In one fell swoop last night of a half hour. Life has changed. 2:30 am, Saturday night it hit, we got a huge hail storm come in. At first it didn’t seem bad, then it started to get a little scary, sounded like artillery shells hitting the Rv roof, then one crashed through the bathroom vent, landing on the floor. It only lasted not even five minutes, but seemed like a lifetime. The hail stones were baseball size, not little marbles like usual, these were big suckers. When it was over and the rain stopped, i went outside like any other idiot would, and of course went on the RV roof. It was not good, both air conditioner covers had holes in them, the bathroom vent and sky light has holes in them. The worst however was while i was walking on the roof, in places it felt soft, not good. Looking further there were impact craters in the rubber roof. The hail had punched into the plywood decking, but did not put holes in the rubber roof, not any i found yet however. I got a number of towels from Melissa and began stuffing all the holes. More rain coming, two more storm fronts came through with a lot, lot of wind and rain. By eight in the morning it was mostly over.
I once again got on the Rv roof. I counted at least 100 impacts of hail on the roof, most over an inch deep, as i looked out over at the truck, my heart sank, the back tonauer cover was full of holes and the hoods of the truck looked like a cratered moon scene. The truck is a mess at least 38 impacts on the hood, not dings but dents. Even the driver side got hit hard, dents all over. By this time people were out, not many of the 400 plus Rv here excaped damage, some cars had to be towed away .
I have taped and patched up all the holes, i can and hope there is no punctures through the roof. Both insurance companies have been called ,and now we will see.
THE BIGGEST THING HOWEVER, IS OUR TRIP OUT WEST IS OFF.
We have decided to go back to our home base at my brothers in Lockport, NY. There is just to much damage to deal with being on the go, and we both decided we would most not really enjoy ourselves, while dealing with all this. We leave here Tuesday and will most likely be back home by the 21st, 22nd of May. No fanfare , visiting, sightseeing or anything like that for now.
As you may think, Yes, we both are pretty distraught, but we are SAFE, no one got hurt that i know of. We are trying to take it in stride, and most the most out of it, thinking we will be able to visit family, friends during the summer, get all back in order, and head back out in Fall.
For now Dave, out.
ROADS OF DISCOVERY 
😢 I am so sorry to hear this! It’s painful looking at those photos and feel almost sick to my stomach, so can imagine how you are feeling. There no escaping from this kind of weather. And to hear your trip west is off is heartbreaking. That was one brutal storm. But being home where you know the repair shops is a wise choice. We will be hoping a complete replacement by the insurance company is in the future for you. Do you have to stay there until a local assessor comes? Wonder if they will do a better job for your claim since they know the weather impact first hand. Please keep us posted! Hugs.
Holy Smoke!! Sorry to hear about this setback. I have never seen hail that big before! I did see a post this morning on one of the RV Facebook pages about someone in Orange Beach with a new Winnebago MH that had their fan vent shattered last night from the hail. They had a similar picture of the Baseball size hail. Who would expect to get hail that size in Alabama?? I am glad you two were not hurt. I’ll bet the insurance company totals the 5th wheel. Heading back home to deal with local shops that you are comfortable with repairing your unit is a good idea. I wonder if your insurance company will pay for a short term apartment (while your 5th wheel is being repaired or you look for a replacement) and another vehicle while the truck is being repaired? Depending how this plays out, it might be an opportunity to consider other RV types if you two want to try something other than another 5th wheel.
FYI. When Winnebago put the new Fiberglass roof on my coach last July, I heard it was $17000 for them to cover the existing and $30,000 to do a complete tear off and replacement.
Wow….that must have been scary. You hear of storms doing damage but you never think it will happen. We are so thankful you are all okay Heading home will be good until you get things settled. Let us know your next steps and plans Sending you both a hug.
Cooper must have been scared too. Yikes
Sorry to hear about this, but I am glad everyone is safe! Good luck with the repairs and making new reservations.
Similar situation happened to us about three years ago. We were not expecting an emergency rv roof repair 5 miles from our site but that is what happened. We were lucky the site had a store and we found two products that worked great. http://www.rvroofmagic.com fixed the leaks on the roof and we actually found a replacement skylight from someone selling salvaged unit about 12 miles away. Nothing prepared us for that day. We thought we were going to have to drive about 2 hours to get to a full service station for rv’s