TLDR
Some of this is genuinely worth doing yourself. LP, structural, and anything on the roof of a coach you are not comfortable walking is not.
Owner maintainable tasks include roof and seal inspection, slide seal conditioning, generator exercise, battery terminal cleaning, and tank sensor cleaning. LP systems, structural work, and roof membrane repair should not be owner performed.
Worth Doing Yourself
- Twice yearly roof inspection: Walk the roof if it is rated for it and you are comfortable. Look at every penetration for cracked or shrunken sealant. Photograph what you find. This single habit prevents most expensive repairs.
- Slide seal conditioning: Clean and treat seals with a UV protectant two or three times a year. It meaningfully extends seal life, which matters because a hardened seal looks fine while sealing nothing.
- Monthly generator exercise: Run it under real load for a couple of hours monthly. Most no start calls we get come from units that sat rather than units that worked.
- Battery terminal cleaning: Coastal humidity corrodes terminals steadily. Clean and protect them and a surprising number of intermittent electrical faults disappear.
- Tank sensor cleaning: Sensors reading full when empty are almost always fouled rather than failed. Cleaning fixes most of them.
- Tyre pressure and age check: Check pressure cold before every trip and check the date codes annually. RV tyres age out long before they wear out.
Leave These Alone
- LP gas systems. Certified technician work only, without exception. A gas leak is not a learning opportunity.
- Structural repair and welding. Uncertified welding on a structural member is a safety issue that becomes somebody else's problem.
- Roof membrane repair beyond emergency sealing. A patched membrane hides what is happening to the decking underneath.
- Anything requiring high voltage isolation on an electric vehicle.
- Slide mechanism adjustment while the room is binding. Forcing it converts an inexpensive repair into a structural one.
Diagnosing Before You Call
- Water stain on the ceiling: Note where it is, then look directly above it on the roof for the nearest penetration. Photograph both. That halves our diagnostic time.
- Fridge not cooling: Test it on each power source separately. If one works, the cooling unit is fine and the fault is on the other supply path.
- Slide will not move: Listen. Motor humming with no movement means something downstream. Silence means power or controller. Tell us which.
- Batteries not holding: Note whether they discharge with everything off. That distinguishes a parasitic draw from a charging fault.
- Water pump cycling: Confirm every tap is closed, then listen. Cycling with nothing open means a leak, and finding it early matters enormously.