RV pre-trip inspection in Sarasota
The full walk, top to bottom, in the same order every time. Roof, tires, bearings, brakes, gas, batteries, slides and appliances, each with a line on the log you take home.
The walk
The inspection that ends in a sheet of paper
Everything else on this site is downstream of this. The rig gets walked in the same order every time, every item gets a line, and you go home with the sheet whether or not a single thing needed doing.
- Fixed order. Roof, skin and seams, running gear, gas, electrical, then inside. A busy bay skips what isn’t in front of it; a fixed order doesn’t.
- Measurements, not ticks. Lining thickness in mm, regulator pressure in inches of water column, every tire’s date code.
- The zeroes stay in. Passes are written as passes, at $0.00. They’re the lines you can check later.
On the log, every time
Twelve lines, top to bottom
You keep the sheet. We keep a copy, so next year’s walk can be read against this one. That’s when it starts paying for itself.
State, and any soft decking underfoot.
Each vent, fan and flange, one by one.
Four digits each, written down.
Axle scale plus the maker’s table.
Condition of cups, cones and seals.
Measured with a gauge, not glanced at.
Timed, on a gauge.
One by one, never as a bank.
What we look for that you can’t see
Soft spots underfoot on the roof, which means the decking under the membrane has been wet for a while. Brinelling on a bearing race: the little ladder of marks a loaded bearing leaves when it sits still for months. Grease pushed past an inner seal onto a brake lining. Tires that look brand new because they have no miles on them, and a date code that says otherwise.
A regulator that holds pressure perfectly and still feeds the appliances wrong. A slide that comes in a quarter of an inch out of square, which is invisible until the seal it has been chewing lets water into the wall.
Water and tanks
The fresh side gets pressurized and watched, because a pinhole at a fitting behind a panel will empty a tank into a floor overnight. The black tank gets flushed properly, with water and time. If the sensors still read wrong afterwards, we write that down and tell you why: residue bridges the probes, and no bottle of blue liquid fixes it for good.
Line 03 · six tires · the date code
3421 WEEK 34 · 2021
Not sold · $0.00Under four years old, tread and sidewalls sound. RV tires age out before they wear out, so the date code decides, not the tread or a quote. We’ll tell you the season they need replacing. It isn’t this one.
Line 03 on the example log. An inspection that never produces a line like this isn’t an inspection. It’s a sales call with a clipboard.
What we won’t sell you
A walk that ends in a sales pitch
Tires on tread depth
If the date codes are recent and the sidewalls are clean, tread is no reason to replace an RV tire.
A whole-roof reseal
Two failed penetrations out of six is two jobs, not a roof.
A matched pair of batteries
If one tests clean and is close in age and chemistry, replacing one is right.
Straight answers
Pre-trip inspection questions
How long does the walk take?
Two to four hours in the bay, depending on the rig and how much of it opens up. You’re welcome to stand there for it.
How far ahead should I ask for it?
Three or four weeks before you leave. That keeps the inspection and any work it finds as two separate events, and gives a part that isn’t on the shelf time to arrive. March and October fill first.
Can it be done at my storage lot?
Yes, with one difference written on the sheet: pressures can’t be set from axle weight without a scale run, so in the lot we set them to the best available figure and say so.
The rest of the walk
Other work on the rig
Sarasota · Sarasota County
Ask for the walk three weeks out
March and October fill first. Tell us your date and we’ll tell you honestly what fits before you go.