I want to start this post by clearly saying that we are fine.  No one is hurt. No one is deathly ill.  We still have money to pay for our expenses.  We are just fine.  I’m also repeating my mantra, “if this is the worst thing that happens to me today, how am I?”  In trying to find the silver lining, I’m also very happy that we are in the Southwest this winter where there seems to be no shortage of RV repair centers or mobile services.  At least there are many more available than in northern Michigan or Minnesota in the middle of summer.

Since we would never buy a house or a boat without having an inspection or survey, why would we consider buying a motorhome without one?  We paid a good chunk of money for an independent survey before the purchase of our 2015 Entegra Aspire.  Of course, we hoped to catch all the issues that needed to be fixed before taking possession.  Indeed, the inspector produced a list of issues.  We passed the list of items onto the dealership and trusted that they fixed the things that were on the list.  The dealership confirmed that they took care of most of the issues.  They also assured us that some things from the list, namely the water heater (Aqua-Hot) and the washer, were working just fine and were on the list because our inspector didn’t know what he was doing.  We believed them.

We chose to purchase a four-year extended service plan (ESP).  At $4500, this was a lot of money to pay along with the down payment for the motorhome, insurance, and everything else.  And thank God, we bought it!  In less than 25% of the length of the contract terms, we’ve already paid for the contract in the amount of money paid for claims that they’ve paid out. 

No, the ESP doesn’t pay for everything.  They don’t pay for any part of a DIY repair.  They don’t pay for the service call or diagnosis.  They don’t pay for the cost of shipping parts to your location for repairs to be made.  They don’t pay miscellaneous fees for “Hazardous Waste Removal” or “Shop Supplies” that seem to be on every service center’s invoice.  They pay only for the cost of the new part and the labor they believe it takes to replace that part.  It doesn’t matter to them if it takes longer to repair than what they allow.  That’s all that they will pay.  If the radiator to replace the original arrives and it’s a slightly different size than the original and things need to be retrofitted to make it fit, they only pay for what it costs to replace the one you had.  Never mind that it’s not available in that size anymore.  They also have required an inspector a few times to verify broken parts and potential repairs in person.  I’m sure this is part of their fraud prevention.  Unfortunately, it also slows down repairs and has had us in a hotel overnight at least once.

Just last week, they were authorizing repairs for our Aqua-Hot (again) and now this week, we are asking them to pay for a NOX sensor on the engine.  Brian and I both imagine their agent answering the phone and shaking their head while mumbling, “It’s the Klumpps again…”  I can say that I wouldn’t blame them for having that response.  In fact, we ask ourselves a similar question each time we have more repairs and more problems.  We have half-heartedly discussed selling our coach to buy something less expensive, especially with repairs alone costing +$1000 / month on average.  And $1000 doesn’t include “normal” maintenance or upgrades, campsites, or fuel.  My philosophy is that we are working out all the bugs and at some point, we will have repaired what can go wrong.  But what if that’s not how this works?  What if we continue to have problems?  Is there a point when we should stop betting on this being the last problem for a while and cut our losses and move on?

When we had our sailboat, we joked that boat stands for Bring Out Another Thousand.  I remember getting excited when repair estimates came in under $1000.  We think of the motorhome as land-yachting and, as such, expected that repairs wouldn’t be inexpensive.  We were prepared for maintenance costs and knew that things would occasionally break.  Certainly, we understood that there would be a toll on our rig as we move around the country.  Wear and tear is inevitable on depreciating assets.  That’s why they depreciate. 

Even though it’s built for driving, driving across the country is hard on it.  When we bought the ESP, we hoped that it would pay for itself over its four years.  But we never would have thought with only a five-year-old motorhome we would face all the repairs that we’ve made.  If you’re interested, I posted a list of the repairs and repair costs.

We’re not throwing in the towel yet.  I also posted a list of upgrades. If you look at this list, you’ll see that we have plans for a big upgrade in August. Now we just need to hope (and apparently pray) that the worst is behind us. And remember that if this is the worst thing that happens to us today, we are fine!