# RV Collision Repair After a collision, OCRV Center photographs the coach before anything is touched, writes the estimate, tears down to find what the first estimate could not see, and submits the supplement. Structural work is measured against published tolerance. Sixteen carriers are billed direct. ## The first 48 hours decide most of the claim The photographs taken before anything moves are the file, and the file is the argument. A coach photographed on arrival from every corner, then close on each damaged area with a scale reference, gives an adjuster something to approve. A coach photographed after a tow yard has shifted it twice does not. Bring the policy and the claim number if you have one. If the carrier has not assigned an adjuster yet, that is not a reason to wait: the teardown record is what the adjuster will eventually read, and starting it early shortens the part of the timeline nobody can otherwise compress. ## Why the number moves after teardown A first estimate is written on what is visible. On a coach that means a cap, a sidewall skin or a slide face is still in place, hiding the structure behind it. Teardown is where the real scope appears, and a supplement is the mechanism for adding it. That step is also where most of the calendar goes. A supplement is a second negotiation on a claim the carrier thought was settled, and the review takes as long as it takes. It is worth knowing that in week one rather than discovering it in week three. ## Structure first, then everything cosmetic Frame and structural work happens before paint, because everything cosmetic sits on top of it. Measuring against published manufacturer tolerance is the part that separates a repair from a cover up, and the measurements go in the file so they can be checked later. On a coach out of production, or with an obsolete cap, the honest answer is sometimes that fabrication is faster than sourcing. Documenting that the part does not exist is what gets fabrication approved. ## What to check before you sign Look at it in daylight rather than under shop lights, because a colour match that reads perfectly at 4000K can show at noon. Open every slide yourself. Ask for the ADAS scan report if the vehicle needed calibration after structural work, because that is the step most commonly skipped and the one you cannot see. ## Repair, total loss, and who is actually deciding On a newer coach this question rarely comes up. On a fifteen year old travel trailer it comes up constantly, because the carrier is comparing the cost of repair against what the unit is worth, and the number that tips the comparison is almost never the paint. It is the structure and the floor. The decision belongs to the carrier under the policy, but it is not a decision made in the dark. It is made from an estimate, and an estimate written from a parking lot photograph on a coach with hidden structural damage understates the repair badly. Owners are sometimes offered a settlement on a unit that could be repaired, and sometimes handed an approval on a unit that should have been settled. Both errors come from the same place, which is a scope written before anyone looked underneath. Where a total loss is the right answer we say so, even though it is the version of this job the shop does not get paid for. An owner who repairs a coach that was already finished has bought a second problem with the settlement money that would have replaced it. ## The order to do things in during the first week Report the loss to your carrier first, because the claim number is what everything else attaches to, and a delay in reporting is the one thing a policy will genuinely hold against you. Then choose the shop. California does not require you to use a carrier recommended facility, and the recommendation is a convenience rather than an instruction. Get the coach to one place and leave it there. Every additional move costs money, risks fresh damage, and muddies the question of which damage came from the loss. If it is sitting in a tow yard accruing storage, that clock is usually the most urgent number in the whole claim and it is the one owners notice last. - Report the loss and get a claim number, even if you are undecided about repairing - Photograph the coach where it stands before it is moved again - Ask what the tow yard charges per day, in writing - Choose one shop and stop moving the vehicle - Send the policy declarations page, not just the card ## A trailer claim and a motorhome claim are not the same file A towable is usually insured on a separate policy from the vehicle towing it, and after a jackknife or a hitch failure there are frequently two claims, two adjusters and an argument about which loss caused what. Sorting that early is worth more than any line item on the estimate. A motorhome is a vehicle, so the claim behaves more like an automotive claim until the moment the house side of the coach is involved, at which point the adjuster is often working outside their usual experience. A camper van sits in the awkward middle: registered as a van, valued as a van, and carrying a build that may be worth more than the shell around it. ## The collision work this shop turns away This shop does not do mobile or roadside collision work, so nothing gets patched where the vehicle sits. Repairs that would put a cosmetic skin over structure nobody has measured are declined, because the estimate would then describe a repair that was not performed. Work on a coach that has already been repaired badly is taken only where the previous work can be undone rather than built on. Turning work away is not a virtue and it costs the shop hours. It is stated here because the alternative is finding out at the counter after a drive up from Laguna Niguel. ## Questions ### What separates a bumper repair from a structural repair after a rear impact? Whether anything behind the bumper moved. A rear cap and bumper skin absorbing a low speed hit is a body repair, banded with cap work at $750 to $12,000 or more. Once the impact reached the frame extensions, the rear crossmember or a hitch receiver mount, the job becomes measured structural work first and cosmetics second. The tell is frequently inside: a rear wall seam opened, or a bedroom slide that no longer seals at its outboard end. ### Can you repair a coach that was struck while parked and unoccupied? Yes, and those repairs need the strongest documentation because nobody witnessed the mechanism. Photograph before moving anything, including paint transfer on whatever struck it and any debris on the ground. File a report even with no other party present. Then let teardown establish direction and force, which a measurement sheet can show and an argument cannot. Carriers classify unwitnessed damage as wear far more readily than they classify a reported collision that way. --- Source: https://ocrv.guru/rv-collision-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/.