Warranty experiences that friends have described should give people pause. A buddy of mine who was an accomplished mechanic had bought a Workhorse chassis motorhome with warranty. His chassis air conditioning system failed right after buying it.
If the problem had happend to his Chevy 454 dually puller truck that the new rv had replaced, he would have fixed it himself. But, fixing it was the dealer's responsibility, you see...
The dealer service department was in Melbourne, fifty miles away. He made an appointment, hitched the toad out back and went on the scheduled day. Why bring the toad?, because the shop would be busy, they said, gonna be a day or two before we can look at it.
Next, the dealer of the coach brand checks it out a couple of days later, says not covered, is a chassis problem. Workhorse response: The problem that has been identified is the upfitter's responsibility, not us.
And so it typically went, his ownership under the "it gotz a warranty, so I for once won't have to do every repair, at least for a while."
Our 1989 HR Alumalite P30 454 Alumalite had been a Cruise America coach when brand new. We were the second owners after it left the rental program. For the entire ownership period that began in 1994 with 62 thousand miles on the odo thru the next 57 thousand miles that it served our cross country and SE USA travels, never once did any shop or road service mechanic take my place as maintainer /modifier. And after the first set of new 8R19.5 tires went on, I home shop installed the rubber on rims, also.
Few mechanics can or will perform a repair for you to the level you can bring it to on your own if you have tooling, knowhow and a home workspace. A warranty for major driveline elements would be useful if an engine blew or transmission shredded, but taking a rv to drop off at a dealer for the things you can readily fix yourself in less time expenditure than a dealer visit takes will seldom give juice worthy of the squeeze..
