Make a list!
If you are lucky enough to have purchased a new RV, it most likely came with a huge folder chock full of manuals.. manuals for everything from the crank up antenna to the furnace, refrigerator, chassis (if motorized), etc. The trouble is- to keep on schedule, you need to dig through each of these to find the maintenance requirements. The easiest way for me to keep track is to dig out each manual, find the preventative maintenance page and copy it- then put all of those pages together in one section, so you never forget some vital (to trouble free RVing) procedure.
But what if you were lucky enough to buy a “pre-loved” RV, which didn’t come with manuals…
We are lucky enough to live in the dawning age of the Internet, and it is becoming easier to find owners manuals for RV systems posted online- Google can be your friend (or your favorite search engine). I highly recommend finding the owners manuals, downloading and printing them, and keeping them in a binder for future reference (or if you travel with a Laptop- keep them on the computer)- but at least print the maintenance schedule.
I’ve put together a very basic schedule in .pdf form (click on the thumbnail to view or save).
This covers typical appliances and systems, though it leaves out some important items like chassis and generator, but it should give an idea of the types of regular service that is smart to perform.
Reading the RV.net Open Road Forum, it is amazing the number of problems that come up simply through a lack of maintenance- things that a reasonable handy person could do themselves, or that would be inexpensive to have performed at an RV Service center (and you can often get maintenance “deals” in the off season).
In future entries, I’ll go in to specifics of each appliance, but for now- make a list!.
–Chris