# Camper Repair OCRV Center repairs travel trailers, pop up campers, teardrops, A frames and truck campers in shop in Yorba Linda. Lighter construction means different failure points from a motorhome: sidewall delamination, roof seams, tongue and coupler damage, and axle and brake wear. ## Lighter construction fails differently A travel trailer is built to be towed rather than driven, and every kilogram removed to make that easier is structure that is not there. Thinner sidewall laminate, lighter framing and a roof membrane over less substantial decking all mean the same water intrusion does more damage faster than it would on a coach. It also means road input matters more. A trailer takes the full shock of every expansion joint through its own frame, and the fatigue shows up at the tongue, at the A frame welds and where the frame meets the body. ## What comes in most often Soft floor at the slide edge or the entry door. Delaminated sidewall on the sun facing side. Roof seams that have let go at a vent. Rear wall separation on a toy hauler where the ramp door loads the structure. Bearing and brake wear that was never serviced because a trailer does not have a dashboard to warn you. ## The running gear nobody checks Axles, bearings, brakes and tyres on a trailer get ignored precisely because there is no gauge for them. A bearing repack is inexpensive and a seized bearing at freeway speed is a fire. Electric brake service on Dexter and AL-KO axles is routine work and rarely done on schedule. ## Before buying a used trailer Press the floor everywhere, especially at the slide edge and the entry. Tap the sidewalls and listen for the hollow note. Look at the roof rather than at photographs of the roof. Check tyre date codes. A pre purchase inspection covers all of it and costs less than the first thing it finds. ## Five kinds of camper and where each one gives up Camper is a broad word covering units built in completely different ways, and knowing which you have narrows the diagnosis before anybody looks at it. - Travel trailer: laminated or stick and tin sidewalls, and the floor at the entry is the tell - Pop up: canvas, lift arms and a roof that is a moving part, so the seals are at the joints - Teardrop: small, often owner built, and the failure is usually where the hatch meets the shell - A frame folding trailer: hinges and panel edges carry everything and wear in a line - Truck camper: the jacks, the mounting points and the overhang, which loads the front wall ## When a camper costs more to repair than to replace This question comes up more on trailers than on any other class, because the units are inexpensive relative to labour. A twelve year old travel trailer with a soft floor across the entry, a released sidewall and a roof that needs a membrane is looking at a repair figure that a comparable used unit does not cost. The reason to repair anyway is usually specific rather than financial. A layout that no longer gets built, a coach set up for something particular, or simply a unit an owner knows every inch of. Those are good reasons. Repairing because it feels wasteful not to, on a trailer that has three separate water paths, is how owners spend replacement money on something they will still want to replace. We would rather write that estimate and lose the job than write it and take it. ## Where a camper claim usually stalls Adjusters handling a towable are often working from an automotive background, and a laminated sidewall priced like a steel fender comes in dramatically low. The first estimate on a trailer claim is therefore wrong more often than it is right, and the correction is a matter of documenting construction rather than arguing about labour. The second stall is the tow vehicle. Where a trailer was damaged while being towed, there are usually two policies involved and a question about which loss caused what. Sorting that in week one is worth more than any line on the estimate, because a claim waiting on a coverage decision is not waiting on the shop. ## What a driveway in this county does to a trailer Coastal Orange County is gentle on metal and hard on everything rubber, plastic and adhesive. Ultraviolet exposure degrades sealant, awning fabric and roof membrane faster than the maintenance intervals in most manuals assume, and it does it without any visible warning until the material lets go. Inland storage is hotter still and adds thermal cycling, which is what actually opens a seam. A trailer stored uncovered in this region is on a shorter sealant clock than the same trailer stored under cover, and the difference is measured in years rather than months. Owners who cannot store under cover should be inspecting twice as often rather than hoping the manual applies. ## What to do first when a camper starts leaking Stop trying to find the leak from inside. Water travels along framing and appears at the lowest point it can reach, so the stain is a destination rather than an origin, and pulling interior panels at the stain usually damages something for no diagnostic gain. Get the unit dry and keep it dry while a decision is made. Open it, ventilate it, and get it under cover if that is available, because a camper left closed and wet develops a mould problem on top of a water problem and the second one changes the scope considerably. Then photograph the roof, every seam, every window frame and the awning rail, since one of those is almost certainly the entry point. The thing not to do is seal something on a guess. A bead applied over the actual path traps water inside the wall and removes the evidence that would have found it. --- Source: https://ocrv.guru/camper-repair/ OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. (949) 799-3387. Serving Laguna Niguel, California. All work performed in shop. No mobile or roadside service. Licences: California Bureau of Automotive Repair ARD00288521; EPA CAL000367879. Published ranges are ranges, not quotes. Every figure traces to https://ocrv.guru/prices/.