Downloads
The Insurance Awareness Booklet
Short answer
What actually happens during a claim, why hidden damage decides the outcome, and why the shop you pick changes what gets approved.
The Insurance Awareness Booklet explains the RV and van claim process, how hidden damage affects settlement, and what documentation moves a supplement forward. Written by OCRV Center estimators, not by a marketing department.
Updated 2026-07-29 by OCRV Center Editorial Team
Most people file their first RV claim with no idea how the process works, and the process is genuinely different from an auto claim in ways that cost real money. This booklet is the conversation we have in person, written down so you can read it before you need it.
It is not a sales brochure. About a third of it explains things that are true regardless of which shop you use, including how to push back on a betterment charge and when to ask about the appraisal clause in your own policy.
What Is Inside
- How an RV claim actually moves
- First notice through supplement through final payment, with the realistic timeline at each stage and who is waiting on whom.
- Why the first estimate is usually low
- The mechanics of laminated construction and why an outside-only estimate misses somewhere between ten and forty percent of the real damage.
- What documentation changes an outcome
- The specific photographs and measurements that turn a supplement request into an approval, and what a weak package looks like.
- Your rights in California
- You choose the repair facility. What a direct repair program is, when it is a reasonable option, and what a carrier can and cannot require.
- Modified and custom builds
- How to itemize a conversion, a solar array or a lithium bank so it is not valued at zero, and what happens when nobody does.
- Betterment, LKQ and depreciation
- What each term means, where each is legitimate, and the questions worth asking when one appears on your estimate.
Printable Checklists
Short, single page, designed to be printed and carried. Take the inspection one with you when you go look at a used coach.
- Pre-purchase inspection checklist
- What to check and in what order on a used RV or trailer, with the items that most commonly hide expensive problems flagged.
- After an accident checklist
- What to photograph before the vehicle moves, what to say and not say, and what information to collect at the scene.
- Adjuster meeting checklist
- What to have in hand, what to ask, and what to get in writing before you leave the conversation.
- Coastal storage checklist
- Seasonal items specific to salt air and marine layer exposure in south Orange County, with recommended intervals.
How to Get It
Ask and we send it. One email, no list rental, no drip sequence. You can also pick up a printed copy at the counter any time we are open, and there are always some on the desk.
If you have a claim open right now and want to talk it through rather than read about it, call (949) 799-3387 and ask for an estimator. That is free and it is faster.