<<< HAIL >>>

[Cwies68]

Has anyone experienced hail on top of their Four Wheel? How does the roof and/or solar panels hold up to??

 

[ski3pin]

A recent discussion on Wander the West is here -

Avoiding Hail Damage

 

[Old Crow]

Not a Four Wheel but my brother's older Sunlite Eagle truck camper took a heavy hit in his driveway in upstate New York recently. His car and his daughter's car were totaled. His Tundra took $10k in damage, his home's roof $14K and he's still working with insurance on damage to his home's siding. He has been restoring a vintage airplane wing in his back yard and it was also damaged heavily.
On the truck camper, the hail broke off all the marker lights, destroyed the vent cover, and of course put dents all over the roof. One side of the camper has a few smaller dents from wind-blown hail. (It was partially protected by the Tundra parked beside it). When he looked at the roof dents closely, many of them had cracks in the aluminum at the bottom of the dent (!!!!!). (The camper does not have solar, by the way).
He had the camper in his driveway to fix it up for sale. He was preparing it for painting at the time. He replaced the vent and marker lights and filled the dent-cracks with Dicor self-leveling lap sealant and finished the paint job.
I'm happy to report that he sold the camper a few weeks ago and the new owner feels lucky to have it.
Here's a photo of it...

 

[okiedavid]

I have a 2018 Hawk. On my second trip I was heading home and went through a pretty severe t-storm that put multiple dents in the roof. The solar panel is still working fine. Given all the grief that the Overland Solar panels get on the forums, I've pretty impressed. P.S. I did talk to FWC about replacing the roof under an insurance claim, and they advised that if it wasn't leaking, probably would be better to just leave it. Considering that I live in Oklahoma and I would have to take it the factory and leave it, I can imagine the cost would spiral pretty quickly. Still no leaks, so I guess they were right.

 

[RnK]

Our 2014 Hawk was on our Tundra when a hail storm came through Missoula. Dents everywhere on the roof, none on the Tundra. No solar panels. Because we had a rider on our truck policy to cover the camper (something you might want to have if your insurance doesn't automatically cover the camper) we were able to get an estimate for repairs from FWC and get paid for it, minus deductible. The roof doesn't leak so we have not had it replaced. I'll attach a picture of the damage and the hail (being put to good use!).