Repair costs and frequency frustration

I wonder whether RV repairs are treated like foreign and luxury car repairs with the assumption that RV owners are "well healed" and can afford high prices.

I believe absolutely they do. If you roll into the shop with a $40K toy they are going to assume you have the money to pay for such things.

I also drive an old RV. Ours will be 30 years old next year. It is not much to look at. It has delamination problems, a roof that once leaked and was covered over with Heng's, and more. We bought it about 10 years ago for $7500. I suppose over the years I have put $5000 in repairs into it, and 2 sets of new tires for $2000.

Would I have been further ahead of the game if I had bought a $14,000 RV from the start? Maybe. But, I didn't have $14,000.

Financially, we probably should not own an RV. But we use the heck out of it and we like it. I do as much work myself as I can - I'm up against a 24-hour driveway limit due to my HOA. But I also have a good small mechanic shop directly across from my RV storage place that does reasonable work well (most of the time).

It's almost never a good deal to buy a new vehicle - it almost always makes better financial sense to repair. The problem becomes peace of mind for reliability.

I definitely recommend Good Sam roadside assistance if you have an older RV. They have saved our bacon more than once. Also have a contingency plan every time you go somewhere.

Re Roadtrek Occasionally being short has it's advantages.

Looked at some older Roadtreks yesterday. Bumped my head 3 times just looking. What can I say. Not only SMALL but limited storage, wet bath, etc. We won't say never but for now its fix the 30 footer and keep on.

I remember when I needed the door handle contraption replaced on my Durango. The dealer priced it at about $400 in labor. As soon as they told me, I called an independent shop I usually go to and asked their labor cost for the repair. $75 at max. I immediately turned around and told the dealer to not fix it. They had already removed the contraption - not five minutes. In less than another five minutes they had put the old "broken" one back on and I was on my way.

Their labor rate was approx. $100 an hour. So for a 10 minute job they were going to charge me 4 hours of labor.

My independent shop charges $75 an hour with a minimum 1/2 hour labor charge. They acknowledged it was less than an hour's job and were going to charge me accordingly.

In the end, the door contraption only needed a shake because when they put it back on, it worked fine.

I learned after that, that labor costs get inflated way beyond the time frame. If I go someplace new, I stay there for the repair and watch how long they actually work on the vehicle and compare that against the labor charge. If it is within 30 minutes difference, I'm good. If more than that I don't return ever.

My independent shop will often drop off a bit of labor costs because I am a longtime regular customer. They also will tell me if my picking up the part and bringing it in will save on markup. On my side, I don't give them a bad time if they can't get to my vehicle right away and I don't whinge about the costs. We both win.

carringb wrote:

Gjac wrote:
I have owned my current class A in my signature for 16 years, I have put $21,000 for mods repairs and maintenance.

But if you bought a new coach, you'd lost more than that the day you drove off the lot! And probably that much again in interest that first year, if you had to finance a new one.

And... while the chassis have improved, I think coach construction quality and mechanical durability has down in the last 15 years.

Your right Bryan,case in point my friend has bought 3 MH's in the last 16 years, his depreciation loss alone would pay for a new MH, not to mention the multiple trips back to the dealer to fix warranty items and the loss of a camping season. I don't think $1000-$1500 a year is bad for total cost of maintenance, improvements and repairs for a Class A or C. I just think it would be much less with a truck and small trailer combo.

No wonder many RV owners try to make their own repairs and upgrades to avoid the cost of labor and markups on parts prices. I wonder whether RV repairs are treated like foreign and luxury car repairs with the assumption that RV owners are "well healed" and can afford high prices. I accept that RV repair places and truck mechanics have to make money and have overhead to consider but wonder why the labor in simply replacing a battery, etc. is so expensive.

We went from a 30' class C with 2 slides to a 20' Pleasure Way Class B. Very bad mistake. Sold our Toad. Sold Pleasure Way, purchased 24V Class C Winnie no slide love it, purchased a new toad. Can either travel with or without toad, usually take toad. Before you make the mistake I did, rent a B for a trip. Dick

Jayco-noslide wrote:
Appreciate all comments. Forgot to mention; there is a bearing noise so I don't doubt the need. I actually don't have a cost estimate yet but will get one at an alignment shop in a day or so which works on a lot of motor homes. We've decided to proceed with the repair, use it for our snowbird trip, meanwhile looking at downsize alternatives, then decide. Additional factor is that I'm 76 and sometimes would like to simplify, downsize and eliminate a TOAD.

We started and have remained "downsized" ... touring and camping in only a 24 foot Class C with no slides and no toad. It's fine for the two of us during several trips per year (we're not full-timers).

We just returned from over a 3-week tour in the West - we left home fully stocked and had to shop only twice once during the trip for some grocery restocking - which is easy in parking lots with only a 24 foot Class C. Stopping for fast foot lunches in crowded parking lots is also simple. Our longest trips in it have been 9-week and 10-week multi-thousand mile tours of the U.S.. Alaska is next on our long-trip list using our Class C.

Since our rig is small, it's way easier and less resource consumptive to keep it warm and keep it cool. We take showers in it and wash our small dog in it's shower stall, too.

A small RV can be the only way to go for really hassle-free comfortable RVing.

westernrvparkowner wrote:
You now owe me two cents.

:B

We spent around $12K recently getting our 15 year old Tioga 26Q ready and reliable for camping and touring after it had sat mostly un-driven during our surgery and recover problems for 8 years. Was it cost-effective?, maybe not
but it had previously had the fridge and other expensive replacements and repairs made and only has some 10K miles on the odometer. We could afford it, so we took a deep breath and had it all done including new tires and house batteries. Recommend you get rear-end noise diagnosed by truck repair mechanics and get estimates. I'd be surprised if your rear end work exceeds $2K. I wonder if there is possible Ford warranty coverage for differentials? Anyway, if you will use and enjoy the rig, recommend you spend the repair money or spend the money and sell it, if your interest in "the lifestyle" has diminished.

Road Treks are quite expensive but are also useful for transportation , local days at the park, and short nearby camping trips or touring as desired. Nice to take to theme parks, airshows, and kids activities. We loved our 1972 Dodge Van camper conversion, very versatile, kept it into the 90's.