Jenny McQueen

I know, I know….you’re thinking of buying an RV, the LAST thing. you want to think about is taking it to the shop. Repairs are part of this lifestyle, and if you can just own that, I truly think it doesn’t have to be a *terrible* experience. We actually were able to enjoy our time away from home…and there are things I wish we had done differently. Maybe I can pay that learned-the-hard-way stuff forward, so let’s dig into it.

First off, we had 5 repairs that needed to be taken care of in one swoop. Our awning was disconnecting from the rails, and our LP quick connect needed replacing; both of these were covered under a recall from Forest River. We needed our water heater door panel replaced (it flew off on the highway, whoops!), our back toilet needed a flush valve replaced, and we needed a new convertor. That last one is a complicated story that still isn’t finished, but that’s for another post.

So, if I were making an appointment for a repair (or several), here’s what I would recommend:

• If possible, make your appointment at least a month in advance. Like everywhere else, shops are backed up right now. Unless you have an urgent issue that makes your RV unlivable, I recommend booking in advance, which also gives you times to plan for what you’ll do while you’re away.

• When you make your appointment, ask what current diagnostic times are. We found out the hard way that the shop we chose was running 7-10 day diagnostic times, meaning our 5th wheel just sat in the parking lot for 10 days before we had any progress.

• Ask for a promise-by date when you drop your RV off. This is something I saw on the paperwork when we picked it back up, and although they were very vague with me about expectations when I made the appointment, I think I would have had a clearer expectations if I had asked for this specifically.

• Double check your work order. When I made our appointment, I obviously gave them a list, complete with recall #s and the contact for our extended service provider (we purchased ours through Preserve). Buttt we didn’t double check to see that made it onto our file, and 10 days into it, we discovered that the convertor replacement wasn’t on the work order. I had to explain our power issues again, and wait additional time for parts to be ordered. We could have saved ourself a headache if that had been on the original work order. Which brings me to my next tip….

• Keep detailed notes on issues, even photos if needed. Convincing the technicians that our convertor replacement ended up being somewhat of a hassle. We had been losing power while plugged into shore power all summer, and our invertor was throwing an error code. My husband spend an afternoon on the phone with support who walked him through taking voltage readings, and they know the convertor was bad. In hindsight, I wish I had documented every time we lost power, as well as taken photos of the voltage readings. Bonus points if you can share part numbers or additional information ahead of time.

• Ask you shop to get pre-approval from your warranty or extended service plan provider. If you know when you book your appointment what the repairs will be, ask them to contact your warranty provider for approval. I *wish* I had pushed for this, because part of our wait time included waiting for service plan approval.

• Clean your fridge before dropping it off, then clean it again. Okay, confession time. The day before we were taking the RV in, we deep cleaned a good majority of it, and by the time I got to the fridge, which needed to be completely empty because it would be off during the time in the shop, i was tired. I cleaned it but let’s just say the phrase “good enough for government work” was appropriate. there was no food in it, and I wiped it out. Fast forward to picking it up six weeks late….I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say I gagged when I opened it. INSTANT REGRET. Learn from my mistakes and leave the fridge and freezer sparkling.

• Leave things you might need to come back for accessible. We dropped our RV off in mid September, and since it was there for 6 weeks, we hit a pretty drastic temperature change. Unfortunately I couldn’t get to the twins clothes without opening the slides, and there’s not room for that on the shop lot. I was able to climb over our bed into our closet for my own clothes, but if I had known I needed to come back, I would have left some “just in case” things in the main space. On that same note….

• Secure or take your valuables. If you don’t have a safe secure way to store expensive things, take em with you. Fun fact; most RVs take a common master key that opens the storage compartments, outdoor kitchen and doors. I was SHOCKED when they told us we didn’t need to leave them keys because they had master ones. Yikes! Obviously you can’t bring everything you own with you, but for example, we brought our cameras and computers with us, and hid the intsapot and vitamix. I’m not someone who worries about who is out to get me, so I didn’t spend much time on this, but it’s important to consider.

• Make a plan for longer than you expect. We stayed with my sister and had an awesome arrangement that didn’t require coming out of pocket for a hotel. We ended up driving from Ohio to Virginia to spend an additional two weeks with my Mom, which meant bonus bonding time for our twins. Having family to stay with was so special and I honestly saw it as a silver lining of the long repair process. We got so much extended quality time in, as well as tons of extra help with the twins. One thing I do think was a missed opportunity was a chance to get the kids involved in some local actives, like a 5 week YMCA class.

• Lastly, take before and after video/photos for documentation. When we picked up the RV, the first thing I did was film a walk around video so I had something to pull frames from if needed. Unfortunately we did not have the best customer service experience, and there was some doubt as to if the convertor was actually replaced, but we were able to verify from a photo of the old one that it was. Looking back I should have taken more, but I’m still learning!!