Wow Pop Ups are expensive!

Lantley wrote:

drsteve wrote:

SoundGuy wrote:
I can't say for anyone else but I'm also not anywhere near as good at applying lap sealant as is a dealer tech who does this every day for a living.

An experienced RV tech can no doubt do many things better that the average guy... but let's be real. How much talent does it actually take to lay down a bead of Dicor?

It's not about talent. It's about the ability to climb up the ladder and walk across the roof. Not everyone can do it.
So they must pay a professional. Yes it should be done at least annually if not semi annually.
If you can't do it yourself, you pay.
I don't change my own oil in any of my cars but it's my choice. I am capable but I don't want to do it. Many take the dsame approach to caulking an RV roof

Yes, I maintain my stuff. While I'm not old, I've had 3 knee surgeries and don't enjoy crawling around. I don't want leaks and my dealer is trustworthy.

Mainly I'm only finding a few spots every year or other year that are around $200 - $300 to repair. Remember hourly rates are $130. And I did get a leak even with caulking but it's fixed now as I caught it early.

This time I had about $1000 in caulking labor hours and materials. The unit is 6 years old so the spots I've never done are getting bad.

And I've only done spot repairs, not recaulked the entire RV every year.

I would never buy an RV from anyone who didn't have yearly or biyearly inspection or caulking receipts. RVs leak, that's a known. If nothing is done, that's neglect and abuse and I wouldn't want that RV.

Also, since crawling isn't involved. I have troubleshot and fixed all of my appliance problems myself. That being the refrigerator, water heater, water pump, and replaced my propane/co detector.

When I had the Pop Ups I did the same and did the caulking myself since everything was easy to reach.

And now that I frequently work 24 hour and 16 hour shifts, repairing the RV isn't my first priority. If I put in less than 80 hours/week, I feel like a slacker. Up keeping my home and the kids activities come first, then the RV if there's any time left.

Thanks everyone.