That last piece is extremely important so you're not throwing parts & $$ at an issue hoping it does the trick!

 

But what about the guy that can't change his own windshield wipers, has less than 0 mechanical ability.

 

That guy will have to be well funded and have plenty of patience.

 

Those are precisely the folks I worry about on FB! My advice is find a tech you can trust and who doesn’t charge you through the nose.

 

You act as if the Dealer's PDI would be better than the factory....believe me, it wouldn't! The dealership doesn't want to slow down a delivery any more than the factory would. And at least the factory rep would be familiar with the product. No telling how much experience a dealership guy has with a particular brand, especially if they sell multiple brands.

And in this market, buying new means you really just love throwing away money! Best off buying a 2-3 year old unit that has all the bugs worked out!

 

I used to tell owners if I signed off on something and you said it didn’t it was because you didn’t know how to work it. There just is not that much difference between brands! I did find it interesting how many manufacturers have actually started doing real PDIs. That didn’t happen in the past where the manufacturers tried to dump it off on the dealerships.

 

Used RV's are still expensive. They haven't come down to where I would be comfortable. A used RV is a bit of a crapshoot. Maybe it was well maintained and maybe it wasn't. My own inspection of used RV would likely take a good hour.

My cousin recently had me check out a used 2019 F-250. I spent a good 30 minutes in, on and under the truck. I found some things that in a normal market would have prompted me to walk away given the price. But the market being what it is and my cousin's need for a truck (sight unseen by him), made it an acceptable transaction for him. At least he knew what he was getting based on my inspection.

Given the learning experience I went through with my first, and current, RV I'm very particular about what my next RV is going to be. A used one will be hard to come by and I'm likely going to have to pay the big bucks to get exactly what I want.

With regard to the PDI, I'll go back to what I said in my prior post. When you have to travel to the factory they have the advantage. You're stuck waiting in a remote location for items to be fixed before you take possession. You may be pressured to sign off on things just so you can get on the road back home. If it's a dealership, home may be a few minutes away so you can tell the dealership they have to fix everything before you take possession. I'm open to factory delivery. I would hope that you get better attention. But given the garbage that is being produced by the RV industry, I remain skeptical.

 

It takes a solid baseline to do your own inspection. Occasionally I did inspections for others, but even when I advised them against buying they still went ahead at times with disastrous consequences. The folks who think they are inspecting at RV shows are on a whole other plane of “you’ve got to be kidding me”!

 

I don't know enough about rv's, so before I bought, I paid $99 for a professional appraisal, and I paid about $1k for a licensed inspection. So I felt comfortable on the price, and had been watching that particular model for a year or so, so the price was good, and below appraisal, and the inspection gave me some things to look at....mostly, immediately change all tires, which I did, including the spare.

 

I have bought a few new name brand (reputable) trailers from different dealers (because of availability).

They all needed some PDI.

But the factory dealers aren’t any better than anyone else. I ran one in last year to the factory store to get a few lights moved around, replace the jack, and re-pack the wheel bearings. Got my relatively large bill, went to pick it up, and a lot of the work wasn’t finished and I dont think they actually repacked my bearings. I actually helped them get it finished up as I had to get back to work.



Long story short, good luck. I would recommend picking up a name brand unit from a non factory store that sells more than trailers. Like a tractor or ATV dealer with a real shop thats also selling trailers on the side. They will have decently competent mechanics that can do respectable work.