Distance From Dealership When Considering a New Truck Camper

I'll second Bedlam's comment about the advantage of a good local dealer. Mine has done a great job and when there was a problem they went out of their way to take care of it even well after the warranty period.

As was mentioned earlier, Mike Jones RV is only a couple of hours drive from Louisville and he carries all 3 brands of truck campers you mentioned. I recently purchased a Northern Lite 8-11 QC SE from them and it was a great experience. They are very knowledgeable and have a great selection with no high pressure to buy. Highly recommended.

I prefer to have a local dealer for items I do not want to fix myself. The dealer from whom I purchased my last two campers has four locations and gives their customers priority treatment over walk-ins off the street that bought elsewhere.

For warranty repair work, your camper is likely to sit at the dealer for weeks, if not a month or more.
1) It will sit waiting to get into the work shop.
2) There will be time diagnosing what the problem is.
3) There will be time waiting for the manufacturer to approve the warranty work.
4) There will be time waiting for parts that need to be ordered if the dealer does not have it in stock.
5) There will be time that the rig sits waiting to get back into the work shop.
6) There will be time that the rig is being worked on.

Even for a two hour trip(4 hour round trip?) your warranty repair will likely entail at least two trips to the dealer. One to deliver your camper to them and one to pick it back up from them. As others have written, you will be best served to find a local shop that is authorized to do warranty repair on your brand or do the work yourself. Many times, the manufacturer will work with the buyer to provide parts at no charge to you rather than pay the dealer to perform the repairs.

The need for a dealer for warrantee or other service, presupposes their ability to actually fix anything. Maybe that happens in rare instances, but in my experience more often they will band aid the problem and wreck some other stuff doing it. Given the quality of the average RV, you really need to learn to work on it yourself, or develop a relationship with someone local who can.

I've had my TC almost 12 years, and it's never been back to the original dealer for service. The furnace has been serviced, and the AC has been replaced. I shopped for the best deal. I did the rest of what needed to be done. The service at RV dealers varies. The appliances in the TC are pretty generic and any RV service or repair shop can do the work. You also can find details online. It's good to know how it works when you are camping in any case.

Other than fixing manufacturing issues that could be noticed before delivery, I can't think of any reason to have the work done at the original dealer. I know people who have RVs that spent the first 2 years at the dealer. For that reason, I'd much prefer a used one that has been used and not abused over being the person who has to get it fixed as it should have come from the factory. Of course, the other benefit is they are much cheaper used, and most RVs just aren't used over a few times per year.

You most likely will eventually be traveling a lot farther than the initial 12 hour drive when you eventually go camping. If the camper is right, the distance should not matter.

Anyone authorized by the manufacturer can repair an RV under warranty, meaning you don't have to go back to the dealer you bought it from.

I live in PA and ordered my Host from NC......not an issue

Mike Jones RV carries all three of those brands and he is just over two hours from Louisville - his dealership is a little east of Cincinnati. If you visit him, tell him I said hello.