Personal and Recreational Owners
Individual RV Owners
The short answer
If you own one coach and use it six weekends a year, your real questions are what the estimate becomes once the unit is open, who pays for what we find, and whether the shop will hold the line with your adjuster. We disassemble first, photograph everything, and supplement before we cut.
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What we see from this customer
A coach that lives in a storage lot eleven months of the year takes a specific kind of damage. Someone backs a trailer into your rear cap in Corona and nobody leaves a note. A neighbor's awning arm walks down your sidewall during a Santa Ana wind event. You pick the unit up in April for the first trip since October and find a gouge, a cracked cap corner, or a wet spot on the bedroom ceiling with no event you can name. That is the most common first phone call we take from a private owner.
The honest answer about the estimate is that it will probably change, and you should want it to. A number written from a walk around the parking lot is a guess about a laminated wall nobody can see into. We pull trim, skin, or interior panel, we find what the impact actually did, and we write a photographed supplement to your carrier before anything gets cut. On a private-pay job the process is identical, except the approval comes from you, and we stop and call rather than keep going.
Numbers you can plan around. Body and paint labor is $210 per hour, mechanical and electrical is $260, paint supplies run $55 per paint hour, and sales tax is 7.75 percent. Jobs over $2,000 take a 50 percent deposit. A collision estimate carries a fee that is refundable as a credit against an authorized repair, and the amount is quoted by phone. All work is performed at our Yorba Linda facility, so plan the drop-off around a weekend you were not using the coach anyway.
Location: All work is performed at our Yorba Linda facility. We do not offer mobile, roadside, or fleet route service.
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What you are worried about, and the answer
Concern 01
The estimate is going to double once you open it up and I will be stuck with the difference.
It may grow, and the mechanism for that is a supplement, not a surprise invoice. Every added line is photographed and sent to your carrier, or to you for written approval, before that work happens.
Concern 02
My coach came out of storage in Corona with a gouge down the passenger side and nobody knows what hit it.
Unknown-cause storage lot damage is a comprehensive claim on most policies. We document impact direction, height off the ground, and paint transfer, which is what an adjuster needs to accept it without a police report.
Concern 03
My adjuster wrote the damage off a photograph and the number looks low to me.
Photo estimates on laminated walls miss what is behind the skin. We open the panel, meter for moisture, and submit the findings with photographs. That documentation is what moves a carrier off a low first number.
Concern 04
I do not know whether the crack in my front cap is cosmetic or something serious.
We map the crack under raking light and check the laminate behind it. A spider pattern in gelcoat means the laminate flexed. A filled crack telegraphs back through the paint by the first July heat cycle, so we grind to a taper and lay in new glass.
Concern 05
I use the coach a few times a year and I do not want it sitting in a shop all season.
Give us your target date at intake. A contained cap repair with refinish is commonly two to three weeks. What stretches a schedule is carrier approval time and back-ordered parts, and we will tell you which one is holding your unit.
Concern 06
I have never filed an RV claim and I do not know what my carrier will actually pay for.
Impact and sudden events are generally covered. Gradual seal failure and UV deterioration generally are not, and one coach often has both. We separate the two on the estimate so you are not arguing over a line the carrier was never going to pay.
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Services you need most
Service
Collision Repair
Collision repair restores a vehicle to pre-loss structure, fit, and finish after an impact. On RVs and vans that means laminated s
Service
Fiberglass Cap Repair
Fiberglass cap repair addresses cracks, punctures, and impact damage on molded front and rear caps. Repair runs $750 to $12,000 an
Service
Delamination Repair
Delamination is the separation of the fiberglass skin from the substrate underneath. It shows as bubbling, waviness, or a soft spo
Service
Body Panel Repair and Replacement
Body panel repair and replacement covers sidewall sections, compartment doors, skirting, roof caps, and sheet metal on RVs, vans,
Service
Dent Removal and Repair
Dent removal covers paintless dent repair, conventional pull and fill, and aluminum panel work on RVs, vans, trailers, and fleet v
Service
Paint and Refinish
Full paint and refinish strips, corrects, primes, and resprays the exterior of an RV, van, trailer, or fleet vehicle in single-sta
Service
Roof Recoat and Reseal
Roof recoat and reseal strips failed sealant, rebeds every penetration, and applies a full elastomeric coating system over a prepp
Service
Annual Maintenance Service
Annual maintenance service covers seal inspection and renewal, roof assessment, opening and slide operation, running gear checks,
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Vehicles you run
Vehicle
Class A Gas Motorhomes
A Class A gas motorhome is a flat-front coach built on a Ford F53 or Workhorse front-engine chassis, typically 28 to 38 feet. Rear
Vehicle
Class C Motorhomes
A Class C is a coach body built onto a cutaway van chassis with a sleeping or storage cabover extending above the factory cab. Tha
Vehicle
Class A Diesel Pusher Motorhomes
A diesel pusher carries a rear-mounted diesel on a raised-rail air ride chassis, usually 34 to 45 feet with full-body paint and pa
Vehicle
Travel Trailers
A travel trailer tows from a ball hitch behind the tow vehicle rear axle on an A-frame tongue, which makes it the most sway-prone
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Questions
Frequently asked questions
How much does an RV collision estimate cost?
A fee applies and it is refundable as a credit against an authorized repair. We quote the current amount by phone. We do not do no-charge estimating on RVs, because a real estimate on a laminated sidewall requires disassembly time and shop access, not a walk around with a clipboard. What you are paying for is the disassembly that finds the damage an adjuster cannot see from a photograph.
Something hit my RV in a storage lot and I have no idea who. Am I covered?
Usually, under comprehensive rather than collision, and typically subject to your comprehensive deductible. Carriers accept unknown-cause claims routinely when the damage is documented properly. We photograph the impact direction, the height off the ground, and any paint transfer, which together tell an adjuster the pattern is consistent with a vehicle strike rather than gradual wear. File it promptly, because a long gap between storage visits weakens the finding.
Is it worth claiming, or should I just pay out of pocket?
Compare the documented repair cost against your deductible before you decide. Under roughly $2,500 on a single panel, many owners pay direct and skip the claim history. Once structure, a molded cap, or a slide opening is involved, the number climbs past what most people expect. We write the estimate first so the decision is made on a real figure instead of a guess.
How long will my motorhome be in the shop?
A contained cap or panel repair with refinish typically runs two to three weeks. Structural work with carrier supplements and discontinued parts can run three to six months. The two variables are how fast your adjuster approves the supplement and whether the parts are still in production. We give you a real schedule after disassembly, because a schedule written before we look inside is fiction.
How do deposits and payment work?
Jobs over $2,000 take a 50 percent deposit, with 25 percent due at parts arrival. Card payments over $1,000 carry a 3.5 percent surcharge. Sales tax is 7.75 percent, hazmat is a flat $45, and body supplies run $5 per body hour. On insurance-billed jobs the labor rate may be a carrier-negotiated rate rather than our posted retail rate, and we tell you which applies up front.
Tell us what you run and what happened to it.