Need help on getting damage estimate

[Zmod]

We store our trailer near Truman Lake in Missouri and a tree fell on the rear right side during a storm a couple of weeks ago. We were getting ready to leave on vacation and still haven't seen the trailer although a friend said it looked to be caved in about a foot in the rear and seemed to have a crease running down the side. Our insurance company wants us to get estimates to fix the trailer. The closest dealer is in the St. Louis area and I really don't want to drive it that far. Does anyone have any suggestions? Do you think there's a chance we might be able to "pop" the dent back out? Any help is appreciated.
John

[Inland RV Center, In]

Zmod.

The simple way,to get your trailer fixed, is to take it to a dealer that your comfortable with.

To get estimates ahead of time, one, means nothing, two, that dealer probably won't do the work for that, third, no insurance company has the right to ask you to get estimates (plural).

Your sole obligation is to take it to a reputable Airstream dealer. That dealer in turn, will work with your insurance company to get it fixed.

The round about ways, wastes everyones time, and you will wind up very upset, guaranteed.

Let the dealer do the hard work. That's part of his job.

Eventually, you will be happy to rid yourself of the burden.

Andy

[j54mark]

I am about the same distance as you from Bill Thomas in St. Louis, and I concluded an insurance claim with photos only. HOWEVER - my damage was clearly superficial.

Andy is quite right: photos are not going to do the job in your case. Few insurance adjusters are used to dealing with Airstreams, and it will be hard for them to believe that a local RV shop can't fix it. But they can't. In fact, few will even try.

You really have no choice but to take it to St. Louis and let them examine it throughly.

Your next problem may be the coverage, as the insurance company may well want to total a perfectly repairable coach.

Mark

[robandzoe]

John,

What do you have? Year, model? Worst case, they total it, you get the Ins $$$$, and buy it back from them on the cheap as salvage. That is, if they won't fix it.

Rob

[roger n cindy]

our insurance co had bill thomas give them a repair quote, and a value quote to total out our 67 caravelle. bill thomas said it was to expensive and difficult to fix and the value to total it out was way, way to low. according to thomas a 67 caravell was worth 2 or 3k. we ended up sending the insurance co several online for sale ads for 67 caravelles. they totaled it for just under 8k and we bought it back for under 1k then sold it as is for 8k two weeks later. the folks who bought it were aware of the damage and thought they got a bargain, i think they did to.
so where is this story going? apples to apples don't let them take your airstream for peanuts just because the repair is restrictive. insurance companies don't have that great a handle on the market for airstreams !!
roger n cindy

[GStephens]

How right your are Roger n Cindy. How right your are. Of course it can work both ways. Insurance once paid me $1,585 for a dent that I later had popped out for $100.
GStephens

[59toaster]

From previous posts on this forum you can pretty ell expect $1200-1500 per segment damanged including labor to install. That is just exterior panels. Since it's pushed in so far there may be interrior panels damaged and ribs damaged. Once you start haviing to pull the interrior out to repair, price will climb fast. I would expect right off the bat $3k just from hearing how far in it was pushed.

That said you may get the insurance pay out like others said and knock most of the dent out and be able to live with it.

There is a Bambi owner here that had a tree land square on his coach. The roof was buckled badly and the A/C destroyed. It looked horrible. He bought it back replaced a couple ribs and knocked out most of the damage and it looks pretty good concidering what had happend. Unless your looking for damage most would never notice what happend. You would have to look down on the coach to see the wrinkles.

[B.D.V.]

I know your post on this was some time ago, but if you haven't fixed it yet, and maybe you haven't, I thought I would weigh in on it. I would be careful about knocking it out yourself. You could cause more damage than you already have. Last weekend I saw this guy at the campground where we go and he was trying to fix something on the bottom of his pontoon boat with a sledge hammer!!!! And he was really, really whacking the thing hard!! Not only did it wake up everyone in the campground, but it seemed like not a real bright way to work on a boat! I guess there's no IQ test to buy a boat!