Community Forums

jerrydubois · 02-20-2014, 06:31 PM

I live in the Midwest. Today, in February, we got a storm warning during a blizzard that we were looking at "Car Dammaging" 1.25 inch or better hail. I, being a first timer motorhome owner was imediately worried about the 3 skylites on my Hurrecane. My question is Am I worrying for nothing? Seems like hail could cause them to break. Has anybody made protectors for them? If it happened when I was not around..Quite a bit of water could get it. I have insurance of course, but that would we a hassle I bet. I understand that you cannot protect against everything, but what size hail could break them? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I have read so much on this site I traveled 12000 miles in my first 9 months and was confident with the knowledge I got off this site. Was very helpful.

jtermini30 · 02-20-2014, 07:28 PM

We had two skylights damaged by hail several months after we purchased our last RV. The replacements were very inexpensive and easy to replace. I wouldn't sweat it!

gemini5362 · 02-20-2014, 09:36 PM

I would not worry as much about the skylites a I would the front windshield. My skylite is over the shower so even if it rains in it is raining in he shower. Windshields are big. Have to be shipped in. Water coming in over the dash would not be good

Ramets · 02-21-2014, 07:27 AM

In 2010 while sitting in my driveway we got a hail storm, actually it was more like chunks of ice. Now the weird part...my skylite survived as did the sides of the coach and the windows. But both my A/C shrouds had holes in them, all my roof vents were destroyed, and my home had holes in the siding. All I could do was stand helplessly looking out at what was happening.

DeWat · 02-21-2014, 07:28 AM

I agree with Gemini5362 about my "skylight" being over the shower, so in the unforeseen circumstance that it does break when I'm not around, most of the resulting water damage should be minimal since it will just go down the shower drain. However, I get the feeling that you may also be calling the vent covers skylights. If so, you can get something like MaxxAirs to take care of that for you. The real benefit is that the hail protection provided by the MaxxAirs is a secondary benefit. They're more for you being able to roll down the road with your vents open and not having to worry about damage, and being able to leave your vents open anytime you like, and as long as you like without having to worry about rain penetration.

FC Ontario · 02-21-2014, 07:35 AM

Not much you can do for the big skylights over the shower etc, but we installed Max Air vent covers on each of our roof vents. The plastic in the cover is much heavier than the dome of the skylight. A friend of ours near Chicago brought home their new trailer and they had a hail storm and broke both roof vents and water just poured into their brand new trailer.
We do not even bring our RV's home from the dealer when they were bought new without having the MAx Airs installed.

bcovey · 02-21-2014, 07:53 AM

Last summer, I discovered a crack in the skylight over the shower. One thing I would like to point out is that my skylight, and I assume many others, have an inner pane/panel. This inner panel would prevent water from draining into the shower. It would run down between the shower enclosure and the partition walls around it. I decided to replace the flimsy skylight with 1/2" Lexan. I cut it the way you would cut the raised panel of a cabinet door to allow for better weathersealing. I also used a fine grit sandpaper on the inside surface to have a "frosted" pane.