The other night we had some very high winds. This was the first time I have parked my TT in the side yard for the winter. We cut down one tree that would shed all the time the wind would blow. Well there was still one tree left that was fairly far away but it usually didn't shed limbs until this time. The wind must have been over 50 mph. I can't remember the wind blowing like that. Any way the next day I got home from work and looked at the one side of the TT and didn't see any debris until I went around to the other side. Man was I bummed. One limb came out of the tree and dented the siding close to the window. My heart sank. I called and filed with my insurance company and contacted a couple of places to see about getting it fixed. My question is has anyone had the aluminum sides damaged and replaced on their camper? What was your experience? Any thoughts appreciated Here's pictures of the damage.
I won't park the camper for the winter there again. I thought it would be far enough away. As you can see it tore the cover too.
iRV2.com RV Community - Are you about to start a new improvement on your RV or need some help with some maintenance? Do you need advice on what products to buy? Or maybe you can give others some advice? No matter where you fit in you'll find that iRV2 is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with other RV owners, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create an RV blog, send private messages and so much, much more!
Look at the 'big picture'. My primary initial concern would be to check the roof for tears or damage from the storm. Definitely a priority over the siding dent.
Two ways to look at it.
The first 'ding' is always the worst, now you can just relax. Probably no one will notice it unless you point it out. Looks like just 'cosmetic'.
If you really want to fix it, it isn't a tough chore to pull and replace that small panel. Remove the window and corner trim, pull panel, replace, seal, and replace window and trim.
You will probably have to buy a minimum of 10', so use what you need to and save the rest for the next time.
If you can, build a shed to protect the roof and drop the sides enough to cover the windows.
You'll be the only one who will notice that.
Take the insurance money* and either put it on your RV loan or, better yet, take a nice camping trip with it.
*if it doesn't total. Because: To replace that one small piece of siding all the siding below it has to be removed.
You may get one of those paintless dent remover guys to give it a try but they won't be able to get it 100% smooth again. There will still be some blemishes.
To fix replace that sheet, you would have to take off all the metal below it and the corner molding. You would probably do more damage taking everything apart than you have now. If it were me, I wouldn't mess with it.
I'm not going to do the repair myself. I contacted the dealer I got it from. The lady in service acted like it was no big deal to repair. She said we do this repair all the time we even have a body shop to paint panels to match. I'm waiting to to she what she comes back with for an estimate. If they could get to the panels and work the dents out I would probably be OK with that. She kind of mentioned something about maybe working the dents out. It's a 2018 and I have tried to take extremely good care of it. I just hate to have something so new with damage parts.
Wouldn't the siding be installed from the bottom up, so that the top piece laps over the one below it, to prevent leaks. That's the way it's done on a house. Water and gravity work the same way on a trailer, so I'm not following the need to remove all of the siding below the damaged pieces.
Wouldn't the siding be installed from the bottom up, so that the top piece laps over the one below it, to prevent leaks. That's the way it's done on a house. Water and gravity work the same way on a trailer, so I'm not following the need to remove all of the siding below the damaged pieces.
The aluminum sheets have a lip at the bottom that is stapled to the framing to hold the sheet in place. the top of the sheet below fits into a groove above the lip so that it covers the staples and locks the top of that sheet in place. The groove acts as the drip edge to keep the water out.
The estimate was around $1900. They didn't have to remove the whole side just removed the window and the trim around the AC and the trim at the corner.
I got the damaged repaired. It was gone for over a month.
And that's why having the dealer do any repairs is a crap-shoot: It can take a ridiculously long time for them to (1.) locate and order repair parts, and (2.) schedule some time for the repairs to be made after the parts arrive.
Meanwhile, you've lost the use of your RV - For many months, in some cases.
__________________
2021 Casita Spirit Dlx - San Antonio, TX
Linear Mode
