RV, Camper and Trailer Repair Questions

We are at 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887, in a 35,000 square foot facility. From San Clemente it is about 45 minutes, either up the I-5 or the 73 toward the 91 corridor. We are not in San Clemente and we do not claim to be, because a coach that needs a frame rack, a downdraft booth and lift capacity has to come to the equipment. Most owners drive up once for intake and once for pickup.

Up to 45 feet, including tag axle diesel pushers, and the paint booth is deep enough to take that length as one unit rather than in halves. We have yard depth for a truck and 41 foot fifth wheel combination to maneuver without unhitching in the street. Height clearance handles high profile coaches with rooftop air conditioners and satellite domes. If you are unsure whether your combination fits, call with length, height and axle configuration and we will tell you before you drive up.

We are a specialty RV, van, trailer and truck facility, so we do not take passenger cars, motorcycles, boats or powersports. We do not offer mobile or roadside service of any kind. We do not perform chassis engine overhauls on diesel pushers, which belong at a Freightliner or Spartan service center. We also decline jobs where an owner wants structural or water sealing work done with parts and adhesives we cannot verify. Everything else on a house on wheels is in scope.

You can come see it, and we encourage it at the two points where it matters most: after teardown, when the structure is exposed and real scope is visible, and at final inspection before pickup. Call ahead so somebody can walk you through the bay safely. What you cannot do is stand in an active work area unescorted or be present during booth operations, because respirator and containment requirements are not optional. We also send photographs at milestones if you cannot come up.

Chalking with an intact membrane and cracked sealant is a recoat and reseal candidate at $750 to $4,500 and up. Replacement is the answer when the membrane has shrunk away from a termination bar, when there are punctures or tears, or when the decking underneath has soft spots, and that runs $3,500 to $18,000 and up. The deciding test is the decking, not the surface. We walk it, probe it and moisture meter it, because coating over soft decking only buys a season.

Delamination is the outer fiberglass skin separating from the luan and foam substrate behind it, usually because water got into the bond line or an impact broke it. It looks like a bubble, a ripple or a soft spot, and it spreads outward over months. Small early separations can be injected with adhesive and vacuum clamped, which is genuinely durable. Once the substrate itself is wet or crushed, injection just glues skin to mush. We map the boundary by tapping and thermal survey first.

Usually one of four things. The room is out of time, so one side leads the other and binds in the opening. The rack and pinion or Schwintek gear teeth are worn or contaminated. The opening itself is out of square, which is common after an impact or on a coach parked unlevel for years. Or the floor of the room has taken on water and the room now sags and weighs more. Diagnosis comes first, because three of those four are not motor problems.

Extended is when the outer wiper seal is doing all the work and the bulb seal is not compressed. So a leak in that position points at the wiper seal, the top of the slide box, or a topper dumping water into the seal instead of past it. It also points at slide alignment, because a room sitting a quarter inch low on one side leaves a gap the wiper cannot bridge. Seals run $400 to $3,000 and toppers $450 to $1,800.

Trust your hands and your nose before your eyes. Press the walls below every window and around the entry door, walk the floor barefoot feeling for flex, and check the corners of slide floors. A musty smell in a closed coach is water, not age. Look for wallpaper seams lifting, screw heads dimpling through paneling, and ceiling stains at the roof to wall seam. Then get a moisture survey, because meters and thermal imaging routinely find intrusion two to three times larger than the visible stain.

Almost always at a penetration, not in the membrane field. The usual suspects are the roof to front cap seam, the termination bar along the sidewall top edge, air conditioner and vent flanges, the refrigerator roof vent, awning rail fasteners, marker lights, the entry door frame, and the slide out top edge. Water enters high, travels along framing or decking, and appears somewhere else entirely, which is why chasing the stain is the wrong move. We find the entry with a hose test and a survey.

That pattern almost always points at fuel delivery or a safety circuit rather than ignition. On an Onan the usual causes are a plugged fuel filter, a failing fuel pump, stale ethanol fuel that has varnished the carburetor, low oil pressure tripping the shutdown, or a fault in the control board. On a coach that sits, varnished fuel is the leading cause by a wide margin. Diagnosis is one hour at $285, credited, and generator work runs $400 to $8,500 and up.

That isolates the fault to the LP side, which is good news, because the cooling unit itself is proving out on the electric element. Likely causes are a dirty or misaligned burner orifice, spider webs in the burner tube, a weak igniter or bad electrode gap, a failed gas valve, or low LP pressure at the regulator. Soot around the burner box tells you a lot. Appliance work runs $400 to $4,500, and we test regulator pressure as part of any LP complaint.

Start with airflow, not refrigerant. A packed return filter, crushed or disconnected ducting, a leaking plenum divider that lets supply air recirculate, or a dirty condenser coil will each produce exactly this complaint. After that, check the capacitor and the fan motor, then measure the temperature split across the evaporator. Rooftop units are sealed systems, so a genuine refrigerant loss usually means replacement rather than a recharge. Air conditioning work runs $750 to $4,500 depending on unit and ducting.

That sequence, blower spinning and a click with no burn, points at the ignition and gas train. Common causes are a failed sail switch that never proves airflow, a dirty or cracked igniter, a bad gas valve, low LP pressure, or a limit switch opening because return air is restricted. Restricted return is the one owners miss, and it is often a blocked floor register or a crushed duct. Furnace work runs $350 to $2,500 and we pressure test the LP system as part of it.

On a hydraulic system the usual culprits are low fluid, a failed pump or solenoid, a stuck retract valve, or a leaking cylinder that lets a jack settle. On an electric system it is typically a motor, a limit switch or a controller fault. There is also a common non failure: many systems will not retract until the ignition, parking brake and door interlocks are satisfied. Leveling work runs $350 to $6,500 and up. Do not crawl under a coach on jacks to investigate.

Three candidates. The batteries are sulfated and at end of life, which on flooded lead acid is three to five years in this climate. The converter or charger never reaches absorption voltage, so they have never been fully charged. Or a parasitic draw is pulling current all night, commonly a propane detector, an inverter left in standby, a stereo memory circuit or a stuck relay. We load test, measure charge voltage and clamp for draw. Battery work runs $500 to $5,500.

It is, if you dry camp or run an inverter hard. Lithium delivers nearly all of its rated capacity instead of half, charges much faster, weighs less and lasts far longer in cycles. The catch is that it is a system change, not a battery swap. You usually need a lithium profile converter, often a DC to DC charger from the alternator, correct low temperature charge protection, and appropriate cabling and fusing. Done properly it runs $500 to $5,500 on batteries plus supporting equipment.

More than most roofs hold, honestly. A single 13,500 BTU rooftop unit draws roughly 1,200 to 1,500 watts running, with a much higher startup surge. Running it a few hours a day means something like 1,000 to 1,400 watts of panel, a 400 to 600 amp hour lithium bank, and a 3,000 watt inverter with a soft start on the compressor. That is achievable and it sits at the top of the $1,500 to $12,000 solar band. For overnight cooling, a generator is still the practical answer.

That is a sensor fouling problem far more often than a tank problem. The probes mount through the tank wall and read residue clinging to them, so a film of grease and paper reads as liquid forever. Cleaning with a spinning tank wand and an enzyme treatment clears most of them. When probes are corroded or the harness is damaged we replace them, and external ultrasonic senders are a good retrofit. Tank work runs $750 to $8,500 depending on access.

Locate the drip before ordering anything. A drip from the pressure relief valve is often thermal expansion and a valve that needs replacement. A drip from the drain plug boss is a gasket or a corroded threaded fitting. A drip from the tank seam itself, or from a rusted through flange, means the tank is finished and replacement is the only path. Also check whether the anode rod has been consumed, because a missing anode is what kills these tanks. Water heater work runs $350 to $4,500.

Often yes, at $400 to $2,500 depending on length and material. What we check first is the arms, the roller tube and the mounting rail, because fabric that tore in wind usually did so after an arm loaded up. A bent roller tube will shred new fabric within a season. If the arm ripped out of the sidewall, the rail took wall structure with it and that repair comes before new fabric goes on. Arm and motor work runs $500 to $3,500.

Yes, with a caveat about honesty. Fifteen years of Southern California sun fades and chalks gelcoat unevenly, so matching the factory formula gives you a panel that looks visibly newer than the ones beside it. We read the actual aged surface with a spectrophotometer, spray out test panels, and blend into adjacent panels rather than stopping at a body line. Original decals are usually discontinued, so we replicate them from photographs and measurements. Color match blending runs $500 to $5,000 and up.

Yes. Trailer frame welding runs $750 to $20,000 and up and covers A frame and coupler damage, bent or cracked outriggers, sagging rear frame sections behind the axles, and full main rail sectioning. We measure against factory specification before and after, correct geometry on a rack rather than by heat and hope, and weld to the base metal specification whether that is steel or aluminum. Frame damage on a trailer usually racked the body too, so we check sidewalls and slide openings.

A full seal inspection with reseal of any failing penetration, roof condition and coating check, LP system pressure test and appliance operation, slide lubrication and timing check, seal condition, tank and plumbing check, battery load test and charge voltage measurement, generator service including oil and filters, air conditioning coil and filter service, tire date and pressure check, and brake and bearing inspection on towables. Annual maintenance runs $400 to $2,500. Sealant is the highest value item on that list by a wide margin.

It accelerates everything. Salt fog corrodes aluminum siding fasteners and window frames, pits chrome and polished aluminum, attacks steel frame members and brake hardware, and degrades sealant faster than inland exposure. Coastal storage also means constant marine layer humidity, which keeps any existing intrusion wet year round instead of letting it dry. Owners within a couple of miles of the water should reseal on a shorter interval, rinse the underside regularly, and get a moisture survey annually rather than every few years.

Yes. Interior remodel runs $1,500 to $50,000 and up depending on how far you take it. That covers flooring, cabinetry refacing or full custom builds, upholstery and dinette conversions, wall panel and headliner replacement, countertops, lighting and appliance updates. We fabricate cabinetry in house, which matters on a coach because nothing is a standard dimension and everything has to survive road vibration. Headliner and wall panel work runs $500 to $5,500 and flooring $500 to $8,500 as separate lines.