80mph gusts wind ..ripped off half roof

Dear Jack
You have some good information here. My take, use all the free resources at your disposal before hiring an attorney. I would send all the info to the man in the home office AND contact the State insurance dept. Do both as the state moves kinda slow.
Recently I received a quote of $5200 to coat the roof of my 38 foot motorhome, the coating would be a quarter inch thick guaranted for life.
Here is a phone number for RV Roofing Solutions 888-847-7010, they can give you an idea of cost and if they can spray over the wood and the fiberglas left on the roof.
Personally I think you have a good case and you need to pursue the free options first. An attorney would cost you more than the repair. Anyway wishing you good luck!

Is the OP still around? Unless I missed it, I don't see where he told us the final outcome on his claim with Progressive?

A buddy of mine, who lives in Richmond, VA, had his Winnie roof peel off in a storm a few weeks ago. It was an older unit. His insurance covered it. It is in the shop right now. I don't know the insurance company he uses.

Belgique wrote:
The roof on my Winnie peeled off last Nov from a near miss tornado. Progressive was superb. No Hassle. $12K. Replaced with a rubber roof - better than new.

Not better than new if it's rubber.

The roof on my Winnie peeled off last Nov from a near miss tornado. Progressive was superb. No Hassle. $12K. Replaced with a rubber roof - better than new.

I am interested to know if he ever got an actual denial letter. When I was a claim adjuster and denied something it was mandatory that a denial letter was sent out. You cannot just deny a claim for no reason. Progressive treated us very very well when our fiver was destroyed in Hurricane Irma. This doesn't sound like Progressive at all.

Jim@HiTek wrote:
Although this is a year old thread, it's important that owners are aware of a major fiberglass roof weakness. Winnebago roofs are notorious for having the roof peel back in strong winds, and it has happened to Winnie's sitting on dealers lots right after delivery from the factory as well as aged Winnies. Their roof to sidewall attachment method simply isn't good engineering practice and yet it seems they don't want to give it up, or improve factory inspection, preferring to insist it's the owner's lack of maintenance that causes it, or to even deny it happens. Roof peelback in windstorms or on the freeway has been happening to Winnie's since they invented the attachment method.

Not being a big fan of hard work on a rooftop, I opted to protect my roof with a DIY solution before the rig gets caught in a windstorm. And the best solution I've found is using 2" wide Eternabond tape along the edges. Here's my blog post about it: Fiberglass roof...

Sorry, but having owned two older Winnies so far, I just don't believe a lot of your claims. As the scientific community likes to say, "the plural of anecdote is NOT evidence". The fact that a small number of any product has issues, clearly does not make that product "notorious". I have seen issues with older Winnies, and peeling roofs, on several occasions. Far less that a 1/10 of one percent of all Winnie products I have observed in use, BTW. Oddly enough, a quick view of a rig with a peeling roof, from 30' away, typically makes it quite clear that the roof is just one of many issues on a coach that clearly been abused, and neglected.

In other words, "oh look, it's a twenty year old Winny that looks like it a mobile meth lab, and has the sheet beat out of it. But the roof is peeling due to the crappy Winny design, NOT from ignoring all maintenance for the last decade, right?"


As for you claim that it even happens in dealer lots to new units, absent printed proof from a reliable source, I'm not buying it.

Finally, In travelling hundreds of thousands of miles in RVs over the last two decades, I have seen exactly zero peeling roofs on any class A, while it was rolling down the highway. When it comes to travel trailer and 5ths, I have seen rubber roofs that had air forced under them and were inflated like balloons, literally too many times to count. I have owned two obsessively maintained trailers that suffered roof leaks, and my two Winnies were/are as dry as a ghost fart. Strictly anecdotal indeed, but it has lead me to conclude that I'll take a glass roof over rubber, any time.

Jim@HiTek wrote:
it has happened to Winnie's sitting on dealers lots right after delivery from the factory as well as aged Winnies.

Wow, yours is the first reference I have seen roof peeling on brand new Winnie's on dealer lots. When and where did that happen?

Although this is a year old thread, it's important that owners are aware of a major fiberglass roof weakness. Winnebago roofs are notorious for having the roof peel back in strong winds, and it has happened to Winnie's sitting on dealers lots right after delivery from the factory as well as aged Winnies. Their roof to sidewall attachment method simply isn't good engineering practice and yet it seems they don't want to give it up, or improve factory inspection, preferring to insist it's the owner's lack of maintenance that causes it, or to even deny it happens. Roof peelback in windstorms or on the freeway has been happening to Winnie's since they invented the attachment method.

Not being a big fan of hard work on a rooftop, I opted to protect my roof with a DIY solution before the rig gets caught in a windstorm. And the best solution I've found is using 2" wide Eternabond tape along the edges. Here's my blog post about it: Fiberglass roof...

No doubt it's time to get an attorney involved. You paid your insurance premiums and now it's time for your insurance company to pay. I wouldn't give up on that. At least go talk to an attorney and see what he thinks. I think it's BS that an insurance company can just pick and choose what they want to pay for. You insured your motorhome for things like this now their backing out, that's not right. If they wasn't going to cover your roof they should have said that before they took your money.