Winnie fails to score 3 pointer

    Let me tell the story and then get to the questions.  I post this in the Winnie section of the forum because it will soon have a question or two specific to Winnebago.
    Yesterday I was traveling from my coach storage to the house to finally finish up repairs on the awning control box.  Beautiful clear day and driving down a straight subdivision street that was none too wide with parking on one side (opposing traffic side).  With a car approaching I knew it would be close so I headed a bit to the right side of the street and just after the car went by I heard a very loud BANG but knew I did not hit that car and there was no car on my side of the street.  Checked my mirror and I see one of those portable basketball goals sitting in the street.
    So I stopped immediately and got out to see if there was any damage (that loud noise indicated it may be severe).  What I found is the extreme upper right corner of the passenger side windshield had been crushed with cracks coming out from it but not very far.  No damage to the body of the coach but one small ding on the awning rail fairly high up.
    The rest of the story:  I had hit the rim of the basketball goal which was extended into the street at about the 10 foot level.  A car would have cleared it.  The portable goal had it's base on the grass near the curb and the grass was a bit sloped so no doubt the goal itself was extended into the street plus the rim was out even further. When I hit this object, it pulled the entire goal off the grass and into the street.  I noticed a For Lease sign in front of the house and got no response when ringing the door bell but noted the name and phone number of the realtor.  I took photos with my cell phone and then noticed that there was a small cardboard sign on the ground next to the base of the goal - The sign read:  FREE.. omg.  I called the realtor to inform them of the event and told them they may hear from my insurance company.  They said the goal was abandoned by the previous renter and they were going to remove it the next day - bad timing.  BTW:  The covenants in this subdivision specifically prohibit placing basketball goals in the street.  They must be in driveways.  So much for that.
    Contacted the police department and they said no police report was necessary unless insurance company wanted one.  Then I contacted Nationwide (Allied Insurance) and after being told they had a special place for motorhome glass claims I was transferred about 3 times to the Safelite Glass office who initially asked me how far I was from Elkhart, Indiana - probably 800-900 miles.  I live outside Springfield, Missouri and she said they had an office there that would call me and get specifics and have to order parts.  Best news - no deductible on this so it would be a free replacement.

Well congratulations.  You made it this far so now it is question time.  The windshield is still intact and I put some duck tape over the smashed portion in the upper corner (about softball size).  If anybody has had their Winnie windshield (two part on this coach) replaced I would appreciate any lessons to be learned and tips that can be provided.  I have cancelled one local camping trip because I don't trust that windshield now.  It did make it back to storage.  I am most worried about, during the removal process, the whole thing crumbling and putting glass particles inside the coach and on the passenger seat but I am also worried about how the new windshield should be installed.  I have read that Winnie windshields are not installed as a car windshield is but not really sure of the differences.

Congrats - you made it to the end and I apologize for the length.

Bill

edit by staff - changed message icon to topic solved

I wouldn't worry about the glass getting into the coach. Glass companies usually always clean that up with a vacuum.

Bill N said:

... I have read that Winnie windshields are not installed as a car windshield is but not really sure of the differences....

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Actually, Winnie windshields ARE installed as car windshields are--I understand for many other brands it's just mounted in rubber gaskets rather than glued in.

A few years ago we had the passenger half of the windshield in our 2005 Winnebago Voyage replaced after being hit with a rock.  We also have Allied insurance and they found us a place that would replace the windshield that is only a couple of miles from us.  The place we took it to had done replacements in Winnebagos before and knew of the rust issue with Winnebago motorhomes.  He said the rust wasnt too bad and he cleaned it all up before installing the new windshield and we havent had any problems with the new one leaking. Our policy has a $200 deductible, but as has been our experience with Allied, they were very easy to work with on this claim, and we are happy with the results. I hope your experience is the same.

Be sure that whoever is going to replace glass is prepared to deal with a rusted frame - it's almost a guarantee yours is rusted to some extent. If you are lucky, it will just be superficial.

Yeah, what John said ^^^. Sorry for your bad luck Bill, but it may be a blessing in disguise. I had a 2006 Meridian and needed a windshield replacement  when it was just over a year old. They did the replacement in Forest City as I was on my way back there anyway for some other stuff.  They found rust around the frame on that coach too. 

sorry to read about your troubles, no fun at all.  I can't give any advice or help, except to wish you luck.

I cringe a lot in my neighborhood, in a similar way.  The streets are very wide and there's supposed to not be any long term parking on the roads, but we do have overnight parkers from time to time.  What's worse is that almost every lot has an oak tree planted between the sidewalk and curb, fairly young still, and the canopies extend out over the road & are right at roof height and low enough to catch my awning, etc... so I swing out over the middle at each one.  When I come to one when in my RV, it seems like there's almost always oncoming traffic.
Also, the mailboxes are all right at the curb..not extending to the street but just close enough to catch a mirror if you have to snuggle up to the side.  That one is a problem in my pick-up truck too.
So I try to stop and wait for the traffic to pass before I swing out around the trees...and I don't hesitate to stop in the middle of the road if necessary oncoming traffic can move over or I will

Had the drivers side replaced on my 2005 Winnebago Sightseer.  Had lots of rust. They sanded the frame to remove the rust and then treated the area with a rust preventing coating and then they glued the new glass into place.

The new glass fixed a water leak as well.

Just a FYI, when we use to replace windshields in our peterbilt tractors, we taped them up completely with masking tape and then kicked them out.
  We had a rock leave a softball size ding in the upper right hand passenger windshield in our Bounder. Didn?t bother vision  I taped it inside and out with black gorilla tape, cut tape in perfect circle with razor blade and drove it for two years. Didn?t leak or spread. If you didn?t point it, no one seemed to notice it. DW never liked my repair and one day she hit a jackpot on a slot machine and had windshield replaced on her own.

Thanks for the comments folks - all very interesting. Rust - I am hoping against it but it appears that may be wishful thinking.  The coach has been stored inside it's entire life with the exception of the original owner taking it to Texas in the winter for 3 months for several years.  I have no leaks so assume you mean rust that has seeped into the front metal frame and done it's dirty work.  Tomorrow I will contact the glass guy who is only a few miles away and get an idea of his experience in motor home windshields.  He is a Safelite Glass franchise.  Will keep you posted on any problems encountered.  I did send him a photo of the ID numbers on the glass this afternoon and the measurements - he requested that info.

Bill

    I live outside Springfield, Missouri and she said they had an office there that would call me and get specifics and have to order parts.  Best news - no deductible on this so it would be a free replacement.

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I?m going through the same thing now. I?ve been told by several glass companies that if it is a Winnebago the question isn?t if there is rust, it?s how much rust. The repair for rust is not covered and out of pocket.

I guess the question I need to ask now is this.  If the rust has damaged portions of the frame to the point where they need replacement, is Winnebago able to supply replacement parts for a 16 year old coach?  Hopefully this same windshield setup was used for follow on year models. 

Bill

The steel frame around the windshield on the winne's tend to rust.  There is nothing keeping the water from reaching the steel frame.  The rubber gasket which goes all the way around the windshield is just a press in piece of molded rubber.  You can actually gently pull the gasket back a little to see if there is rust on the frame. 

If you call a mobile glass repair and they pull out the windshield and find rust, you will wind up driving to a repair place w/o a windshield to have the rust cleaned up and the metal sealed and painted.  It takes a couple of days to do the repairs.

^^ What Al said ^^. Winnebago actually pulled my windshields and fixed my rusty frame twice. The second time was two or three years ago and this time I insisted I look at the frame with the glass pulled. There was deep pitting and they spent quite a bit of time grinding down to bare steel. Winnebago has a new coating process (after the rust is ground down) so hopefully this is a forever fix.

I find it hard to believe Winnebago can't properly rust proof the frame. You don't see it as much of a problem on other cars and trucks. I have the problem on my 99 Brave and my 03 Adventurer. I see posts with owners of 2016 and 2017 models with rust within the warranty period.

John Hilley said:

I find it hard to believe Winnebago can't properly rust proof the frame. You don't see it as much of a problem on other cars and trucks. I have the problem on my 99 Brave and my 03 Adventurer. I see posts with owners of 2016 and 2017 models with rust within the warranty period.

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I don't get it either, it's been a well known problem within Winnebago factory service and undoubtedly Owner Relations and engineering for years. It is my opinion the entire windshield frame and mounting system needs a redesign. The edges of the frame (and most of the steel in the house) are relatively sharp, not enough to cut a finger but sharp enough to where protecting the steel edge with a coating is very difficult. It just takes a tiny area where the coating has been chipped off where rust can start and grow like a cancer. As somebody previously mentioned, the rubber trim around the outside of the windshield is decorative only. Water gets forced under the trim and remains for a long time until eventual evaporation.

If you are a corporate bean counter (or product manager), the advantage of not redesigning the windshield system is that rust causing leaks will not occur within the one year house warranty so any repairs will not be their expense and there's no retooling and production line changes needed. Of course the downside is customer goodwill and negative reputation.

What very old TV program was it when William Bendix would say "What a revolting development this is."?  That is about how I am starting to feel.  I think it may be wise to arrange to have the windshield done on the premises of a shop that can do the rust refurbishment instead of having to drive a lot of miles without a windshield.  I will go over and check behind the rubber to see just how much rust is evident.  I imagine an auto body shop would be such a place for repairs.

Actually because of recurring medical issues I have been sort of aiming to get the coach ready for sale but it keeps nickeling me to death.  First the tranny went bad a couple of years back and that got a remanufactured one.  Then the AC compressor on the engine went bad and was replaced.  The awning required new fabric and that was done last summer as was a new set of tires.  This year the awning has gone bonkers and I have put a replacement control box on it after having to do a lot of rewiring a replacement control box.  Did that the same day the windshield got busted but the awning now works - if you know how to do it (such as retract with the engine running).  Anyway, what's one more problem huh?  lol

Bill

What very old TV program was it when William Bendix would say "What a revolting development this is."? 

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Life of Riley

Dragginourbedaround said:

Life of Riley

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Thanks Gene.
Update:  I went over to the Safelite shop Nixa, Missouri and talked to my contact point a guy named Brandon.  He says they have done two or three motorhome windshields and that Safelite has a policy about repair of up to 24 square inches of rust - that kind of stumped me because I asked if that would cover the channels of the windshield and I think he was a bumfuzzled as me and said he thought so.  If not, there is a shop that does auto body repairs right across the alley.  Safelite has a nice looking shop with several bays including one that has extra high doors.  He told me the parts are on order.  So far I am happy.

Bill

I?m taking mine to RV World in Nokomis, FL. They will repair the rust if there is any and have a mobile unit come in and install the new windshield. It?s been very difficult finding a company to do both. Thankfully I?m not doing the research, the insurance company is.