Our rv awning was recently damaged by a very sudden, very brief, and very gusty little storm. We are staying the La Hacienda RV Park in Austin TX [ I'm going to do an updated video and make it much better than one I've linked, but for now... ]. It turns out that near Lake Travis winds can be very gusty. Maybe that is why at least one part of the lake is called Windy Point.
It is true, that I have written several articles on securing the rv awning and had I actually secured my awning after we had retracted it recently instead of being lazy, we would still have an awning (and the $500 insurance deductible). But I'm out both and I'll update you so you can learn from my experience.
First, here is a list of the articles I've written that explain to me that I know better:
- Secure the awning the old fashioned way : Bring it in if you are not with it or your are going to leave even for 15 minutes.
- Secure the rv awning using a Walmart RV Awning tie down kit.
- Secure the awning correctly using your own awning tie down components. This is the best way if you are going to leave your awning out.
We insure with Geico (see my list of well known insurers for RV insurance).
First, what was damaged : The awning was flipped up onto the roof. The arms of the awning (which was made by Dometic and is a 12 foot awning) were bent and the fittings were either bent or broken off the RV. The awning itself, which is heavy bumped the air conditioning cover and knocked a hole it the cover. It also bent our radio antenna. The awning was also tugged from the RV itself so it would not be secure against water anymore.
What we did after the damage : We called TWO RV repair services. One came out after two days and pretended to care and told us he could do it for $200. Another came out when we called and he said it would be $1400.
We took the guy who cared even though his bill was going to be $1200 more. We believe that there is discrimination against travel trailer people - which is what our RV is.
We then called GEICO. They have a separate RV insurance department that runs seemingly independently from the rest of the company. They sent out an adjuster within two days. The adjuster himself attends training regularly and is an expert in RV's. He asked me to get the quote faxed to him which I did. He called me late in the day and told me that he 'locked in the GEICO claim amount' before he saw the quote. It turns out he was $100 over the quote. But the long/short of it is that both the estimate AND the insurance company were within 8% of each other with no communications whatsoever.
GEICO then deducts the deductible from the total and sends the balance. It is as easy as can be.
Anyway, this is all a true story and is accurate as of August 2010 and it is about us and not just something I made up (like so much of what you find on the web).
Hope this helps! Cheers.
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