted 2005-11-24 9:41 AM (#33407 - in reply to #33380) Subject: RE: Certification
Expert
Posts: 1283 Location: Home of Wild Turkey Whiskey
Well here we go, Riva is a trade organization, in other words you pay them so much money and they will let you certify trailers, by trade organization I mean they were established by the big manufactures to kind of control what happens in the industry, T. Arnold on the other hand is a group of engineers that look at the trailer at different times as it is being built to assure that things are done right, Electricity, Plumbing and LPG are what they are primarily concerned with. I personaly think that T.Arnold trailers are probley safer but you will find alot more of the RIVA trailers because they are easier. I myself build about 6-8 trailers a year and I build them all the same, I can't do one with a RIVA sticker I have done them with T.Arnold They just cost more no difference in the trailers. Everyone was saying that campgrounds were checking trailers to see if they were "Certified" I have camped in 6 different states with trailers that were "Certified and with Trailers that were not and have never even had it metioned.
Posted 2005-11-24 7:26 PM (#33417 - in reply to #33380) Subject: RE: Certification
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 565 Location: Michigan
"I have camped in 6 different states with trailers that were "Certified and with Trailers that were not and have never even had it metioned."
That's because if you were ever questioned at a campground about your camper's certification and it wasn't RIVA certified you would either get booted out or fined. It is just a safety BS thing campgrounds have. There are alot of campers that are not certified and it would be a random check and rare.
Posted 2005-11-25 6:54 AM (#33423 - in reply to #33380) Subject: RE: Certification
Expert
Posts: 1283 Location: Home of Wild Turkey Whiskey
I may agree that the campground may ask you to leave(i.e. it is thier property), but I can't understand how anyone would think they have the authority to fine anybody. I will also wager that very few campground employees understand why the sticker is even on the trailer. As I said before one of them is truely inspection sticker(T. Arnold) the other is only a sticker stating that the conversion company is a member of the organization(RVIA).
Posted 2005-11-25 1:59 PM (#33430 - in reply to #33380) Subject: RE: Certification
Regular
Posts: 91 Location: Ozark, MO
I do not know anything about T. Arnold, we are RVIA members and think it is a great organization. We have regular random inspections, every 3-5 weeks, we are checked on all of the safety issues. The stickers on the trailers are not to show that your are a member, they are to show that you have met with all of their saftey regulations. RVIA has been a big help, and are good people to work with. Very costly to belong to, but well worth the money.
Posted 2005-11-25 7:42 PM (#33441 - in reply to #33380) Subject: RE: Certification
Expert
Posts: 1283 Location: Home of Wild Turkey Whiskey
Just like I said you pay them a bunch of money and they let you put their stickers on the trailers you build, T. Arnold comes and looks at the trailer that they will put their sticker on, quite a big difference RVIA is a trade organization and T.Arnold are engineers.
Posted 2005-11-26 11:41 AM (#33449 - in reply to #33380) Subject: RE: Certification
Regular
Posts: 53 Location: Belle, MO
Well, as much as I would like to say TRA is a better certification (because that's what we have) I don't really think there is much difference.
We pay TRA to do our inspections, so I don't see how that's any different than RVIA. In essence, we have hired T.R. Arnold to randomly inspect our work and keep us updated on any code changes that may take place.
I have to admit that I thought the whole certification thing was a big racket. However, after seeing some not-certified trailers come into our shop for repair work, there are some pretty scary things out there! We just don't see those things on certified trailers. (by either company)
Certification
