With the growth of the RV industry, millions of US people live in RVs or go on camping at least once a year.
It has resulted in the development of facilities necessary to repair and maintain these homes on wheels.
Is It Hard to Maintain an RV? RV repair and maintenance are not challenging due to the availability of well-developed maintenance facilities and expert mechanics. However, it requires extra effort and planning due to the presence of additional amenities and complicated systems. Moreover, online support from the RVing community enables you to do it yourself (DIY) repairs.
Moreover, with the growth of the RV community, plenty of literature and camping experiences shared by other campers are available to enlighten the beginners and facilitate them regarding the maintenance of RVs.
Is It Hard to Maintain an RV?
Maintaining your RV requires additional efforts to keep them in shape for an enjoyable camping experience.
Moreover, various facilities and their presence in the open throughout the year develop different maintenance issues.
Tow Vehicle maintenance
These are available in various types, from well-equipped motorhomes to customized pop-up campers.
Each kind has a prime mover to enable the movement of the RV in the form of a dedicated towing vehicle or as its part with engine and other systems of a regular automobile available as a single unit.
Therefore it requires regular work like oil change and servicing brakes, transmission system, and other engine parts.
Large RVs like class A motorhomes with diesel engines and power transmission systems require hard work and extra money to perform these tasks.
In most cases, you need to hire the mechanic’s services to maintain the vehicle that can be a problem while camping in remote areas other than developed campgrounds.
Another issue you can face is the unavailability of relevant spares and service stations in remote locations like national forests.
Interior maintenance of RV
The Interior has all the facilities required for living for extended periods, including bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, dinette, living room, temperature control system, and many more.
Moreover, all of these amenities are present in a limited space of the cabin.
In the presence of many systems, you should be a jack of all trades with creative skills to carry out the minor issues on your own.
Otherwise, you need to hire different experts like a plumber, carpenter, electrician, to name a few of them.
Check utility systems
It is a sort of home for living throughout the year. Therefore, it has systems installed for all utilities like water, gas, and electricity.
Most of the cabins have lightweight fiberglass material or plywood sheets in their construction.
However, the presence of power sources in the shape of a generator, shore supply, and battery pack in the vicinity of Propane and other flammable materials require extra care to avoid any short circuit.
Moreover, any water leakage in the cabin will significantly deteriorate the wooden parts of the cabin interior resulting in a reduced useful life.
Maintenance of RV wastewater system
The wastewater system consists of 2 tanks that are a grey tank to store water from sinks and laundry areas and a black tank to keep toilet waste.
These tanks require regular cleaning and maintenance to avoid backflow of wastewater in the cabin and foul smell in the area.
Moreover, dumping that wastewater or emptying the tank is allowed only at dedicated places by the government. Therefore, handling them is a specialized job that requires utmost care.
Large motorhomes have these tanks having hundreds of gallons capacity, making them difficult to handle by an individual.
Therefore, you need to hire vendors with expertise to clean it and disinfect it for subsequent use.
One of the frequent issues associated with waste tanks is a leaky valve or tank.
It will cause the spreading of waste, foul smell, and damage to the camper’s frame. Moreover, it will be annoying or distasteful to perform such tasks due to bad odor.
Another common problem is developing sludgy clog in the black tank or drains pipe if you use less water with the toilet.
It becomes hard to get rid of these clogs, and you need to hire professionals to do the job.
Exterior frame
These campers have to stay open in all kinds of weather conditions, making them susceptible to damage.
Therefore, they require repair of paint, leakage issues, rusting, window glass pane, and awning issues. All these issues require due diligence to prevent further damage.
Other common issues can be mechanical issues with slide-outs, entrance doors, or storage compartments.
You also have ports for connection with the water supply, shore power, and Propane that need regular repair to prevent leakage or rusting problems.
Furthermore, any cracks on its body require urgent repairing to avoid seepage of corrosion to surrounding areas.
You will also need regular washing to clean them and prevent moisture inside the cabin while doing it.
These extra tasks require regular preventive maintenance with due care to avoid the aggravation of problems. Otherwise, you will need to spend plenty of money and time to resolve them.
Storage of RV
These are bigger than regular vehicles and need plenty of space for storage when they are not in use.
However, while parking them outside, you have to spend money on expensive weatherproof covers to prevent maintenance issues.
Moreover, some states don’t allow you to park such large vehicles open even if you have parking space available. Therefore, you have to pay for the rent for parking it at some storage facility.
Additional tasks before storage are thorough cleaning, proper ventilation, sealing any leaks, and water damage.
How to make RV maintenance easy?
RVs maintenance requires more effort and finances than other vehicles due to available facilities and their intended usage.
However, we can avoid significant issues by following simple instructions, saving our time and money.
Regular preventive measures
These require regular inspections and preventive maintenance to keep them functional with optimum performance. Therefore, make a schedule with a checklist to inspect all its systems and look for any maintenance required.
This little effort on a fortnightly or monthly basis will result in its longevity and reduce substantial costs. Moreover, make an inspection list before and after storage to prevent the severity of any pending repair issues.
Do it yourself
We have added procedures and tricks to perform various maintenance tasks by yourselves.
Whatever problems you face, search it, and you will find plenty of online solutions.
If you hire professional support for even minor maintenance issues that you can rectify, it will cost you a massive sum of money.
Therefore, developing maintenance skills with the help of online support will ease the maintenance and enable you to customize it according to your requirements.
Seek help from the RVing community
The RVing community includes millions of people having several years of camping experience.
There are many forums available where they are ready to help if you face any particular problem or query a specific issue.
Furthermore, at a campground, you will find your fellow RVers ready to assist you and lend you a hand to resolve any issues.
Find a trustworthy and expert mechanic
Before hiring a mechanic, please do some research about their quality of work, experience, and reviews of fellow campers.
It will save your time and money due to durable and long-lasting repairs by an expert mechanic. Inexperienced and fraudster mechanics will provide temporary solutions and give you substantial repair bills to replace parts.
Fix the RV before the problem gets bigger
Leaving minor repair issues unattended will result in their growth to significant problems that may require hiring the services of expert mechanics.
Therefore, try to resolve any minor problems as soon as you acknowledge them.
You can further improve it by preventive measures and periodic inspections to prevent them from happening. It will keep your rig up to date and saves money in terms of repairing costs.
Use RV cover to protect from harsh weather
RV cover provides a shield against excessive temperatures, dirt, and dust and prevents exterior issues like paint damage and cracks.
Therefore, use the excellent quality cover during storage and also for camping to avoid any major repairs.
Keep a record of maintenance activities
Expert campers keep track of activities and make notes for future reference. They also share their knowledge at various forums to help other campers.
It also gives an idea about recurrent repair problems, and you can take preventive measures accordingly. It also provides readily available solutions from previous repairing tasks saving time and finances.
Keep an emergency tool kit with necessary spares
A straightforward solution for easy repair is to keep a tool kit based on frequent repair problems.
Whenever you face any issue, do it by yourself using your tool kit. It will ease your job as you don’t have to hire a mechanic’s services and the time it takes to purchase replacement spares.
Is RV maintenance time-consuming?
RV maintenance is not time-consuming if you take preventive measures and regularly inspect for minor issues.
However, leaving the problems unattended can enhance their extent and result in severe repair problems involving a lot of time and finances.
Is it expensive to maintain your RV?
RVs are larger vehicles with a bunch of complicated systems and amenities and therefore increased maintenance tasks.
It can cost a few hundred to a few thousand dollars if you don’t give due care and time to your RV.
However, you can save these costs by making extra effort in preventive maintenance and DIY repairs to keep your camper issue-free.
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