How RV recalls happen and how you can force manufacturers to fix problems

By Ron Burdge
RVlemonLaw.com
You have heard about recalls or you may have had one on your RV. Here is why they matter, how they can happen, and what to do about it when your vehicle is recalled. Also, importantly, how can you help force a recall when the RV factory won’t?

Why recalls matter

Recalls always involve safety problems with a vehicle or its equipment, including seating and tires. If you receive a recall notice, it means that your vehicle has a safety problem or fails to meet its safety requirements. Using your RV without the issue repaired means you are using an unsafe RV, and that can mean you or someone else can get hurt, injured or worse.

How recalls happen

Recalls are issued in one of two different ways. One is when an RV manufacturer admits that some of its RVs have a fundamental defect. The other is when the federal recall agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), figures it out on its own.

Every RV manufacturer designates someone or a committee to decide if a problem with an RV is serious enough to issue a recall. When a company decides a recall should be issued, it is required to timely report the problem and the recall to the government’s recall agency, along with its plan to mail notices to its dealers, RV owners and anyone else who needs to be informed. After that, hopefully the RV defect gets fixed, although a shortage of replacement parts and an appointment for service can further delay a repair. You can check on any known recall for your vehicle online at www.Safercar.gov. 

Sometimes the RV company doesn’t issue a recall on a problem, even though the problem may be dangerous. The RV company may just say it’s not that serious. It doesn’t have to report the issue to anyone. But most of the time the RV company will send its dealers a “technical service bulletin” (TSB) to inform them that the problem exists and what the RV factory recommends the dealer should do, usually offering up a process that may or may not actually work.

There is no requirement for the RV company to make the TSB public, so nothing is reported to the vehicle’s owners. That is why these are sometimes called “secret warranties.” And that means you may never know that the factory is aware that the problem with your RV even exists. However, the RV factory is required to send a copy of every technical service bulletin to the federal recall agency and it posts those on the NHTSA website where anyone can look them up and read them. Every RV owner should do a search for any TSB on their RV to learn about problems that involves their RV, not just the ones that end up so serious that a recall is ordered.

What to do about a recall on your vehicle

First thing, read the recall notice carefully. It will tell you what is known about the defect problem, including symptoms, causes, risks to your safety, where to get more information, and what you can do about getting your RV fixed.

If the recall says a repair can be done, it will tell you how to do it. Usually it means calling the RV company’s authorized dealer to make an appointment for the repair. However, some dealers are booked up for weeks or months, so when you call you need to tell them that this is about a safety recall. Don’t just say “a recall.” Call it what it is, a “safety recall,” so there is no doubt that the dealer has to get your RV into the shop for the necessary repairs.

If the dealer still says it can’t get you in right away, call a different dealer, or at least make the appointment as soon as you can. If you have to wait, and only if you want to keep using your RV while waiting for the repair appointment, ask the dealer if you can keep using the RV until the recall appointment date. Even if the reply is yes, be very careful about any use of the RV. A safety defect is serious and your best bet is not to use the RV at all until the recall repair is completed, no matter how long it may take to get into the dealer’s repair shop.

You can also call the factory and request a recall repair appointment.

How to help force a recall when the factory won’t

If you think there is a serious defect or problem with your RV, your first step should be to contact the RV manufacturer to determine if it knows about it. If so, or if not, learn what the plan is to get it done.

Either way, though, after your call, you should mail the manufacturer a written complaint about the defect, describing your RV’s model year, make, model number, and providing your 17-digit Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). Also, describe the problem and its symptoms. Explain why you think it is serious and why you think it is a safety issue. You might think that some defects or problems are obviously a safety issue, but it is important that you explain that to the RV factory in your letter.

If you believe the problem is serious, then you need to be sure the manufacturer knows what you think. However, don’t just email your complaint letter to the RV maker. You should also send it by ordinary or certified postal mail. The RV factory can ignore an email or say they never got it at all. Once you mail it to them, the law presumes they received it.

After you send your letter to the manufacturer, it’s time for you to take more action. When an RV factory gets a complaint, it may put it at the bottom of its list of things to do, or toss it in the infamous “circular file”. But there is a way that you can start the ball rolling sooner. And that’s by sending a written notice to the federal recall agency, the NHTSA.

Why you should send a safety complaint to the federal recall agency

NHTSA has the legal authority to investigate all reported vehicle safety problems. Anyone can report a problem which can get read by someone—there is no “circular file” at NHTSA. It is so serious about its job that some recalls have been issued because of a single complaint.

NHTSA handles recalls on all kinds of vehicles, so its staff is busy. An average of four or five RV brands are recalled each week. If you count by the RV model instead of just the brand, the total recall count can rocket up to 25 to 50 or more RV models recalled each week. You should report your safety concern very precisely so you can be sure it gets attention and can easily be acted on. And NHTSA has a process for that.

How you can complain to the federal recall agency

You can report your safety complaint online at www.Safercar.gov and look for the “Report a Safety Problem” link. You can also fill out the NHTSA Vehicle Complaint Form online.

One of the things that can cause the federal recall agency to start a defect investigation is when a lot of people make the same type of complaint about their vehicle. For instance, if every RV owner whose RV frame had the crack or “flex” problem completed a Vehicle Complaint Form, the federal safety investigators would realize just how serious the problem was.

Every complaint received by NHTSA is carefully reviewed and cataloged. There is no specific number of similar complaints that can start a government safety investigation. But when a particular model or brand gets frequent or very serious complaints, it can trigger an investigation.

When enough people complain about the same kind of problem in the same model vehicle, or even in different vehicles, it can get the attention of NHTSA. When it does, it can start the first step in the recall process. The “Office of Defects” will do an investigation, which is where it requests lots of information from the RV company, then reviews all of that and the designs of the suspect vehicle to determine if there is a safety risk. That can lead ultimately to a formal recall.

So even if the RV company ignores you, there is a way for your voice to be heard and for your concerns to get the attention of federal government safety investigators. And if enough RV owners complain, NHTSA recall investigators can make the industry do what is right.

To see recent RV and RV-related recalls published on RVtravel.com, click here.

This article was originally published on www.RVLemonLaw.com
^©2025 Ronald L Burdge RV Lawyers since 1985 
Attribution, No Derivs, CC-BY-ND 

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