Scheduled RV Maintenance

Keeping track of your RV Maintenance can be a confusing deal.

I figured that RV maintenance was an important enough thing that it deserved it's own page, even if there are some rv checklists involved!

There are also a few pages here about RV repairs I've done on our rig.... If I get to where I have very many I may have to start a whole dang new section!

If you want to keep your rig around for as long as you want and need it, and not spend all your free time and cash doing repairs proper maintenance is Key!

There are so many systems on the average RV that relying on memory alone to keep track of the necessary maintenance is pretty much dreaming the impossible dream!

If you're blessed with the kind of memory I have, remembering

your own name is a big accomplishment! Heck sometimes I have to call home just to ask my wife where I am!...............if of course I can remember the phone number!.....or where I put that dang cell phone!

If you just wander along unplanned and disorganized it's an almost certain fact that maintenance items are going to be forgotten. Forgotten RV Maintenance items quickly become repair bills. I'm pretty sure you know as well as this old cowboy that maintenance is cheaper than repairs.

It's pretty much the old "lock the barn door before the cow gets out sorta deal. "

Thats right, the way to keep track of your RV Maintenance is with an RV Maintenance schedule or RV Maintenance checklist.

But you already knew I was going to say that, didn't you?!

The main areas that come to my mind are..........all right...........laughter is a good thing but enough is enough OK?

Interior "Body"
Exterior "Body"
Appliances - interior and exterior
Engine / drivetrain
Tires / Suspension / Brakes
"House" power systems (Solar/Generator)
General Electrical wiring
Propane
Hitch Systems
Water Systems - Fresh and Waste

Nearly every rig and type of rig has it's own issues. I have compiled an RV maintenance schedule here that should stretch to fit nearly any rig. As always, feel free to modify, expand or remodel any of this to fit your particular needs with your personal RV Maintenance issues.

I would suggest cross checking it with the owners manuals for the various equipments on your rig to make sure everything is taken proper care of.

A lot of these things aren't something I actually do on a set schedule. I walk around the rig each time I fuel looking for things out of the ordinary. Once a week or so, while in camp and I have plenty of time, I just walk around visually inspecting the entire rig. It only takes a few minutes. With the frequent, once over, visual monitoring, few things slide by for very long.

These routine inspections, that take but a few minutes of your time, will allow you to find and replace that dry, cracked, seam caulking up on the roof. Before it becomes a leak on your head at 2 A.M. (and the water damage that goes along with it) interupting your blissful sleep!

Or maybe you'll find a soft radiator hose that can be replaced by a mechanic (if you don't like mechanicing yourself) while you and your significant other have a fine lunch at that classy little cafe in town! Much better than having it blow halfway up Red Mountain pass ain't it?!

What other kind of things would you be looking for? How about birds nests in the refrigerator roof vent, a dirty air conditioner filter, crusty battery cables, splits or blisters on tires, a leaky blackwater dump valve, seeping fluid on a brake line, dripping engine coolant..................and on and on.

Scanning over a good checklist, or a scheduled routine of inspections, regularly as a backup / reminder / failsafe, will ensure that all the RV Maintenance gets taken care of in a timely manner.

A three ring binder (one of the thin ones) should be ideal to maintain your maintenance and inspection schedules. Glancing through it while you sip your morning coffee as you watch the start of a gorgeous new day will let you know what quick checks are due.

Just a few minutes here and there will identify needed maintenance that you can easily roll into your RVing itinerary.

With the advance planning you'll be able to pick up that new battery cable or the caulking or maybe a tail light bulb on your way back from Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island or was that Going to the Sun Road up in Glacier?

Getting it all lined out in advance can turn it from a burden into a relatively minor deal. Heck, you may even come to enjoy it and look forward to working on your rig.

Granted, waxing a big Fiver or Motorhome is not the same as hauling a 50# Salmon out of some river up on the Kenai penninsula. But don't it look good when you're done! Something about goin' down the road in a shiny truck with a glistening fiver rolling along behind me puts a grin on my face!

These RV Maintenance lists are, I think, a good starting point. They are intended to keep you out fishing and not scrambling to make unexpected repairs!

If you should see something I have, with my fabulous memory, somehow managed to leave off or overlook, please, call it to my attention via the "RV Telegraph" page! and I'll fix 'er quick! But be gentle. I'm a fragile personality!

If you don't see the section you want published here yet, please be patient. Broken down old cowboys don't type so good! Sometimes it takes me a bit to git 'er done!

Check back sometime and I should have them all online before too awful long!

Now on to your RV Maintenance list!

RV Maintenance Checklist

Return from RV Maintenance to Goin' RV Boondocking

SBI!