Winnebago Adventurer Roof issues

This is in reference to your statement that automotive manufacturers commonly use adhesives. I worked in an auto assembly plant for 37 years and they do not glue anything structural together. The only thing I can think of that is attached with pressure sensitive tape is emblems and door side molding. My winnie has headlight assemblies, fenders, hood hinges, the roof, front grill and who knows what else glued on. The is no comparison between auto engineering and that of an RV.

Hikerdogs wrote:

DrivingMissDaisy wrote:
I have a 2000 Winnebago Adventurer and about two years ago the fiberglass roof was sucked out of the aluminum channel by a combination of cross wind and passing tractor trailer. Drivers side front to back roof peeled up and all the foam insulation sucked out. I duct taped it together and drove home, I reinserted the fiberglass and glued secured it with urethane caulk/adhesive. Here's the kicker, I swear, there was never any adhesive in the roof to aluminum track. Both sides of the motorhome were like that. I assumed Winnebago left it loose so it could move when the motorhome flexed.
Wheel wells attached with pressure sensitive tape, most of the end cap accessories glued on with epoxy, how could we expect anything remotely resembling quality construction!

It sounds like you bought the motorhome used, and it hadn't been properly maintained by the previous owner. I'm not surprised caulking was missing if it hadn't been inspected in over 14 years.

Over the years there have been complaints about the Winnebago roof design. In almost all cases the units were purchased used with no knowledge of the previous owners maintenance history. In all cases the owners did not seem to be aware of the need to complete the maintenance procedure and in fact had never inspected or replaced any caulking during their time of ownership.

The OP has a coach 12 model years old and again has no history as to whether or not the maintenance procedure was ever performed, and was not even aware that it should be performed. In the lifetime of the coach if the owners had followed the Winnebago recommendation it should have been performed 24 times. Even performing the inspection and maintenance procedure on an annual basis it has missed 12 maintenance cycles.

It's unfortunate that the OP has had a problem, and even more unfortunate that the insurance company exacerbated the problem by telling them it was OK to drive the unit and is now denying the claim using an excuse like you didn't talk to the right person. In my opinion the person they were directed to call was a representative of the insurance company regardless of whether they contracted by, or employed by the company. It is the inaccurate information provided by the insurance companies representative that turned a minor problem into a major one.

I would agree with those that suggested contacting the state insurance commissioner. We had a problem with bad advise given by an insurance company representative several years ago. We wrote the state insurance commissioner a letter with dates and times of contact, and the advise given by the representative. We called the insurance agent and he suggested we send him a copy and hold off sending it to the insurance commissioner until we heard back from him.

Long story short our agent presented the letter to the insurance company president. The president agreed with our assessment of the situation and covered the problem. Since the situation was resolved we never sent the letter to the insurance commissioner.

As for the use of adhesives to secure plastic or fiberglass panes to steel, aluminum or plastic substrates, it's a common practice for almost all automobile manufacturers. It's been in use since the late 1980's and has proved to be an excellent practice. There are even adhesives specially made for the job. An example would be SEM Weld Bond 39537 Adhesive. It's used at the OEM level and by body shops.

While it is a proven method of securing panels I do agree that Winnebago could improve their implementation procedures.