European motorhome

Many thanks to all who have responded.
It all makes good sense so we won't be bringing the van over the pond.

Tigmar wrote:
We live in Spain and are considering shipping our Hymer A-class motorhome to the US so we can spend a few months touring - without racking up a huge rental bill.
I wonder if anyone can advise whether it is feasible to do this and then sell the vehicle before leaving the country, rather than ship it back to Spain.
It is a left-hand drive, 20 foot long van based on a Fiat Ducato chassis, with a 2.8 JTD engine. This is the most popular and reliable base vehicle for motorhomes in Europe.

Any advice or suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks in anticipation.

You can bring your vehicle to the USA as a visitor, BUT you have to take it home with you when you are done.
Provided you remove it after your visit, the kilometer speedometer/odometer is not an issue. Canadians visit America all the time and they have kilos as their major scale.
Unless you can get certification from Fiat and the bodybuilder that it meets ALL US Safety and Emission standards, there is no way you can register or sell it.
I suspect that will be a very high hurdle!

Your other issue is that your unit will be built for a 220/240 volt electrical system. That CAN be overcome as long as you have the correct adapter to connect to the two hot pins of a 220volt/50amp service. But this WILL limit where you can stay.
Your other alternative is a 110 to 240 volt transformer, but that gets heavy and expensive.

Is the 2 way shipping across the Atlantic really that much cheaper than renting or buying in the US?

I agree that it will be hard, if not impossible to sell in the USA. Don't let that get you down. There are still options for you. As someone else mentioned you could swap/trade with an American looking to do the same thing in Spain.

I met a couple from Germany this weekend. They were buying a motorhome here in the states and plan to use it for 3 years as they tour our country. Then they will sell it and go home. The way they figured it out it was the least costly way for them to spend a few years here in the USA while getting the see all of the USA. It sounds like a great adventure. The only problem is that they bought the motorhome I wanted. We ended up getting, what we hope is, a great one but it cost me more money.

Hola! Hi,

Tigmar, I'm sending you a Private message. We are from Spain too, but we do have the MH in USA to travel around USA and Canada. We bought the MH in Florida where it's easy to buy for a foreigner.

""to be adaptable to North American standards.""

Check your electrical fittings, amperages, spare bulbs, etc.

Check your water tank fill fitting. Hose connection, hose type available in N.A.?

Insure that you particular engine fluids are readily available in N.A.

Speedometer reads MILES and as well as kilometers?

Regards

Chime in RV.NETters... Did I miss anything or should any item be deleted?
TY

Trade time.. You can swap motorhomes with someone interested in doing a tour in Europe. As long as insurance is available I think this might be a win win for both parties.

Don't do it................ Euro campers are considered "small" by American standard - I was in Portugal/Spain a couple of years ago and they truly are small. They are equivalent to the van based class B; Then you have the issue of getting insurance and servicing while you're here.

Selling it? - may not be possible, it is too new and getting it titled would be tough.

It's best to buy a motorhome here - you'll get much more van for less money AND whe you're west of Chicago, you'll appreciate the space.

When you're done sell it. One idea is to buy from a dealer with an agreed buy back price.

Gerry

To sell it here after using it (if you can get it through customs in the first place) you would have to get a third party certification to both US emissions and safety standards. My opinion is that would be prohibitively expensive. You might even need to do that to get it through customs in the first place. The concern being that if you don't have an approved vehicle you can't bring it in - otherwise folks could ship anything here and just use it w/o having to meet US standards.

This is based on 42 years in the auto industry and having been asked the exact same question for products shipped to US from other regions that were sitting in customs impound waiting to figure out "what do we have to do to be able to bring this non-US certified vehicle into US?"

Probably couldn't legally sell the Hymer here. It doesn't meet US regulations.

I've also read shipping can be tricky. One account I read said to assume EVERYTHING will be stolen from inside the RV during transit.

The only problem I see is if you sell the Hymer here in the USA, will it be able to be serviced and to get parts for it. Also, if it's not air conditioned, that might be a negative. An odd-type motorhome will sell for peanuts if people don't understand it.

MM.