RV Industry Association Board Approves Latest Editions Of RV And Park Model RV Standards

Recently, the RV Industry Association Board of Directors approved the 2021 edition of the RV standard and the 2020 edition of the Park Model RV standard. As part of its commitment to fostering continuous improvements in RV products, the RV Industry Association’s Standards Department works collectively with the Standards Steering Committee and its various RV technical subcommittees to engage and fully participate in the process for maintaining and updating the standards adopted by the RV Industry Association for the construction of RVs and Park Model RVs.  

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1192 Standard for RVs is published on a three-year cycle and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) A119.5 Park Model RV Standard is published on a five-year cycle. Both NFPA and ANSI have formal, published processes on the development and approval of code change proposals. Before publishing a new standard, the existing requirements are reviewed and updated for clarity and applicability by the Association, outside experts, state government officials, and other interested parties.

The new NFPA 1192 RV Standard will become effective January 1, 2021 with an enforcement date of July 1, 2021 and the new ANSI A119.5 Park Model RV Standard will become effective September 1, 2020 with an enforcement date of January 1, 2021. In addition to these standards, the Association’s Standards Department produces a handbook for each of the standards. These handbooks expand upon the NFPA 1192 and ANSI 119.5 standards as well as the corresponding National Electric Code (NEC) standards for RVs and Park Model RVs and outline the enforcement positions of the Association and states with their own enforcement programs.

The new 2020 edition of the ANSI A119.5 Park Model RV standard is now available in the Association’s online store and the corresponding 2020 RV Industry Association Park Model RV Handbook will be available in the online store on August 1, 2020. The new 2021 edition of the NFPA 1192 RV Standard will be available sometime after October 2020 and the corresponding RV Industry Association RV Handbook will be available in the online store in September 2020.

The RV Industry Association’s Standards Department maintains a professional team of full-time inspectors, conducting more than 2,000 unannounced inspections of member company RV manufacturing plants annually, monitoring the pledge of member manufacturers to build in conformance to the adopted standards. The team promotes the enhancement of safety by monitoring adherence to the adopted standards while also providing educational resources and hands-on training to manufacturer members to further enhance their ability and commitment to comply.