Community Forums

rikadoo · 07-05-2020, 11:04 PM

Hello everyone, hope your doing well. The first of the year I had damaged the rear cap on my 2003 HR Endeavor, long story but it has been repaired. So now I took the coach to a rv roof guy to have the roof sealed and he found a area by the ladder that stretches from the left side to the right that appears to be missing a support rail or inner roof piece. When you walk on the roof by the cap it bows substantially, plus the left side of the ladder does not appear to be attached to anything solid. My question is... is there anyway I can find how the manufacture built the roof so I can present the information to the body shop. Im sure they will do the right thing when it comes to the repair however I need to know just what is supposed to be there so we can both be on the same page. I am sooooo glad to learn about this now rather than later down the road!

CountryB · 07-06-2020, 08:33 AM

What was the damage to the roof that was repaired? Was the structural bracing under the cap replaced or repaired?

It sounds like there was damaged bracing that was removed and not reinstalled, however that would be a gross oversight by the body shop since that cross brace is needed to attach the rear clip to. More likely the bracing (crossmember) was bent down a little but still in place and that's the deflection you feel when walking on the roof.

If you have a rear closet you maybe able to drop the ceiling panel and get a look from that direction.

I doubt you will find any diagrams or specifics on how the Coach framing was constructed. We are lucky enough just to find a useful wiring diagram on these Coaches.

perhaps you can find the brochure for the Coach would then may have a photo of the frame structure - such as the photo attached (which is the Roadmaster M-series chassis)

rikadoo · 07-06-2020, 09:07 AM

Thank you Country B, just having a illustration works so well when dealing with issues surrounding possible repair mistakes. I suspect that there was a piece of the sub structure that was not reinstalled when they made the repair to the end cap. As long as it took them to make the initial repair (three months) im worried how long this may take.

MSHappyCampers · 07-06-2020, 10:29 AM

If they're willing to do the right thing it makes you wonder how they could have left the piece out to start with! That's a pretty huge error!

jacwjames · 07-08-2020, 07:00 AM

Here is a thread detailing the reconstruction of a Camelot, which should have the same roof construction. The OP also has posed Youtube videos on the reconstruction that might help, you'll just have to look for links.
https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/jus...444980-42.html
If you look at post #586 it shows how the roof is constructed and the layers required to form the curved roof to support it.

If your body shop left some of this out it won't support the fiberglass top.

The roof ladder is supported by pieces of wood that are embedded into the fiberglass when the cap is made, they basically take wood during constuction, epoxy it to the underside and spray woven fiberglass and layers of epoxy over it. Once in place it doesn't move or rot if fully encapsulated. If they left these out there will be nothing to support the attachment points for the ladder.