Should this scare me?

[DEG503]

I'm considering a 2002 HR Navigator, 91k miles, nearly flawless interior, outside looks great BUT, there are a couple possible issues on the fiberglass. In order, the first is an area at the front of the LR slide, you see a lot of dirt but there does seem to be some distortion/small cracks there.


The second is a stand alone crack on the passenger side 2/3 of the way back. It is not showing any delamination to either side of the crack, just a small split.

The last one is just some spider cracks on the driver side about 1/2 way back.

Any thoughts, feedback or experience with this kind of stuff would be appreciated. Is this normal wear and tear for a coach of this age?

David

[Doug Sage]

I personally would not buy a motorhome with a crack in the siding unless I was planning on having it repaired and repainted. I would also worry about why the crack happened in the first place. This is not normal.

[RJay]

You have two problems here. One is the cause of the cracks and the second is the effects the cracks have caused. Cracks are sometime the result of stresses not anticipated at the time of design so it's important to determine their cause. Cracks allow water to penetrate into the fiberglass layers and can eventually cause delamination. I would question if the motorhome hit something, been overloaded at some point, sustained a shock load(going to fast over a rise or dip in the highway) or has an inherent design flaw which is the worst case. If it hit something then you only have to be concerned about the repair. If it was overloaded or shock loaded you may have a weakened structure and the cracks may reappear after the repair and become a chronic problem. If it's a design flaw you will probably be facing some serious expense and it may not be worth repairing. They can also be just superficial blemishes in the fiberglass.

[Steve Ownby]

David,

I see that you are in Orlando. If it were me, I would arrange to get the coach down to Alliance Coach in Wildwood & get an opinion from Brent & his staff. Those guys are ex-Monaco and during their time running that facility for Monaco They have seen many situations.

I would value their expertise and advise.

Safe travels,

[bullheaded]

Too many nice coaches on the market to face these problems IMO.

[Joe and Pam]

Monaco has a big problem with thermal cracking from the sun. I think it was from about 2000 to 2006. Mostly on the dark colors. We have a 2002 Holiday Rambler that looks like s--t. They say they fixed the problem in 206 but I have seen the checks in newer coaches also. No cheap fix for this. The only place I know of that can fix this is the Paint Department in Calif. $22,000.00 for our coach.

[GaryKD]

Hi DEG503,
Don't let a cheap price draw you into this black hole. Like has been posted earlier, there are many, many nice coaches for sale. Walk from this and move on to something in excellent condition. You have a lot of choices.

[Ranger429]

And once water gets behind those cracks it is going to make a real mess. I'd stay away from this unit as well.

[SpursMVP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ranger429 And once water gets behind those cracks it is going to make a real mess. I'd stay away from this unit as well.

Amen. I was looking at a used coach 2 summers ago and saw a really nice one in the repair bay at a dealer. When I inquired, the salesman said he'd knock off $10k if I took it as is. There was an issue with the side of the coach.

Well...when he shut the door of the coach....the entire side of the RV (where cracked) moved. Not a good sign and I'm REALLY glad we walked away.