Will insurance cover cracks in front cap?

Update:

Insurance denied coverage. Brother told insurance company he would be contacting a lawyer and passing the word on how poor this insurance company treats it's long time customers (30 years with one small claim).

Brother purchased a new TT. Dealer said the crack was not an issue and gave a fair trade in price.

Lakeside

LarryJM,

Thanks for info. Brother had insurance adjuster come yesterday and take pictures. Adjuster indicated that this damage looked like "wind flex" which probably happened while traveling down the highway.

We will know what the insurance company decides in a few days and will update this post.

Thanks all.

Lakeside

lakeside013104 wrote:
Brother's 2007 Holiday Rambler Aluma-Lite has 1/8" wide crack starting at top of cap where it joins roof then runs down the front for about 44". The other side of the cap has the same start point for a crack, but this one runs down the front for only 18".

Dealer says original manufacture of unit is out of business so any repairs will be paid for by owner. Dealer says he can repair for $4,000, but will not guarantee that crack will not reappear.

Search on line shows others with this issue have had insurance cover cost of repairs about three out of the ten issues we found.

DB says he has trailer insurance and he does not recall hitting anything.

Inspection of cracks show NO obvious impact damage.

What say you all with experience on this issue?

I will pass info on to DB.

Lakeside

I have the same model trailer and my front cap cracked within 8 months of me buying it and at that time the cap was about 20mo old from the date of manufacture. Mine was replaced under warranty at that time (2008). Another member here (wohtex) went thru the same thing here back in 2010 and we traded several e-mails at that time. I never heard the final outcome, but he evidently no longer has that trailer, but his insurance (State Farm) paid $2700 for the repair back then and it appears the repair is really a bear since the cap is IIRC ABS which is a real bear to repair properly so be careful who and how you have someone attempt to repair. As you found out those caps are no longer made and there is no spares anywhere. I think if mine ever has that problem again, I might just have the front redone with a sheet of filon or fiberglass. However since that cap is just a covering I'm not sure what sort of bracing or mods would be needed to change the cap to a simple sheet of filon or fiberglass.

When I had my issue Monaco indicated that those caps are exceptionally sensitive to the torquing of the retaining screws along the roof edge along with the expansion of such a large and wierd molded cap.

Good luck and please let me know the final outcome and if possible could you have your brother take some pics of the front of his trailer with the cap removed so we can get some documentation of what that area looks like with the cap removed. I didn't and neither did wohtex get a chance to do that so this might be of great help to others in the future. I'm particularly interested in the bracing there and/or how easy it might be to add bracing and use an alternate material for the front.

P.S. HERE is somemore info on wohtex's repair that I missed in my initial post.

Larry

Uuuum - hate to state the obvious but.............. why don't
you call your insurance company and find out or better yet read
your policy?

They are the first people I always call whenever I have a question.

Gerry

I had my whole front cap repainted for $800 and I can't imagine filling a crack would be that much more. Time to shop around.

$4,000 seems way too high. Find an independent RV shop. Dealer rates are higher than independents. My front cap is fading and I found an independent shop that will paint it for $850.00. They'll remove it, sand off the gel coat, paint it and re-install it with decals that I would purchase. I can't imagine that it would be another $3,000 to repair the two cracks. The shop I go to has done some warranty work on my 5th before and does warranty work thru my manufacturer for those that are not near a local dealer. When I mentioned to him that his price seem quite a bit lower than what others were being quoted from dealers, his reply was that their rates are considerably higher than his.
Check around for a lower price.

so a branch on a tree in your yard hit your trailer and cracked it? ;) That would be a Comp claim. Normal wear however isn't. if someone got it covered under insurance they claimed it as an event not something that just happened. I'm not advocating lying to the insurance only you can make that call however if you do, you need to be specific as to an event that caused damage.

Comprehensive covers damage that is not a collision (which this sounds like). I check with your agent or company and have them determine if the policy provides coverage. Having an estimate for repair or replacement would be good to have in hand.

This is a travel trailer that has been owned for several years, insured for that time, and having cracks show up now........(lakeside is my brother) and I am the owner. We talked to Holiday Rambler/Monaco and got a very sarcastic answer!

Hope you bought it cheap!
Why would insurance pay for existing damage?
For my money, and since you already bought it, I would totally remove the front cap and find a fiberglas specalist, either a boat or Corvette specalist and have them to a proper repair. Then rehang it