Ripped TPO roof

[Roddor]

So there was a wrinkle in the TPO at the front of the roof on my Concord 300DS that I chose to buy. I paid an independent RV inspector to go over the RV as I was buying sight unseen from afar. Inspector said it was fine, advised manufacturing common install defect, but acceptable even after I questioned him about it. The dealer said they only reseal seams and not do anything else with roof and I bought it "as is no warranty." My take was the dealership thought is was good enough to sell. 300 miles later huge rip while driving down the road. No tree scrapes or any roof contacts. I feel like I trusted two experts, inspector and dealer (MHSRV), and I got a $6800 bill for a new roof and nothing from either of them. MHSRV actually gave me a bunch of run around between sales and service department that just further added to my frustration. Way more to add to the story, but it's long. I know I was set up to take the bill, but damnit you would think a dealership who sold me a two year old 12,000 mile rig would attempt to help in some way more than so sorry, as is warranty.

manufacture warranty is 1 year, 1st owner, 12,000 miles. Me, second owner- 12500 miles and two years old.

Knowing what I know now don't trust the "experts" they will give you advice and not be responsible when things don't go according to their advice.

I've included photos for your viewing pleasure

before shot from inspector
tear while driving in Texas
my attempted tape job that failed at highway speed
TPO cut back to still holding glue
My blue tarp cover while waiting weekend for service department to be open
new roof with extra white

[SeaDog]

I hear ya and understand how you feel its the inspector or dealers fault you purchased a rig with no warranty as is. Myself a red flag would have gone up with a 2yr old 12K mile rig that the dealer would not offer a warranty on. On the positive side you now have a roof you know is good. I hope for that cost you got the entire roof replaced.

[Roddor]

Yes, I got a full roof replacement and it looks like they put more metal banding down on the front and rear cap seams. I was still able to get this model and pay for a new roof cheaper than what Camping World's asking price was for a similar model with about the same mileage. So I feel better about that. I did look at the roof of theis unit for sale and it did have a much smoother roof than what mine started with, so I think my factory roof was not the best quality job and just let go earlier than it should have.

[jonwisconsin]

Sorry to hear about it. Did you get photos of the roof before buying it? I thought the factory offered more than a year warranty on the roof.

[Roddor]

Second picture down with white inspector truck in background is before purchase photo. I have found that TPO manufacture may have longer warranty on material but RV installation only a year. Dealership reports it is checking on RV manufacture still covering it, but I don't have much hope in them and have pretty much given up on the dealership and the whole issue. Not sure if I can show a tear as a product failure when they could just say its an install problem.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by jonwisconsin

Sorry to hear about it. Did you get photos of the roof before buying it? I thought the factory offered more than a year warranty on the roof.

The RV factory warranty is only one year. The roof membrane manufacturer warranties it longer than one year but only manufacturering defects and not for labor.
Plus the OP is not the original owner so no warranty.

[A2pfunk]

That's incredibly unfortunate and I am sorry you went through that. If anything, I think you have more of a chance at going after the inspector, but it all depends on how much time, effort, and energy you want to put into a civil suit. And I am guessing that their inspection report came with a bunch of fine print explaining that they can not predic tthe future, yada, yada. Personally, the LAST person I would trust or expect to be honest about the condition up front would be the dealer. All they are trying to do is make the sale. That said, I would take the opportunity to blast them all over social media and any review sites about how they gave you the run around and sold you something that they should have known to be defective.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by Roddor

I was still able to get this model and pay for a new roof cheaper than what Camping World's asking price was for a similar model with about the same mileage.

That you got the rig and a new roof for less than the price of a similar unit is good news. It's possible that if the roof hadn't let go, you would have had a leaky roof and not discovered it until a lot of damage was done. MHSRV really doesn't like trade-ins. They specialize in selling new rvs so your experience doesn't surprise me.
You've also learned that yearly roof maintenance is very important. That new roof is impressive.

[Roddor]

A2pfunk, thanks for the comments. The dealer reports it goes and puts new Dicor around all the seams on used units. I later think well that is a great opportunity to hide previous leaks or splits / pulled seams and just make it look good and a great sales pitch of look what we did for you. I think the wind caught the TPO in some way and tore the front seam loose as I could see pull out holes on the flapping TPO. Yes the inspector has the not responsible for any blah blah blah. I was in a hurry with many missions in different states with deadlines and the roof repair hurt my timeline. I am recently retired and don't want to spend a bunch of time on civil suits / insurance claims and such. So I paid cash for repair and booked it. I'll just try to look at it as a high cost college class under the school of hard knocks. I'm supposed to be on the enjoying side of life now. I retired blue line by the way.

[Roddor]

Reverse_snowbird
Yes I was looking at a new unit at MHSRV when I came across the Concord. They told me that they had sold the unit new two years ago to a couple in California and they came back and gave it as trade in on a bigger diesel unit. I actually had Camping world do the new roof as they could get in it several days before MHSRV service could ---- and I just didn't feel like giving MHSRV any more of my money if they were not willing to give any kind of assistance at all after just buying the unit from them.

[A2pfunk]

Originally Posted by Roddor

A2pfunk, thanks for the comments. The dealer reports it goes and puts new Dicor around all the seams on used units. I later think well that is a great opportunity to hide previous leaks or splits / pulled seams and just make it look good and a great sales pitch of look what we did for you. I think the wind caught the TPO in some way and tore the front seam loose as I could see pull out holes on the flapping TPO. Yes the inspector has the not responsible for any blah blah blah. I was in a hurry with many missions in different states with deadlines and the roof repair hurt my timeline. I am recently retired and don't want to spend a bunch of time on civil suits / insurance claims and such. So I paid cash for repair and booked it. I'll just try to look at it as a high cost college class under the school of hard knocks. I'm supposed to be on the enjoying side of life now. I retired blue line by the way.

Glad you made it out! A lot of us are very jealous of you right now.

[wahoonc]

From looking at the picture of the roof prior to failure I would have had some concerns. It looks like the air has already gotten up under it and caused some stretching.

I would hate to be the bearer of bad news to someone that had just purchased a new-to-them unit. However, it is a judgment call.

Aaron

[Roddor]

Yes I kind of went rounds with the inspector about obviously it doesn't look normal and he was I see this all the time and not to be so worried its normal. Of course the dealer was not in a hurry to do anything because the the inspection report was normal and they only reseal roof seams with Dicor.
So I feel like I was mislead from the expects to say it was okay. I think I should have trusted my gut and said that doesn't look right, although I didn't expect it to rip off the roof while driving 300 miles later. I thought it would be more prone to crack, start leaking or catch a tree limb easily. I even asked the inspector about fix options and whether it should be cut and taped over and he advised only fix would be to pull it up and re stretch it. I had never heard of anyone losing their TPO roof. I have mostly had fiberglass or aluminum roofs in the past. I think I only had one TPO roof on a TT and it did fine, course I don't remember any ripples in it either. If I had known how thin the TPO roof membrane was during the purchase I think I would have been way more hesitant. I was shocked how thin and flimsy it was when I cut it off. I was like this is all that is waterproofing my roof

So I would say definitely be leary of and issues on your TPO roof during a purchase. I learned a lot on this one.

Below is a snip of the inspection report for about the roof.