One of the questions we’re often asked about full-time RVing is what we do when it needs to have maintenance. When your RV is your home, you definitely need to consider what you’ll do when your home is in the shop. Where will you go? How will you pay for it? In this article, we’ll share some ideas of what we, and some of our friends, do when our home requires repairs.
Learn How To Perform Basic Maintenance
The best thing a full-time RVer can do to avoid having to leave their home is learn how to perform some basic maintenance of their own. We learned this the hard way.
We bought a new RV because we figured if we had a warranty, someone else could take care of all the maintenance. We realized that it is a hassle to schedule warranty work at a repair facility because you often have to plan it in advance or wait a long time to get it done. Also, we’ve used a few different ones and never had good customer service.
Watch the video below to hear our thoughts on the new RV warranty.
Use Mobile Repair Technicians
The technique that worked best for us was to use a mobile repair technician. We have been able to find one almost every time we needed work done.
Every mobile repair technician we’ve was able to bill our manufacturer’s or extended warranty directly. We just had to pay a small ($50) fee for them to come out to us. This was well worth the convenience in our minds.
Stay in the Maintenance Bay
Believe it or not, we have spent 2 nights in the maintenance bay of RV Repair Facility. We did not have access to it during the day. However, once the shop closed up for the night, they allowed us to return to our RV (with our dogs) and spend the night there. They provided power and water so it was actually very comfortable and not any less scenic than a Walmart parking lot.
If All Else Fails, Make The Best of It
This year we had to get the deck on our toy hauler replaced. The darn thing weighs far too much for Sean to DIY this job, so we had to schedule it for a visit to the shop. Although they said it would be done in a day, we knew better. It never works out that way–and we were right. It took 6 days!!
Luckily this was something we could plan ahead so we took a trip to Disney World in Orlando. We enjoyed a vacation away from the RV at an awesome resort and didn’t worry about the time away.
If your repair is going to be covered by insurance, most will cover the nights at the hotel. Unfortunately, our damage was not covered, so we had to use our vacation fund. It was still worth it!
Don’t Forget Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance is typically not covered by a warranty, but can help prevent major problems. Sean has spent a lot of time reviewing the owner’s manuals for the different systems on the RV.
He compiled this short manual with plenty of photos on RV Water Systems Preventive Maintenance. Click here to check it out.
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Tough life having to spend a few days at Walt Disney World. Lol! I’m gonna use the old “RV needs to go to the shop” trick next time we’re in Florida so I can spend time there. Seriously though, I know you guys are happy to get that fixed.
Great article! we have been full time for almost a year and will need to get a few things fixed soon under warranty. The plan for taking a vacation during that time is smart. I think we may have do something similar as I think it will probably be a few days before we get it back from the shop.
We just got our RV back after a week. I’m so glad we took a vacation so it wasn’t stressing me out every day.
So far, we’ve been lucky and have been able to stay in our RV while it’s been being worked on. It’s only been a day here or there, but we always hear nightmare stories about people having to wait around for weeks. Definitely not cool. I do like your ‘vacation’ idea though… it can be complicated and an extra expense, but, if, you have to stay in a hotel anyway, may as well! Let’s just hope all of us can manage to stay out of RV repair shops for the foreseeable future!