extended RV warranties

[yankeecamper]

OK I know a lot of you will say save your money. All I want to know is if you were buying a extended warrant, what would you buy. Based on all the negativeness I have read on several forms about heartland and bighorns I feel like I should be thinking about it. Good and bad comments from those who have extended warranties and newer Heartland Bighorns are welcome. I have owned my Bighorn since May and have three major problem with it.

[JKJavelin]

I'm debating about getting an extended warranty. My factory 2-year warranty is about to expire and have had the following repairs covered:
Replace both awning struts
Repair creaky bedroom steps
Replace large window shade (A string broke on another shade but I repaired it myself instead of waiting for 3 months for another one)
Replace slideout gearbox
Replace both axles (At dealer for 11 weeks)
Replace rear jack on Lippert auto level system
Repair 4 cracks in Lippert frame
Replace stereo

JK

[goducks10]

I was never offered one. Whats that mean?

[bpounds]

A sad day is when your RV breaks down and you need service.

A sadder day is when your RV breaks down, and your expensive extended warranty refuses to pay. A day like that would make the pope curse.

[ol_Bombero-JC]

yankeecamper wrote:
OK I know a lot of you will say save your money. All I want to know is if you were buying a extended warrant, what would you buy.

Tough question to answer if one has never purchased an extended warranty! (First new RV in 1970 - no extended warranties ever).

BTW - my 5th had a 2 year *factory* (no charge to me) warranty. Never needed it for anything.

Follow advice already offered - and best of luck with results when/if you need repairs, etc.

:C

[Carl_n_Susan]

I bought a $1,400 EZ-Care warranty (good but there are better) when I bought the RV. When it ran out they had paid out over $12,000 for repairs (the big one was replacing the refer). I used their money to renew the contract ($1,600) last year when it ran out. So far they have paid $1,100 to replace the motor on my hydraulic system (basically a 12V starter motor which Lippert sells for $790!!!!). The rig is in the shop now to repair/replace a leaking jack, fix a bad grey tank valve and repair a door strut. I figure I will be ahead of the game (again) with years to go.

Given the crappy construction, inferior materials, and bad roads we drive over I am willing to roll the dice. Plus it is getting where I can't (and don't want to) wrench on these beast any longer.

[Super_Dave]

JKJavelin wrote:

RAS43 wrote:
And if any plan offers a refund if not used run away! We had one and when we applied for the refund they went out of business. Thousands of us lost our money.

We had one of these with our 2008 Dodge Caravan. I think the company was Fidelity (not the investment company). When we traded it in 7 years later we got all of the money back except a $50 service fee.
JK

RAS43 and I must have had the same company. They didn’t even last to the end of my extended warranty period. $1,500 that I could have set a match too.

[JKJavelin]

RAS43 wrote:
And if any plan offers a refund if not used run away! We had one and when we applied for the refund they went out of business. Thousands of us lost our money.

We had one of these with our 2008 Dodge Caravan. I think the company was Fidelity (not the investment company). When we traded it in 7 years later we got all of the money back except a $50 service fee.
JK

[Veebyes]

I figure that the extended warranty companies are in it to make money for themselves. They don't particularly care about you the owner.

I have been rolling around the country for over 10 years & have had over 200,000 miles pass underneath me. The trailer has had an average of some 150 nights use each year. You could say that all systems have been used alot.

No extended warranty here though I do figure on $2000 a year on maintenance, including tires as needed, for the trailer. Don't think that I have ever come near that figure except the year we had to replace the out of warranty fridge. Ouch! Same with the truck. Figure $2000 a year for maintenance, including tires but not oil changes. Almost everything over the years has been routine wear items. Bushings, shocks, seals, hoses, that sort of thing. Only been over that $2000 figure for the truck a couple times.

Have to wonder, how much would an extended warranty have cost & how much of all that routine maintenance would have been denied? I think lots of money has stayed in my own pockets.

[southernsky]

Check out Wholesale Warranties and make your own decisions. We have them and are pretty happy with it.

[WTP-GC]

Aridon wrote:
The dealer will thank you for buying a high commission product from them.

Exactly!
The dealer pushed us harder on the extended warranty than they did on the rig purchase. In fact, the extended warranty was pushed by the finance manager, not the salesperson. Huge red flag. They like to throw out big ugly pictures and show you service bills (with and without extended warranty) and they try to scare you to buying a product that's completely unnecessary. Don't ever even think about buying an extended warranty on a towable RV product.

Now on my diesel Silverado, that's a different story. The cost of the extended warranty is LESS than one trip to dealer to fix a common DEF system problem. So that warranty is a no-brainer.

[gbopp]

DutchmenSport wrote:
Basically, if you damage it yourself, it's not covered. Now, how do they determine what YOU have damaged and what is a result of inferior craftsmanship?

It can go on and on.

Yes, they will try to get out of any claim. I'm talking about a non covered item failing and causing damage to a covered item.
Will that negate the coverage on everything?

[Aridon]

The dealer will thank you for buying a high commission product from them.

[RAS43]

And if any plan offers a refund if not used run away! We had one and when we applied for the refund they went out of business. Thousands of us lost our money.

[guidry]

Also, you buy a 5 yr service contract. That first one or two years is already covered by the manufacturer. Now what are you paying for is an expensive three year contract.