Like any other vehicle, an RV is issued a 17-digit vehicle identification number during manufacturing. VINs serve dual purposes. For the manufacturer, it’s a way to encode important specs such as the make and model of the motorhome.
Once the vehicle hits the road, the code serves as its ID, allowing different entities, including law enforcement agencies, insurance companies, repair facilities, DMVs, and even auto auctions to compile information about the unit throughout its lifetime. FAXVIN then sources this information from multiple sources, giving you access to amazing insights in one place.
What is RV VIN Lookup?
An RV VIN lookup is a tool that comes in handy when you want to track a motorhome's history through its VIN number.
For example, when shopping for a used motorhome, you may want to be sure that it is legally available for sale, has no recall records, and isn't totaled and rebuilt.
The RV VIN check tool can provide you with the information you need in a convenient report by pulling data from thousands of sources, such as government agencies, towing services, insurance companies, and more.
Why is VIN Check Important on an RV
It's essential for you to conduct an RV VIN check before signing on the dotted line because it can help you:
Check if the car is road-worthy
You want a safe and reliable vehicle that will faithfully stand up to miles of wanderlust. But looking at the engine and taking the car out for a test run won't tell the whole story.
The RV may have hidden damages that may surface months later, either caused by an accident or a natural disaster like flooding, costing you hundreds of dollars to fix them, or even putting your safety at risk.
A VIN lookup can uncover the accident records of the vehicle and the natural disasters it experienced so you can make a more informed decision. You may also find the crash records by visiting your state's DMV website.
There are, however, some damages that are not dealbreakers, and you can use them to negotiate the price with the seller.
Find out if the vehicle was stolen
The RV you intend to purchase may have been listed as stolen. Imagine heading down the open highway, the whole family eager to reach the first destination, when you notice familiar flashing red lights in your rearview. Yes, you're about to get pulled over. The RV may be impounded on the spot, and you'll likely never recover your money.
If your car was stolen between 2004 and 2014, you can find the theft record on the NHTSA.
Additionally, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) offers a VIN Lookup service to help identify stolen or salvaged vehicles from the information reported by insurance companies. It’s similarly easy to use, and all you have to enter is the RV’s VIN number. This service can offer extra help when detecting potential fraud, or even authenticating the results from a motorhome VIN lookup service.
Check if the seller is lying
A VIN check can help you discover extensive details about the car's specifications, such as engine types, engine size, max HP, fuel size, and more. You can cross-reference the information with that provided by the sellers and prevent them from pulling a fast one on you.
Know about the maintenance and service history
An RV VIN lookup can help you figure out when your car was last serviced and if it is following the recommended maintenance schedule. This information is helpful because a car that hasn't been maintained for a long time may not be in top-tip condition and need expensive mechanical repairs.
That said, there is a possibility that you may not see all the repairs or service appointments the RV has had in the past. They are only visible if they were reported in the first place, giving them a chance to be compiled in our databases. Repair facilities also tend to report on major repairs.
When you finally get your hands on the RV, it’s a smart move to work with facilities that report repairs as this signals to the next buyer that you have properly serviced the RV.
Identify a lemon
Just like other vehicles, RVs and motorhomes can be lemons too. That means that they could have a significant defect or malfunction making them unsafe to drive or live in. With RVs, it may encompass a wide range of issues, making it important to remain vigilant. For instance, the latest recalls affected Alliance RV for potential LP gas leaks.
By looking up the VIN of your RV, you could instantly see if it has any recall records and if so, you should ask the sellers if the problem has been fixed already.
You can't trust everything they say, though. You can find recall information on recalls.gov or NHTSA for added peace of mind. They help people identify unrepaired RVs affected by recalls.
Uncover title issues
An RV VIN lookup can help you confirm if the motorhome has a free, clean title. Some people use their car title as collateral for a loan and haven't repaid it in full, which means the lenders still have legal rights to possess the car until the debt is repaid. Therefore, you should always steer clear of any car with a lien on it. Otherwise, you're likely throwing your money down the drain.
Furthermore, if the unit has a salvage title, it will be difficult to insure, and you may need to cover all repairs yourself.
Recognize any illegal practices
Unscrupulous vehicle sellers would roll back the odometer reading and trick buyers into paying more than the motorhome is worth. Also, you might even buy a stolen RV without knowing it because the seller may conceal its true identity by replacing its original VIN.
All these problems can, however, be avoided by checking the VIN, as it can help you get the true odometer reading and help you determine the vehicle's authenticity.
Ascertain the market value
A VIN search on your RV can uncover the vehicle's sales record and tell you its last selling price. With this information, you can become more aware of the market value of the unit and avoid overpaying for it.
How Lookup Works
VIN stands for “vehicle identification number,” which is a unique sequence of letters and numbers assigned to your RV by its manufacturer. This number doesn’t change throughout a vehicle’s lifetime and helps to identify it even after many years.
To reveal your RV’s history, you need to enter its VIN into the mobile home VIN lookup tool at the top of the page. It will verify that a VIN is correct using the check digit, which is the ninth character in the 17-digit VIN.
The verification is done mathematically using a verification algorithm that tries to derive the check digit from the rest of the VIN to confirm if it is a match. It also decodes the vehicle’s basic information, such as make, country of manufacturing, vehicle's manufacturer, and other important information.
If a VIN is legitimate, you can perform a thorough history check. The mobile home VIN lookup tool will pull data from various sources, presenting you with a full history report that includes service records, accidents, etc. This allows you to learn a lot about an RV’s past.
Where is the VIN Located on the RV?
It's better to do the VIN verification yourself by physically looking for the VIN on the unit rather than taking it at face value from the seller. This way, you can protect yourself against dishonest dealers who may attempt to replace a tainted VIN with a clean VIN belonging to a different unit or one that is entirely fabricated.
The places to check vary on the RV Model. The placement is not standardized and depends on the manufacturer.
Here are places to check for the VIN:
Motorhomes
The most common placement of the VIN for most RVs (Class A, B, & C motorhomes) is on the driver’s door jam. If you don’t find it here, look through the windscreen at the driver’s side dashboard, checking for a metal plate or sticker with the 17-digit VIN. You can also check under the hood on the engine firewall or radiator support bracket.
Other recreational vehicles
Manufacturers will put the VIN on irreplaceable parts of the vehicle, where it can’t be removed or damaged. More places to find a VIN for other recreational vehicles include:
- Front exterior wall on the driver’s side (check for a metal plate);
- Along the sidewall on the roadside;
- On the tongue/hitch;
- On the frame behind the hitch coupler;
- On the pin box mount framework;
- Near the axles;
- Inside of the doorframe;
- Inside the closet;
- Under the propane tanks;
- Under the front or rear end frame;
- On the entry screen door;
- Under the sink;
- In an outside storage compartment;
- Inside a wheel well;
- Next to the cargo carrying capacity sticker;
- On the metal frame (Used a secondary placement in case the sticker fades out).
RV VIN numbers may be referenced from the vehicle’s registration documents or insurance. Just ensure that the number on an RV’s sticker matches the one in the documents. Unscrupulous sellers may forge VINs or misrepresent them so that you can’t learn about the unit’s history. Also, be careful of units without valid VINs as it becomes impossible to insure them.
Pay attention to the fact that motorhomes may have two VIN numbers associated with them: a Chassis VIN and an RV Unit VIN. That’s because they are regarded as multi-stage vehicles, having two different manufacturers.
The laws differ among US states and Canadian provinces on which VIN appears in the title document, as most often, both VINs are not captured. For instance, in most states and provinces, the VIN, and model year assigned by the final manufacturer is what shows up in the final title.
In places such as BC in Canada, Class B, and C motorhomes use the chassis VIN during registration instead of the coach manufacturer’s VIN. This leads to an interesting situation where the model year may change depending on the VIN that is used.
To illustrate this, consider that if a complete motorhome manufacturer such as Forest River purchased 1,000 incomplete chassis from Ford to build a thousand Forester LEs 2020, they may not use all the chassis by the end of the calendar year. When they complete them by the next year, they will assign the new model year.
This confusion may leave some buyers feeling cheated if they imported the RV from a jurisdiction that used the coach VIN for registration that was newer only to register it using the chassis VIN, which may have an older model year.
To get a full picture of the RV, it's important but not necessary to have the primary and secondary VIN. You should also find out which VIN will appear in the title depending on where the RV will be registered.
VIN Location on Vintage RV
You may be in the market for an RV manufactured in the 60s or 70s. One thing to note is that until 1981, there was no internationally recognized VIN standard. That said, motorhomes still had VINs, and you can actually find them by looking in the following places:
- On the tongue;
- On the frame rail close to the hitch;
- On the metal parts of the frame.
Rust and corrosion may make the VINs harder to find. But you can actually feel using your hand for indentations along the metal frames.
Because the VINs were not standardized, it’ll be a bit difficult to decipher the model’s specifications and information. But it’s important to have the VIN for registration purposes.
What does RV Report Contain?
Through our specialized RV search by VIN service, you can access pertinent information regarding the RV vehicle, including:
- Accidents History: Information regarding any reported accidents or damages that the RV has encountered throughout its history;
- Reported Odometer Readings: Reported odometer readings when the RV was bought or sold in the past will help determine if the current odometer reading is correct and not rolled back;
- Recalls & Defects: Any past recalls and whether the RV was likely fixed, ensuring you are aware of any potential issues ahead of time;
- Lien & Repossession Records: They let you know if the car’s title is encumbered by a loan;
- Theft & Recovery Records: Whether the car was ever stolen and recovered;
- Flood, Hail, and Fire Damage: If the car was ever damaged by natural phenomena;
- Vehicle Specifications: A snapshot of the vehicle’s essential details from the VIN. You should pay particular attention to the body’s color.
We have included other helpful details in this report to endure that you’ll make the right purchase decision. And requesting this information is as easy as entering the VIN and ordering the VIN check report for the motorhome.
Tip: As RVs can have two VINs, the motorhome VIN lookup tool can reveal the manufacturer, helping you determine if you’re dealing with the RVs unit VIN or chassis VIN. For instance, if you’re searching for a VIN belonging to Forest River Inc RV only to see the make as Ford, it may mean that you’re searching using the chassis VIN.
NADA RV VIN Lookup
The NADA service data is also presented in the full report. If the data for your car is in NADA, we also have it.
Can I Check an RV VIN for Free?
You can get a free VIN lookup report from FAXVIN by providing the VIN number. The tool will decode the VIN, offering details about its make, model, year, style, engine, age, and more.
The report doesn’t offer much information about the vehicle’s history such as prior accidents. If you want a full report, you can then order a paid one.
The good thing is that you can use free limited reports when trying to find some basic information about several choices you’re considering. Then, you can order a full report for the vehicles you want.
You also get a preview of the paid report sections showing the categories with available information such as odometer history.
There are places that can offer more information from the VIN, including:
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration;
- National Insurance Crime Bureau;
- Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
How to Get an RV Report?
Well, with our user-friendly and up-to-date RV VIN check tool, it will be a real cup of tea for you. You should try it and you’ll definitely like it! 1, 2, 3, 4, and you know everything that you want to know about the vehicle, which you are going to buy. Here are four super simple steps for you to follow:
- Find the instant VIN search section at the top of this page.
- Enter the number of the car that you would like to check in the corresponding field.
- Hit the Check VIN button.
- Voila, a comprehensive history report on the vehicle of your choice will be given to you in a couple of minutes. All you need to do is to examine it.
Checking the car for damages, accidents, mileage rollbacks, repossession and lien records, various defects as well as damages has never been so easy!
Grab this exclusive opportunity to get your complete VIN check report based on the info from reliable data sources now!
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