The average recreational vehicle should last you anywhere from 10 to 30 years before needing to be replaced. But if you don’t maintain an RV in the right way, you might not be able to get that much life out of it.
One way to make sure that your RV is being maintained properly is by working with the right RV repair shops when it’s time to fix it. You’ll need to do more than just Google “RV repair near me” and pick the first local RV repair shop you can find.
There are tons of RV repair shops scattered throughout the country at this time. Your job will be the track down the best local RV repair shops in the business and trust them to work on your RV. They’ll know how to repair an RV and get it back out on the road for you in no time.
Today, we’re going to take a look at what you’ll need to do to locate the best RV repair shop in your area. Check out our guide on how to do it below.
Start by Seeing How Many RV Repair Shops Are Set Up in Your Area
At the moment, there are more than 15,000 RV service technicians working in the U.S. As a result, you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding RV repair shops in your general area.
Begin your search for them by Googling “RV repair near me.” As we just alluded to, you do not want to simply pick out the first RV repair shop that appears when you do this. But you do want to take this step to generate a long list of options for yourself.
You should write down the names of every local RV repair shop that you can find. You should also jot down any contact information that you can find for them so that you can locate them later.
By doing these things, you’ll give yourself a lot of options when it comes to RV repair shops. You’ll be able to narrow down this list of options pretty quickly once you have it all ready to go.
Find Out as Much as You Can About Your Local RV Repair Shops
Once you’ve created a long list of local RV repair shops, the next thing that you’ll want to do is do your homework on each of them. It should be relatively easy for you to do this in this day and age.
Just about all of the different RV repair shops that are out there have websites set up. You should visit these websites to find out as much as you can about these shops. On a shop’s website, you should be able to learn:
- How long an RV repair shop has been in business
- Which RV repair services a shop is capable of providing
- Who works at an RV repair shop
- Which specials an RV repair shop is running
You should also be able to find out even more about an RV repair shop by sneaking a peek at any social media pages that they have set up. These social media pages should showcase some of the RV repair work that a shop does and give you a great introduction to it.
Learn About Which RV Repair Shops Can Work On Your Specific RV
There are so many different types of RVs that are out on the road today. You can have any type of RV that you want repaired. But, it’s worth noting that not all local RV repair shops are going to be capable of fixing all RVs.
With this in mind, you should try to find out which RV repair shops in your area have the capabilities to fix your specific type of RV. Some of these shops will make a note of this on their websites, while others will only be able to tell you this once you make contact with them.
But regardless, you don’t want to waste your time or an RV repair shop’s time by bringing in an RV that they can’t work on. It’s why you should do your homework to see which RV repair shops will be able to help you in advance.
Read the Reviews That Other RV Owners Have Left for RV Repair Shops
One thing that you might notice as you’re looking at the websites for the different RV repair shops in your area is that they’re almost all going to make themselves look like your best option. This might make things confusing for you and leave your head spinning at times.
But fortunately, there is a very easy way to separate the great RV repair shops from the not-so-great RV repair shops. After Googling “RV repair near me,” you can look at the online reviews that other RV owners have left for them.
In a perfect world, you want to work exclusively with an RV repair shop that has nothing but positive reviews from people. You should skim through the reviews for different RV repair shops and see which ones have glowing reviews from their customers.
If you notice that some local RV repair shops have lots of negative reviews, you should automatically disqualify them from consideration. You aren’t going to want to trust these types of RV repair shops to get anywhere close to your RV.
Take a Look at Any BBB Complaints Left for Local RV Repair Shops
In addition to checking out the online reviews that your fellow RV owners have left for RV repair shops through Google and other review sites, you should also try to track down their Better Business Bureau profiles. If people have filed formal complaints against RV repair shops with the BBB, this is where you’re going to find them.
Ideally, you want to find RV repair shops that don’t have a single complaint on their BBB profiles. Or at the very least, you want to see that RV repair shops have taken the time to respond to complaints in an effort to make things right.
If an RV repair shop has a lot of complaints on their BBB profile and they haven’t responded to any of them, this is the biggest red flag you can see. You should remove them from your master list of RV repair shops and focus on the shops that have little to no complaints.
You might be surprised to hear that many RV owners don’t bother looking at an RV repair shop’s BBB profile ahead of time. Some of them end up kicking themselves down the line when they go to leave a complaint and see all the complaints that they wish they had read earlier.
Call Up a Few of the Best RV Repair Shops and Ask Them Questions
When you reach this point in your search for a reputable RV repair shop, your original list should be whittled down to just a few remaining names. As long as you’ve taken all the steps we’ve already mentioned, these names should include the best RV repair shops around.
From here, you should make an effort to get to know the remaining RV repair shops even better than you already do. You can do this by calling up a few of them and asking a series of questions.
Some of the questions that you should ask an RV repair shop are:
- How much experience do you have working on my specific type of RV?
- How long does it take you to inspect an RV and diagnose a problem with it?
- Who exactly will be working on my RV if I bring it to your RV repair shop?
- What is the average length of time it takes for you to complete RV repair jobs?
- What steps do you take to protect RVs while they’re in your car?
Far too often, RV owners don’t take enough time to get to really know an RV repair shop before tossing the keys to their RVs to them. Don’t make this mistake. You should spend at least 15 minutes or so speaking with someone from an RV repair shop on the phone so that you can get to know them better.
Be Sure the RV Repair Shops You’re Considering Are Licensed and Insured
Outside of asking all of the other questions that we just touched on to an RV repair shop, there are also two other important questions you’ll need to ask. They are:
- Is your RV repair shop licensed?
- Is your RV repair shop insured?
If an RV repair shop doesn’t say “yes” to both of these questions, you should hang up the phone and cross them off your list right away. You do not want to allow an unlicensed or uninsured RV repair shop to get anywhere close to your RV.
If you don’t ask an RV repair shop if they’re licensed and insured and it turns out that they’re not later, you could be in big trouble. This will be especially true if an RV repair shop does a bad job while working on your RV.
It’ll literally take you about 10 seconds to find out if an RV repair shop is licensed and insured. But it’s very important for you to do it so that you don’t get yourself into a bind while working with an RV repair shop.
Compare What It’ll Cost to Have RV Repairs Done at Different Shops
You might be under the impression that most RV repair shops are going to charge the same prices for their services. And to some degree, you’ll be right.
If you want an RV repair shop to do something simple like changing your oil for you, most shops are going to charge the same prices to do this. You won’t save yourself too much money by shopping around for these kinds of basic services.
But, if you want an RV repair shop to do something a little more extensive to your RV, that’s when you’re going to find price discrepancies from one shop to the next. You should try to reach out to as many RV repair shops as you can to get their best prices.
After you’ve gone through this process, you’ll then be able to sit down and compare the prices for the RV repair services that you need. You should find that at least a few of the RV repair shops you’re considering will offer lower prices than their competitors.
You might not necessarily want to work with whichever RV repair shop offers the lowest prices around, especially if those prices seem unusually low. “You get what you pay for” is something that definitely rings true when it comes to RV repair shops.
But you should be able to find prices that are on the more affordable side from certain RV repair shops. Those will be the shops that should get the most preferential treatment from you as you seek to repair your RV.
See Which RV Repair Shops Offer Warranties and/or Guarantees
Let’s say that you take your RV in for a repair at an RV repair shop and they’re able to fix whatever is wrong with your RV. But then, the original problem that you were having with your RV returns within just a few weeks. What next?
There are some RV repair shops that are going to tell you, “Tough luck,” and make you get your RV repaired again. But there are also others that will invite you to bring your RV back to them so that they can make things right—free of charge.
You’ll want to work with an RV repair shop that falls into that second category. They should provide you with some kind of warranty or guarantee on all the RV repairs that they make for you.
By getting a warranty or guarantee on an RV repair, you’ll feel so much better about it in the end. You’ll know that, if the repair doesn’t stick, you’ll have the option to bring your RV back to a shop so that it can be looked at again.
You might save yourself a nice chunk of change over time by opting to work with RV repair shops that extend warranties and guarantees to customers. They’ll provide you with the protection that you need so that you aren’t paying for the same repairs to be made to your RV more than once.
Figure Out How Long Different Shops Will Take to Complete RV Repairs
In large part because of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been buying up RVs like never before in recent years. There are more and more people—Millennials, in particular—who are investing in RVs and driving around in them all over the place.
This is great for the RV community as a whole. It has added a lot of new members to the mix and given those with RVs the opportunity to meet people they wouldn’t have met before.
But it has also created a backlog of RV repair jobs at some RV repair shops throughout the country. These shops don’t have enough resources to keep up with all the RV repairs that need to be made.
For this reason, you shouldn’t be shy about asking your local RV repair shops how long it might take them to finish repairs on your RV. If they’re backed up beyond belief right now, you might not want to call on them for assistance with RV repairs.
Even if an RV repair shop checks all the boxes and seems to be one of the best options of the bunch, you don’t want to get stuck waiting for months on end for your RV to be repaired. You want to have an RV repair shop in your corner that can begin working on your RV as soon as possible so that you can get it back fast.
Choose the RV Repair Shop That You Feel the Best About
There is a pretty good chance that you spent a pretty penny when you first bought your RV. A lot of the RVs that are on the market today cost tens of thousands of dollars.
This is something that should always be in the back of your mind as you’re searching for an RV repair shop. The shop that you choose should be ready, willing, and able to help you protect the investment that you made in your RV by taking good care of it.
After you’ve taken each of the steps listed here, there should be one RV repair shop that stands tall above all the rest. They should make you feel good about the services that they can provide while working on your RV.
It’s a good idea to trust your gut when it comes to picking out an RV repair shop. The one that gives you the best feeling inside is also usually going to be the one that does the best work on your RV from start to finish.
Try to Use the Same RV Repair Shop on a Regular Basis, If Possible
Part of the reason why it’s so important for RV owners to find a great RV repair shop is that it’s smart for them to work with the same RV repair shop over and over again. You should try to use the same RV repair shop every time you need your RV fixed if you can.
Here are some of the reasons why it would be such a good idea to do this:
- You’ll know that an RV repair shop is familiar with your specific RV
- You’ll like the fact that an RV repair shop will know the repair history for your RV
- You’ll be able to establish a great relationship with the mechanic or mechanics who are routinely assigned to work on your RV
- You’ll get a much better sense of how long it typically takes an RV repair shop to get your RV back to you
- You’ll feel more comfortable asking questions to an RV repair shop when you feel like you know them
You can, of course, visit other RV repair shops when you’re traveling in other parts of the country in your RV. You shouldn’t ever feel like you can only work with one RV repair shop and that’s it.
But you should try to make most of your RV repairs at the same shop, if possible. If nothing else, this will make it very easy for you to keep tabs on which repairs you’ve made to your RV in the past.
You’ll also feel more confident in an RV repair shop’s ability to fix your RV when you go to them all the time for your RV maintenance and repair needs.
Stop Googling “RV Repair Near Me” and Bring Your RV to Us!
Are you absolutely overwhelmed by all of the options that you see after Googling “RV repair near me”? It’s natural to feel this way! There are going to be so many options for you to pick from.
If you want to avoid having to do everything that we just laid out, you should give our RV repair shop a try. We’ll go above and beyond to show you why we consider ourselves to be the best RV repair shop around.
We can also provide you with a new or used RV if you’re in the market for one. We can help you find the perfect RV for your specific situation.
Contact us today for more on our RVs for sale and RV repair services.
