Service Truth Or Myth ?

[Old Scout]

Don't want to side-track this discussion but after RVing for the last 14 years and some 165K miles, I continue to marvel at how difficult it is to find good service support. The horror stories on this forum from owners who have gotten poor service from dealers, CW or other providers is amazing. No sympathy from me for service providers but as a DIYer, I can't believe how difficult it is sometimes to fix even the simplest issue on RVs. Manufacturers seem to give little or no attention to ease of maintenance or access for owners after the sale. Though many parts are standard automotive, they are often modified or re-purposed when used on RVs. I am by no means a technical of mechanical expert, but it often takes me twice as long to perform a task on my class A vs the same task on my car, pick-up or stick-built house. Guess its like working on a sail/motor boat, if it involves an RV, its going to take longer and cost more......

[nothermark]

FWIW I started to think through what it would take to go into the mobile RV service business. To meet the needs of what folks complain about one would need something like a box truck with lift set up to do wood and metal working plus a stock of common parts. A lot of jobs would take multiple visits or a lot of time literally watching paint dry. Leaving engine and chassis work to the chassis dealers that still leaves a lot of money to lay out and a lot of skill to develop to duplicate what a dealer shop should have in a team of electrical, refrigeration, metal, plastic, and wood workers. Then there is the issue of getting manufacturers to send parts... probably need a part to full time person at home on the phone.

I'm not saying it cannot be done as it obviously is in some places. What I am saying is that for emergency type repairs setup would not be cheap and service would be interesting to say the least. Real fix all the gotcha's from the factory would be a lot more work than needs a lot more skill and equipment. Not simple or cheap to set up and run. Significant amounts of time and cost in moving from job to job plus training issues as things change. I think I see why there is no one handy around here. Probably works where the season is longer.

My point is that I start to see why mobile techs are harder to find that some people seem to think. Dealers have the same problems without the trucks but trying to paid good help year round in a seasonal business. People that can do the work well have other opportunities that are not so seasonal. Interesting problems that would give me headaches if I was in the business but are easy to complain about for the rest of us.