RV Inspection and Evaluation for San Clemente Owners

There is a structural conflict in an unpaid inspection. The only way to fund an unpaid inspection is to find work, so the incentive is to find work. That produces two bad outcomes: reports that inflate minor findings into urgent repairs, and inspections that stop as soon as enough has been found to write a ticket. Neither of those helps you decide whether to buy a coach or how to argue a claim.

Charging for the inspection removes that conflict entirely. The technician is paid for the hours regardless of what is found, so the report can honestly say that a unit is in good condition. We write that outcome regularly and it is a legitimate result. What you are paying for is the assessment, and the assessment is the deliverable.

Our posted policy is straightforward. A collision estimate is done by appointment and insurance walk-ins are welcome. An RV systems estimate is $150, credited against an authorized repair. An in-depth diagnostic is one hour at $285, also credited against an authorized repair. Full inspections are priced by vehicle type and hours in the table below, and those fees are credited the same way when the repair work happens here.

The pre-purchase inspection is the highest value service in this building measured against what it saves. A used motorhome is a house, a truck and a boat combined, and a listing photograph tells you nothing about any of the three. The failures that matter are almost never visible on a walkthrough: a soft subfloor under carpet, delamination spreading behind an intact-looking sidewall, a slide that racks because the opening is out of square, a house bank that is already at half capacity, or a frame crack at a spring hanger on a trailer that has been overloaded for years.

A full RV systems pre-purchase inspection runs $400 to $1,200 across 3 to 6 hours. We cover structure, roof and sealants, sidewalls and lamination, slides and awnings, chassis and running gear, plumbing including a pressure test, LP with a leak check, 12V and 120V electrical, appliances operated through a full cycle, and the interior. We photograph everything we call out and we give the findings a severity so you know what is a negotiating point and what is a reason to walk.

Campers, trailers and vans are less involved and priced accordingly: $300 to $900 for a camper, $250 to $800 for a trailer, $285 to $800 for a van. If you are considering multiple units, get the inspection on the one you like most before you put money down, and bring us the unit rather than asking us to come to it.

Sellers use inspections for the opposite reason buyers do. A documented, current inspection report attached to your listing removes the buyer objection that has no answer, which is uncertainty. Buyers discount heavily for what they cannot verify. A report with photographs and moisture readings replaces that discount with a number both parties can discuss.

It also lets you decide what to fix before you list. Some findings are worth correcting because they return more than they cost: a failed roof seal, a slide seal that is compressing unevenly, cloudy headlights and heavy oxidation all cost a buyer confidence far out of proportion to the repair. Other findings are worth disclosing and pricing into the deal rather than fixing, because you will not recover the labor. We tell you which is which.

Consignment and dealer trade evaluations follow the same format. If you are trading in, the report gives you the basis to argue an appraisal that was written from a five minute walkaround. If you are selling privately, it shortens the transaction because the serious buyer has what they need to move.

After a collision, the question that matters is not what the exterior looks like. It is whether the structure moved. On a laminated RV, a hit that leaves a modest looking cracked panel can rack a slide opening, separate the roof to sidewall seam, deflect a chassis rail or open the cab to house joint on a Class C. None of that is visible from the outside, and all of it becomes your problem later if nobody documented it now.

A post-accident safety inspection is a structured assessment of exactly those things. We measure, we photograph, we survey the laminated areas thermally, we cycle the slides and check the openings for square, and we scan the vehicle for stored fault codes. On coaches equipped with driver assistance systems, ADAS scan and recalibration runs $285 to $1,800 and is a required step after most structural work, because a camera or radar that moved is a camera or radar reading the road incorrectly.

For claim purposes, the assessment is written as a document an adjuster can work from: findings, locations, photographs and a line item scope. That is a very different artifact from a verbal description of damage, and it is the difference between a supplement that gets approved and one that stalls. If you are disputing an estimate that seems too low, this is the inspection to buy.

Water is what kills recreational vehicles, and it works slowly enough that most owners never see it start. Sealant at a roof penetration shrinks and opens a hairline path. Water enters at that high point and travels down inside the wall cavity following the framing, wetting luan, corroding fasteners and separating the fiberglass skin from its substrate. By the time a stain appears on an interior panel, the wetted area is usually large and often nowhere near the entry point.

A dedicated moisture and structural survey maps that. We take pin and pinless meter readings on a grid and record them by location, then use thermal imaging to find the temperature differentials that mark wet substrate behind finished surfaces. Laminated areas get tapped, because separation changes the sound long before it changes the appearance. Roof sealant condition, slide seal compression and window frame bedding all get evaluated as potential entry points.

This survey is the right purchase in three situations: before buying any used unit over about five years old, after any water event, and any time a coach has been stored outdoors without maintained sealants. It is also the survey that determines whether an interior rebuild is a panel job or a substrate job, which is a difference measured in tens of thousands of dollars on a large coach.

An annual multi-point inspection is preventive rather than diagnostic. Sealants are consumable and have a service life measured in a few years, not in decades. Slide seals compress and take a set. Tires age out on date long before they wear out on tread. Batteries lose capacity quietly. An annual pass catches all of that while it is still maintenance, and annual service runs $400 to $2,500 on a motorhome and $300 to $1,500 on a trailer.

For owners heading out on a long trip, the pre-trip cosmetic and structural body inspection is a narrower, faster option at $250 to $600 across one to three hours. It focuses on the things that ruin a trip: sealant condition, tire dates and pressures, obvious structural issues, slide and awning function and lighting.

Every inspection we do produces the same deliverable. A written report, organized by system, with each finding described in plain language, located on the vehicle, photographed, and assigned a severity: safety, address now, monitor, or cosmetic. Where a repair is indicated, we include an estimated cost range and an hour range so you can prioritize. The report is yours to use with a seller, an adjuster, a lender or another shop. There is no requirement that the work be done here.

Body and paint labor is posted at $210 per hour. Mechanical and electrical is $260 per hour. Diagnostics run $285 per hour with a one hour minimum that is credited back against an authorized repair. Ranges below reflect jobs we have actually completed.