Repairs, vehicle sales and detailing are among the everyday labor done by staff at Jay’s RV, but what the business really offers is the life experiences that an RV provides.
Knowing that …
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Repairs, vehicle sales and detailing are among the everyday labor done by staff at Jay’s RV, but what the business really offers is the life experiences that an RV provides.
Knowing that customers get to enjoy travel, recreation and family bonding in their RVs is part of what makes Heather Brassell enthusiastic about her work. She and her husband, Jay, started their RV service and sales shop in Warrenton in 2017, dedicated to providing affordable services that can sometimes be hard to get.
“We’re not trying to build a million-dollar mansion,” Heather commented. “We want to make a good living, be able to pay our employees a good wage, and have happy customers.”
The Brassells got their start in Indiana, where Jay and Heather met while taking technical classes. After working in manufacturing and then starting an RV shop, Jay sold his first business in 2013. Their family moved for work in Iowa, and then to the St. Louis region.
With Jay and Heather both working in the RV industry, they eventually decided to try again on their own business, and opened Jay’s RV in Warrenton in 2017.
“That first winter, that was scary. Wintertime is slow for RV stuff,” Heather recalled. “(But) we had a bunch of freezes. That’s what kept us going. ... Jay spent hours and hours with a heat gun getting everything moving for (customers) again.”
Jay’s RV is one of the only shops in the region that goes to where the RVs are to provide service, Heather said. It’s one of the needs they saw with customers who don’t have a warranty with a dealership.
Providing for those customers, who often use their RVs for family trips, is one of the most meaningful parts of their jobs.
“RVs are a family thing. People grow up doing it, and they want to pass that tradition on to their kids,” Heather said.
One of their first local customers was a man who wanted to restore an RV that belonged to his wife’s parents, who had passed away. It was in bad shape, but the crew at Jay’s restored it to its former glory.
“When he showed it to her on Christmas day ... she bawled when she got to see her parents’ camper like that,” Heather remembered. “When we can help revitalize an old RV, that’s just the best feeling in the world to see their reactions.”
The RV shop has become part of the Brassell’s own family story, as well. Starting out with a small service, they’ve worked their way up to being able to sell new RVs, and moved to a new location on Armory Road last year.
Working alongside Heather and Jay are sons Jason and Timmy. The Brassells are planning to build a business they can pass on to their children. That business will be built on the service they offer and the memories they help provide.
“We’ve made a lot of friends through this. (Customers) who come in just to chat. ... That’s our social life, is when people come in to say hi,” Heather said. “God bless them, because they’re the ones who keep coming back and tell other people about us. That word of mouth means so much, because that means people are really happy.”
