2009 Adventurer 32h sidewall issue.

[dali]

I am an original owner of a 2009 Winnebago Adventurer 32h and have a sidewall problem. All of a sudden 2 weeks ago the wall to the right of the entry door (see attached photo) red lines indicate where the cracks are..

This all happened when it was parked on a site levelers down over a 2 week period. Hasn't moved.. hasn't been hit. Can't figure it out.

I am also attaching other photos of the actual wall and the cracks in the wall. I have never seen anything like this before. They are hairline and long. I cant tell if it is just the paint or also the gelcoat.

Anyone out there have any ideas??? So far Winnebago has been no help.
Thanks in advance.

[2NewRVers]

Originally Posted by dali

I am an original owner of a 2009 Winnebago Adventurer 32h and have a sidewall problem. All of a sudden 2 weeks ago the wall to the right of the entry door (see attached photo) red lines indicate where the cracks are.. This all happened when it was parked on a site levelers down over a 2 week period. Hasn't moved.. hasn't been hit. Can't figure it out. I am also attaching other photos of the actual wall and the cracks in the wall. I have never seen anything like this before. They are hairline and long. I cant tell if it is just the paint or also the gelcoat. Anyone out there have any ideas??? So far Winnebago has been no help. Thanks in advance.

Hi , sorry your having this problem. I used to own a body shop for many years, from the picture it looks to me like it may have had paint work done. It looks like from the picture they tried to blend the paint, as the metal flake is a little different in size right past the crack. It may have been damaged during transporting it to the dealer or during a test drive. The dealers don't have to disclose damage under I think $500.00. I personally know of a dealer who had an employee wreck a new car to the dollar amount of $8000.00 and they fixed it and sold it as new. I hope I'm wrong , but a reputable paint and body shop can look at the paint and tell you if it's been worked on. Good luck

[smlranger]

Dali, that looks nothing like the filon/gelcoat checking I had on my 2002 Journey or other coaches I've see with checking/crazing. The long vertical line in your photo looks too uniform. The checking I had was spider-like.

I would agree with the post above. Find a good collision repair/paint shop and see what they say.

Is this confined to only this one location on the coach?

[Petro]

Dali;

Thanks for joining us on the Winnebago Chat Tuesday night. You have raised my interest and likely others in what may have caused this problem. We would be happy to have you join us in the chat and share with us your resolution to this unfortunate experience.

Don

[bobmac]

dali:
I have a 2009 Journey with a May 2009 build date. Around that time for a very short period, Winnebago used sidewall panels that later proved to be defective. On my coach which I purchased in July 2010, there were very fine hairline cracks emanating from the corners of a couple of the windows. You had to look very closely at the right angle with sunlight on the coach to see these. They were not plainly visible as yours appear to be.
My wife observed them when the Coach was brought out of the Winnebago Service Center at the end of the day after having other issues corrected in the fall of 2010. Fortunately, the tech called the Service Manager out to see the problem and arrangements were made to correct it. I suggest you check your build date and see if you have these hairline cracks and contact Winnebago. There are other reasons that you could have sidewall cracks - the fact that it is a 09 coach when Winnebago had the problem, might indicate your coach had the same panels as mine if it was built around the same time. I'm sure that they can also tell from their build records is yours could have these panels. Their fix on my coach was to completely replace both sidewalls - an extremely invasive process for the coach.
I bet Winnebago told you "they have never heard of this problem before" when you called!!!!
Good luck,

[Superslif]

Not that I own a MH, but my first tt, while doing the inspection after delivery (PDI), I noticed a filled / crack line running from the roof line to bottom...over the wheel well area. Since I have done a good deal of body work and auto painting in the past, I knew it was a "repair". You can see it was filled, painted and the decals laid over top. So I noted it with the dealer, they said the walls only used "full" sheets of fiberglass. ?? So this must have been a sheet of fiberglass that at some point was seamed.

When I called Dutchman to cover this "repair" for the life of my "new" trailer, the warranty person said give me your VIN. She looked it up and said this unit was pulled out of production, repaired and finished. When I called back and talked to the head warranty lady to request a written statement that this "repair" would be covered for my ownership of said RV, she stated this other lady should have never given out that info, and in the first place never been privy to it. She stood by the statement that "the repair" was as good or better as the original product, but would not extend the repaired areas warranty Hum..

What I was worried about it cracking after a year or two when it was out of warranty. They would not do that. In the long run over 7 seasons it never cracked, but it was clearly there, but most people would never see it. The paint was a little duller , smoother texture and the filled area about 1/8" wide did shrink a hair. Here is a link to a few pictures of the repaired area.

So I would call Winny, and see it your VIN will show you had the suspect fiberglass. Your going to have to get up close to see if just the paint cracked, or the fiberglass too.

[dali]

Originally Posted by bobmac

dali:
I have a 2009 Journey with a May 2009 build date. Around that time for a very short period, Winnebago used sidewall panels that later proved to be defective. .
I bet Winnebago told you "they have never heard of this problem before" when you called!!!!
Good luck,

Yep, They were not any help and just gave me the line that it was out of warranty. I wish I could get more info on the run of bad sidewalls. Anyone out there have any more info on this?? Thanks, Dom

[bobmac]

Dom:
You can determine he build date from the beige sticker in the driver's area that has the tire pressures on it. You can also download a "Service Parts List" (NOT the Parts Catalog) by going to the Winnebago Ind. Website (Not Winnebago but you can access it from the bottom of the Winn page). Go to Resources - Manuals & Diagrams - Parts Catalogs and you will see the link to D/L the Service Parts list for your coach. You need your Coach SN and the build date is on the first page of the service parts list.
Mine is Apr 29 2008 for my 09 Journey and if yours is within a couple of weeks, I would go from there. This is a problem Winn had for a very short period but it did affect many coaches. Obviously, these things happen from time to time and any manufacturer does not broadcast such problems. My understanding is that there were several manufacturers beyond Winnebago - that were impacted by the same bad batch of panels. I will PM you with the part number of the panel on my coach.

[dali]

bobmac thanks for the info.. I will look it up and let you know.

[dali]

Insurance company paid for the repair less the deductible.

Repair included grinding out the cracks repairing with a "repair kit" I think it is used in the marine industry and repaint.

Looks good right now.. time will tell if it re-appears.