On May 15th of this year, our area suffered the effects of a hail stone storm. Fist size hail stones rained down for about 10 minutes. They tell me that millions of dollars of damage was done to property and vehicles within our small village and surrounding area. All summer long roofs were being replaced along with siding and windows. Our personal property, suffered over $53,000 in damage alone; 5 new building roofs, all new house siding, 9 new windows.
Not included in this total was the damage to our Montana. Nearly all the vents on the roof needed to be replaced along with the actual roof. It needed a new air conditioner cover and the fan blade needed replacement. The hail damaged all the lower wrapped sheet aluminum on the driver's side and broke one half of the rear escape window. It cut through the slide toppers which were in at the time. It took out several of our marker lights along with the stove vent.
The camper was towed to a certified Keystone repair center near Binghamton, New York several days after the storm. I had had it up there about a month earlier to measure for frame flex. They were very good in getting the measurements taken and submitting the information to Keystone. So I thought that they would do a good job in fixing the Montana. Well, things did not go as planned. We went back and forth with them all summer. We finally picked up the Montana the Thursday before the rally and discovered that not all of the repairs were made and some not to our satisfaction. In checking the estimate, some of the things that needed repair were not on the original estimate. We towed it home and spent two days cleaning loading it for the trip to Goshen. During this whole process, we missed 1 camping trip and two scheduled and rescheduled service appointments at the service center.
Once in Goshen, I contacted the service center and agreed to leave the camper there after the rally for flex repairs. I asked if they had anyone who did insurance claim work and they led me to D & T RV Repair. I called them and Tom came over to give me an estimate to fix the omitted items and repair the lousy work done at the previous repair shop. He just shook his head when he saw the shoddy workmanship on several items. This past Friday, I picked up the camper from D & T. They do FANTASTIC work. All the issues were fixed and it looks like new again. I cannot praise their work enough. If you need body work completed on your unit, this is a great place to have it done.
Well, the Montana is home, winterized and ready for another winter under cover. Hopefully next camping season will be better.
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