2008 Newmar KountryStar 3916 KSDP, Travel Blog

The Summer to Forget – Class A Motorhome Destroyed

On this six month anniversary of moving into our new RV, we reflect on the past summer. Summer 2025 is one we will hope to never repeat, starting with a major roof leak and ending with a bang on our way back to Wisconsin from a quick summer birthday trip to Tennessee.

Once we left the dry desert southwest and returned to Wisconsin, we experienced condensation inside the rig again, entering the motorhome through the AC ceiling vents. This recurring issue, being present for the past year or so, prompted Jason to thoroughly investigate and try to resolve it. The problem typically manifested on humid days, leading to the initial assumption of a clogged drain or internal AC unit issue. Our rear AC unit was the original 2008 model, while the front unit, having failed, was replaced by a Newmar dealer in 2019. After inspecting the unit, Jason discovered a more significant problem with the initial installation, made a repair, but ultimately, the repair compromised the unit more when the rains came the following week.

After more than a week of work to make those repairs, the roof was “repaired,” and we made a week-long trip to Dollywood in Tennessee with the family to celebrate Jason’s birthday. It was a great week at our favorite Gateway RV Campground, Dollywood theme park, and the accompanying Splash Country water park. The motorhome was very comfortable traveling with a six-year-old and her entourage. We stayed overnight at an Indiana Thousand Trails park each direction. Then, the explosion of the passenger-side steer tire, the bang against the jersey barriers, and an emergency stop in a construction zone pull-out changed the mood. That set in motion two months of homelessness, insurance navigation, financial negotiations with banks, purchasing a new motorhome, and transitioning into the new motorhome. All this happened at the same time Jason was serving an additional interim Chief Information Officer capacity at work and during the busiest time of the university’s year for the fall semester back to school.

Roof Top AC Leaks

You do not want to come home to find the rain outside is also inside! Fortunately, we had been sorting and had a table setup in the middle of the living room. This led as a conduit directly to the floor vents which guided the water through the basement and outside. It could have been so much worse inside, only a small amount of Barb’s craft supplies were impacted.

Ultimately, the roof failure and leaks stemmed from a poor installation of the new AC unit by the Newmar dealer in 2019. A lag screw missed the protective foam on one side, and this now hardened foam was only secured with double-sided tape that had let loose from the roof. This failed tape allowed water to enter the roof in front of the AC unit and it would ingress into the air ducts. Adding insult to injury, the technician used a dab of regular silicone on top of the lag screws, offering no protection against water seeping down into the roof. With four direct entry points along the screws, water pooled and entered the roof structure. Jason removed and reinstalled the unit, but without a new gasket, a small gap likely formed, allowing water to even more freely enter.

One example of the issues related to the installation. There were four large gauge lag screws drilled into the roof deck that were not properly sealed. This one even missed the “protective” foam it should have been screwed through.
We knew after the original repairs that sub-structure was compromised, but did not know truly how bad at that point. We needed to keep the water from running up to and into the depressions around the air conditioning. The first layer was EternaBond tape around the base of the AC (worse idea ever!) and then high mil plastic wrapping over it and out from the AC unit. The plastic wrap was the better idea to address the issue.

We contacted several technicians in the area, and only one responded to our requests. We agreed that removing part of the roof membrane would likely cause further issues. His solution was to build an “exoskeleton” of plates over the roof. We were desperate, as no one else was responding to the scope of the work. He agreed to work on it while Jason was away to training for a week and Barb was visiting our daughter. Unfortunately, during that week, the tech texted that we need to come and pick it up now, he refunded our money because he couldn’t do the work. So, we were back to square one. While we agreed with the idea, we decided it was now Jason’s project. Fortunately, Jason’s dad had a suitable, dry space for the work. After a full week of digging into the roof and building out the new structure it was repaired.

We were very thankful Jason could get the motorhome into his Dad’s shop, with the 14 foot doors, for the roof repairs. There were numerous soaking rains that week and Jason could continue with the roof open and undercover safely. The bonus is multiple hardware stores in multiple directions when supplies were needed, as well as reasonable Amazon delivery times!
The damage around the front of the AC unit was the worst, where the screws were a direct conduit into the fiber board. From there the damage radiated out about two feet toward the windshield and alongside the passenger side of the AC unit.
It may be ugly, but the ultimate final “exoskelton” around the AC unit worked out as planned. Using thick aluminum plates under the roof membrane and stainless steel plates over the top of it to give the new structure. Jason used toggle bolts to secure the AC unit and the plates to the roof, ultimately giving more structure than the lag screws could ever provide.

Was this the right approach?  Probably not, but we were in an emergency and we had to do what we needed to stop the rain from getting into the rig. Even though this approach took a week, it did ultimately address the structural problems and stopped the water from getting into the rig. We were not prepared to do a total re-roofing, and then the associated issues of peeling back and replacing the entire membrane. Ultimately, if we would have been able to get to a company that specialized in that work, and on a reasonable schedule, we would have considered it.

Jason’s Birthday Week

Dollywood has “Showstreet” as you come into the park, sort of the equivalent to Disney’s Main Street USA. Each season has different overhead views as you enter the park. In the “Summer Celebration” there is the “Kite Sky,” which gives that “Welcome to Dollywood” pop in the summer sun.

If you have been following along through past posts, you already know we used to be Disneyphiles.  Since the pandemic we have not felt the magic anymore. We have found Dollywood, the Smoky Mountains, and the Pigeon Forge area, to be much more laid back and enjoyable. Christmas at Dollywood is as magical as Disney used to be, and we wanted to check it out at other times of the year.

Summer at Dollywood can be warm and muggy, depending on where you’re from, it can feel temperate or oppressive! A solar-powered, wide-brimmed hat is one way to combat the Tennessee summer climate. We slowed down the six-year-old long enough to take this photo while pacing ourselves!

We had planned a summer vacation with the family to celebrate Jason’s July birthday while at Dollywood, a more extended stay from our previous Thanksgiving sprint with them. Whether the trip was even going to happen was looking meek, but Jason got the roof work done just before we needed to leave. That week away from work, with the family to celebrate, was a great reset and the roof repairs were in our rear view mirror now. Ultimately, the torrential summer rains of Tennessee tested the roof and it passed with flying colors!

Oma and Opa may have completely spoiled Ceci’s travels in the future. Super comfortable blanky, mobile Xbox gaming while traveling in the comfort of the motorhome! The adults took turns traveling with her and playing games on the big screen while heading down the interstate.

Steer Tire Blow Out

The “steer tire blowout” is a feared event for all big rig drivers, including motorhome owners and truck operators. Following our time in Pigeon Forge, we headed back with the family to Wisconsin and Minnesota. Two days into our return trip from Tennessee, with only an hour left until we reached our home base near Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a loud pop from under Barb’s passenger seat and the whole coach was shuttering. The front passenger-side tire blew out in a construction zone, but thankfully, the concrete jersey barriers prevented us from leaving the road like a pin-ball chute, and Jason managed to safely pull over in the emergency area.

With the tow truck backed up to the front, two tow-guys are trying to figure out how to connect to the non-existent points to pull the motorhome. The bridge we needed to pass under required them to not lift it more than one foot off the ground, or the motorhome would not clear.
The passenger rear corner of the motorhome sustained the most damage, hitting the jersey barriers hard. The impact ripped off the back lower cap, blew the outside tire, and mangled the rear dually rim.

This initiated two months of working with Progressive Insurance (we had an FRVA (formerly FMCA) full-time RVers policy) to cover the motorhome, towing equipment, and some personal effects damaged by the flying glass. Progressive was a great company to work with; about three of the six weeks it took to reach a final judgment involved waiting on vendors nationwide to provide parts quotes to the body shop. Once those parts reached the threshold, they quickly escalated the case through the required approval process for such a high dollar amount. JD Power provided a very reasonable cash value, and we even received a sales tax refund on the original purchase!

The damage was literally from headlight to taillight along the passenger side. We do not know what the total cost of the damage was, they stopped counting at $60K once they reached the required threshold to total it. Not only was there all the visible damage, but there was also damage to the leveling jacks, the living room slide, stairs and steering.

Our replacement rig is another Newmar Kountry Star, upgrading from a 2008 to a 2020! We had been tracking this particular rig since May and were making plans to consider the transition soon. It just didn’t happen on our timeline.

Door to door, making it much easier to transfer six years of motorhome living from one rig to the other. We had not done any pre-purging like we would when conducting a planned purchase and transition.
No penguins were left behind! We were very fortunate that our accident left us with our rig and not a total loss of everything in it.

What did we learn from our experience? We thanked God for the blessings of protecting our family during the accident and to provide us with the quick resolution of a new home. That while Progressive was a great company to work with, we struggled with the artificial border between agents of the state line.  In Wisconsin this was even more the case than it would be in Arizona or Florida, we had to politely continue to remind them this is our home not our vehicle. With those reminders, they did their best at accommodating us in their busy summer schedule. Keep track of personal affects that are damaged, which is covered through this specialized fulltime RVers insurance coverage. The Jeep being towed behind the motorhome was not considered a “trailer” but the Blue Ox was partially (hit a maximum per item amount) covered as a personal affect.

Progressive will not tell you who to use for your body shop, but they will tell you who others do and so will the local Newmar (insert your Class A motorhome dealer’s brand here) in the area. Our body shop was trusted by both and they were ultimately significantly higher than the insurance estimate. Our recent experience with the storm damage taught us, we want the most accurate estimate up front and not iterating through the repairs; we did not want to get into the repairs and have the estimate skyrocket later. If it had not reached that threshold, we were potentially going to be out of the rig for repairs for no less than four but more likely six months in total. They won’t tell you the magic number you have to reach, but you can probably figure it out with some researching. Ultimately, we were there for the walk through and made sure both Progressive and the body shop did not miss anything in their damage assessments.

Finally, be a project manager. Ask at the end of each counter when to expect the next follow up, what are the next steps to expect. Then when they go past that date, politely ask for follow up (in email usually) from them.

Ultimately, it was a blessing that Progressive dragged her away to the auction house, as we didn’t have to sell her ourselves. JD Power assessed her cash value, and Progressive offered a very reasonable price. They also gave us plenty of time to move into our new rig; from the accident to final pick up was almost exactly two months.

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