Hail Damage Repair

Hail damage on a recreational vehicle is misjudged in both directions. Owners see dents on the sides and worry about cosmetics, while the damage that will actually cost them is on the roof where nobody looks.

What hail does, by surface

Membrane roofs, EPDM and TPO. Punctures where the impact breached the material, and bruising where it compressed the membrane without breaking through. Bruising is the dangerous one, because it is not a leak today and it is a weakened area that fails later, typically after the claim is closed.

Fiberglass roofs and caps. Stars, crazing and cracking in the laminate. Fiberglass does not dent, it fractures, and a fracture in a roof laminate is a water path.

Metal panels. Classic denting, usually with paint intact, which makes it the ideal case for paintless dent removal.

Air conditioner shrouds, vent covers and skylights. Cracked and shattered plastic. Cheap items individually and numerous on a coach roof.

Windows and windshields. Chips and cracks.

The pattern that matters: the visible side damage is usually the least expensive part, and the roof, which nobody inspects, is where the money is.

Get on the roof

After any hail event, inspect the roof or have it inspected. From the ground you will see nothing.

Look for punctures, and for circular indentations where the membrane has been compressed. Check every vent cover, skylight and air conditioner shroud for cracks. Check the sealant at every penetration, because impact frequently disturbs it.

An inspection immediately after a storm costs very little and it is the difference between a covered hail claim and an uncovered water damage claim two years later.

The insurance timing problem

Hail is covered under comprehensive on essentially every policy. The claims that fail are the ones filed late.

A carrier presented with hail damage a year after the storm will reasonably ask how the damage can be attributed to a specific covered event, and in most cases it cannot be. The claim is declined, and the owner is left with damage that was covered at the time and is not now.

So: photograph the vehicle, record the date and location of the storm, and open the claim promptly even if the damage looks minor. Our insurance section covers claim strategy in more detail, and insurance claim repair covers how we work the claim itself.

What we do

Full hail assessment including the roof, membrane patching and replacement, fiberglass laminate repair on roofs and caps, paintless dent removal on metal panels, conventional repair and refinishing where paint is broken, vent, shroud and skylight replacement, resealing every disturbed penetration, glass replacement, and per-unit documentation for insurance.

Fleet hail

A hailstorm across a parked fleet damages everything at once and nothing badly enough to stop it running, which creates a scheduling problem rather than a mechanical one.

We handle those as a programme. Full assessment with per-unit documentation and VIN level records up front, a scope agreed with the carrier, then vehicles scheduled in batches sized so the operator is never short more than an agreed number.

Carriers process multi-unit claims far more smoothly when the documentation is per vehicle from the start rather than assembled retrospectively, which is worth the extra effort at the assessment stage.

What it costs

Body and paint labor is $210 per hour with paint supplies at $55 per paint hour. See the pricing page.

Estimates are $150 and credited back against an authorized repair.

Storing a vehicle where hail is a risk

Hail is uncommon in coastal Southern California and it is not uncommon at altitude, in the high desert or on the routes many owners take through the mountain states in summer.

The practical mitigations, in order of effectiveness: park under structure where any is available, which is worth going out of your way for when a storm is forecast; carry and use a purpose-made hail cover on trips through hail-prone regions, which is bulky and considerably cheaper than a roof; and check the forecast rather than discovering the storm from inside the coach.

For fleets, covered parking pays for itself the first time a storm passes over a yard with thirty vehicles in it. Where covered parking is not possible, spreading vehicles across two locations reduces the chance that a single storm cell takes the entire fleet out of service at once.

None of this is exotic advice. It is worth stating because the alternative is a claim, a deductible, weeks of downtime and, on a coach, a roof that may never be quite as good as the original.