Guys, As many of you know my Wife and I have had a kind of bad year with the loss of my middle Brother-In-Law, the loss of 3 of our beloved cats, I'm still unemployed, ect (hoping that 2013 will be better for us)

Anyway, we finally were able to go on our maiden voyage with our brand new travel trailer over the holidays-we didn't go very far-just about 2 hours north of us here in Florida-to the Palm Coast/St.Augustine area.

We had a great time, got our feet wet with the trailer (2012 Forest River Sierra 323FK 35.9' coupler to rear bumper) and actually did pretty well.

Well....right about a mile from home on Sunday we stopped at our local Sonny's to eat before we got home (I parked at WalMart next door)
and when we went to leave I obviously turned too sharp (had a 9' Kayak sticking out of truck bed with topper door door bungeed down) and we heard a crash and yep, you guessed it- the topper door shattered!
The topper door edge also scratched the fancy nose on the front of the trailer too.

The darn topper door is the least of my worries, but the deep scratches on the (fiberglas??) nose on the trailer is the worst of my worries now.
I have been kicking myself in the *** all weekend over this-what a dummy!!

Anyway....a few questions for you all:
(1) Should we claim on insurance? we have full coverage on both units....or will STATE FARM likely raise our rates for something like this??
(2) As far as the topper door....its a 2000 Florida Line topper that is made about a 2.5 hour drive from my place-I am getting ready to call them and see about a replacement......the topper itself is fiberglas but the door frame is aluminum and the glass was actual automotive safety glass-are these doors somewhat generic where I could get one from anouther manufacturer that is closer to me?
(3)As far as the trailer nose:would anyone have any suggestions on this? we want it pro repaired so it cannot be seen.....should I seek out an RV place that has a quality body shop or would a regular automotive body shop be able to fix this?

Thanks Guys!

 

If you don't have many claims, then one occasionally won't kill you for premiums. It is one of those things that you wish you had the cash to fix yourself, but that is also why we pay for insurance. Talk to your agent. I have great agent that will let me know what I should do. He has rarely given me bad advice.

Ted

 

You deductible will also come into play depending on the repair cost your policy.

 

Thanks guys!! I called and found out that the Florida Line topper manufacturer is out of business, so i called a topper place close to me and they said to bring it in and they might possibly have a used one that would fit, or they'd take measurements and order me a new one.

Plus I called Camping World which is near the topper place only about 35 miles from our house & they said they could fix the deep scratches no problem, so I'm headed that way this afternoon to see what I can do about my f'up...