Help with entry level diesel pushers

Bruce Brown wrote:

DriverMan wrote:
My thanks to all of you for your comments.

It looks to me the roof problem with Winnebago is a serious one. Such a problem could literally destroy your motorhome. An that its most likely out of warranty by that time could be financially catastrophic, or am I overstating things?

You mentioned the seal, is this something you can reasonable check on your own? And if so is it something you can fix on your own?

How often should something like this be checked, every 5 years, 10 years, what? Can I assume this is all Winnebago's and not just the entry level Forza?

Is the a deal breaker? I can't think of many things worse than a faulty roof! I can understand slide problems etc, but a roof, Not Good!

I did a Google search for "trouble with Winnebago roofs" and was surprised to find very little on the subject! Has Winnebago commented on it anywhere and what their doing about it?

Mile High gave a great explanation and illustration of the issue. Maintenance/inspection is required every 6 months I believe. The Itasca (Winnie twin) we owned was built before they went to this terrible design. For me it would be a deal breaker.

As for the repair, well...do you know anyone other than the factory that can change that roof? I sure don't. As to cost, I disagree with Mile High on that one. I currently have a 35' 5th wheel in my garage - I'm helping a friend replace his rubber roof. It's basically done, he has roughly $800 in materials. He went with the Alpha system, it's pretty nice. A few years back I put an EPDM rubber roof on our TT, I had about $300 in that job. Any shop can do a "rubber" roof, I don't know of one that could do a full fiberglass roof replacement - other than the factory.

I'm not saying "rubber" is better, I AM saying some fiberglass just isn't too good.

For the record, ours has a BriteTek roof, which is a modified rubber. It's our 3rd one with this system and I absolutely love it.

MMM - not really fair to talk about costs doing a roof yourself in the garage. My comparison was based on the typical rubber roof replacement on a 40' fifth wheel at $6,000 - real dollars based on an Alpha Roof. Alpha may be an improved material over other rubber roofs, but is very thin by the way - not the best roof out there for resistance to branches or screws coming up through the bottom.

I'm actually going to call a Dealer today to see how they would handle a fiberglass roof. Other than shipping, I don't see a high skill set required to install it.