Forum Discussion

RobWNY's avatar
RobWNY
Explorer
Mar 19, 2016

Sick to my stomach!

Took my camper this morning to the dealer for repair of the slide out and while parking it, I caught the bumper of another camper and creased a 1 ft. section of the aluminum siding on mine. No damage to the bumper of the other camper but I sure feel sick to my stomach for making such a boneheaded mistake. Now I have to wait for the estimate of repair before deciding if I will file an insurance claim or pay out of pocket. The idiot of the day award goes to me!

29 Replies

  • Been their done that,hit a fence post with out new tt fist time out .But in my defense the post wasn't their a month before when we were there in out old tt...lol fix it lesson learned happy camping
  • Can't say that wouldn't bum me out too. :(

    However, I would be relieved that I didn't do any damage to the other camper. ;)

    We just traded our ten year old TT with which we have never had an accident. Not even a scratch or tire failure. Now that we just got our brand new trailer, well you know the odds. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
  • RobWNY wrote:
    Took my camper this morning to the dealer for repair of the slide out and while parking it, I caught the bumper of another camper and creased a 1 ft. section of the aluminum siding on mine. No damage to the bumper of the other camper but I sure feel sick to my stomach for making such a boneheaded mistake. Now I have to wait for the estimate of repair before deciding if I will file an insurance claim or pay out of pocket. The idiot of the day award goes to me!


    Consider it a "battle scar", happens to pretty much anyone.

    Since it down low, it is actually a easy repair unlike a crease or rip at or near the top.

    The siding is put on from the top down to the bottom so replacing is easy. Just remove anything like vents, trim in the area of that siding. The last piece when installed is bent under the trailer, simply remove all the staples from the bottom piece and the bottom section can be slid down from the next piece above and removed.

    If damage is in the next section above your remove the staples at the bottom of that piece and slide it down.

    Putting new piece in just reverse the above..

    All told, I can't see that this repair should cost more than $500-$800 for parts and labor..

    Personally, I would NOT bother with an "insurance claim" on this, pay it out of your pocket.. Generally you will have a deductible and often it is no less than $250 but as much as $1,000..

    You will find that your next insurance bill(s) most likely will "reflect" the cost of repairs and may haunt you for the trailers life time.
  • How about a jinxed trailer? I ordered a King Of The Road TT many years ago and opted for a booth instead of table and chairs. When it arrived after about 3 months, one of the benches stuck out in the hallway about 6 inches; another few weeks to fix. Finally picked it up and pulled it home to Killeen, TX from Austin only to find that the entire inside was flooded because they had failed to install the drain plug for the water tank and it was left open. All 50 gallons were in the floor. Back to the dealer again and picked it up after another month. After that, every time we took it out, something major went wrong. After about a year, I had had enough, and had made arrangements with the dealer for a trade. Enroute, the rear curb side tire blew out, the tread separated and tore a huge arc along the side of the trailer, hooked the rear step and pulled it partially off. I got out, looked at it, cursed, got back in continued to the dealer and got rid of it.
  • My dealer tells me the story of an impatient new coach owner from a few years ago. Wife driving their truck pulling their bass boat on the first trip out with the new motorhome. Husband following behind in motorhome to keep an eye on her. She stopped for a red light. He didn't. Took out the boat and the front end.
  • Join the club! While backing into a tight space I hooked some big rocks on my pretty truck's chrome bumper. Sometimes we just can't be careful enough.
  • Ah, **** happens. I'm sorry to hear. I once caught, of all things, that orange safty net stuff they use around construction zones, or in this case, a large out door show and they were using to section of our RV camping area. Well, I backed into it, did not see it, and it snagged the corner molding. Tore out 2 feet of it. A darn, cheap nylon net.........

    It happens. I wish best of luck on the repair
  • I feel for you...but at least you don't have to deal with repairs to the camper you hit.

    My story: brand new trailer (our first one). Bringing it home on the first day I backed into the overhang of our house while parking next to our garage. Tore a hole in the side AND the roof. To make matters worse our neighbors were out front watching the this whole rookie clown act.
  • We have all had those moments. I was backing my new TT up and instead of waiting one minute to get out and look I backed up and hit the bumper on the single pole sticking up just enough to put a nice crease in the bumper!