Pre-Season

[King_Hugh]

At the end of last fall we purchased our first in a long time travel trailer, and the first that we will be towing anyplace. Previous trailers were parked on site in campground and never moved. Anyhow, I bought it towed it home winterized it and parked it..haven't really done anything else with it yet.

I've got e-mails out to 2 local-ish dealers with service departments to see what it would cost to get my trailer in for a check up. I'd like a hitch to rear bumper run through. Brakes, bearings, axles, roof, heat & A/c, etc, etc.. Prior to our maiden voyage I want to make sure things are in as good a shape as they can be.

I live in upstate NY near Albany..does anybody have any experience in this? I'm curious what to expect this to cost for the evaluation...I know that any repairs will be extra. For example I know it will need tires...I may just buy 4 tires and bring them with me for them to mount. It will probably have a new fully charged battery before it goes...

Any "Gotcha's" I should be looking for? It's a very well maintained 2008 Rvision Supersport. I don't mind paying them for their time, I just don't want to pay a huge mark up on 4 tires and a battery that I can get.

Any thoughts or advice?

Thank you in advance, I've already learned a TON reading this forum. I didn't even know what a weight distributing hitch WAS before I logged on for the first time.

[Allworth]

Find a local RV park and call the owner for a recommendation for a mobile tech.

My local Tire Kingdom mounts and balances trailer or car tires for the same price.

[Grit_dog]

King huge, stop and take a breath here......
Yes tire company is ripping you off. Btw, etrailer.com has the best tire and parts prices for trailers I've found. If it cost more than hour car to mount and balance tell the shop to fo.
You winterized it, so does everything work? You towed it home, do the brakes work?
Guess before I opened my wallet to someone, even if I didn't know w t f I was doing, I'd fire everything up and see if it all works. Chances are you don't need to do much or anything if it's cherry like you said.
Congrats on the trailer, spend some time getting to know it! Plus you'll be moe knowledgeable if/ when you take it in.

[fla-gypsy]

Again, get an independent tech to do the inspection and save your self money and get an honest report. RV dealers are not known for being honest. Any tire shop can mount the tires, in fact I would avoid RV specific dealers for this.

[King_Hugh]

gbopp wrote:
Consider hiring a mobile RV Tech to do an inspection on your TT.
You could decide which, if any, repairs you will do yourself. And, you could get quotes from dealers for repairs you want to contract out.
Plus, the RV Tech would probably give you estimates for the repairs if he/she does the work.

Good advice, thanks for that!

Any suggestions on finding a mobile RV tech? I did a google search and all that I came up with were the dealerships that I already called.

A related question...is there any reason that mounting tires on a camper is any more expensive than on a car? I got the quote back from one of the dealers and they want $99 per tire to buy them which doesn't seem too bad, but $220 to mount them. I just had 4 tires mounted on my car for $90.00.

They are hitting me for about $150 to do the inspection...that didn't seem unreasonable if they are going to spend a couple hours on it.

[westend]

I'd suggest you hire someone to completely inspect it, dismount the tires and mount, and accomplish the rest of the work involved. If you can't/won't do any of it yourself, don't start balking about the price of preventive/scheduled maintenance. Getting cheap on maintenance with an RV is a sure fire prescription to pay much more later.

[ken56]

I agree with going with the mobile tech. You will be paying dealer prices and you likely will not be present when they do the check over. With a mobile tech you can go thru it with him and see for yourself what may be needed. You can more likely negotiate prices for any needed repairs. Now, I don't mean to try and low ball him on his hard work, just try to save on the shop rate a dealer will charge you.

[gbopp]

Consider hiring a mobile RV Tech to do an inspection on your TT.
You could decide which, if any, repairs you will do yourself. And, you could get quotes from dealers for repairs you want to contract out.
Plus, the RV Tech would probably give you estimates for the repairs if he/she does the work.