Out of State Purchasing and Warranty Items

I purchased my Forest River TT new from RV Wholesalers which was 2500 miles away from where I live. It was delivered to me in good shape, but had a few minor issues to address. The warranty instruction given to me by RVW was that I would need to have my local RV service shop submit a work order which would need to be approved by either Forest River or the dealer.

That was a bit awkward because the service owner did not want to do diagnostic work without getting paid for his labor. Since the issues were minor, I paid out him of my own pocket for diagnosis and repairs, and submitted the invoice to the dealer for reimbursement under warranty. This took a few months to get done, but was eventually approved and paid by the dealer.

I found it interesting that a local FR dealer was not on their list of approved service providers, but they sent me to an independent RV service shop instead.

You are right to be concerned. Warranty work is not a monster money maker for RV shops. Some times they must wait up to 6 months for the company to pay. I have ran into issues getting warranty work done from a non selling dealer.

Warranty work is a Monster Money Maker for most RV places...they couldn't care less where you bought the rig and are happy as pigs in you-know-what if they get the mfr.-paid warranty work.

Just buy a brand that has an "authorized warranty center" near you and you'll be fine.

I think that would depend wholly on which company the Travel Trailer is made by.

For structural warranty, you'd be contacting the trailer manufacturer and get an authorization to get the work done at a shop of your choice.

Also, if it's an appliance or something like water heater, those components are generally covered by their own warranties and you'd be contacting those companies directly for any warranty work (to get an authorization to fix something)

This is the way I understand most if not all warranty work is done.

Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding this.

WoodGlue