RV Inspection and Pick-up Process

ByChristine Updated on

After we made our final decision and put in our RV order, which I wrote about in Purchasing Our Jayco Fifth Wheel, the estimated delivery date was several months out in February. The factory apparently made good time and it was ready by the end of January. So Kevin planned to go pick it up mid-February.

Then it was time to prepare for the trip and RV inspection. Here are our tips of what to bring to the inspection and learn everything you need to before taking your RV home.

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The Trip Out

Again, Kevin was going on a long road trip, similarly to when he picked up our tow vehicle, a RAM 3500 dually truck, and drove it home.

By this time my sister had moved to Illinois. It was a perfect stop-over location for Kevin to get our RV in Indiana. The drive itself was uneventful both ways.

However, a storm in Indiana moved in early and dropped a lot more snow than anticipated. So picking the RV up on Friday as planned was out. Kevin would have to wait until Monday.

Luckily he wasn’t stuck in a hotel by himself. Instead he got to hang out with my sister and her boyfriend Brian. In the meantime, they did put him to work though helping unpack and setting things up for the horses!

The RV Inspection

To prepare for the RV inspection, I found a checklist that had been recommended by someone on the Jayco Owners Forum.

To that I added a few other things I found while searching around on Google and things we remembered wanting to know about our first RV, a Koala travel trailer, when we purchased it. With all of that printed out Kevin was ready to go.

Indiana RV Connection had said the walk-through would take about one hour but we knew that was laughable. No way could you do a decent and thorough walk-through in that time.

In the end it took about 2.5 hours for Kevin to walk through our checklist, inspect the RV from top to bottom, ask all of his questions, and get answers and demonstrations on how everything worked from the technician.

Kevin felt they did a really good job with his walk-through. They set up the RV in a nice heated bay too!

We would highly recommend someone takes video during the inspection and walk-through. Since I didn’t go along it was tough for Kevin to do on his own and then he had some technical difficulties as well.

Still, he was able to take pictures and some good notes. All of this contributed to a smooth trip home and start to our next RVing adventures!

RV Inspection Preparation To Do’s

So, make sure you have a good checklist that you’ve reviewed beforehand, ask any questions you have, take good video and notes, and then have fun taking your time getting to know your RV even better on its first few trips out!

  • Get yourself a checklist of things to take a look at and learn about beforehand
  • Write down any questions you plan to ask
  • Bring a video camera, audio recorder, or a friend or family member to take notes

The Trip Home

The RV is ours!

Truck & RV headed home after the RV inspection

The brand new main living area.

Main living area inside the RV

Rest stop on the way home.

RV and truck pulled over for a rest

First overnight!

RV and truck in a campground

In storage for a few weeks.

RV in a storage space

Our daughter was happy to see her Papa!

Welcome home sign for Kevin

What To Read Next

Once you’ve inspected your RV and taken in home, it’s time for the fun part! Get to know your RV with some shakedown trips and learn the ins and outs.

Make sure you have all the essentials for your new or new-to-you RV. Get familiar with the steps to take on moving day and best practices for arrival and setup in a new location.

Happy travels!

Christine is the co-founder of Never Stop Adventuring, and an avid traveler who started traveling the world as a child growing up in a military family. She even lived in Germany for numerous years. Since then she has been to 48 U.S. states, 17 countries, and traveled the U.S. in an RV for over 7 years.

With her 3 kids, the adventures continued family travel style. She has planned and coordinated travel with kids for the last 10 years and shares family travel tips and tricks, destinations, costs and even the mistakes so you can be empowered to take your own family trips with confidence!