Steve Salzman wasn’t expecting a problem when he called the service department at the Wisconsin RV dealership where he had purchased his RV in 2010. After all, he just wanted the wheel bearings on his Keystone Passport 199ML repacked.
But Salzman found that the dreaded 10-year policy owners of “classic” RVs sometimes experience at campgrounds also extends to some dealerships.
Salzman, who purchased his trailer from the dealership 12 years ago when it was called Burlington RV Superstore in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, was told that the service department no longer accepts appointments for rigs manufactured before 2012.
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The new policy changes things
The new 10-year policy was put in place eight months ago when Burlington RV Superstore was sold to the huge Lazydays RV Corporation. The dealership is now called Lazydays RV of Milwaukee.
Salzman told RVtravel.com that he has routinely taken his RV back to the Wisconsin dealership for service over the years and never had a problem. On April 7, he tried to call the dealership’s service department to make an appointment. After a dizzying series of phone calls and call transfers, he found himself talking to personnel at a Lazydays RV’s nationwide call center. A call center worker informed Salzman that he wouldn’t be receiving any services due to the age of his rig.
“I was told ‘no.’” Salzman told RVtravel.com. “They said that my camper was too old. Nothing older than 10 years allowed, regardless of where it was purchased.”
RVtravel.com phoned Lazydays
RVTravel.com tried the same telephone trail as Salzman on April 8. We, too, ended up at the Lazydays RV’s national call center and an employee there did confirm that Lazydays RV does have a nationwide policy limiting service appointments to rigs manufactured after 2012.
In fact, we found out that it’s impossible to directly call a Lazydays RV dealership and talk directly with personnel there to book your service appointment. All service requests are channeled to the Lazydays RV national call center.
The call center employee did transfer our media request to Emma Falbo, the general services manager at the Lazydays RV of Milwaukee dealership. Falbo confirmed that the new 10-year policy was put in place after Lazydays RV took over last fall. She also said the dealership’s previous policy (prior to the sale to Lazydays RV) had limited service to rigs newer than 15 years old. That explains why Salzman hadn’t had previous service problems with his 2010 RV.
Possible reasons
Falbo said she wasn’t aware of the exact reasons for the Lazydays policy, but suspected they were tied to both pandemic-driven supply chain issues as well as issues finding discontinued parts for older RVs.
“It’s frustrating,” said Salzman. He’s now in search of other RV dealerships or repair shops that don’t enforce an age limit on RVs they service.
It’s likely that repair opportunities for older RVs will only decrease as record numbers of new recreation vehicles roll off assembly lines, and eventually fill available service bays across the country.
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Part of the problem is getting parts for a 10+ year old RV. I owned class A diesel pusher that was an excellent, well built Coach for 11 years. I bought it second hand when it was 6 years old. The problem after a few years replacement parts were no longer being made or stocked…ie obsolescence. This was especially bad for anything electrical or electronic. Slide motors, video cameras and tons of other stuff needed to be upgrade to the “latest technology” which usually requires you to change the entire system.
I had to do “lots” of eBay searching to keep everything on my Coach working (as a retired engineer). I can’t imagine how a repair shop could spend the time (not to mention cost) chasing replacement parts or swapping to the latest and greatest new system. I my opinion, for most non-repair savvy folks, yes 10 years is probably a good “rule of thumb” for an RV’s life…
So if the “serviceable life” of an RV is to be considered as ten years, could one assume that its depreciation schedule would then be ten years? Hence, an “investment” of $145,000 for a shiny fiver, depreciates at $14,500 per year, since after year ten it will not be serviceable by RV dealers and is thus “worthless?” Is this the new industry direction? It strikes me that $14,500 per year (discounting loan interest and operating expenses) is a bit pricey for camping and touring. What will be the resale value if the RV no longer qualifies for dealer service? And what about RV loans longer than ten years? Stop payments?
What if the same policy were extended to motor vehicles? Your new $70,000 tow vehicle is no longer “serviceable” after ten years? I recall that ten years is pretty close to the average age of many vehicles in the U.S. Interesting train of thought… ?
This is so WRONG to do to those people who have older rigs. They are simpler to work on and you would think the shops would rather work on the older rigs than the pile of junk that is made today!! The newer rigs seem to need much more maintenance than the older ones and parts are harder to get your hands on.
Repacking wheel bearings is a job that varies little between different makes & models. Any competent mechanic could do it.
But lazyDays should expect that they will not be selling this customer their next RV.
I know a lot of dealers are going to this. The wait time for something as simple as wheel bearings at a dealer could be 4 months.
Look at using a mobile rv service, most will work on any year model, and some will even do warranty and extended warranty work.
How likely is it that those Chinese knock off parts will be available when they fail after 5 or less years.
do you believe the manufacturers are not using Chinese or other imported parts?