Wind gusts in Wyoming

[lytlej]

Well this sucks. Wind gusts in Wyoming. I though I saw it poochin go it just before.

[Forbes]

Now that was some wind, hope all are safe RV can be repaired or replaced.

[lytlej]

All are safe. I'm sure it was some water damage. I found a leak just after warranty ran out last year. Pinpointed it last fall and repaired the leak. Didn't notice the delamination though.

[crunchman12001]

Man, that stinks. Did that happen while towing? I hope you are not to far from home?
On a side note, I have never seen a fiberglass trailer opened up like that. Is that the Filon seperated from a luan backer? Can you see any signs off the filon being glued down?

[lytlej]

Crunch man. Luckily only 3 hours from home. The temp repair held really well. I'm thinking if you break down try and do it in a Walmart or Home Depot parking lot. Made the trips back to the store easy.

As for the damage the outer fiberglass ( I'll assume filon since I'm not a body guy) peeled away from the luan. There's no glue marks really but I'm not sure how they attach them.
It is a 2013 27HFS. Warranty ran out March of 2015. When we opened it during the Spring my wife found a water stain on the counter by the bed right behind that wall. I hunted a summer to find the leak. Finally found it behind the rain gutter. My son and I caulked everything. Eternabond on seams in the roof. No leaks this year.
I noticed earlier on this trip that I couldn't see down the side of the trailer in my mirror. Couldn't figure out why. Now I know it was the wall getting air behind it and billowing. It could have been worse.

[crunchman12001]

lytlej,
Thank you for the follow up. Are you going to repair it yourself or take it to the dealer? The insurance company might total it out, not sure. Keep us posted.

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by lytlej

Well this sucks. Wind gusts in Wyoming. I though I saw it poochin go it just before.



Attachment 114449

That's nasty. Those walls are all laminated and pressed thin outside layer then wood like a 1/8" 2" of styrofoam and then your 1/8" thick inside wall. Something must have split in that front corner for the wind to get in an rip it like that, never saw that before, Your going to have to send it back to factory I hate to say to get that whole wall replaced. At least your safe you can always get the wall replaced. I don't know what kinda of insurance you have, but I just got back from the factory where they replaced my whole roof from a pin hole leak that allowed it to delaminate. 5400.00 to have it replaced but my Comp ins. paid minus my 500.00 deductible. Good luck sorry to see that....

[retired on a mountain]

Where you on rt25 ? Rode my bike to and from Sturgis to Denver most of the trip bike was leaning killer winds

[lytlej]

No I-80. 25 goes north and south. 80 goes east and west. You crossed it in Cheyenne.
Wow that's a long ride! Definitely a cross wind that way. We were fighting a head wind.

[lytlej]

Ok anybody ever tried to tackle the idea of putting on a new piece of filon?
I'm not confident that Progressive is going to be of help here.

I'm thinking of removing the filon from the front edge of the door forward, removing all bad luan in that area. Then replacing with new luan and Filon. Then new decals. Using the front edge of the door as that only will have about a six inch seam. Any ideas on which type and color is used on XLR Hyperlite? Good way to peel luan from foam and filon from luan? What glued to use?

The fear is that this sounds simple enough, just labor intensive hour wise. But I've been unable to find anybody who's done it. Can't really $10,000+ to fix this. Or if fiberglass patch a better option? If so how to match texture and color? And how to address deteriorating luan underneath?

[crunchman12001]

What did the insurance company say? How could they not help?

[lytlej]

Progressive never called back after I filed claim. They said within 2 days. I called them again Monday. They told me that all delamination comes from water damage and they don't cover water damage. I can't tell what was damage pre delamination and after the wind event. They are sending an inspector next Monday. We'll see.

I'm not feeling too strongly about my claim. So I'm starting to look at DIY ways to get me going again. I'll let ya'll know what Progressive says after next week.

[lytlej]

Well the Progressive inspector came today. He says he thinks it is from water damage, but will require an additional review. He felt it would not be covered.

[Witch Doctor]

I really don't understand their attitude. My roof delaminated the plywood under the rubber membrane. Had about a 12x12 square of plywood that the glue let go. Now I know and they know that it was water damage that caused the delamination. Granted in a storm in Florida a branch hit the roof and put a pin head hole in it or maybe the size of your little nail. I must have not been in the trailer at the time, or I should have heard it hit. So all the rain this year in Dec. and Jan. the rain got to it. I went to have the yearly maintenance done on it and the service company found it. I called my insurance which is AARP Hartford, they sent the estimator to my home, he looked at it and said the roof needs to be repaired from water damage. I said well I got two est. one to repair it back to the antenna. then one from FR to replace the whole roof. Hartford cleared the whole roof replacement saying that a patch can leak and cost them more down the line, so they put it under a comp and I had to pay 500.00 deductible. So now why is yours different? It was still delamination from water. Even if you leaked down the side there is really no difference, you don't know what hit it and caused the leak, you sealed it as I did when found, that's what they tell you to do. I wouldn't accept there answer. Probably won't help but maybe you can put that bug in there ear...

[lytlej]

Found some other issues as I pulled the edging off after they left. I'm going to try again with pleading my case as well as talk to Forest River as the leak was discovered just out of warranty. But I'm switching this to another thread to get advice about how to repair this mess.

[jsverner]

I had a similar issue coming home from the mountains last month. All was good (except for the wind) and then I noticed the side panel of the camper bulging out. I stopped and gorilla taped it as best as I could. It goes to the dealership tomorrow. I pray it is repaired under warranty. To date, I know of very little chance that mine is water damage. It has been stored inside. In my opinion, it should've held up better to the wind than it did.

[lytlej]

Wow. That's the same area mine delaminated. When I pulled the front edge trim, I could tell the edge was not sealed very well. I'm sure yours will be covered under warranty. Mine was a year and a half out of warranty.

[Austintatious]

Originally Posted by jsverner

I had a similar issue coming home from the mountains last month. All was good (except for the wind) and then I noticed the side panel of the camper bulging out. I stopped and gorilla taped it as best as I could. It goes to the dealership tomorrow. I pray it is repaired under warranty. To date, I know of very little chance that mine is water damage. It has been stored inside. In my opinion, it should've held up better to the wind than it did.

Did you ever get this resolved?

This past weekend I noticed the same thing happening on the front driver side of my trailer whenever I got over 40mph. Apparently the wind blowing over that front section creates a low pressure area that "lifts" the siding out enough to pull the staples out of the wood. I've got some white low-profile panhead screws I was going to use because I figured even if the dealer pulled all the siding in that area and re-stapled it, it's bound to eventually happen again.

[bmstephens2]

Our 2016 is doing the same thing in the same area. Seems to me if a bunch of us are having the same problem they either have a defect or a worker that doesn't know how to properly secure the siding working on that corner of all the campers. The dealer I bought mine from is 4 hours away and none of the local dealers will fix it. I found a video on YouTube showing how to remove the corner molding to access the siding so I'm going to try to fix it myself since I'm pretty handy. I bought a roll of replacement gasket and plan to remove the corner molding, detach the siding, re-staple it better and then put the molding back on. Wish me luck lol

[Austintatious]

Originally Posted by bmstephens2

Our 2016 is doing the same thing in the same area....

I'm finding that it's quite common actually. That front area gets hit with different wind patterns depending on the tow vehicle. I noticed that it doesn't do it when I tow with my Jeep but it does it when I tow with my pickup.

Many people mistakenly assume that wind is getting under the siding somehow. But the fact is the wind pattern creates a low pressure area on that front quadrant and "lifts" the siding from the outside. Often it's too much force for the ridiculous staples that are used and they pull out of the studs. The more it happens, the easier it becomes for the staples to slide in and out of the studs.

That's why I'm going to use one or two 1.5" pan head screws at the thicker part of the seam to screw the siding down to a stud. I don't think it will be that noticeable and it will certainly be easier than pulling the trim and siding to get to the area where they are stapled to the studs.