Buying an RV isn’t as expensive as buying a house, but it’s not chump change either! We’d never buy a house without getting it inspected, so we planned on getting our RV inspected as well.
Unfortunately, a certified RV inspector doesn’t come cheap. We logged onto the website of the National RV Inspectors Association, which allows you to search by location, and queried the four closest RV inspectors. They all quoted us prices of $800 or more. That seemed excessive for a small couples trailer.
So we logged on to the Grand Design Imagine XLS 22MLE Facebook group to ask what other people were paying for inspections. A few people paid that much. But the vast majority of those responding said they didn’t get an inspection because they trusted their dealer.
For a while, Mr. 123 considered forgoing the inspection. The trailer does come with a one-year warranty, but frankly, getting warranty work done is a pain. We’ve heard horror stories of months-long waits to get repairs completed. Mrs. 123 was adamant we were going to get it inspected. And because we were buying the RV in Texas and taking a week off to drive down there and pick it up, we wanted to make sure that all repairs were done before we arrived.
We broadened our search for RV Inspectors and found a former Air Force officer near Dallas who was certified by the NRVIA. He would charge only $400 and was able to do the inspection at the end of the week. That would leave the dealer a full 10 days to fix any issues he identified.
Some dealers balk at having inspectors come to their lots, but McClain’s in Sanger, Texas had absolutely no issue with it. They set up the trailer at the adjacent KOA campground and plugged it in a day before so the refrigerator was up and running for 24 hours.
The next day our inspector, Tom, texted us a picture of our trailer to let us know he was onsite. I can’t lie, it was pretty exciting to get the first photo of our future home.
Tom spent the entire day checking every aspect of the trailer. He identified only five issues, most of which were minor. The bumper, which is hollow to allow for storage of a sewer hose, was missing its end cap. The bedroom window was difficult to open. The tire pressure was a little low. And he recommended adding screens to keep bugs out of the furnace.
The biggest concern was a leak in the shower basin. Tom sent us a couple of pictures with drops of water on the bathroom floor.
He sent the inspection summary to the dealer as well, and our salesman let us know they would address all the issues. We will stay at that same adjacent KOA for three days and we’ll test out the shower and the bedroom window again.
Our salesman told us the dealership usually does a detailed inspection itself to identify the types of problems that our inspector found. But it still gives us peace of mind that we had an independent review of the trailer and that all looked good. Maybe the dealer would have found the shower leak as well. But $400 is a small price to pay to ensure that nothing is overlooked.
