Our tale of woe LOL

[Buck1032]

Back in Nov we traded our Surveyor in on a 2017 Keystone Cougar X-Lite 28RDB. We had a few minor type issues, water leaks on the storage doors, nothing really major just annoying stuff that needed correcting. We took it back to the selling dealer at the beginning of April. I have spoke to them a few times checking progress. So we have been awaiting the call to come pick it up. A call came today, but not for pick up. A storm blew threw Knoxville and it seems our camper was one of several that took damage. The service manager called to tell me we had damage to our roof as a limb poked a few holes. I want to laugh, cry, yell and scream. We are maintaining our very active sense of humor about it, but I assure you this is a very frustrating development. As the dealer is not exactly local, and hour and a half away, we will go up on Saturday to take a look. Seems we will not be camping in our new camper any time soon. We have so been looking forward to actually taking it out this summer.

[chuckster57]

Wow!! I'm very sorry to hear about your trailer being damaged. Hopefully it gets fixed properly and quickly enough to use it.

[sourdough]

Man, I feel for you. I think that is a huge disadvantage of having a dealer "hours" away. Plus, it sounds to me like they are dragging their feet on one of their customers units.

We had mine in the shop for what turned out to be 2 months because I left and sort of delayed things. When I returned I went to visit them due to oncoming weather (I live an hour away). I had not looked at their weather nor did I take my truck. The SM said he had had multiple people coming in to pull their units out of the facility due to the weather coming in. He and I looked at all the forecasts and I chose to leave it. I worked out OK. It is a great advantage to be able to run up, grab the trailer and put it in our steel storage building any time it looks bad.

[NorskeBob]

Sorry for the damage to your RV. If all you have is roof damage I would get the repair estimate approved by your insurance company and then patch the roof with some eternabond tape. I would take it back to the RV dealer when the roof can be permanently repaired. This will give you time to see if there are some unseen issues and minimize the time that you are without your RV.

I have used eternabond tape to repair small tears on a "rubber" roof before. The repair held up for years.

We had lengthy repair times on our last RV. Sept. to Dec. the first year and Nov. to Dec. the second year. The second year I did not take it back to the dealer till we were through with the camping season.

[Buck1032]

Sorry for the damage to your RV. If all you have is roof damage I would get the repair estimate approved by your insurance company and then patch the roof with some eternabond tape. I would take it back to the RV dealer when the roof can be permanently repaired. This will give you time to see if there are some unseen issues and minimize the time that you are without your RV.

I have used eternabond tape to repair small tears on a "rubber" roof before. The repair held up for years.


That is a really good idea!

[dcg9381]

The only issue with having an insurance claim "estimate" is that it often creates an entry in your CLUE report, which can impact your future insurance rates and insurability. Even if you don't actually go through with the claim.

I'd want to roof repaired to "new" condition which would not include any patches or such solutions and a re-roof job, done correctly is fairly expensive (thousands). Hopefully your dealer and/or your dealers insurance company will cover this appropriately.

[gearhead]

I'm thinking on a new rv with a damaged roof I would be putting a sharp pencil on getting a truck bed liner sprayed on it.
I would also think the dealers insurance should cover it, not yours.

[Buck1032]

We drove up and looked at the damage. There are several "holes" in the roof through the wood and many small scrapes and tears through the membrane. I too have thought all this damage and repair should be on the dealer. Sadly after speaking with our insurance, it is treated as if it got storm damage at home, at a camp ground or parking lot. Its all on us through our comprehensive coverage. It sucks but that's the way it is and we will deal with it. However one thing that does bother me more than the rough is a scratch on the left rear side of the camper. It is approximately 16 to 18 inches long, scraped through a graphic decal. The Cougar touts a gel coated filon exterior. How concerned should I be about this large scratch. The dealer said it would buff out and I absolutely hate that term. LOL I couldn't get a decent photo of the scratch itself but the torn decal gives a decent idea.

We talked about the idea of eternabonding the holes and taking the camper camping till all the materials are on hand. But the wife and I came to the conclusion that we didn't want to load all back up just to unload it again a month later.

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_241621_0_55fbfdb1a17931771bd41998f4b97799.jpg (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/buck1032/media/Cougar%2028RDB/P6030589_1.jpg.html)

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_241621_1_ce9d1c6dd1da3ec1ec79f0493321025e.jpg (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/buck1032/media/Cougar%2028RDB/P6030588.jpg.html)

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_241621_2_bc3c121b51867c899d7717950feab96a.jpg (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/buck1032/media/Cougar%2028RDB/P6030574.jpg.html)

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_241621_3_9b743667a2fab56bb452db882e831a4c.jpg (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/buck1032/media/Cougar%2028RDB/P6030583.jpg.html)

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_241621_4_dc9a566792a556f5a6a5dc0b30a07fa1.jpg (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/buck1032/media/Cougar%2028RDB/P6030582.jpg.html)

[sourdough]

That is just a shame. I hope they're thinking new roof and not patches. I would be leery of "buffing" as well. Can't really tell but it looks like they would have to "buff" through a couple of layers of the material to fix that scratch :nonono:

[Buck1032]

There is no talk of patching at the repair facility. They said new TPO and new wood underneath as the only option.

[notanlines]

Buck, it sounds like this stage of the game your only worries are this talk of "buffing" and have they ever done a complete roofing job before.....

[sourdough]

Buck, it sounds like this stage of the game your only worries are this talk of "buffing" and have they ever done a complete roofing job before.....


^^^x2 my thoughts as well.

[Buck1032]

Yes they have done roofing jobs. I was in their shop as they doing actively replacing a roof on Saturday on a Class C. So the roof has slide to the backburner of worries. I am still a bit concerned of the damage that may present itself once the roof comes off, A/C ducting and electrical. But the scratch has taken my interest. As I have zero knowledge of Gel Coated Filon.

[sourdough]

I had a ding in the side of my trailer that was similar to that (I think) that got there while living at the dealership for repairs. I asked the service manager to repair it and he sort of hem hawed. I told him I expected it to be repaired and he said they could "try" but he doubted it would look like new as I had requested. We went on to discuss replacing panels? etc. but I had serious doubts about trying to have major work done to make a little ding (1") "look pretty" so I still have it to this day. Hopefully this isn't the same or the dealer is better at that kind of repair.

[Dave W]

The roof - well you know what needs to done there:banghead:

As far as the ding - you could consider adding some garnish to the decals to cover it. The Filon would be protected and the ding unnoticeable, especially if it's done on both sides. A Glastron boat we had years back had some gel coat damage. A bit of contrasting decal covered very nicely plus added a little eye appeal to a small boat.

[NealBlue]

I'm thinking on a new rv with a damaged roof I would be putting a sharp pencil on getting a truck bed liner sprayed on it.
I would also think the dealers insurance should cover it, not yours.

That is not the dealers responsibility. If the dealer caused the storm or had dead trees on the property that caused the damage then their insurance would probably be responsible.
If you were at a campground when a storm came through that damaged your camper would you expect their insurance to cover it? Maybe your car at a shop?

[dcg9381]

I'm not sure it's that cut and dried.
The RV has been there for more than a month?
The roof was damaged from a tree. Did the dealer park the RV under a tree? On whose property is the tree on? Did the dealer immediately mitigate any damage due to water intrusion? Did the limb come off the tree or was it parked under a tree in a manner where the limb moved around enough to cause damage?


If it's true "storm" damage.. "An act of God" - I'd generally agree, it's probably not shop responsibility.


Sorry your RV is damaged.. it all looks repairable at least!

[Buck1032]

I'm not sure it's that cut and dried.
The RV has been there for more than a month?
The roof was damaged from a tree. Did the dealer park the RV under a tree? On whose property is the tree on? Did the dealer immediately mitigate any damage due to water intrusion? Did the limb come off the tree or was it parked under a tree in a manner where the limb moved around enough to cause damage?


1. The camper has been there since the April 11th for warranty work.
2. The camper was parked on the back lot, backed up to a tree line, maybe 15 from the tree itself. Not underneath any branches. We saw the spot afterwards and saw the tree that was cut up. It was still green and the logs cut were not dead or rotted.
3. The dealer mitigated any water intrusion. Seems the winds fell the tree and the employees immediately started clearing and sealing that day.

I have a picture of the camper parked I will have to get it off the phone and onto photobucket then uploaded to here. I will do that later this evening.

[Buck1032]

Here is a picture I took where our Cougar was parked when the damage occurred. Ours is the 5th wheel that is basically surrounded by TT'ers, center line of the photo. You don't get a very good perspective of the tree line in relation to the parked campers though.

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_242041_0_6830e5a76c4eb1f4b99093ad666f5dc2.jpg (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/buck1032/media/Cougar%2028RDB/IMG_20170428_100752_856.jpg.html)