My Sunline Saturn 1850 Storm Damage

Photokit · 09-14-2020, 02:06 PM

Here's the bad news, or good news, if you think that this tree could have landed on my mother's house instead of mine.

In early August, a storm with gale force winds came though NJ, where my camper sits in my mother's yard. The tree was removed by my brother and friends, and he used his jeep to tow it off the roof. I live in Colorado and drove east in my tow vehicle with plans to tow my 1850 back home. When I got here in NJ I was able to assess the damage. Not too bad, considering.

There are multiple holes, gashes, in the roof, and so far, only two of them penetrated to the cabin. They have been mitigated with Perma Bond and Gorilla Tape.

The biggest gash did NOT penetrate the roof. so far it seems dry below.

The major damage was the "hit" the AC unit took, pushing it down, causing some breakage in the roof rafters, mostly just below the AC unit, in the closet, and about 3 foot wide section of roof. Secondary to that hit, the trees also struck the refrigerator vent cover and pushed the vent down into the back of refrigerator, as well as the wardrobe.

I don't see that repair as major, just time consuming, because I just finished installing a new vent and cover (camco.)

The first night I spent in the camper while raining, I was able to see that most of the camper was dry, but water was leaking from around the AC unit, as you can see by some of the damage to the interior seam in the ceiling. Although it only leaked about 1 cup of water, that's enough for me to need the repair and to problem solve.

The major interior damage is along the rafter right next to the AC unit. The 14x14" opening is intact. I removed the interior air box and will remove the AC unit by hoisting it off the roof, then I plan to cover that opening with some plywood and seal it from moisture for my drive home to Colorado. I have added some lumber to raise the parts of the roof where the broken rafters are located, and will do a bit more of that mitigation before towing home.

I plan to "sandwich the 14x14 opening" inside and on the roof and stabilize from below. I learned the hard way that I also need to put a layer of plywood over my sweet floor, as I am now hearing squeaks when walking over an area that I placed a vertical 1x4" support.

I was able to hoist up the corner of the roof AC unit, and sure enough there was a gash where the metal box below the compressor hit the roof, I taped it up with perma bond 4" and now I need the whole unit moved so I can check the other suspected leaks below the roof unit. More on that...

Here are some interior photos. More in my album.

**JohnB** · 09-16-2020, 09:37 PM

Wow, just wow... That is one big storm.

With the size of that branch crashing down on the camper, it is a testament to Sunline the wall did not give way.

You are doing well on patching it up to make the journey back home. When it comes time for repairing, lifting the roof membrane off will expose the rafters to be repaired and from there it becomes a wood working project. When that time comes, don't be shy on asking for help or ideas on how to fix it back up.

You are doing a great job!

John

FYI, I fixed the url pic links to show in the post above versus having to click linking back every one. When you want a picture to show in a post, open up 2 windows. One with your post, the over with your album.

-Go to your album, click on the picture you want to expand it full size.
-Then mouse right click and "copy image address".
-Then come back to the post/reply, in the advanced posting mode, find the mountain -postage stamp icon , click it where you want the pic to post.
-Paste in the image address in the address box. Click OK to close the address box.
-You can preview the post and it will show the pics as you have selected them.

Another way, is to go into your CP and then your album. Look for the pic you want, click to expand it, at the bottom, copy the BB code, then paste the whole BB code in the post. It adds all the img commands so it will view versus using the postage stamp icon.

Photokit · 09-17-2020, 05:47 AM

A neighbor took a video of it and you can really see the power of the wind and it almost looks like that tree bounced onthe roof of my Sunline. Thanks for making the photos visible in the thread that’s what I wanted it to do I didn’t like that it linked every time back to the album. I’ll be in touch when I start the project back in Colorado I’m gonna go home next week.