$199 per hour shop labor rate

[et2]

I was floored today while at General RV. Their new 2018 labor rate charged is $ 199 hr. I had to look twice. It goes up every year. 5 hours working on your rig ... $1000 bucks, not including parts.

[eheading]

Which General RV location is charging $199/hour? Is this at all their locations, or one particular one. ANd if just one, which one is it???

[westend]

Harvey51 wrote:
Another trend to worry about . . . Farm equipment manufacturers are starting to use the computer control to require all work to be done by the dealers. John Deere, for example has the computer on a combine or tractor programmed to require a dealer password to allow major new parts to work on the machine. If the farmer installs a new or used part on his combine in the field a dealer tech must come and authorize it to work. A typical fee for that is $500. Here is a Video about this and a group trying to fight it.

What a crock. John Deere never had a problem or a $ for me when I retrofitted their machines to avoid a technical difficulty. The last time I saw their Service Manager, I called him out on a couple of my fixes that became standard issue. I was screaming Patent infringement and any other thing so that anyone within earshot knew how they operated. The other nastiness is that they probably charge big $$ for those parts, even if my fix only required a piece of drilled mild steel.
One time, I had a miscommunication on a bearing order. They shipped me an axle bearing with one number misplaced on the order. That bearing was $1200. Green and yellow isn't cheap!

[eheading]

Just like MINI Cooper cars. All the maintenance requirements and details are "in the car software". There is no where you can find it written out when and what should be done on an ongoing preventive maintenance program.

Ed Headington

[Harvey51]

Another trend to worry about . . . Farm equipment manufacturers are starting to use the computer control to require all work to be done by the dealers. John Deere, for example has the computer on a combine or tractor programmed to require a dealer password to allow major new parts to work on the machine. If the farmer installs a new or used part on his combine in the field a dealer tech must come and authorize it to work. A typical fee for that is $500. Here is a Video about this and a group trying to fight it.

[et2]

I guess $200 hr puts it out of the picture :? The funny part is, if you have a extended warranty, I'll almost bet the insurance company won't pay that and will determine how long a job takes. Just as in health care.

I guess if they start losing business their costs will go down.

[Grit_dog]

^ And this is what they're banking on. The can nots and will nots.
No differnet than me. I would never pay someone $200 an hour to fix my vehicle or camper, save for emergency situation, but I'll pay a lawyer $2-300/HR or my tax accountant. Lawyer is a can not for me, taxes are now a will not.

That said, $199/HR for rv shop labor is high.

[jplante4]

Veebyes wrote:
If I get to the point where I cannot do the work myself I will give up travelling by RV.

Well, there's a difference between "cannot" and "don't want to anymore". At some point, the grunts and groans of crawling around under a bus becomes worth the local RV shop labor rate.

[Latner]

Veebyes wrote:
If I get to the point where I cannot do the work myself I will give up travelling by RV. We have travelled many thousands of miles & had our share of things going wrong. The most difficult & unpleasant has been changing out electric black tank gate valves, a 2 person job which the DW ably helps with.

The vast majority of repairs are very simple. More time is spent diagnosing the problem & figuring out how to fix it than actually doing the job. Over the years we must have saved ourselves tens of thousands in labour doing our own repairs.

So many seem to be very quick to use the credit card to fix what turns out to be a minor problem & they get socked with a huge labour bill & who knows how long to get the job done. YouTube is my friend, my first stop for an issue I am not familiar with.

X2

[Veebyes]

If I get to the point where I cannot do the work myself I will give up travelling by RV. We have travelled many thousands of miles & had our share of things going wrong. The most difficult & unpleasant has been changing out electric black tank gate valves, a 2 person job which the DW ably helps with.

The vast majority of repairs are very simple. More time is spent diagnosing the problem & figuring out how to fix it than actually doing the job. Over the years we must have saved ourselves tens of thousands in labour doing our own repairs.

So many seem to be very quick to use the credit card to fix what turns out to be a minor problem & they get socked with a huge labour bill & who knows how long to get the job done. YouTube is my friend, my first stop for an issue I am not familiar with.

[Chuck_thehammer]

wait,, most RV shops take engine management issues to the local truck garage...

I have never seen a RV shop with a GM/Ford/Commins/freightliner.. master computer in there service bays..

and a Car/Truck/Tractor shop is still charging $100 to 125 per hour...

and trucks / trailers take way more space. inside and out... then ANY RV...

it's called ::: I do not want you to come here for repairs...

retired mechanic,, 43 years..

[SidecarFlip]

et2 wrote:

SidecarFlip wrote:

azrving wrote:
And the "tech" is getting what, about $12 to $19 and poor benefits.

I guess that would depend entirely on the region. I know for a fact that in the Michigan and Ohio region, qualified ASC certified technicians get between 20 and 30 bucks an hour, depending on experience and qualifications plus benefits. It's a very competitive market.

Are you talking RV dealers or mechanical, engine, trans,etc? 90 % of the time I've had to return our rig to General RV as they've many times damaged something unrelated to the initial service.

My engine and Chassis are all done by Cummin Bridgeway. I have no complaints about them and their service is great.

I'm referring to the mechanical aspects, not the house systems and General tends to ship their units down to Freightliner (Valley) for mechanical (engine / drivetrain / electrical and emissions issues.

[et2]

jplante4 wrote:
Major's RV on Cape Cod is $138 an hour. Most of our business is repeat customers and RVers coming to the Cape for vacation having a problem. We don't do mobile service anymore, so they have to bring the rig in. Starting in April, the board is a week out and it stays that way until the end of November.

Our techs are RVIA/RVDA certified. I think ASE is autos and they wouldn't teach you anything about house systems.

There's also Freightliner and Cummins certifications and Onan/Cummins certified genset techs.

And don't forget he tack-ons for "shop supplies".

Yes, the tack on for "shop supplies" . I just had a base plate, light kit, breakaway installed at General RV of which I purchased the parts on Amazon. I knew from past experience they mark it way up buying it from them.

The Shop supply charge was $65. Remember I supplied the parts. The only thing they might have needed was a small cut off wheel worth $5. Plus it took 4 hours for a quoted seven hour job. Yep ... They charged for the 7 hours even with my complaint. Even Blue Ox says it's a 21/2 hour install. So adding the light and breakaway gets it to around a max of 4 hours. I think they are making up their service times and charging you the full amount no matter what the time actually was.

[soren]

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Perfect example of why "I AM MY OWN WARRANTY STATION". I know it's getting done right.

X2 I generally can handle about 90% of whatever goes wrong on our older Class A. If I can't, and it's a chassis issue, there is a local truck repair facility that has a great reputation, and bills at $85 hour. If it's related to the house portion, I'm a few blocks from a top notch general repair shop that has an over-sized bay, and a fully certified RV tech. they bill at $90.

There is simply no way I'm paying $150/hr for a helper at a mega-dealer to stumble around and attempt to repair an issue, while a real mechanic stops by every half hour, or so, to limit the carnage. $200/hr is even more absurd.

[Cummins12V98]

Perfect example of why "I AM MY OWN WARRANTY STATION". I know it's getting done right.