RV pre-purchase inspections: One man's experience

Looking at buying a used RV? As you already know, rigs cost a bunch of money, and there are plenty of "hidden problems," that can inflate your purchase price greatly if you find out "afterwards," that you missed something before you handed over your money.

Don't let your heart take you for a ride

Some RVers find it a wise investment to have a potential rig professionally inspected. Even RVers who have plenty of experience in rigs may find it prudent. Why so? Sometimes that little Judas that beats away in our chest can mislead us. We may like the layout, the looks, and the seemingly good price so much that our heart can overwhelm us – and cause us to miss something that might make that "really good deal," a really bad one.

So how do you get an honest appraisal of what's right and wrong with an RV? By all means, hire an independent set of eyes – don't just take the word of the technician at the dealership whose selling the unit. Nevertheless, finding an inspector can be daunting. Here's some of the experience of a Canadian buyer, who wanted an inspection of a motorhome 3,000 miles away from where he lived. He'd already reviewed video and stills sent him by the dealer, but not being able to actually "go and see" the rig himself.

The man dug into the matter and phoned several outfits in the area and got some surprising responses:

Several RV dealership and RV service outfits said they'd "never heard of" a pre-purchase inspection. Some said if he'd put together a list of what he wanted looked at, they could have a tech investigate. How much? Well, that's when things got rather vague.

He had more success with "mobile RV service" companies who were willing to go out to the dealer's lot and look over the rig (most of the other outfits wanted the rig brought to them). That seemed intriguing, trouble is, the "have tools will travel" guys were only interested in inspecting the coach and it's functions, not the underlying chassis, and power train.

So why not hire the RV guys to inspect the coach, then get an automotive shop to inspect the rest of the rig? Good thought, trouble is, few shops wanted any part of it, and those that did would only proceed if the rig was brought to them. Once again, that might have worked for him, had he been in the area of the dealership, and not trying to do the inspections by "remote control," if you will.

After a lot of digging, the buyer finally located an inspection service on the Internet, rvsurvey.com. While the outfit didn't have an inspector in the immediate area of the dealer, one of their "affiliates," was close enough that the price worked out, even when mileage charges were taken into account. While the hired inspector couldn't do a lot of in-depth chassis and drive-train evaluation, at least he was willing to take the coach out for a test drive and gave what help he could. Better than nothing.

Still, be prepared to pay good money for such an inspection. For the situation above, the inspection ran $400 plus mileage. That's a lot of scratch, but if you're plunking down tens of thousands of dollars on a used rig, it's a small price – particularly if a "problem rig" is sniffed out before signing on the dotted line.