Drew Callahan · November 9, 2025
RV Water Heater Thermostat and Heating Element Replacement A shop quote landed in my inbox last week: $680 in labor alone to swap out a failed thermostat and heating element on a Highland Ridge Open Range, plus another $240 for the parts themselves. That’s nearly a grand to do work that takes about two hours … Read more
Drew Callahan · November 9, 2025
RV Slide-Out Motor and Gear Replacement Most Highland Ridge Open Range owners don’t realize their slide-out motor is burning itself to death until the moment it quits—and by then, you’re looking at a wall of your house that won’t budge. The Lippert rack-and-pinion system these rigs carry is bulletproof on paper, but the OEM motor … Read more
Drew Callahan · November 9, 2025
RV Awning Fabric and Motor Replacement Your Redwood’s awning won’t roll in, or the fabric’s coming apart in strips, and you’re wondering: can I actually fix this myself, or am I looking at a dealer bill that’ll make me wince? The honest answer is that you can handle it, and I’ve walked through this repair … Read more
Drew Callahan · November 8, 2025
RV Slide-Out Motor and Gear Replacement It was mid-afternoon on a Sunday at a campground outside Flagstaff, thermometer dropping fast, and I hit the slide-out button to bring in my living space for the night. Nothing. Not a grind, not a slow creep—just dead silence and a slide stuck halfway out in the Arizona wind. … Read more
Drew Callahan · November 8, 2025
RV Water Heater Thermostat and Heating Element Replacement You’ll hear two very different stories about water heater failures on a Crossroads Redwood. The dealer tells you the thermostat and element are a matched pair — if one fails, both need replacing, and labor alone will run you $400-plus. Forum folks say you can swap just … Read more
Drew Callahan · November 7, 2025
RV Slide-Out Motor and Gear Replacement Riverstone slide-outs bind up or move at a crawl because the OEM motor assembly was never built for sustained duty—it’s undersized for the load, the gear mesh heats up under pressure, and somewhere between your second and third season, the windings cook themselves dead. What makes this worse is … Read more
Drew Callahan · November 7, 2025
RV Awning Fabric and Motor Replacement I walked up to a 2019 Riverstone last spring with what looked like a pristine rig on paper — low miles, one owner, service records in hand. The awning told a completely different story: fabric shredded into confetti, motor grinding like it had gravel in its gears, support arms … Read more
Drew Callahan · November 6, 2025
RV Slide-Out Motor and Gear Replacement The grinding started three years into full-time travel — a metallic scraping noise every time the slide retracted, getting louder and slower each week. I ignored it for longer than I should have, until one morning near Bend, Oregon, the motor just stopped mid-extend. The slide hung there, half-open, … Read more
Drew Callahan · November 6, 2025
RV Awning Fabric and Motor Replacement I’ve watched a $300 awning fabric failure spiral into a $2,000 repair bill more times than I can count on Keystone Cougar and Cougar Sport units—and it always starts the same way: UV-damaged OEM fabric, weak motor connections, and one season of neglect turning a functional system into a … Read more
Drew Callahan · November 6, 2025
Forest River Riverstone – RV Water Heater Thermostat and Heating Element Replacement My van’s got a dedicated compartment along the driver’s side where I keep spares for the jobs that repeat themselves — heating elements wrapped in bubble wrap, thermostats in their boxes, gaskets sorted by size. I learned years ago that stocking these parts … Read more
