Episode 014 feature mobile technician Alan O’Neill

Today we’ll talk with an Australian native who found a way to make a living in America by inspecting RVs, and later by fixing them as a certified technician.

Alan O’Neill is a native of Australia. He met his American wife there more than 20 years ago, but in 2016, they opted to move to America. The couple traveled nearly 30,000 miles in an RV until they decided to settle in California wine country after she got a job.

Last year, Alan started looking for income opportunities himself. Being familiar with RVing, he took the home-study course offered by the National RV Training Academy to become a Level 1 inspector. That opened his eyes even further, and he jumped into the four-week advanced training course that led to him becoming a certified RV technician.

In fact, he scored so high on the test, he qualified to become a master certified technician. He just needs to spend time working as a certified tech before he can formally attain that title.

When Alan was traveling, he saw how frustrated people were trying to get problems with their RVs fixed in a timely manner.

With Santa Rosa, Calif., as a base, he now works as a mobile technician to help people either get on the road or stay on the road should they encounter a problem with their RVs.

He describes what the training was like and what types of things he learned in the classes. Alan also explains how the instructors would inject bugs into some of the components to challenge students to diagnose the problems an come up with the right solutions to fix them.

The crash-course in RV repair helped build his confidence and gave him the skills to fix about 99 percent of the problems he sees with RVs.

What really stood out for him was the fact that, unlike courses offered by RV component suppliers, the National RV Training Academy educated him to the strengths of every brand as well as the little nuances that make fixing the units a challenge.

Just knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each brand of a particular component – and the ability to work on different brand types while undergoing training – helped prepare him for the problems he will encounter in the field.

Demand for technical support is so high among RV consumers, he noted, that they often call local parts stores hoping to find someone who can fix their problem.

When the interview was recorded in December, Alan had only been out of class for a few weeks, but he had already found work fixing RVs.

Demand for technicians is so high that it doesn’t take much effort for a trained and certified technician to hit the ground running in a profitable business.

And that’s what Alan O’Neill did in starting Happy Campers RV Repairs. You can learn more about Alan and the types of services he offers by visiting www.happycampersrvrepairs.com.

The National RV Training Academy’s one-week live training or home study course will teach you everything you need to know to fix about 80 percent of the problems people experience with their RVs.

You can also sign up for additional training to become an RV inspector, campground technician or to provide mobile RV service. For more information, visit www.nrvta.com.