What Protection When Motorhome Being Serviced? (1 Viewer)

Wombles

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Oct 28, 2013
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Our motorhome will be having its first hab & engine servicing in the next few weeks & wondered what measures others take (if any) to protect theirs from potential damage? Will be emptying it of all our bits & pieces & the seat cushions plus putting covers on cab seats. What do you do to protect your floors? In our previous caravan thought it was fine to leave the vinyl floor uncovered but came back with some grit embedded in it :( If we leave mats down they will probably just move them so thinking of mats with sticky plastic carpet protector on & a note to leave them down - sounds ott I know!
 

DBK

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We didn't take anything out of our van other than valuables like the GPS before it went for its first service. If they want to nick the teaspoons let them. Any halfway descent garage will also put a cover on the driver's seat before they even get into it.
 

Jim

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Jul 19, 2007
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Unfortunately, many motorhome policies provide no cover when the vehicles are left at a garage. We had a case reported here a few years ago where a motorhome was nicked from the garage and the insurers refused to pay up; telling the motorhome owner to pursue the garage owner privately. It prompted me to produce this form http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/resources/garage-handover-form.13/ getting it signed might be difficult. But I suggest you speak to your insurers to see if you are covered.

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GJH

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Our base vehicle service is carried out by a mobile mechanic we have known for about 25 years so no need to remove anything specially. For the habitation service (another mobile engineer) I remove everything necessary to allow access for the various checks (including damp). On the couple of occasions that the van has had to be serviced off site we have removed everything because it protects both us and the company. All the people we use for servicing/repairs are fully insured.
 
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Wombles

Wombles

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"We request that customers remove all personal effects from their vehicle prior to service" is a condition of hab servicing but also makes it quicker & easier for them to do checks. Being a bit of a clean freak don't like the idea of someone rummaging through my bits & pieces anyway!:blusher:

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hilldweller

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- sounds ott I know!

Not at all if you are using Dodgy Delboy rahned the back of ackney. Don't forget to photograph the whole vehicle inside and out and question their insurance for when they are in charge of it.
 
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Wombles

Wombles

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It's going to local Ford garage for engine & Highbridge Caravans for habitation & both have good reputations but can't be too careful!
 

eddie

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Oct 4, 2007
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Use a specialist! our guys only work on motorhomes, and the odd caravan. The "wow, look at this it's even got a toilet" factor disappear decades ago, and they are only interested in the job in hand. We often get, you've probably never seen one of these before, its one of the first in the Country, and we tell them that we had one in last Friday, yet can't remember if it had the "island bed or the bunks" We simply wouldn't bother looking if it wasn't pertinent to the job.

Insurance is an issue for some business's we are insured for motorhomes up to £300,000.00 in value without notifying our insurers. In the workshop, out of the workshop on the road no issues. Whilst the motorhome is in our care and control, its at our risk, end of!

Once the job is finished, if the customer leaves it in our car park for a couple of days before collecting it, its at the customers risk. This seems fair to me.

No different to leaving a motorhome on a camp site pitch and going out for the day, if it were pinched you wouldn't expect to claim on the campsites insurance.

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dave newell

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Oct 31, 2008
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We are much the same as VanBitz, while in our workshop/care the vehicle is covered on our insurance, if it needs to stay overnight with us it is kept inside the locked, alarmed workshop which also has CCTV connected to internet and the alarm calls my mobile if its triggered. We're insured for 90,000 total loss, any higher value simply needs a call to our brokers to extend the cover. Removing all your bits n bobs prior to a hab inspection is a great idea, I wish more people would do it. Trying to inspect a vehicle properly with lockers loaded to the hilt with all your worldly goods is no fun. Seat covers are fitted to cab seats BEFORE we enter the vehicle and only removed at the END of the job, likewise if access to the living area is required we place drop sheets on the floor to protect carpets/vinyl from muddy/oily boot marks.

D.
 

TerryL

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That's a coincidence! We're taking ours to Dave next month. We always empty everything non-essential before taking it in for 2 reasons. The first, as Dave requests above, it makes life so much easier for him. The second is that it allows us to review the contents - what we haven't used in the past year (except of course for emergency stuff) doesn't go back in thus protecting our valuable payload. We also tend to find things that "got lost somewhere"!

But as far as insurance our own policy covers us as well as Dave's.

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sedge

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Gosh, fancy having to take the van somewhere else to have either done!

Mark does the hab service on our drive while Pete talks to him and Alan does the vehicle servicing ditto !

CLS and DMS - you know it makes sense! LOL
 

haganap

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Never take anything out of mine...i just use a reliable and reputable mechanic....someone i trust end of....
 

mikebeaches

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Although we don't bother to remove our things when the van has a Fiat service, when it goes to Highbridge Caravans for the habitation service we strip absolutely EVERYTHING out. Quite a task, but as already mentioned above - a useful exercise, if somewhat painful. ;)

Mike

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Jaws

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DIY here.. so if things go wrong I only have myself to blame !! ( Handy having a son who is a Gase Safe fitter with LPG tacked on to the certificate !! )
 

Lisa

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DIY here.. so if things go wrong I only have myself to blame !! ( Handy having a son who is a Gase Safe fitter with LPG tacked on to the certificate !! )
Same here...only its my hubby, not a son ;)
 

wanderer

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I took my motorhome in for a service/mot/other jobs and left it, the mechanic to phone me when finished . When i hadn,t heard from him in 4 days i rang him to be told that he had fitted new pads in the late afternoon gone home returned in the morning needed to move the my vehicle and drove it into a wall as he had forgotton to bleed the brakes.
He was having to get the damage fixed cost £1500 at his own expense he said that he did not want to claim on his policy as he was in his first year .
Everything worked out fine in the end and i still use the guy but up until that point i had never given insurance a thought . When i take a vehicle in i have never asked to see their insurance do you ?

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jonandshell

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Dec 12, 2010
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I never let the van out of my sight at MOT time!
Cant trust ANYONE to keep it safe. Its bloody annoying when an MOT is done and the inspector parks it on the road outside, doesnt lock it and returns to his office for the paperwork!
In this instance, I sit in the van for security and Shell pays the bill on her Tesco credit card so we get more points for the Tunnel!!!
Im not realy sure I could sleep at night knowing our van was in the care of a garage or dealer! I would be setting up an OP in the bushes outside their yard!!!
Probably wouldnt go as far as wearing a gillie suit and weilding a 7.62 rifle though!!
 

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