The new Airstreamer's 3-month checkup

Anytime you buy a new RV—regardless of what brand—there are likely to be little bugs that need squashing after you take delivery. Often, these bugs show up only after a few hundred miles of bouncing down the road, and a few nights spent camping.

For first-time owners, the disappointment of taking a new travel trailer or motorhome back to the dealer can be hard to handle. But when you consider that you bought something that's both a vehicle and a house with thousands of individual parts, and that it is largely hand-built, you can appreciate how hard it is to get everything perfect.

In fact, this is why some Airstream dealers try to get you to commit to a followup service appointment on the day you take delivery. They want you to know that any problems you encounter will get dealt with. In some cases, there may be multiple problems that need fixing.

Do this 3-month checkup

To identify and organize these issues most efficiently, we recommend performing a "Three-Month Checkup" after you take delivery. This checkup will help you find all the bugs at once, after you've had a chance to get to know your rig.

This means a thorough inspection of the Airstream to see what needs adjustment, repair, maintenance, or tweaking. Set aside an hour or so, grab a notepad, and methodically take a look at all those things that might interfere with a future trip.

Here's what I would check:

Hitch

The trailer hitch is a critical piece of equipment and it needs to be right, every time. If there are things you don't really understand about it, or you haven't weighed your rig to see if the hitch is adjusted correctly, take the time to learn about it now. (The weighing procedure is discussed in my Maintenance Guide.)

Tires

Take a moment also to walk around your trailer or motorhome and look at the tires carefully. After only three months, the tires should look nearly new and the treads should have minimal wear. If you're not sure what you're looking for, watch this video. Inspecting the tires is something you should do before every trip–you'll become an expert in no time. 

Be sure to check the pressure in all the tires too, including the spare. If there's a problem with balance, alignment, inflation, or damage, you'll catch it early and save yourself from a much bigger problem. Check your Owner's Manual, or the sticker that is just above the wheel well, for details of the correct tire pressure.

Don't forget to check the torque on trailer lug nuts! You should have a torque wrench and verify the correct torque every time a wheel is removed. (A torque wrench is included in the AIR GEAR Tire Changing Kit.)

We're often asked about the proper way to use a torque wrench, so we made this video to explain it:

Electronics

If an electronic device is going to fail, it often fails early. This includes:

• inverter
• water pump
• circuit boards in the appliances (fridge, water heater, power awning, "smart" thermostats, power leveling jacks, and other control systems)
• LED lights (interior and exterior—don't forget the entry door light and taillights)
• DVD player, TV, stereo, and any other electric appliances

Turn on all those items and make sure they are working exactly the way you'd expect.

Battery

The important thing to check is whether it's holding a full charge. A lead-acid battery should be able to hold 12.6 volts with a full charge and the Battery Disconnect switch in the OFF or STORE position. Lithium batteries should be able to hold at least 13.4 volts.

The dealer was supposed to install a new battery before delivery, so likely your battery is fine. Most new owners run out of battery power because they underestimate how much power they are using, not because the battery is bad.

Still, it's possible that the battery was allowed to go dead a few times before delivery, so if you suspect the battery is weak, you can take it to any good auto parts store for testing.

Rivets

It's not uncommon for a few of the interior pop rivets to break, leaving a hole. Fortunately interior rivets are easy to replace yourself, with the parts and instructions in this Rivet Replacement Kit. This will save you a trip to the dealer's service center, and you'll have a useful tool for future repairs.

Wondering how to replace a rivet yourself? Watch this 90-second video:

Loose screws, trim, and missing plastic bits

You probably found a few screws, rivet stems and wood dust on the floor after your first few trips. This is normal. Usually it's detritus left over from manufacturing, which migrated out from under or behind the furniture during travel.

But it's possible some screws have come loose. So check furniture, interior window frames, screen door, dinette mounts, air-return ducts (in the ceiling), TV mount, hinges, etc., for loose or missing screws. 

If you have a screw that keeps coming out and it's threaded into something else made of metal, try a little threadlocker (found in our Maintenance Essentials Kit) on it.

If a screw is in wood and the hole no longer holds the screw, you can use a little wood glue and a toothpick or match stick to make the hole tight again. I keep a little of both on hand, along with some butyl tape, because this is often a problem with hinge screws.

You might also find plastic pieces lying on the floor, and wonder where they go. Don't throw them out! Save them, because eventually you'll figure out where they came from. For example, the plastic caps on the ends of roll up window shades sometimes come off during travel, as do the round flat caps that cover screws on the furniture, and white shelf clips in the refrigerator.

Loose trim is not uncommon. Often the fix is just a matter of some appropriate glue and a clamp or two, to hold it overnight while the glue sets.

Plumbing leaks

Like electronics, plumbing weaknesses tend to show themselves early on. Here's a good test: turn on the water pump to pressurize the plumbing lines, and run the faucets a little to make sure all the air is out of the lines. Then wait for 3-4 minutes. If you hear the pump run for a few seconds repeatedly during that time, you may have a small water leak somewhere. It's time to go looking.

Fortunately, the problem is usually just a loose fitting, which you can fix yourself easily with a little Teflon tape. If you spot some wetness inside the RV, here's how to track it down (and maybe fix it yourself!)

Gas leaks

You can do a similar leak test on the gas system. Turn on the gas at the propane cylinders to pressurize the gas lines, and make sure all gas appliances are off. The indicator at the propane regulator (up front, by the gas cylinders) should be green. Now turn the gas OFF at the cylinders.

The indicator at the regulator should stay green for at least 2-3 minutes. This tells you the gas system is holding pressure, as it should. If the indicator turns to red, you've got a slow gas leak somewhere. Take it to a service center for diagnosis.

Final Advice: Keep Learning

The best thing you can do to improve your Airstream experience is to keep educating yourself about how everything works and how it's put together. Often the problems that new owners complain about are really just the result of not understanding things fully, and everything always seems more daunting when you don't understand.

When real problems do manifest, having some knowledge (along with a few basic tools and supplies) will make you much more confident about solving the problem—usually without having to derail your trip and head to a service center.

We have hundreds of resources in the AIR GEAR Learning Hub, written specifically to help you understand and maintain your Airstream. Access the Learning Hub from the top of every page on our site.