Octane 222 vs Gold Ball size hale

magnum12 · 07-31-2019, 04:03 PM

Good afternoon folks, my name is Greg, I did introduce myself in the Welcome Mat 😊, and I have a 2018 Octane 222SL that the family and I have very much enjoyed. In short we found this trailer on sale at the end of November and have been using it for short weekend trips up until our 9 day trip up into Yellowstone and Montana. Overall it was a great trip, wife loved the flexibility to move to different campsites and the overall camping experience. It was her first rv camping trip but as a kid, my family always went on our 10 day road trip in their 24’ Road Ranger so I had a good idea on the whole camping experience. Regardless it was a positive for her and she’s ready to go again.

Now here was the not so fun part of the trip. When we were coming out of Thermopolis, wy we got caught in a massive hale storm with 60 mph winds and the truck and trailer did not fare so well. With golf ball size the hood and roof of the truck were beat up bad and the entire drivers side of the trailer looks like I parked it at the driving range and it was used as a target. It did crack the windshield on my truck but did not break any glass on the trailer, it did mess up one of the window frames and will need to be fixed. My question is, how expensive could it be to reskin the entire side of the trailer? My insurance company estimated it to be about 5K but that is still to be determined as it goes into the shop on 8/20. Does that sound about right? There is other damage as well, both vent covers, TV antenna cracked, trim broke, propane tank cover cracked, etc…. and my fear is they might total it if the dealer prices are way higher then what the estimator lists.

LuckyDuck · 07-31-2019, 04:11 PM

We got hit by a freak hail storm a couple of months ago — more like ping pong ball size. All of the front and a little of side got hit and looks like yours it sounds like. I got a verbal estimate from a dealer without inspecting it — he said $3k to $4k to reskin. My insurance paid less than that and I decided to just keep the money rather than tear it apart and create possible new problems. It’s just cosmetic. Good luck!

magnum12 · 07-31-2019, 04:18 PM

Thanks LuckyDuck! The dealer wouldn't give me any kind of idea but my current insurance estimate is sitting at $7300.

AmericanBiker · 08-01-2019, 08:45 AM

What kind of outside "skin" is on your trailer? Is it the extruded stuff or does it have smooth fiberglass sidewalls?

magnum12 · 08-01-2019, 09:07 AM

It's the extruded stuff.

AmericanBiker · 08-01-2019, 09:17 AM

The insurance company will only pay low retail on a used trailer value but I doubt they would total it because it's still going to be cheaper to fix.
The real problem you are going to have is the time it will take an RV repair center to fix it and then dealing with everything they will do wrong. I don't envy you having to go through the process.

magnum12 · 08-01-2019, 09:31 AM

That is my fear as well is the time it will take them to fix it and how long it will take them to get the parts. Man I hope they don't screw things up to bad.

LuckyDuck · 08-01-2019, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magnum12

That is my fear as well is the time it will take them to fix it and how long it will take them to get the parts. Man I hope they don't screw things up to bad.

That was mine as well. I don’t have any leaks now — why take the chance that it will after they rip it apart? I can live with the dimples and hope to not sell it for years. By then the resale hit will be minimal and the insurance money will compensate for that. Of course, we were lucky that the skylights, windows and AC shroud were unharmed.

magnum12 · 08-01-2019, 10:40 AM

Both of my vents are smashed in and the TV antenna is cracked as well. Even the black side vents for the fridge and I'm guessing the heater, are really dented in as well.

How hard is it to replace the vent covers? Can you do just the cover and not the whole frame?

GL243 · 08-01-2019, 12:21 PM

For what it's worth, I used Eternabond to cover a crack in the foreward sloped side of the skylight on our 267BHSW that appeared to be caused by a bird or a rock, not sure what. Can't see it from the inside of the trailer due to a plastic edge in the design of the cover. Might be worth doing on a vent cover, even if just for a temporary fix.

magnum12 · 08-01-2019, 04:19 PM

Thanks GL but unfortunately large portions of my vents were smashed in but I am going to look at stuff up to keep on hand for an emergency repair.

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