By the staff of RV Digest
Buying an extended warranty for your motorhome or other RV is a bit like gambling. But unlike most gambling, the odds of a payoff on an RV extended warranty are excellent. The advent of the Internet has made an extended warranty even more desirable thanks to online
companies that have deeply discounted their rates because of no middleman.
An extended warranty pays for repairs on your RV after a regular manufacturer's warranty has run it's course. And, as most veteran motorists well know, the biggest and most costly repairs always seem to come 10 miles or 10 minutes after a warranty expires. It's one
of the unwritten rules of nature.
An important factor in buying a warranty is to deal with a reputable company. The most reputable warranty companies are underwritten by "A+" or "A++" rated insurance companies as rated by AM Best Company, Standard and Poor, and Moody's. Be very
careful in buying an extended warranty from a business that has a lower rating or will not disclose the rating of the company that actually backs the policy.
RV dealers "push" extended warranties because they are highly profitable. The warranty companies, in turn, must raise their rates to ensure their profit after the dealer's cut. Online companies don't have this commission to pay, and as such can reduce
their rates considerably. Go RV Warranty, for example, claims it saves its customers up to 60 percent. You also never want to finance your warranty in with your RV loan, after 15 or 20 years of interest you will be paying for the warranty 3 to 4 times when some
warranty companies offer 0% financing for the warranty.
Extended warranties are sold on both new and used RVs. It is recommended you purchase the warranty policy when you buy the RV, whether it is new or used. You say, "but I have a new RV and it is covered for 1 year". Warranty companies add month and mileage
surcharges to all new warranty policies up to 36,000 miles. If you wait until you have 19,000 miles on your RV, you could end up paying twice as much for the same policy that you could have purchased when your vehicle was new. And new warranty policies start from the
manufacturers in-service date and 0 miles no matter when you purchase the warranty.
Most RVs come with a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty on the chassis for gas engines and a 5 year/50,000 or 100,000 mile warranty for diesel engines (internal components only) as well as a one year warranty on the coach's components. Once the warranty period expires, the
owner is on his or her own to pay for repairs and failures of equipment. Extended warranties pick up where these initial warranties leave off.
For many RVers, simply having an extended warranty provides great peace of mind.
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