Pre-purchase RV inspection

Water first, and by instrument rather than by eye

Visible staining is the late stage. By the time a ceiling is marked, water has usually been present long enough to involve the panel and sometimes the framing behind it. The point of a professional inspection is to find moisture before it shows.

A moisture meter reads through finished surfaces and maps the extent of wet material, which is how the true boundary of a problem is established. This is the single most valuable thing in the inspection and the reason a walk-through by an enthusiastic friend is not a substitute.

Sidewall delamination — a bubble, ripple or soft area in an exterior wall — is the visible symptom of the same problem and is expensive to correct properly.

• Moisture readings taken systematically across ceilings, walls, and around every roof penetration
• Sealant condition at all roof penetrations and sidewall seams
• Slide-out floors and the wall sections around each slide opening
• Underneath: the belly pan, and any staining that suggests water has been running
• Window and door frames, especially the bottom corners

Run every system, in every mode it has

This is where a seller's "everything works" gets tested properly. Appliances with two power sources have to be tested on both, because failing on one mode is extremely common and completely invisible if only the other is checked.

It also takes time. An absorption refrigerator needs hours to demonstrate that it actually cools, which is precisely why it is so often signed off on the basis that the panel lit up.

• Refrigerator on both gas and electric, given hours to actually reach temperature
• Water heater on both gas and electric
• Furnace through a full ignition cycle, and air conditioning with a measured temperature split
• Every slide out and in, watching for even travel and listening for the mechanism
• Levelling system through a complete auto-level cycle, and every jack up and down
• Generator started and run under load, not just started
• Water system pressurised and held, checking for pump cycling with taps closed

The things that are cheap to check and expensive to miss

Tyre date codes tell you whether a set of tyres that looks fine is actually due for replacement, which is a real cost to factor into the price rather than a defect to argue about.

On a towable, bearings and brakes are on a service interval and their history matters. On a motorhome, the chassis has its own maintenance record that is separate from the coach.

Documentation is worth asking for directly: service records, any warranty still in force and whether it is transferable, and whether outstanding recalls have been completed.

• Tyre date codes on all tyres including the spare
• Service records for the coach and, separately, for the chassis
• Outstanding recalls on both the RV and the chassis
• Warranty status and whether any remaining coverage transfers to you
• Evidence of previous repairs — particularly roof or water work, which tells you there was a leak

Use the findings, do not just collect them

An inspection report is a negotiating document as much as a decision document. Findings fall into three groups and they should be treated differently: things that end the purchase, things that reduce the price, and things you accept and schedule.

Active or historic water intrusion involving structure belongs in the first group far more often than buyers want it to. It is the one category where walking away is frequently the correct answer, because the cost to correct properly is high and the cost of correcting it badly is higher.

• Deal-breakers: structural water damage, delamination, frame or major slide damage
• Price adjustments: tyres due, appliances failing on one mode, sealant needing renewal
• Accept and schedule: routine service items, cosmetic wear, consumables

Common questions

Is a pre-purchase RV inspection worth the cost?

On a used RV, it is one of the few inspections that routinely pays for itself several times over — not because RVs are unreliable, but because the expensive fault is moisture and moisture is genuinely hard to see. If the seller resists an independent inspection, that is itself information worth having.

Can I inspect an RV myself?

You can do a great deal usefully: run every appliance in every mode, cycle the slides and jacks, check tyre date codes, and look hard at sealant. What you cannot do without instruments is find moisture behind finished surfaces, and that is the failure mode that costs the most. Do your own walk-through to decide whether the RV is worth a professional inspection, then commission one.

What is the most common serious finding?

Water intrusion around roof penetrations and slide openings, found before it was visible inside. It is common because roof sealant is a consumable that many owners never service, and the leak runs for a long time before it shows.

Should a new RV be inspected too?

There is a real case for it before you accept delivery. New coaches leave the factory with build defects at a rate that surprises first-time buyers, and issues identified before acceptance are the manufacturer's to fix rather than something you are chasing under warranty afterwards. The inspection is the same; the leverage is much better.