State of the RV Repair Industry

When we purchased our 2010 DRV Mobile Suites, we knew it had some issues that would require remediation. However, we found getting an RV repaired was much easier in theory than reality. All RVers know that getting your RV worked on is stressful, expensive, and getting an appointment can be extremely hard. We originally tried to have our RV repaired in Kansas via a mobile repair service before we went full-time, but that was a horrible experience. Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber showed up, had no experience with our particular brand, and were overall incompetent. In the end, they fixed nothing, charged us a whopping hourly rate, and made our issues worse.

We knew we had to find someone knowledgeable in DRV’s. Every review we found pointed us to two repair companies, Rolling Retreats in Elk City, Oklahoma, and Sunshine RV in Lake Havasu, Arizona. Rolling Retreats was located only a few hours away, but we were never able to get on their schedule. There are many people who have had positive experiences with Rolling Retreats, but we left several voicemails simply asking for a call back. When we did get someone to answer they were unpleasant to speak with, and we felt like an annoyance they had to deal with rather than a paying customer trying to patronize their business. Due to the RV boom in previous years, repair companies are booked several months out, and providing basic customer service does not seem to be a high priority on their list.

With Rolling Retreats off the list, we prepared ourselves for making the call to Sunshine RV. To our surprise they answered the first time and forwarded our call to the Parts & Service Manager, Ron Francis. We provided him with our laundry list of items, and he assured us that Sunshine RV could take care of all the issues.

Our Laundry List

Bedroom Slide Out:

We noticed the top left side of our bedroom slide out was starting to rub against the weather seal when we would take the slide in and out. We were concerned that at some point, we would be unable to fully bring the slide in.

Sunshine RV was able to adjust the slide out and get it to extend and retract flush.

GFCI Outlets:

The Kansas winters are cold. Cold enough that one may opt to run a ceramic heater instead of burning through propane. Said person may then get the genius idea that if one ceramic heater is good, two would be twice as good. While the logic is sound, accidentally running them on the same circuit can be disastrous. In a moment of weakness we might have done that. The overload caused the electrical cable to break between the electrical distribution box and the bathroom vanity GFCI Outlet. Sunshine RV was not able to repair the cable in place, so they actually pulled a new line to the bathroom outlet. RaeLynn is elated to have her bathroom vanity outlet back in working order. Buck is happy not to hear about it anymore.

Landing Gear Feet:

We pull our DRV with the Andersen Ultimate Fifth Wheel Connection hitch. We’ve been very happy with the hitch, and opted to order a set of Andersen Jack Blocks, which keep our front landing gear from having to extend unnecessarily. The con of these jack blocks is that they sometimes get stuck to the landing gear feet. To get the jack blocks to break loose, I like to use a small hammer. Our landing gear feet were rusty, so when I used the hammer, the feet came off with the jack block.

Not only was Sunshine RV was able to replace the landing gear feet, but they had a used pair in outstanding condition. They actually saved us some money on material instead of making us purchase new hardware. The finished product is pictured below along with the old hardware. The new feet have small holes drilled in them which prevents suction being created between the Andersen Jack Block and the landing feet.

RVLock Key Latches:

We ordered the RVLock 4.0 during a Black Friday buying spree.

We installed the door lock ourselves, but had yet to install all the baggage door locks. Most RV baggage locks come with a CH751 lock and key. That means that if you have a Ch751 key, you can open any CH751 lock. We mostly stay in campgrounds, so the thought of RVers having a key to our storage bays was concerning. The locks from RVLock are one-off and can be keyed alike to the door lock.

Sunshine RV changed out all the baggage door locks giving us the sense of security we had been missing.

Lessons Learned

If possible, try to have your RV issues worked out before actually hitting the road. We were unable to find someone competent in our area, but locations differ and you may have better luck finding a reputable repair facility.
If you are having trouble communicating with an RV repair facility, find another. Repair facilities are having a difficult time meeting the demand of RV sales. The great thing about an RV is that it has wheels. If you can’t find someone local, drive to the expert. Several states catering to the snowbirds (Arizona, Florida, Texas, etc) are used to the demand and are staffed up.
Have several items fixed at once. Due to the amount of items we had repaired, the repair facility was more open to offering used parts, discounts, etc as they were making money on the labor.