How to find the right mechanic?

[DumbQuixote]

Last month I bought a 1983 Jambo which ran without issue, but after about a mile from where I bought it, the thing refused to run. It'd start, idle just fine, but any attempt to push the gas peddle resulted in a sudden stall. The tow driver suggested I take it to a garage down the way he was familiar with, which I was happy to agree with. That mechanic has had the RV for over a month now without any progress -- every time I visit the shop he says he's waiting on a fuel pump.

I was hoping to have this guy really dig in to the RV and give it an overhaul, but my trust is waining by the day. How do you find a mechanic experienced with RV's to trust your repairs to?

[fourthclassC]

Suggest a truck repair shop. Don't be fooled if some tells you an RV is different and needs RV parts. Especially for the chassis. They are just a truck, the same as full size van in most cases except for the dual rear wheels.
I think a lot of folks get tripped up on that. In fact many of the RV specific parts (especially plumbing) are just regular home stuff.

[D_E_Bishop]

Our first RV was a 1990 Bounder with a 1989 P30 engine. The engine started and ran very smooth at LOW speed, then it would stall. I was raised by a guy who as a teenager was fixing farm equipment, trucks and cars for a living, I learned a lot from him, including what a lack of fuel stall felt and sounded like..

When the Bounder started with this lack of fuel problem, being a little intimiddated by working on the engine and not having space at home or anywhere else, I took it th several, "RV mechanics" for repair. They all dianosed the problem as "electrical", I kept telling them it was a "fuel" problem. When four experienced and schooled RV mechanics failed to find an electrical problem, I turned to RV.NET and Youtube to find the problem. Those rv hacks were right, it was an electrical problem with the oil pressue/priming relay. So now I know not to argue with the experts, after all their training and experience, they couldn't figure out how to test for fuel pressure and flow under real life use.

It cost me about $75.00 in equipment to build a piece of test equipmennt that allowed me to drive around and watch the fuel pressure and find out when it drop off. I still have 35 feet of HP fuel hose and the pressure guage and quarter inch brass hose tee, so in emergency, I've got somme spare hose and a tee.

The point is, "RV MECHANICS" aren't any smarter or better informed that a lot of small shop guys and in many (most even) cases not as well informed and probably charge less to work on your chassis problems.

[DumbQuixote]

Hey gang,

Ya'll work quick! Thanks for the warm welcome and the sound advice. I don't really know much about the inner workings of my RV; I spent maybe two hours total with it while waiting for a tow at a congested intersection, so I wasn't doing much of a deep dive under the hood. The mechanic has had it since then. A month is a very long time to wait for a fuel pump to be delivered, eh? According to the title it's an 8 cylinder which is as best I have to go on for the engine.

As for my personal level of comfort doing repairs; I was raised by a mechanic and am adept enough to swap out an alternator in an autozone parking lot (happens frequently for some reason) or change my own brakes, but I've never done anything with fuel lines, carburetors or engine work. I'm also colorblind which makes electrical nigh impossible. I love to learn and nothing feels more gratifying than doing the work yourself, but it feels like a lot to dive into right away.

I am located in the Hudson Valley, in Catskill, NY.

[77rollalong]

Does your motor home have twin tanks? if so you have two fuel pumps, one in each tank, so by switching thanks the problem should go away if it is a pump problem and you could drive it to another shop that know what they are doing. the fuel pumps are mounted inside the tanks on that year E350s,

[Johno02]

We are in a small town, and have an excellent local mechanic with a shop big enough to get the class A inside. He has been in business a long time, and knows engines and mechanical very well. He does not work on the coach, just the chassis, and can and has worked on the engine, brakes, dash AC, transmission, batteries, and generator. All a very reasonable rate. We also have an excellent, well trained and very good RV tech that takes care of anything on the coach itself.

[ksg5000]

Your rig likely is a Ford. If your current mechanic can't fix call your local Ford dealer and ask if they have room for RV - if they don't they take it to Ford Truck dealer.

[path1]

But usually word of mouth seems to work best. Your 83 is carb not injected? If carb, fuel pump is 3 bolts. But actual carb might be hassle.
Have a talk to see what problem is, either time or he doesn't know or what

[path1]

Finding right mechanic... depends on lots of things. We broke down and "best" mechanic was supposed to fix. 3 days turned into week, taking care of his long time customers first. Then towed RV to another mechanic he recommended. And they also messed around. Towed to third place and he couldn't install what I wanted because his brother 200 miles away had to translate directions. What a mess. Thousand dollar job turned into three.

[gbopp]

Welcome to the forum.

Which chassis/engine is under your rig? Maybe someone can help diagnose your problem.

Contact some local campgrounds, ask them if they can recommend a garage or mechanic who works on RV's.
Ask other RV owners in your area who they use.

Let us know the area you are inquiring about, possibly a forum member knows someone.
New York is a little too vague.

[azrving]

Well the first issue is in how much the person who is looking for the mechanic knows. If you know nothing then you have no way to tell if he's a BSer. With what you described, the first thing to do is check the fuel pressure. More modern vehicles went from mechanical fuel pumps to electric in tank pumps. During normal operation you can often hear the pump when you just turn the key to run but don't crank it over.

That doesn't prove that there is proper fuel pressure or VOLUME. Pressure can be tested at the Schrader valve. Volume can be tested by removing the valve core and seeing how much volume the pump can deliver in X amount of time. People will often assume that the pump is good while only looking at pressure. You can develop pressure yet have low volume.

So it sounds like he could be on the right track but.....