Maintenance

Location, Home in CA

Anyone reading this blog for some time can probably tell that I do most of my own maintenance on my trailer. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, if I do the work I know it will be done right and I can depend on that. Second, the local dealer here who can work on RV’s has a really bad location which is hard to get a large trailer into. If they are asked to do warranty work, they charge for their time to talk to the warranty people. Their estimate is about ¾ of an hour of their time to settle warranty issues before the work can begin. The warranty company only pays for so much labor time depending on the job. The RV dealer in most cases losses money if he needs to have more time to do the repair. In some instances, a hurried sloppy job is the result. When I am towing a 13,000 lb trailer down the road, I am not comfortable knowing someone may have cut a few repair corners.

Within the last year I have had to rebuild the front jacks, (broken drive gear), replace the refer circuit board, install a radio/cd player, rework all pullout drawer slides, repair a closet shelf, install 2 solar panels, repair a wheel well after a blown tire, plus a few other items. If you are not a handy man or know your way around tools, it can be rather costly to have these repairs done by someone else. Repairing the jacks myself saved several hundred dollars as most shops would have replaced the complete unit instead of reaping them.

If I have the time to think about a repair I can usually find a way to get it done. In the case of a major breakdown on the road I call Good Sam. I have their Emergency Road Service and have used it several times. They are prompt and helpful and well worth the cost. End of commercial.