# Questions and answers > Every question OCRV Center is asked about RV, trailer, van and fleet repair, grouped by subject. **Source:** https://ocrv.life/resources/faqs **Business:** OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887 **Phone:** (949) 799-3387 **Serving:** San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California, roughly 26 miles from the facility ## Asked most often **Do you work on RVs and commercial vehicles, or just one or the other?** Both, in the same building. The bays are sized for length and height rather than for passenger cars, so a Class A diesel pusher, a fifth wheel, a converted Sprinter and a box truck all fit the same equipment. What changes between them is the construction and the failure pattern, not whether the shop can take the vehicle. **How far is the shop from San Juan Capistrano?** About 26 miles north, in Yorba Linda. Most people take the 241 toll road to the 91 east, which keeps a long vehicle on wide graded lanes the whole way, or Interstate 5 north to the 91. Outside commute hours the drive runs about 35 minutes. **What does an estimate cost?** A collision estimate is complimentary and insurance walk-ins are welcome. An RV systems estimate covering slides, awnings, water, electrical or generator work is $150, and an in-depth diagnostic is $285 per hour with a one hour minimum. Both are credited back against the invoice once a repair is authorized. **How long does a repair usually take?** It depends far more on parts than on labour. A bumper or a seal job can turn around in a few days. A front cap replacement on a Class A runs 30 to 120 hours of labour and often waits on a moulded part built to order. Supplements add time too, which is why teardown happens before the estimate rather than after. **Do you handle the insurance side or do I?** The shop writes the estimate, photographs the damage at intake and again at teardown, and submits supplements with the evidence attached. You stay the policyholder and make the decisions, but the documentation and the back and forth with the adjuster are handled here. **Can I choose this shop even if my insurer suggested somewhere else?** Yes. In California the vehicle owner chooses the repair facility. A carrier can recommend a shop, and often will, but the choice belongs to you. Tell the adjuster where the vehicle is going and the claim gets assigned accordingly. **Do you come out to the vehicle?** No. All work is performed at the Yorba Linda facility. Frame racks and downdraft paint booths are fixed equipment, and structural or refinish work done anywhere else is not work this shop is willing to put its name on. If a vehicle is undriveable, call before arranging transport. **Why are your rates published when nobody else posts theirs?** Because it removes every argument about whether the invoice was fair. Body and paint is $210 an hour, mechanical and electrical $260, diagnostics $285 and detail $95. Materials are calculated from hours rather than guessed. Any estimate from this shop can be checked line by line against that card. **My RV has aftermarket solar, a lift and custom cabinetry. Is that a problem?** It is normal work here, and it is exactly the situation where documentation matters most. Carriers routinely miss aftermarket components on a first estimate because they are invisible from outside. Photographing them at teardown and describing them in the supplement is what gets them included in the settlement. **What should I bring when I drop the vehicle off?** Registration, proof of insurance, and the carrier name and claim number if a claim is open. Bring any estimate the carrier has already written so it can be checked against the vehicle, plus keys for every compartment including the wet bay. A note of anything already broken before the damage keeps the supplement honest. ## Getting started and estimates **Do I need an appointment for a collision estimate?** No. Insurance walk-ins are welcome during working hours and an estimator will write the damage report while you wait. Calling ahead shortens the wait considerably, because it means someone is expecting the vehicle rather than fitting it between jobs already on the floor. **Can you quote from photographs?** A rough band, yes. A number worth relying on, no. On a laminated coach most of what drives the cost sits behind the panel, and an estimate written off photographs gets revised once the vehicle comes apart. Revisions cost weeks, which is why teardown comes first here. **Why is the RV systems estimate charged when the collision one is not?** A collision estimator can read damage visually. A slide, an awning, a water system or a generator has to be operated, tested and often partly disassembled before anyone can say honestly what is wrong. That is technician time on the vehicle, so it carries the $150 fee, credited back against an authorized repair. **Is the estimate fee refunded if I do not go ahead?** No. The fee covers technician time already spent on the vehicle. It is credited in full against the invoice if the repair is authorized, which means it costs nothing if the work proceeds and covers the diagnosis if it does not. **How long does an estimate take?** A straightforward collision estimate is usually done inside an hour. Anything structural, or anything where damage is suspected behind a panel, needs teardown scheduled separately because the vehicle has to come apart before the scope is real. **Can you look at a vehicle I am thinking of buying?** Yes, as an in-shop pre-purchase inspection. The vehicle has to be brought to the facility; the inspection is not performed at a seller's location. Expect a written report covering structure, roof and seals, systems and evidence of prior repair. **Do you give second opinions on another shop's estimate?** Regularly. Bring the estimate and the vehicle. Checking someone else's arithmetic against a published rate card is quick, and the more common finding is not a wrong rate but a missing operation, usually teardown or blend time. **What if my vehicle is not driveable?** Call before arranging transport. How a coach is loaded affects whether existing damage gets worse in transit and whether the carrier covers the movement, and both are easier to sort out before the truck arrives than after. ## Insurance and claims **Do you bill my insurance company directly?** Yes, with every major carrier. Direct billing means the shop invoices the carrier rather than you fronting the repair and waiting for reimbursement. You remain responsible for the deductible and for anything the policy does not cover. **What is a supplement and why does my claim have one?** A supplement is an additional estimate submitted after damage is found that was not visible at the first inspection. On laminated coaches and converted vans they are normal rather than exceptional, because the adjuster wrote from the outside and the vehicle has since come apart. **My adjuster's number seems low. What happens now?** The shop documents what the vehicle actually needs, photographs it, and submits that as a supplement with the evidence attached. Most gaps close at that stage. Where they do not, the policy usually contains an appraisal clause, and that path is explained rather than argued for you. **Will using this shop void anything with my carrier?** No. Choosing a repair facility is the policyholder's right in California. A carrier may have preferred shops and may say so, but declining that recommendation does not affect coverage. **Does insurance cover aftermarket and custom work?** It depends on the policy and on documentation. Many policies cover aftermarket components up to a stated limit, and some require them to be scheduled in advance. Photographing them at teardown and describing them specifically is what gets them considered rather than overlooked. **What is betterment and why is it on my estimate?** Betterment is a deduction applied when a repair leaves a wear item in better condition than it was before the loss, most often on roofs and tyres. It is a legitimate adjustment, but it is frequently applied too broadly, and an itemised challenge with the component's actual condition attached often reduces it. **My coach might be a total loss. What does that mean?** It means the carrier has calculated that repair cost plus salvage exceeds the vehicle's actual cash value. That valuation is an opinion built from comparable sales, and comparables for a well-specified coach are frequently wrong. Documented condition, options and recent work all bear on it. **How long do carriers usually take to approve?** The first estimate typically moves within a few days. Supplements depend on whether the adjuster reinspects or accepts photographic documentation, which is precisely why the photographs are taken in the first place. Complete documentation shortens this stage more than phone calls do. ## Pricing and payment **Why do small parts carry a higher markup than large ones?** Because handling cost does not scale with part price. Sourcing, ordering, receiving and stocking a twelve dollar clip takes the same administrative time as a twelve hundred dollar panel. Parts at or under $100 carry 100 percent markup, parts over $100 carry 35 percent. **What is the paint supply charge?** Paint supplies are billed at $55 per paint hour, so the charge scales with the size of the refinish instead of being a flat addition. It covers primer, sealer, base, clear, reducer, activator, masking and booth consumables. Body supplies work the same way at $5 per body hour. **When is payment due?** Jobs over $2,000 take a 50 percent deposit at authorization. Jobs over $10,000 take a further 25 percent when parts arrive. The balance is due at pickup, and no vehicle leaves the property until the invoice is settled. **Is there a card surcharge?** Card payments over $1,000 carry a 3.5 percent surcharge, which is a direct pass-through of merchant fees on high ticket work. Cash, check and ACH carry no surcharge. **Why are special order parts non-refundable?** RV panels, caps and many interior components are built to order rather than stocked. Once the factory releases the part it cannot be returned, so those orders require full payment at the time they are placed. **Is labour taxed?** No. In California sales tax applies to parts and materials but not to labour. The 7.75 percent on your invoice is calculated against the parts and materials lines only. **Are insurance jobs billed at the posted rates?** Not always. Carrier negotiated rates can differ from the posted retail rates, and where they do the invoice reflects the negotiated figure for the covered portion. Anything outside the claim is billed at the posted rate. **Do the bundled packages ever cost more than quoted?** Only if teardown finds damage that was not part of the package. In that case it is quoted separately rather than absorbed quietly, because a package that hides a supplement is not a saving, it is a surprise deferred. ## Timelines and scheduling **What actually drives how long a job takes?** Parts availability, more than labour hours. A moulded front cap or a discontinued window frame can add weeks on its own. Supplement approval is the second factor, and the number of disciplines involved is the third, which is where keeping everything in one building helps. **Can I get the vehicle back between stages?** Rarely, and it usually costs time overall. A coach that is masked and in primer cannot be driven, and re-staging a partially disassembled vehicle adds hours at both ends. Where a genuine deadline exists it is better to plan the sequence around it up front. **Do you work on more than one vehicle from a fleet at a time?** Yes, and batching is the cheaper way to do it. Bringing units through on a schedule shares setup, allows parts to be ordered together, and turns unplanned downtime into planned downtime. Five units is the practical minimum for that to pay. **How far ahead should I book seasonal work?** Roof and seal work fills up ahead of the rainy months, and pre-trip services fill ahead of summer. Booking six to eight weeks out for those is sensible. Collision work is scheduled around the claim rather than the calendar. **What happens if a part is discontinued?** It is either sourced used, fabricated, or an equivalent is adapted, and which of those is right depends on whether the part is structural or cosmetic. All three are discussed with you before anything is committed, because the choice affects both cost and how the repair reads afterwards. **Do you store the vehicle while waiting on parts?** Yes, on site. Where a claim is open, storage is usually a covered line, and the shop documents the dates so it is billed to the claim rather than to you. That is worth confirming with your adjuster early rather than at the end. **Can I check on progress?** Call the shop and ask for the service writer handling the job. Photographs are taken at intake, at teardown and at delivery as a matter of course, and those are available to you at any point. **Are you open on weekends?** Saturday from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM, and closed Sunday. Saturday is a good day for drop-offs and estimates but a poor day for anything needing a decision from a carrier, since adjusters are generally not reachable. ## RVs and motorhomes **Is a coach body repaired like a car body?** No, and assuming otherwise is where most poor repairs start. A coach sidewall is a bonded laminate of fiberglass, foam or block foam, framing and interior skin, over a chassis. It has no crumple structure and it does not pull straight like stamped steel, so the repair is a sectioning and bonding job rather than a panel beating one. **What is delamination and can it be fixed?** Delamination is the bond failing between the outer fiberglass skin and the substrate behind it, usually because water reached the adhesive. Small areas can sometimes be injected and clamped. Once the substrate itself has gone soft the panel needs sectioning, because injecting into rotten lauan achieves nothing lasting. **My slide will not come in. Should I force it?** No. Forcing a binding slide turns a seal or adjustment job into a mechanism or structural one, and on a Schwintek system it can strip the drive gears in seconds. Leave it, call the shop, and describe what it does at each stage of travel. **How do I know if my roof needs resealing or replacing?** Sealant fails long before the membrane does. Cracked or lifted lap sealant around vents and skylights with a sound membrane is a reseal. Soft spots underfoot, staining inside, or a membrane that has gone chalky and brittle across its area means replacement is the honest answer. **What causes a windshield to keep leaking after replacement?** Usually the structure behind it rather than the glass. If the front cap or the cage moved in an earlier impact, the opening is no longer square, and no amount of urethane fixes an out-of-specification aperture. Measuring the opening before reglazing is what prevents the repeat. **Do you work on vintage and classic coaches?** Yes. Older units bring their own problems: discontinued parts, single skin construction, and previous repairs of highly variable quality. Expect more fabrication and more discovery than on a modern coach, and expect the estimate to be staged rather than fixed at the outset. **Can a bent chassis actually be straightened?** Often, yes, on a frame rack with anchoring and measurement. Whether it should be is a separate question that depends on where the damage is and what the vehicle is worth. Heat-affected areas and previous repairs both bear on it, and the measurement comes before the recommendation. **What is the most commonly missed damage on a coach claim?** Roof impact after a collision or a hail event. Nobody climbs up during the initial inspection, so it does not appear on the first estimate. It is found at teardown, photographed, and submitted as a supplement, which is why the roof gets inspected here as standard. ## Campers, trailers and fifth wheels **Why do fifth wheels fail at the front cap so often?** Because the pin box concentrates towing loads into that area and the cap is where dissimilar materials meet. Years of flexing open the seams, water gets into the joint, and the failure shows up as delamination or a soft front wall long after the movement started. **Are travel trailers cheaper to repair than motorhomes?** Usually, because there is no chassis drivetrain and the units are smaller, but not always. Lighter construction means impact damage propagates further, and an ultra-lite wall with a hole in it can need more panel replaced than a heavier coach would. **What is the most common toy hauler problem?** The garage slide and the ramp door, both of which take loads the rest of the trailer does not. Ramp door hinges and cable anchors work loose, and a garage slide carrying cargo weight racks its room out of square faster than a living area slide does. **Can you repair a truck camper?** Yes. The particular concern with truck campers is weight and mounting, because a repair that adds mass changes how the camper sits on the truck. Jack mounting points and the lower perimeter are the usual damage areas, and both are structural rather than cosmetic. **Do you service axles, brakes and bearings on trailers?** Yes. Electric brake service, bearing repack, hub service and axle replacement on Dexter and AL-KO running gear are all in scope. Engine and drivetrain work on tow vehicles is not something this shop performs. **My trailer walls feel soft in places. What does that mean?** Water has reached the substrate, most likely through a failed seam or a roof penetration rather than through the wall itself. A moisture meter and a tap test will map the affected area, and the repair size is determined by that map rather than by where the softness is noticeable. **Is it worth repairing an older trailer?** Sometimes plainly yes, sometimes plainly no. The test is whether the repair cost approaches the unit's value with the work done. That answer is given straight after the inspection, including when it means recommending against the work. **Do you fix pop-ups and teardrops?** Yes, though they are covered within the campers and trailers category rather than having pages of their own. Lift systems, canvas, roof seals and lightweight panel repair are the usual work. ## Vans and conversions **Will you work on a van somebody else converted?** Yes, and it is a large share of the van work here. The practical issue is that a self-build or small-builder conversion has no documentation, so the first job is establishing what is behind the panels before anything is cut or drilled. **Does a conversion affect an insurance claim?** It affects what gets paid rather than whether it is covered. Conversion components are invisible in a walk-around estimate, so they are missed unless someone photographs and describes them at teardown. That documentation is the difference between a settled claim and an argued one. **Do I need ADAS recalibration after a repair?** On most modern Sprinters and Transits, yes, if the repair touched a sensor, a mounting point, the windshield, or the vehicle's ride height. It is not optional in the sense that an uncalibrated system can behave incorrectly, and it is a legitimate estimate line item. **Can you add solar, a battery bank or an inverter?** Yes, including roof penetrations sealed properly, MPPT controllers, lithium house banks and shore power. The part owners underestimate is the roof: a badly bedded panel mount is a future water intrusion job on a vehicle with a wooden floor. **Why do converted vans leak so often at the roof?** Because a conversion adds penetrations that the factory never intended: fans, panels, racks, antennas. Each is a hole through a structural roof skin, and each depends on the sealant and the bedding method used at the time rather than on the vehicle's own weatherproofing. **Do you do full conversions from an empty van?** Yes, including insulation, sound deadening, windows, electrical, cabinetry and finishing. Build-outs are scheduled differently from repairs because they occupy a bay for a known long block, so they need booking further ahead. **Is a high roof conversion harder to repair after a collision?** Usually, yes. A fiberglass high top is a bonded add-on rather than factory sheet metal, and repairing it correctly means treating it as a composite panel. Shops that approach it as bodywork tend to produce a repair that cracks along the bond line later. **Do you work on ProMaster and Transit as well as Sprinter?** Yes, plus Metris and the Rivian electric delivery vans. Construction differs between them in ways that matter, particularly roof skin thickness and where the structure actually runs, which is why penetration work is not identical across the three. ## Commercial trucks and fleets **What commercial work do you actually perform?** Body, paint, structural and equipment installation. That covers cab body repair, box and cargo body work, reefer liners, roll up and swing doors, lift gates, service bodies, headache racks, hitches, fleet graphics and reflective marking. Engine, drivetrain and inspection work are not performed here. **Can you handle a whole fleet's graphics at once?** Yes, and batching is how it should be done. Running units through on a schedule shares setup and design time and gets consistent output across the fleet, which a unit-by-unit approach rarely achieves. **Do you install lift gates?** Yes, Maxon, Tommy Gate and Anthony among others, plus repair of existing units. Installation involves structural attachment to the chassis, so it is body and structural work rather than an accessory fitting. **How do you keep a working truck off the road for as little time as possible?** By ordering parts before the vehicle arrives wherever the damage allows it, and by scheduling the bay rather than accepting the unit and starting when there is room. For fleets this is far more effective than trying to compress the repair itself. **Can you repair a refrigerated box?** Yes, including skin and liner repair on insulated boxes. The critical part is restoring the vapour barrier properly, because a repair that looks right but breathes will ice up inside the panel and fail again within a season. **Do you do DOT compliance marking?** Reflective conspicuity tape and compliance marking are installed as part of body work. Inspection and certification services are not something this shop performs. **What about municipal vehicles with procurement requirements?** Documentation is the usual requirement and it is already standard practice here: photographs at each stage, itemised scope, and an invoice that reconciles line by line against a published rate card. That tends to satisfy procurement more easily than a lump sum quote. **Can you repair a box truck with a camper shell or custom body?** Yes. Modified commercial bodies are common and the approach is the same as for a converted van: establish what has been added and how it is attached before writing scope, because the modification usually carries the damage rather than the original body. ## Roof, water and structural **How often should a roof be resealed?** Inspect annually and expect to reseal penetrations every one to three years depending on exposure. Coastal storage and sustained inland heat both shorten that interval. The membrane itself lasts far longer than the sealant around the things poking through it. **Can I just put more sealant over the cracked sealant?** It buys a season at best and often makes things worse. New sealant over old cracked sealant bridges the crack without bonding to a clean substrate, and it traps whatever moisture is already underneath. Removal down to a clean surface is the only version that lasts. **There is a stain on my ceiling. Is that where the leak is?** Almost never. Water runs along framing and wiring runs before it appears, so the stain marks where it pooled rather than where it entered. Finding the actual entry point takes a moisture map and often a water test, which is why leak tracing is charged as diagnostic time. **What is a soft spot and how serious is it?** A soft spot is substrate that has absorbed water and lost structural integrity, usually lauan or plywood. In a floor it is a safety matter. In a wall it means the laminate bond is failing. Either way it does not dry out and recover, it has to be replaced. **Does a leak always mean the subfloor is ruined?** No, but it means the subfloor needs checking. Water follows gravity, so a roof leak frequently ends up at floor level having done nothing visible on the way. Moisture readings through the floor are part of any water intrusion assessment here. **Is EPDM or TPO better?** Neither is universally better. TPO is more puncture resistant and holds its appearance longer; EPDM is more forgiving to repair and more flexible in cold. What matters more than the choice is whether the penetrations were bedded properly, because that is where both of them fail. **How is hail damage assessed on an RV roof?** Panel by panel, with dent counts, plus a separate inspection of vents, skylights, AC shrouds and solar panels, which take impact differently from the membrane. A general description of hail damage settles for far less than a mapped one. **Can structural damage be repaired without replacing the whole wall?** Frequently, by sectioning: removing the affected area back to sound material and bonding in new. Whether that is appropriate depends on where the damage sits relative to load paths and openings, which is a measurement question rather than a judgement call. ## Systems, power and appliances **My battery keeps going flat in storage. What is wrong?** Usually a parasitic draw rather than a bad battery, and the common culprits are a propane detector, an inverter left in standby, or a stereo memory circuit. Finding it means measuring current with everything nominally off, which is what the diagnostic hour covers. **Should I convert to lithium?** Often worth it, but it is a system change rather than a battery swap. Charge profiles, the converter, the alternator path and low-temperature charging protection all have to suit LiFePO4. Dropping lithium into a system built for lead acid tends to disappoint or damage something. **My generator starts then dies. What causes that?** Most often fuel delivery or a load-sensing fault, and on diesel sets that have spent their life running lightly loaded, wet stacking is a common contributor. Onan and Cummins units give blink codes that narrow it considerably before anything is dismantled. **Why does my air conditioner struggle in summer?** Rooftop units are sealed systems with no service ports, so a unit that is low on refrigerant is replaced rather than recharged. Before concluding that, the usual causes are a dirty condenser, poor return air, or a compressor that needs a hard start capacitor to come up under load. **My absorption refrigerator is not cooling. Is it worth fixing?** It depends on whether the cooling unit or the controls have failed. Controls are economical to repair; a failed ammonia cooling unit is a large fraction of the cost of replacement, and at that point a residential compressor conversion is often the better answer. **Do you work on LP systems?** Yes, including pressure testing and leak repair by a certified technician. LP work is never something to attempt as a home repair, both for the obvious reason and because a system that passes a soap test can still fail a proper pressure test. **Can you find an intermittent electrical fault?** Usually, yes, but it takes instrumented testing rather than inspection. That is exactly what the diagnostic rate is for, and the hour is credited against the repair. Intermittent faults are also the ones most commonly misdiagnosed by parts swapping. **What is a transfer switch and why does mine matter?** It is the device that decides whether the coach runs on shore power or generator power and prevents both from feeding the panel at once. When it fails you typically get no power on one source, or worse, a coach that behaves oddly on both. It is a common and often overlooked failure point.