Rocks kicked up by passing vehicles, flying chunks of tire tread, falling branches, hail, wind-blown debris…. There are so many ways your RV or travel trailer could sustain window damage. We experienced this firsthand this summer while we were on our road trip from Virginia to Idaho and back.

Our unfortunate encounter with road debris

We were driving down 1-70 in the middle of Missouri around 9 at night. One minute the road noise was normal, the next minute we realized that the road noise had gotten a lot louder and there was wind coming into the RV. We pulled over, pulled up the blinds, and saw a massive hole in the window. Somehow, something had hit the side window as we drove down the freeway and shattered it. Thankfully, because the blinds were down, no glass shards went flying into the RV.

We tried to call our insurance company to start the claims process, only to find that window damage has its own department. Apparently the glass department keeps normal business hours and it was too late to get somebody who could actually do anything. While we wasted 45 minutes finding that out, it also gave us time to consider our options.

We looked on the AllStays app and found a WalMart only 7 miles away, so we went there and bought some plastic and Gorilla tape. Then we spent another 45 minutes cleaning up the broken glass and taping plastic over the window on both the inside and the outside.

We thought about just stopping for the night, but we were behind schedule, it had finally cooled off after temps above 100 for a good portion of the day, and we wanted to take advantage of lighter night traffic. So we hit the road for a couple more hours to get on the other side of St Louis so we wouldn’t have to drive through the city in morning traffic.

The plastic and tape held up for the remaining 900 miles of our trip, and was actually in good condition when we arrived home. We did check it frequently, but other than smoothing a couple edges down, we didn’t need to do anything.

As stressful and potentially dangerous as this situation was, it was also a good learning experience. We’ve had a rock go through our car windshield, but this was our first time dealing with a broken window in the RV. I’m sure it won’t be the last time and since it’s something that can happen to anyone, at any time, I thought I’d share what we learned.

4 things to remember when an RV window breaks

1. Keep calm.

Kiddos (and animals, if they’re your travel buddies) will pick up if you’re panicked. We weren’t panicked, but we were a bit stressed out. It was late and we were on the side of a busy freeway far from home. Not ideal conditions, but when is an accident ever ideal? River is a sensitive soul and he was concerned about the whole experience, but the other two kiddos weren’t worried.

Take a deep breath (or two or three), reassure the kiddos (or get some snuggles from your fur baby), and be grateful it’s not worse. It could always be worse.

2. Call your insurance company. Maybe.

If another vehicle is involved, you should call your insurance company and make sure the claims process is started. But what if your RV or trailer was the only vehicle affected and there’s no one for the insurance company to go after? We have no idea what hit our window, but it was most likely a rock kicked up at just the right angle to hit the window.

As I mentioned, we did try to file a claim, but we were told to call back in the morning. By morning we decided to hold off on filing a claim. Our deductible is $500 and we were fairly certain we could get the window replaced for less than that. If you’ve ever replaced your car windshield, you’ll know that it frequently is cheaper to pay out of pocket than to file a claim.

Now, deciding not to file a claim could have come back and bit us in the bum, but we did our homework first. First thing in the morning we called an RV body shop near our house for a quote. They couldn’t give us an exact total since they didn’t know how much shipping from the factory would be, but the ballpark number was less than our deductible. Based on this, we were fairly sure we’d come out ahead.

In the end, we replaced the window for about $330, so it was definitely a good decision not to file a claim. Not all windows will be that inexpensive, though: large class A windshields are pricey, as are some more elaborate windows. Keep in mind that the cost quoted should include the window, installation, and shipping from the factory, if applicable.

3. Decide if you’ll fix it right away or wait till you get home.

You may be able to drive with a cracked windshield, but if the damage obscures the driver’s view, that is not a repair to put off. On the other hand, a smaller window on the side, like ours, can probably be patched up for the short term.

Jeremy first placed strips of Gorilla tape over the edges of the window, covering any little shards of glass that hadn’t already been knocked out. He then used this plastic drop cloth with tape attached to one side, which was super helpful for keeping it in place while taping the other edges, to cover the window. We doubled up the plastic drop cloth and put two layers of plastic on the outside. We also put two layers of plastic on the inside, and all layers were securely held in place with Gorilla tape. Jeremy was careful to tape around the designs on the RV, just in case the tape pulled them off.

Windows probably won’t be in stock and may need to be special ordered from the manufacturer. This was the case with our broken RV window. It was just a simple sliding window, but it still took about 6 weeks for it to be delivered to the body shop for installation. This meant we had to travel home with plastic covering our window. It wasn’t pretty, but if we kept the blinds down over the window, the wind noise wasn’t too bad.

The Gorilla tape did a great job keeping water out of our RV, despite multiple heavy rainstorms that passed through before we got the window replaced.

Depending on the damage to your rig, continuing to travel may not be an option. Which brings us to our next point.

4. Start making contingency plans.

While I was on the phone with the insurance company, Jeremy was firing off an email to his work to let them know we’d had an accident and might not make it home in time for him to go to work Friday morning (we were on the return trip home when this happened). We did make it home in time, but initially, we weren’t certain that would be the case.

If your RV or trailer has to go to the shop while you’re traveling, where will you stay? Is there a hotel nearby? Will you need to modify your campground reservations or change other planned activities? It’s a good idea to start figuring out what needs to change, what can stay the same, and what your options are.

You may not be able to resolve all the issues that arise, but taking control of the situation as much as possible can go a long way to lowering your stress levels. Take a deep breath and face the situation calmly, and things will seem a bit less stressful and more manageable. 

Have you had a broken RV window? How long did it take to fix?