RV Sharing Rules Before a Friend or Relative Uses Your Rig

The rules that feel obvious to an experienced RV owner are not obvious to someone borrowing one for the first time. Dumping tanks, connecting shore power, managing propane, knowing what the rig can and cannot tow: these are things you learned over time. Your friend or relative is about to learn them on your dime, in your rig. A quick conversation before they leave covers a lot of ground.

Cover the basics before they pull out

Go through the following with anyone using your RV for the first time, or for the first time in a while:

• Shore power setup and disconnect. Which cord, what amperage, which breakers.
• Water hookup and the winterization state. Especially if your RV has any known issues with connections.
• Gray and black tank capacity, monitoring, and dump procedure. This is the one people get wrong most often.
• Propane. How to light the fridge and range, how to check levels, what to do if something smells wrong.
• Generator operation. Run time limits, load limits, when not to run it.
• Slide operation. What must be retracted before moving. What can go wrong if it is not.
• Towing and leveling. If the RV requires a tow vehicle, confirm they are licensed, experienced, and equipped.
• Emergency contacts. Who to call if something goes wrong on the road.

Set expectations on return condition

Before they leave, be explicit about what you expect when they bring it back. Fuel level: full, or settled by mileage. Tanks: emptied and flushed. Interior: cleaned, trash out. Damage: reported immediately if anything happens, before return. The conversation is much easier to have before the trip than after.

Do a walkthrough at handoff, in both directions

Walk the rig with them when they pick it up. Note the fuel level, tank status, and any existing damage on the exterior and interior. Take photos. Walk it again when they bring it back. This is not about distrust: it is about having a shared record of what the starting condition was so that if something changes, you both know it.

The walkthrough protects them as much as it protects you. If they borrow a rig with a pre-existing crack in the awning arm and nobody documented it, they come back looking responsible for something they did not do.

Confirm insurance coverage before the trip

Check with your insurer whether a permissive-use driver is covered under your policy. Some RV policies cover any licensed driver you permit. Others are more restrictive. This is worth confirming before the trip, not after an incident.

When borrowing happens more than once

If the same person uses the rig regularly, or if several people in your circle want access, informal borrowing starts to strain the friendship rather than cement it. You are absorbing all the cost and maintenance while others get the access. That is the economics of sole ownership with the utilization of co-ownership, and it tends to produce resentment.

Formal co-ownership splits the cost of insurance, storage, registration, and maintenance across everyone who uses the rig, in exchange for shared rules and a shared calendar. It is often a better arrangement for all parties than repeated informal loans. Our guide on whether co-owning an RV is worth it covers the trade-offs honestly.

If your situation has crossed from occasional borrowing into regular sharing, SharedRigs is built for groups who already share an RV and want one place to manage bookings, expenses, inspections, and decisions.