Repair Files: What Arrived, What Teardown Found, What It Took

Five things, in the same order every time, because that is the order the work happened in. The unit as it arrived, including the damage description written at intake. What teardown exposed, which on envelope and structural work is routinely larger than what was visible. The change that moved the scope, which every substantial job has. The labor hours by department and the shop days. And how the unit left, including anything the owner should watch.

The intent is that an owner holding an estimate for something similar can compare like with like. If your quote says twenty two body hours for a cap repair and the closest file here used sixty eight for a larger job, at least you know roughly where you sit and what question to ask next. That is a more useful service than a page of praise.

They were chosen for range rather than for drama. Two involve carriers and two were entirely owner funded. Three are recreational envelope jobs, two are commercial, one is a municipal unit and one is phase one of a long restoration. The mid job change in each is the part worth reading, because that is the part no estimate can predict.

1. A 40 foot diesel pusher with a freeway debris strike through the lower front cap
2. A bunkhouse fifth wheel whose living room slide came back out of square after storage lot contact
3. A 28 foot travel trailer with two saturated roof decking bays and two separate water entries
4. A Sprinter based camper van struck in a parking structure, with a discontinued solar panel
5. A Type C school bus with rear body damage and an emergency exit door that would not latch
6. A high roof cargo van rear impact where the shelving upfit tore from the wall track
7. A 2004 Airstream with a canyon road scrape and a previous repair using the wrong rivets
8. A 1968 sixteen foot trailer, phase one: subfloor, outriggers and a cracked axle plate

Labor appears as hours in a named department. Body, paint, fiberglass and structural work is $210 per hour. Slide drives, appliances, house electrical and plumbing are $260 per hour. Where a fault had to be found before it could be quoted, diagnostic time is $285 per hour with a one hour minimum. Multiply and you have the labor portion of each job to within rounding.

Shop days are calendar days the unit occupied a bay, including waiting on parts, because that is the number owners actually plan around. A job with 44 labor hours and 13 shop days is not idle; it is a unit that spent four of those days waiting for freight while the bay stayed committed. Separating the two figures is the only honest way to describe RV work.

No customers. Nobody is named, quoted or characterised, and no unit is identified in a way that would point at its owner. The unit is the subject of the file and that is sufficient. Where a quotation appears it is from the technician or lead who performed the work, attributed by role.

No totals, and no star ratings. A total would require us to publish the parts and materials from a real invoice, which varies enormously between two units with identical damage, and quoting one would mislead every reader whose unit differs. Ratings are absent because a shop authoring its own review markup is not a credible signal, and there is no aggregate score anywhere on this site.

• Named customers: never, on any file
• Invoice totals: never, because parts and materials are unit specific
• Ratings and review counts: not used anywhere on this site
• Quotations: from the technician who did the work, attributed by role