RV inspector spills the beans on the industry

is there really a difference in quality between new and used RVs well I asked an RV inspector welcome to the channel I'm Liz I have been doing videos about RV dealers and RV manufacturers to bring about much needed change in the RV industry today I interview an RV inspector to get her take on RV quality if I'm looking at something that say from a 2005 an old motor home that has a really good reputation and it was well cared for the quality is outstanding I will see some of these new RVs having more problems than I ever did with the used RVs now I could talk about that the the positive side that I see and that like with this new brinkly coming out on the market they've been listening to the people out there that they need something that is more quality and I'm seeing that in Brinkley it just seems like that is the the latest thing that I have seen where aside from an older motor home that I look at that seems very sturdy and quality I don't have a lot of positive to say about how they're being built now it's actually if you want to say compared to 2012 it hasn't been better it's gotten worse you know I had a friend that and I won't name any names but he's very he he's in Elkart and he has worked in the industry for many many years and he basically talks about that the new company have a higher quality until they get bought out and then the these investment groups are getting in they want more production they want more profit and then it starts again and when the manufacturers become these he said Commodities their suppliers have to become commodity based and so everything gets built cheaper from China or Taiwan engineers in the RV industry no longer engineer new products they engineer cheaper products so this is kind of was his take on what happens out there and why these things shift they they start out being made really well and then these other companies buy them out and they move to cheaper products that break more often and and they don't work out as well I have some stories of inspections I see loose bolts I had Jacks being retracted and the bolt was completely out of it and it it made a scraping sound you see things like I mean it can be simple things it can be loose wiring you can get voltage on the RV you can have gfcis that aren't working correctly so all that electrical stuff you can see loose plumbing and then you you like I do a test on the water where I'm filling up the sink and then allowing it to drain and you'll see water dripping out because the connections aren't even tight so a lot of these things happen when they're new they they really a lot of times people will say yeah give it two years because they get all the bugs worked out well that's true when you first get an RV you're and you're taking it down the road that's when you find out everything that's wrong so as an inspector I'm going in there and I'm running the slide slides in and out and sometimes you can have a slide that's misaligned and another biggie is the sealant even with new RVs they're slapping on that sealant so fast and when I go up there I will see that as because as it dries it can start to create holes already and cracks I will see that there's already maybe a little bubble or a little hole in the sealant or a misted part around something well that can cause the catastrophic damage to it you you could have one little hole in the sealant because it it wasn't it was missed and then all the you have a rainstorm and you have delamination you have you have water damage on your roof that's why having the new RVs inspected I think are super important just as much as the used because you you just never know what you're going to find if I go to a place where the it's a prior owner not a dealership and I am inspecting they always try to tell me like how great it is and how wonderfully it's been cared for blah blah blah and but then I get up on the the roof and I look and there's just massive holes in the in the sealant up there and then I go down into the actual RV and I find a huge amount of water damage so I just recently looked at one I was looking under the slide because I'm always checking under the slide and I look for kind of rust or water stains there or signs of rot and sure enough I saw signs of rot and then I went inside and along the bottom of the sides of the slide slide wall I saw all these water stains near the bottom of it so it was clear that there had been massive water damage there I check for like detectors for instance and I will unscrew the detector and I will find sometimes missing wires or it's not connected at all and I test out all of the outlets in the kitchen and every room in the RV and I have gone in and put in my tester and there's no voltage at all so that the connection is not even made there there is no voltage at one part one Outlet could have voltage and another Outlet could not have voltage underneath there's been cracks and axles there have been wires that are loose and hanging for the brakes now if somebody were to drive away and then those brake lines end up having friction and getting uh torn then you're not going to have wiring to your electric brakes while you tow and that's extremely dangerous they're simple fixes that could have been made after an inspection at a dealership but if they don't get inspected and they get missed then some somebody is in a whole lot of trouble small little repairs can lead to thousands of dollars of damage down the road if you're looking at finding super quality you want to look for the companies that have a real passion in it like I have a lazy days I know that the lazy days company was a small company in California they're no longer open they cared a lot for their creation and their quality and I know that these are solid but it also there was a 2-year waiting list because they spent so much time on these RVs they they they cared about their product you have to be a person that is okay with waiting for your RV to be built if you go with a smaller company like that otherwise you're going to go with the the companies that are mass producing I would look for something that's really well taken care of that's actually older because the price doesn't match the quality you're getting right now depending on the type of RV that you want that has been really cared for somebody that's selling it a prior owner that you can talk to so it would be more of a private sale rather than a dealership sale you can see the paperwork where they did all of the maintenance on there every year and they can show you the receipts and you know that they really cared for their RV they loved it that is the way to go if you're looking for something that you're actually going to get what you paid for are you willing to wait to find the right thing you want to do your research a lot of my clients that come come to me for inspection they've done a lot of their research they will know the year and the makeing the model they will understand what chassis had for that year they will understand what transmission if it's a motor home they go on Facebook groups and they're looking at forums that way to try to see if there's any potential problems or what year there was a potential problem and I think doing your research is super super important and I advise anybody that's going out there to get an RV to do their research on it still hire an inspector because it doesn't matter um it could be the best year for the best RV if you don't have an inspection you are taking a risk that you're still going to have something that hasn't been put together properly or as it was transported down the road you know when it gets transported to the dealership and it's shaking down the road things could have come loose and they may not have found it at the dealership level what happened during the covid period the demand went up so high that they were just putting these things together and putting them out there and we had Supply issu isues we had lack of employees so lack of workers and if you have a high turnover of of people of employees you have a lot of new people out there doing the installations and stuff at the manufacturer level they weren't even able to finish some of these RVs and then they were sent over to the dealership and the dealership Texs were having to finish these up so there were things that were missed I think that we're getting past some of the co mess I think that the bulk of the problems were in those years if you're looking at the sticker the sticker even though it's a 2020 RV it may have been built in 2019 so that's still okay but if you're looking at a 2021 model there those were typically built in 2020 and so on I think that we're starting to see a little bit of improvement there's still some supply issues it still is difficult but I think they found some ways to work around some of this one thing I do want to talk about is the dealerships allowing inspectors I've had really good experiences with most of the dealerships but I did have a situation where one of the dealerships sort of got agitated with me because of some of the things I was Finding during the inspection I think that sometimes they get overwhelmed because the customer has demands and they're trying to bend over backwards for the customer and then they want this inspector to come in and they just roll their eyes knowing that this other person's going to come in and find things and they just want to make their sale I understand that and we are both trying to service the customer so what I'm trying to do with my business is I really want to have a good relationship with the dealerships have a good relationship with the managers there so that they understand that I'm working for my client just like they are working for my client we both have the same end goal and if we can work together we can help each other because ultimately if the client walks away happy with having an inspection and having a good sale from the dealership then they're happy they're a happy client and they're going to give them kudos for having a good experience at that dealership I do RV certified inspections I do a little bit of tech just small repairs I travel and I'm mainly in Arizona and then I travel to Michigan if you want to know where I'm at you can go on to my website I always update it so that I can let people know what state I'm in if you are looking for another inspector say in another state you can go onto the website nrvia org and there's a locator there where you can find an inspector in the area that you're looking for an RV and everybody is really great the inspectors were well trained they're very qualified and they a lot of us most of us love what we're doing if you've enjoyed this video please like subscribe and share and let me know in the comments any RV shopping tips that you have as always if RV life is calling you I hope you come out here and give it a try

Channel: Liz Amazing

Views: 327,799

Keywords: RV life, Fulltime RV living, motorhome, travel trailer, fifth wheel, RV industry, RV dealers, RV dealerships, RV buying regrets, rv regrets, Class C, rv lemon, RV inspection, buying a new RV, New rvs, used rvs, RV shopping, rv inspection, rvindustry, RV quality

Id: 9KT4gqSQGeg

Length: 10min 54sec (654 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2024