The RV Pickup Inspection: What to Check Before You Drive Off

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The handoff feels like paperwork. It is not. It is the moment the rig becomes your responsibility, and almost everything that turns into an argument later — a scuff on the bumper, a tank that was already half full, a generator hour count nobody wrote down — is decided in the thirty minutes before you drive off.

The good news is that this is a solvable problem. The host wants the same thing you do: an agreed record of what the RV looked like at the start. What you need is a list, so that you are checking rather than nodding.

The documentation happens in the app now

If you are renting through Outdoorsy, the rules around the handoff changed. As of 1 February 2026, Outdoorsy’s help center says app-based documentation and key exchange is mandatory for both parties — the whole process is digital, and paper forms are no longer required. Both guest and host electronically sign and date the in-app Vehicle Departure Checklist during the key exchange, noting any pre-existing damage or defects found during the inspection.

Three things follow from that, and they are the parts worth knowing before you show up:

Photos have to come from the in-app camera. The app’s camera writes a non-editable timestamp, date and location onto every photo. Outdoorsy’s stated position is that photos taken outside the app, or edited afterwards, may not be accepted as evidence — and that it may deny coverage on that basis. Your phone’s own camera roll is not a substitute, however good the pictures are.

The photos have a deadline on both ends. Pre-trip photos must be taken no more than 24 hours before departure. Post-trip photos must be taken within 48 hours after the return. Claims must be submitted within 48 hours of the end of the booking.

The protection package is excess coverage, not first-line coverage. If there is damage, your own primary insurance applies first and the platform’s protection is secondary. That is worth reading twice, because it is the opposite of what most renters assume they are buying.

None of that means you should be nervous. It means the inspection is the cheap part and the argument is the expensive part, so do the inspection properly.

What gets written down at pickup

Outdoorsy’s departure walkthrough records a specific set of readings, in the renter’s presence. Know them before you arrive, because each one is a number that can be charged against you later:

• Odometer, in miles or kilometres
• Generator hours
• Fuel level, in quarters — Full, ¾, ½, ¼
• Propane level, in the same quarters
• Fluids and lights: motor oil, generator oil, windshield fluid, radiator fluid, transmission fluid, headlights, turn signals, mirrors

The walkthrough also covers what Outdoorsy calls conditional fees: tire responsibility, dumping responsibility, late fees, mileage overage, damage, and fuel. These are the six ways a trip costs more than the quote, and they are all agreed at pickup rather than discovered at return.

The two that catch people out are mileage and generator hours, because both feel like they should be included and neither usually is. Ask what the daily mileage allowance is and what the per-mile charge is above it. Ask whether generator hours are billed and at what rate. Write down both starting numbers yourself, in addition to whatever the app records. We went through how these land on a real invoice in the Outdoorsy vs RVshare cost breakdown.

Water and waste

This is the system first-time renters have the least intuition for, and the one that produces the most miserable version of a bad trip.

Find the fresh water fill. It is a separate inlet from the city water connection, and on many rigs they sit next to each other behind the same hatch. Filling the fresh tank through the city water inlet does not work, and people stand there for a long time being confused by it. Have the host point at both and say which is which.

Ask whether the fresh tank is full, and how much it holds. Fresh water is weight — roughly 8.3 lb per gallon — so a 40-gallon tank is about 330 lb of cargo. That matters for both fuel economy and how the rig handles.

Look at the black and grey tank gauges and note what they read. They are notoriously inaccurate, but the point is to have a starting reading you both saw.

Get the dump procedure demonstrated, in order. Black tank first, then grey, so that the grey water rinses the hose. Ask where the sewer hose, the clear elbow and the gloves are stored, and confirm they are actually in the rig rather than assumed to be.

Confirm who dumps at the end. This is one of the conditional fees. Some hosts want the tanks emptied before return, some charge a flat dumping fee and prefer to do it themselves. Both are fine. Not knowing which is not.

Check that the water pressure regulator is there. If the host does not supply one, it goes on your packing list — it is the first item on our RV packing list for a reason.

Power

Find out whether the rig is 30-amp or 50-amp. It determines which pedestal you can plug into and which adapters you need. Look at the shore power cord end and have the host confirm.

Locate the shore cord, and check the adapters that come with it. A dogbone adapter in each direction plus a 15-amp household adapter covers most situations.

Ask how the house battery is charged — by the engine while driving, by shore power, by solar, or all three. Then ask what actually runs on battery alone. On most rentals the answer is lights, water pump, fans and the fridge on propane; the air conditioner and the microwave need shore power or the generator.

Have the generator started in front of you. Watch where the start switch is, listen to it run, and ask about the auto-start behaviour if the rig has it. Confirm the starting hour reading matches the form.

Ask how the fridge switches between propane and electric, and whether it needs to be off while driving. Rules differ by rig and by state on this one.

If you are planning to work or run gear off the rig, the power budgeting is a longer conversation — we did the arithmetic in how much power van life actually needs.

Tires, and the one nobody checks

Tires are the failure that ends trips, and the pickup inspection is the only chance you get to look at them without a jack and a shoulder.

Read the pressure on the placard, not off the tire. The sidewall number is the maximum the tire can hold, not the pressure the rig wants. The placard, usually inside a door frame or a cabinet, gives the correct figure. RV tires often run 65–110 psi, well above what a car gauge can even read.

Check all of them cold, with your own gauge. A gauge rated for RV pressures is a small item that belongs in your bag.

A gauge tells you the pressure at the moment you check. A tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) — sensors on the valve stems that report to a display in the cab — keeps reading it while you drive, which is when a slow leak actually turns into a blowout. If the rig does not have one, ask whether you may fit your own cap sensors for the trip. GUTA makes kits for RVs and trailers.

Look at the date code. The DOT code on the sidewall ends in four digits: week and year of manufacture. RV tires frequently age out before they wear out, because the rig sits still for months at a time. A tire made six years ago is worth asking about even if the tread looks new.

Then find the spare. Ask where it is, what pressure it is at, and — the part people skip — where the jack and the lug wrench live and whether the lug wrench actually fits the lug nuts. Also ask what the roadside assistance number is and who pays for the call. Tire responsibility is one of the six conditional fees, so establish it now.

The photos

Do this last, after the walkthrough, so that anything you found is in the pictures.

Use the in-app camera. Walk the rig methodically rather than artistically. What you want is coverage, not composition:

• All four corners and each side, from far enough back to show the whole panel
• Roof, if it is safe and the host is fine with it — hail and branch damage lands there
• Every existing scratch, dent, chip and scuff, close enough to see and then a step back so the location is obvious
• Windshield, in a way that catches existing chips
• All four tires plus the spare, including tread
• The dash: odometer, fuel gauge, generator hours, and any warning lights that are lit
• Interior: each surface, the upholstery, the shower, the cooktop, the fridge interior
• Awning, both stowed and extended
• The storage bays and what is in them

Then, before you sign, say out loud whatever you found and get it written into the departure checklist. Sign after you look, not before. A signature on a form that says no pre-existing damage, applied to a rig with a dented bumper, is the single most expensive thirty seconds of the trip.

The printable list

Print this and take it with you. Working down a page in your hand is much harder to be rushed through than trying to remember what you meant to ask.

If something is wrong

If you find damage that is not on the listing, or a system that does not work, the order of operations is the same every time: photograph it, tell the host, get it written into the departure checklist, and only then decide whether to take the rig.

Anything that is agreed in writing before you drive off is a non-event. Anything discovered at return without a record is a negotiation, and you will be having it by message, days later, against a platform’s stated 48-hour claim window.

Thirty minutes at pickup. That is the whole trade.

Outdoorsy’s documentation rules and departure-form contents above were read from its help center on 28 August 2026, and platform policies change — check the current version in the app before your trip. The rest of this list is rig-agnostic and applies whoever you rent from.