TLDR
The terms that appear on estimates and confuse owners. Delamination, betterment, and supplement are the three worth reading first.
Common RV repair terms include delamination (skin separating from substrate), supplement (an addition to an approved estimate), betterment (a charge for improvement from new parts), and actual cash value (replacement cost less depreciation).
Structure and Body
- Delamination: The outer fiberglass skin separating from the substrate behind it, usually because moisture reached the adhesive bond. Shows as bubbling or a soft wave in a sidewall.
- Gelcoat: The pigmented outer resin layer on a fiberglass surface. It oxidizes and chalks with UV exposure rather than peeling like paint.
- Substrate: The material behind the visible skin, typically luan, foam, or framing. When substrate fails the skin has nothing to bond to.
- Subframe: The structure between the chassis and the coach that carries the floor and slide loads.
- Unibody: A construction where the body is the structure, with no separate frame. Van platforms are unibody.
- Sectioning: Cutting out a damaged portion of a structural member and welding in a replacement section rather than replacing the whole member.
- Front cap and rear cap: The moulded fiberglass end sections of a motorhome or trailer, the most expensive single body components on most coaches.
Paint and Finish
- Blending: Fading new colour progressively into an adjacent panel so there is no hard edge where old meets new.
- Spray out card: A test panel sprayed with the mixed formula and compared against the vehicle in daylight before committing to the repair.
- Spectrophotometer: The instrument used to read a finish and build a formula from the vehicle as it exists rather than from the paint code.
- Clear coat failure: The transparent top layer breaking down, showing as peeling, chalking, or cloudiness. Not repairable by polishing once it has failed.
- Paint correction: Removing defects from the clear coat by staged compounding. Limited by remaining clear coat thickness.
- Multi stage finish: A finish requiring more than base and clear, such as a pearl or candy. Far harder to match and more expensive to repair.
Systems
- Absorption refrigerator: A fridge with no compressor that cools through a heat driven chemical cycle. Needs adequate ventilation and reasonable level to work.
- Converter: Converts 120V shore power to 12V to run house systems and charge the battery bank.
- Inverter: Converts 12V battery power to 120V to run household appliances off the bank.
- Transfer switch: Automatically selects between shore power, generator, and inverter as the active source.
- MPPT controller: A solar charge controller that extracts meaningfully more power from an array than a cheaper PWM controller.
- Shore power: External 120V supply from a campsite pedestal or building, typically 30 amp or 50 amp.
- Schwintek: An in wall slide mechanism with a motor on each side that must stay synchronized. Loses sync as a characteristic failure.
Insurance
- Supplement: An addition to an approved estimate covering damage that was not visible when the estimate was written. Almost every real collision claim needs one.
- Betterment: A charge for the improvement you receive when a new part replaces a worn one. Frequently applied from age rather than actual condition.
- Actual cash value: Replacement cost less depreciation. The payout ceiling on an ACV policy.
- Agreed value: A figure agreed in advance and paid without depreciation. Usually the right choice for converted, vintage, or heavily upgraded vehicles.
- Total loss: A determination that repair cost approaches actual cash value. Made from an estimate rather than an inspection, and challengeable.
- Subrogation: Your carrier recovering its payment and your deductible from an at fault party's carrier.
- Direct repair program: A carrier's network of preferred shops. You may use one. You are never required to.
- Appraisal clause: A dispute resolution process contained in almost every policy, available when settlement and repair cost genuinely diverge.