El Monte RVReviews of elmonterv.com

Air conditioning and fan did not work the first day. No air came out of the vent even though the motor was running. We had to call several times for help, which never showed up. We had to turn off the fuse to turn off the air conditioner motor.

When we entered the store, maybe 11:45-ish, we were told there'd be a wait because staff just went to lunch. My wife and I said no problem, it's great there is a break for lunch given. And to this we got a grandstand speech, actually more a lecture, on how yes, the employees DID deserve a lunch break and they needed to eat, too. It was the strangest, most degrading *agreement* response I have ever witnessed and most certainly received. Just WTF. The remainder of the rental experience was par for the course, the RV made strange noises once on the road but was safe. The grey tank level constantly read 2/3 full regardless of its remaining capacity. We were charged the entire $1500 cleaning fee even if we used the RV/truck wash recommended by El Monte themselves. Summary - praise the workers when you meet them, make sure they've had lunch and maybe a nap so they're not so grumpy, do absolutely nothing to clean the RV before returning and budget the cleaning fee into your travels.

2 things. First the drivers door weather molding came loose and would not stay on. Every time the door opened the rubber molding would be in the way. Second was the refrigerator started to get warm. Checked the tstat setting, I adjusted it lower and higher and it would not work. The food was getting warm had to stop and purchase an ice chest and ice throughout the week longs rental. Upon the return notified about the rubber molding and they just kinda shrugged it off. When I told them about the cooler, they concluded it was my fault for adjusting the thermostat and leaving it on the highest settting after I explained I adjusted after I noticed it was not cooling properly. Again they just shrugged it off like oh well. They didn’t have much to say about it either way.

The RV that Las Vegas tried to give me had bad damages for example the windshield, the lether of front seats, the furnitures and no separate beds for the kids. After long discussions and 3 hours later, we got another RV. Here was the model newer, but the wheels in front had to less pressure and the Air condition was broken. The guy told me to wait longer, it is not broken.. but it was. When a customer not stay on mind, you get this RV. The mirror right hand side was not fixed and the axle in front left hand side was not ok. It moved to much. Also the radio was repaired and without pins anymore to make it louder or less. Also the Front to the windshield was not fixed inside and moved during the drive with noise. 2,5 hours later some damages were fixed by the mechanic. When you give older models to the customers than in the past, you must check them better.

Unfortunately, I have to vent my immense frustration with El Monte today. We’ve already taken several RV trips through the U.S. and Canada, and our experiences with RV rental companies have been good to very good without exception. This year, we took a three-week round-trip starting from San Francisco (El Monte in Dublin). We had booked the RV through a German travel agency. First of all, I was annoyed by the extremely high fees we had to pay to pick up our RV a little earlier and also return it earlier (in the late morning)—partly because of our early return flight. Up until now, the rental company had always arranged transportation from the hotel to the rental station. That wasn’t the case with El Monte. The cost of the taxi from San Francisco was not insignificant. The handover went quickly and the staff were friendly. Unfortunately, the RV had already clocked well over 40,000 miles, which was also evident in the interior. For a 3-week vacation, only one bedsheet is provided as standard. The blankets had no covers and were only meant to be placed on top of the bedsheets. The tableware was so sparse that, for example, there were only three spoons available for four people. During the first few kilometers, the side door of the camper popped open several times. We then had to lock it every time before setting off during the trip. The bathroom door, too, could only be closed—with great effort and by lifting it slightly—so that it wouldn’t keep popping open. At the first campground, we noticed that the thread on the power cord had been over-tightened. While emptying the black and gray water tanks, we discovered holes in the drain hose (which is pretty unsanitary). The worst part, however, was that whenever we were camping off-grid, the refrigerator would set off an alarm around 2:30 a.m. because the battery was dead (unfortunately, the new El Monte refrigerators no longer run on gas). Naturally, we were worried that our food would spoil. It’s important to note that we followed all recommendations regarding battery charging and didn’t have any other appliances running in the evenings. Because of this—and due to a leaky black water valve—we contacted El Monte’s roadside assistance a total of three times. They responded promptly (by phone and email) and were very helpful. However, a battery dealer we visited afterward couldn’t find any fault (it later turned out that he would have had to completely remove the battery for testing, so his measurements were incorrect). In the end, only a service shop could have helped us with these problems, but that would have required a major detour and likely cost us a lot of time (our round-trip itinerary, including overnight stays and activities, was tightly scheduled). We got the impression that El Monte barely checks its vehicles for proper function before handing them over and leaves this up to the renters during their vacation. Of course, they point out that they will cover any repair costs that arise. But who has the time or inclination to spend their vacation at repair shops? Individual problems can always arise unexpectedly, but the cumulative effect of these defects—like the other annoyances—points to a focus on maximizing profits.

We rented a vehicle from Seattle and whilst we did not have any mechanical issues, we did have some problems with the RV, specifically around routine maintenance that caused us some disruption to our trip. Specifically, we had issue with the black (sewerage) valve leaking which meant a few messy cleanups and us not being able to use the toilet fully (which is supposed to be the point of a RV). We also had issues with the generator, specifically the exhaust falling off whilst driving and this meant we could not use the generator for half our trip. There was also an issue with the shower plumbing pipes coming loose and water leaking. Overall we feel these were basic maintenance issues that should not be causing issues, especially give renting is not cheap. For this reason we have rated relatively poorly. The issues we experienced did cause us some disruption to our trip, which was unfortunate. The rental process and drop off process was ok, but a bit cumbersome and beware that nothing is for free. Every little extra is charged, even down to pickup and drop-off times. It’s worth just being prepared for this.

A disappointing RV rental for our mid-west trip. I had previously used El Monte but was surprised at the departure in quality of the RV. Upon arrival and walk through, the RV windshield was cracked in multiple places and was being worked on ultimately delaying out departure. The rear view mirror was broken, the fridge door had to be slammed hard shut, the glove box handle was missing, and none of the external storage boxes locks worked which was a pain. The overhead platform above the drivers seat ripped off and fell inches away from the driver when going through an intersection which was incredibly dangerous. You could see that it had previously ripped out and was fix with shoddy larger screws. The cruise control would flash an error every hour or so requiring you to stop and power down the vehicle to get it running again. We had a great time on our first trip but this was a big let down.

We had so many downtimes, malfunctions and issues with the hotline. A pitty, could have been a nice and relaxed summer with family...