You’ve probably heard the horror stories on the Weather Channel — about golf ball-sized hail — even baseball-sized hail. Regardless of whether the hail is large or supersized, it can do a lot of damage if it strikes your RV. Not only will it dent its roof and sides, it can crash right through plastic vents. RVers who have been through such a storm never forget the experience.
Have you ever been caught in a hailstorm that caused damage to your RV? If so, please leave a comment.
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After reading the horror stories of other people’s experiences, I realize how lucky I’ve been. Back in the 80s the aluminum roof of my Jayco pop-up got dimpled by hail several times on various trips, but it was closed up during the storms and there was no other damage. It never affected the rig’s function. The family got 16 wonderful years out of that camper.
About six years ago in Garyowen, MT the sky turned black. It started with pea size hail and then changed to golf ball size. The noise was deafening! When it stopped inspection revealed all three A/C cover looked like Swiss cheese, the satellite dome cracked open and the basement doors on the curb side all dented. The Jeep passenger side all dented and the hood had 97 dents. Damage to RV $11k and Jeep $6k.
Hail broke the skylight on my sons trailer, filled the tub with hail, shredded the shower curtain, and as you can imagine, they wrote the trailer off.
We live around Calgary and hail is an every summertime event, just not a welcome one.
August 2014 while camping at church camp everyone was in the new chapel when a freak hailstorm hit from the west. Every house in town had to replace windows and roofs just on the west side of their homes. However the vehicles at the campground were not so lucky. Cars and trucks all looked like sledge hammers had been used to cover every inch of the vehicle. Our motorhome was full of water and melted hailstones that came tumbling out when we opened the door. Grapefruit sized hailstones were even INSIDE of the furnace vent, they hit so hard. Needless to say it was totaled, not one dry, undamaged area inside. Fortunately two guys who were employees of the Winnebago RV plant close by gave us a pretty good price for our “worthless” piece of junk. They had easy access to replacement parts. Corn fields about ready for harvest were merely stubs by that evening. The town even got out their snowplows that August to clear the highways of the build up of leaves and hailstones. That sure ruins your camping experience in a hurry. I hope to never again experience anything like it.
We decided to go full time and a day after we put the reality sign up in front of our house, we had a hail storm with billiard ball size hail that lasted maybe 4 minutes. $10,000 damage to the 5th wheel and $70,000 to the house and barn. All vent and skylights had holes, AC covers looked like Swiss cheese. I climbed on the roof and used Gorrilla tape and plastic to cover the holes while it was still raining. Gel coat walls and all windows were ok but aluminum base skirting all damaged. Strasburg Colo.
Had a new travel trailer hit Damaged one side. $9300.00 damage Had to replace aluminum siding and decals on door side
Our European RV was pummelled in the Badlands, whilst we stood by helpless. It was our first experience of golf ball hail. When we shipped it back to the UK, and then to Spain, the roof was a constant reminder of an amazing year of travel ‘over the pond’
This a problem in my neighborhood in SW Texas. I built my present house in 1993 and I’m going to put on the 5th roof. My 1996 Gulfstream MH has been in the driveway during most of the hail storm and the roof is still the original. I did have it recoated several years ago due to sun wear. The last hail storm we had on March 28 totaled my 1 year old class 4 roof, damaged 2 pickups in the drive and my 2 year old boat cover. It did damage the 5 clearance on the back of my MH. Over the years I’ve had damaged AC fins until replaced the covers with the Camco covers. Several Awnings while rolled up, Roof vent covers, Skylight, and Fridge vent cover. The rubber roof is tougher than the shingle roof on the house.
After a year of work completely re-doing our 1978 Airstream, it was totaled while sitting in the yard before we had used it once. Luckily I had just increased the insurance on it a couple weeks before. It actually came through pretty well, most of the roofs in town have been replaced. We bought it back and have now made several trips with a trailer that has a little more character.
I reported NO and I hope we never do!
Polls are not coming thru..got them until about 4-6 weeks ago, then nothing..No hail damage, probably because my part of the country only gets small hail maybe once a year..more likely once every 2 or 3 years.
March and April 2016 brought 2 very violent and serious hail storms to the Dallas, Texas area. They were about 2 weeks apart. Very seriously damaged out 5th wheel street side, and the roof and skylight dome. But no windows were broken! Almost all of the RVs and trailers at the RV storage site/repair facility were damaged. They had to hire 4 more workers to cover the load, and it took about 6 months to get our trailer ready to roll again.
In 2013 at the FMCA rally in Gillette, WY there was the hail storm with very high winds. The back of my MH was facing into the wind and with the hail blowing almost horizontally it came through the vent slots in the back of both A?C units and flattened the fins.
Two years ago, we were camped at the KOA in San Antonio, 10:20pm, when we were hit by golf ball sized hail that lasted about 20 minutes. Our truck ended up dimpled like a golf ball, about 8k in damage while our 5’er took about 6k damage. We were one of the LUCKY ones. Don’t care to go through something like that again anytime soon..
I had one Trailmanor totaled and another seriously damaged. Main reason I bought our Lance (besides obvious high quality) was the non metal exterior.
In July 2016, while at Custer State Park, South Dakota, we were in our Rialta (aluminum roof) a hail storm came thru. It lasted about 20 minuets and covered the ground white. We were under some tree limbs, which helped protect the MH. The plastic vent cover was broken and the roof looked like a dimpled golf ball. Other campers more out in the open had A/C covers broken and dents in vehicles. Insurance covered the damage when we returned home.
I responded no. I have had the RV for only 2 1/2 years, The year before, my truck sustained substantial hail damage, parked where my RV is now. The previous owner (18+ years ago) received hail damage to his RV which necessitated a new roof.
We were in Itaska State Park in northern Minnesota when the storm hit in the middle of the night.
Hail broke both skylights, destroyed the awning, slide awnings and deeply dented the tow car, all over. Sounded like grapefruit being thrown on the top of the motorhome. It was so bad did not want to go out in it and find a shelter so rode it out. I never leave the awning out now without checking the upcoming weather first or not checking out where exactly the weather shelter is.
don’t voted yes because Our previous travel trailer, a 1987 Nomad Weekender, sustained client-side hail damage to the ripple skin while sitting in our yard here in Belen, Nm. Our current TT has not sustained any hail damage — yet.
Meant to say “I voted yes”. I hate auto correct.
Just need to proof-read before sending
We were caught in a hail storm in Golden, CO in 2017. Our toad was totalled and all of our slide toppers and one slide roof had to be replaced. One skylight was also broken by the golf ball sized hail. We will definitely bring our slides in the next time we know a severe thunderstorm is coming
I think that’s good advice. We haven’t experienced any bad hail storms, but haven’t traveled a lot in recent years. With our newer RV we plan on travelling more and I definitely will watch the forecasts and pull in the slides!