# The Inspection That Tells You Whether It Is Structural > A structural damage assessment measures and documents whether the load bearing structure of a vehicle moved, cracked or corroded, and produces a written report with photographs and measurements. It runs $250 to $600 across 1 to 3 hours. It is the document that decides whether a job is cosmetic or structural. Source: https://ocrv.biz/services/frame-structural-repair/structural-damage-assessment/ Business: OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. (949) 799-3387. Serving Tustin, California. Ballpark range: $250 to $600. Posted rates at https://ocrv.biz/prices/ ## What question is this inspection actually answering? One question, in three parts. Did anything load bearing move, is anything load bearing cracked, and is anything load bearing thinned by corrosion. Everything else on a vehicle is finish. Owners usually arrive with a symptom rather than a question: a door that will not shut, a floor that flexes, a slide that started binding, a tire wearing on one edge, a crack in a corner of the interior trim. Those symptoms all have both a cosmetic explanation and a structural one, and they cost very different amounts to fix. The assessment separates them before money is committed. Buyers use it differently. Someone looking at a used coach with an unclear history wants to know whether a repaired area was repaired correctly, whether the frame reads square, and whether that suspiciously fresh undercoating is hiding a section replacement. A structural report answers that in a way a walkthrough cannot. Carriers use it a third way, as the pre repair documentation that establishes what was wrong before anybody touched it. ## What happens during the assessment? The vehicle goes on a lift and gets worked through in a fixed order so nothing is skipped. - **Documented walk.** Every panel, opening and seam photographed, with gap measurements at each door and hatch recorded rather than eyeballed. - **Undercarriage survey.** Rails, crossmembers, outriggers, hangers, mounts and jack plates inspected with a light at a raking angle, suspect areas cleaned back to bare metal. - **Reference measurement.** Diagonals, heights and datum points taken and compared against the undamaged side and against published dimensions where they exist. - **Load checks.** Suspect welds and members loaded to see whether a crack opens, and floor areas walked and probed to separate wet substrate from structural flex. - **Interior correlation.** Trim separations, cabinet gaps and slide fit inside the coach mapped against what the measurements show underneath. - **Written report.** Findings ranked as structural, wear or cosmetic, with photographs, measurements and a repair path for each. The report is the deliverable. It is written so that an owner, an adjuster and a second shop can all read the same evidence. ## Why is a written report worth more than an opinion? Because opinions are not comparable and measurements are. Three shops looking at the same coach can give three verbal answers that all sound confident. Three shops given the same measurement sheet are arguing about the same numbers. On an insurance claim the report is leverage in the correct sense. Damage that is documented before teardown is far harder to dispute than damage described afterward, and a supplement supported by pre repair measurement moves faster than one supported by a narrative. On a purchase it is the difference between a negotiation and a guess. A report showing a sound frame with cosmetic damage supports paying up. A report showing a twisted frame under fresh paint is the cheapest money a buyer ever spends. The assessment is $250 to $600 across 1 to 3 hours. Where damage turns out to be structural, the report becomes the basis of the repair estimate rather than being redone. Collision estimates are written at no charge; this assessment is a separate, deeper piece of work with a documented output. ## What should you bring and what should you check first? Bring history. Prior repair invoices, insurance paperwork, photographs from the incident, and anything you know about how the vehicle has been stored and loaded. A frame that has been repaired before is a different inspection than one that has not. Before you come in, do the driveway version yourself and note what you find. - Park on flat concrete and photograph each corner at the same height, then compare the roofline left to right. - Open and shut every door and hatch and write down which ones changed. - Walk the floor slowly in socks and mark anywhere it moves. - Look for rust streaks under the vehicle running down from fasteners or welds. - Read the tires: uneven wear across a single tire tells a different story than uneven wear between tires. Where the report points to correction, the paths are [frame straightening](/services/frame-structural-repair/frame-straightening/), [subframe repair](/services/frame-structural-repair/subframe-repair/) or [unibody straightening](/services/frame-structural-repair/unibody-straightening/). Buyers evaluating a whole vehicle usually want the broader [pre purchase inspection](/services/inspection-evaluation/pre-purchase-inspections/) instead. Rates are on the [price sheet](/prices/). ## Questions ### Is this the same as a collision estimate? No. A collision estimate prices a known repair and is written at no charge. A structural assessment is an investigation that produces measurements and a written report, including on vehicles with no claim at all, and it runs $250 to $600 for 1 to 3 hours of documented work. ### Can you assess a vehicle I am thinking about buying? Yes, with the seller's permission to put it on a lift. Bring whatever history exists. If you want systems, appliances and water testing covered as well, the pre purchase inspection is the broader product and runs $400 to $1,200 on a full RV. ### Will the report say whether it is worth repairing? It gives you the facts that decision needs: what moved, how far, what is cracked, what is corroded and what the repair path for each finding is. Whether that math works against the value of your vehicle is your call, and the report is written so you can make it with numbers rather than impressions. ## Related - [Frame and Structural Repair](https://ocrv.biz/services/frame-structural-repair/) - [Frame Straightening](https://ocrv.biz/services/frame-structural-repair/frame-straightening/) - [Subframe Repair](https://ocrv.biz/services/frame-structural-repair/subframe-repair/) - [Pre-Purchase Inspections](https://ocrv.biz/services/inspection-evaluation/pre-purchase-inspections/) - [Prices and Posted Rates](https://ocrv.biz/prices/)