Motorhome Chassis: The Age Gap

By Gary Bunzer

August 2015

Motorhome owners often are shocked to discover that their chassis is a model year older than the rest of the coach. In some cases, the chassis is two model years older. Which begs the question: Why?

A motorhome manufacturer rarely constructs an entire vehicle bumper to bumper, top to bottom. Rather, motorhomes are built as “multi-stage vehicles,” which is the terminology used by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) uses these same definitions. Typically, chassis are purchased from a dedicated chassis builder. Motorhome manufacturers — perhaps RV “assemblers” is a better term — then build coach bodies on those chassis and install equipment, appliances, and furnishings.

A chassis builder may make products for quite a few motorhome manufacturers, as well as for other industries. As a result, completed chassis may be stockpiled for months before coach builders order new shipments. And, depending on the time of year, it’s not uncommon for those chassis to be split between two different production years once they arrive at the motorhome manufacturer’s factory.

NHTSA regulations refer to the chassis maker as the “first-stage manufacturer,” or the “incomplete vehicle manufacturer.” However, a completed chassis is considered a “vehicle” and is issued a vehicle identification number (VIN). This number, usually found on a label near the driver’s compartment, identifies the model year of the chassis and stays with the chassis when it is sold to the motorhome manufacturer. The chassis maker might also ship a chassis with a document called a manufacturer’s certificate of origin (MCO), which contains information about that particular chassis.

It is the motorhome builder — the “final-stage manufacturer” — that determines the model year of a completed coach. The motorhome manufacturer includes that information on its own MCO, so it’s easy to see how confusion creeps in. It should be noted that the Federal Trade Commission has determined that a chassis dated a year or two older than a motorhome does not represent an unfair or deceptive trade practice.

The motorhome manufacturer assigns the model year to a coach regardless of when the vehicle is sold to a dealer and ultimately to the end user. But in some cases, even that can be confusing, given that motorhome makers seem to release their newest designs earlier and earlier each year.

For example, Allied Recreation Group’s American Coach group debuted its 2016 Allegiance motorhome at the 2014 National RV Trade Show. Granted, delivery to dealers didn’t happen until early in 2015, but still the lines become a bit blurred. It’s quite likely the chassis of some of those new coaches have 2014 VINs. And those lines can become even blurrier when some motorhome makers issue midyear models. Leisure Travel Vans recently released a 2015.5 version of its popular Unity Type B motorhome.

Not to be outdone by the motorhome manufacturers, some chassis makers may decide to skip a model year of a certain chassis. Perhaps the design did not change, so designation of a new model year in the VIN becomes moot. It’s entirely possible a chassis maker could date that chassis one year ahead of the current calendar year. The result would be a chassis one model year newer than the coach it is carrying. Yikes!

It’s also possible for a brand-new coach to be equipped with 2-year-old tires, or older. A tire manufacturer makes a tire and dates it by week and year. That tire might sit in a warehouse until it ships to a distributor. The distributor may store the tire until a chassis builder orders a set and builds a chassis. That chassis might sit at that first-stage builder until it is sold to a motorhome maker. It may be awhile until it rolls down the motorhome assembly line. Then it sits at the final-stage builder until a dealer orders that motorhome. Once delivered to the dealer, it may sit yet again on the sales lot until one of us comes along and plops down our hard-earned discretionary dollars. I’ve actually road-tested a brand-new motorhome with 4-year-old tires on it.

So, under whose authority does the “official” motorhome manufactured date ultimately fall? And does it really matter? Most experts believe it does matter, since officially licensing a new motorhome using the older VIN date of the chassis has an impact on trade-in value, license tags, and insurance costs. This could have huge ramifications in the long term.

The motorhome manufacturer holds the authority to designate the official date on the MCO, but the manufacturer is not required to disclose a different chassis date. However, four states — California, Maryland, Michigan, and Wisconsin — currently require dealers to inform buyers of the differing dates. And while all states should rely on the year designated by the final-stage manufacturer — the motorhome builder — for licensing and titling, that’s not always the case.

Vehicle titling and registration can indeed become an issue if your local department of motor vehicles insists on using the chassis VIN on the registration instead of a newer model-year designation as assigned by the motorhome manufacturer. Thankfully, RVIA can help. Contact RVIA’s government affairs department at (703) 620-6003 for assistance. Also, the association has compiled information about split model years for motorhomes and makes it available at www.rvia.org/?ESID=preleases&PRID=1690&SR=21.

Understanding how a motorhome and its chassis may have been built in different years is the first step in addressing any problems that may arise. Remember: RVing is more than a hobby; it’s a lifestyle.