Well, Speed Weeks at the Daytona International Speedway are finally over, but they left me with not enough time for photographing and drawing diagrams for this weeks Blog entry, so I’ll take this opportunity to editorialize a bit on RV service and repair.
I started repairing my own RV in 1980, after a…. umm…. “less than satisfactory” experience with an RV repair shop. Luckily, now it has become somewhat easier to find a good, qualified repair place, and training opportunities for RV technicians have greatly increased. While (as in any industry) you can still find bad RV repair shops (as well as good RV repair shops), for the past 10+ years, the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association, in partnership with the Recreation Vehicle Dealers Association have offered RV Technician certification.
While certification, or lack of certification certainly doesn’t give you a 100% gauge of service satisfaction, asking for, and dealing with certified technicians does give a good baseline for competence.
I try to attend as many training seminars as I can, and I tend to see many of the same people, from the same shops at them. This gives me an idea that:
- The technician is interested in learning more, being able to work more efficiently, and serving the customer better.
- The shop they work for wants to have well trained people, and is willing to pay for continuing education.
Looking for this Logo in an RV Repair shop is, in my opinion, the easiest way to know that the people working on your rig are competent, and have the interests of the customer in mind.
On a related subject, there is still a shortage of qualified RV technicians (as many of you who go in for service can attest to). The RV industry has many, many more training opportunities than it had even 10 years ago for people who want to make a change in careers.
Some (but certainly not all) of the educational resources are Camping World University, The RV Service Academy , and The National RV Technical Institute– a network of community colleges, and several more, including online training.
For anyone interested in a career in a field where you can find work in virtually any part of the country, and where the job is never boring, there are a lot of ways to get the training needed, and get your foot in the door.
Anyway- next week, back to boring technical stuff !
Comments or questions? See this thread in the RV.Net forums.
Sean
I do have a question to throw out. I am new at having a travel trailer. We went from a tent to a pop up right into a 35′ TT. I need to know what people out there reccomend to clean the roofs and Black streaks. The chemicals at my locla dealer are unreal prices. Please let me know of some home tricks, or if I need to keep with the dealer’s prices. Thanks
Chris Bryant
Hi Robin,
Just wait for my Brake Fluid post :).
Good to see you here!
Chris Bryant
Hi Charles,
That’s a great question- I don’t have any knowledge of online courses for consumers, but our own Mark Polk has a series of videos available at RV Education 101
Charles Freeman
I’m a full-timer living in a 45′ motor home. I found the list of training opportunities very interesting and I wondered if any are appropriate for RV owners as well as folks who want to work in the RV repair industry. I was particularly interested in the on-line Technician Certification Prep Course.
Thanks,
Charles Freeman
Robin Brumfield
Well good to see you are well. I had lost track of you since you left R.O.R.T. I am one that missed your technical expertise on that forum. But I see you have found a much better stage for your competencies and hope that you continue for many more years.