Documenting Aftermarket Solar and Lithium for a Claim

Why these systems get valued at nothing

An adjuster works from what a coach of that year, make and model normally contains. A base travel trailer came with a converter and a lead acid battery. If your coach now carries several hundred watts of roof mounted solar, a lithium bank, a charge controller and a substantial inverter, none of that is in the reference data.

So unless it is documented, it is invisible. The default is not that the adjuster disbelieves you. The default is that the system does not exist in the file, and things that do not exist in the file do not get paid.

This matters most in exactly the situations where these systems are damaged. A roof impact takes out panels and their mounts. A sidewall or front cap loss takes out the wiring run. A fire or a water intrusion event reaches the battery compartment.

The time to build the file is when everything is working and nothing has happened. Documentation assembled after a loss is always thinner and always argued about more.

The file every owner of a modified coach should have

Keep this together in one place, digital and backed up, and keep a copy somewhere that is not inside the coach.

• Receipts and invoices for every component, with dates and prices legible
• Installer invoices showing labor, separately from parts
• Model and serial numbers for panels, controller, inverter, charger and every battery
• Photographs taken during installation, before things were covered up
• A wiring diagram, even a hand drawn one, showing runs, fuses and disconnects
• Photographs of the finished installation from several angles, roof and interior
• Any manufacturer documentation, particularly for the lithium batteries
• A written statement of the system capacity in plain terms

Installation photographs are worth more than receipts

Receipts prove you bought components. Photographs during installation prove those components went into this coach, in these locations, connected this way. That is the link an adjuster actually needs and it is the one most often missing.

Shoot the roof before the panels go on, with the mounting locations visible, then after. Shoot the wiring run before it is buried in a wall or a ceiling. Shoot the battery compartment with the batteries in and the wiring visible.

Photograph labels. Serial number plates on panels, inverters and batteries are small and they are the fastest way for anyone to confirm what a component is. A close, legible photograph of each is worth pages of description.

If a professional did the installation, ask them for their own photographs. Most installers document their work and most will share it if asked while the job is fresh.

Getting the system onto the policy before a loss

Documentation solves the proof problem. It does not solve the coverage problem, and those are different. A policy written for a stock coach may simply not extend to added equipment beyond a modest limit.

Call your carrier and ask specifically how aftermarket equipment is treated on your policy, what the limit is, and what they require to raise it. The answer varies enormously between carriers and between policy forms.

Where a declared value or a scheduled equipment endorsement is available, that is usually the cleanest route. It puts an agreed figure on the system before anything happens, which removes the argument entirely.

Send your documentation file to the carrier when you make the declaration, and get written confirmation that it was received and applied. A declaration nobody has a record of is not a declaration.

What to do in the hours after a loss involving the system

Photograph before anything is disconnected or moved. Roof panels in their damaged position, the mounts, the wiring, the compartment, the batteries. Once a technician starts making the coach safe, the scene changes permanently.

Treat lithium batteries with respect at this point. A damaged lithium bank is not something to handle casually, particularly after an impact or a fire. If there is any deformation, heat, smell or swelling, keep away from it and tell everyone who approaches the coach, including the tow operator and the shop.

Do not have anyone reconnect or test a damaged system to see if it still works. That is how a manageable loss becomes a fire, and it also destroys the evidence of the condition at the time of the loss.

Tell the shop about the system at first contact, not at teardown. It changes how the roof or the wall is opened and it changes the sequence of the entire job.

How the repair itself is affected by a solar installation

Roof work on a coach with mounted solar is a different job from roof work on a bare coach. Panels have to come off, mounts have to be released, penetrations have to be resealed on reinstallation, and the wiring has to be protected throughout.

Those operations belong on the estimate as their own lines. Removal and reinstallation of panels and mounts, resealing every penetration disturbed, and any wiring repair are separate from the roof repair itself and they are easily left off an estimate written without knowledge of the system.

Sidewall and front cap work often intersects the wiring runs from roof to battery compartment. On a coach where the run is buried in the wall, that has to be planned rather than discovered.

We do body, paint, structural and equipment work. Where a component of the electrical system itself needs specialist attention beyond mounting, wiring protection and reinstallation, that is coordinated as sublet and it appears on the estimate as such rather than being absorbed invisibly.

Bringing a modified coach to the shop

Arrive with the file. Even a phone folder with photographs and receipts changes the conversation, because it means the system is documented in the repair record from intake rather than being reconstructed from memory later.

Bring the diagram if you have one. Knowing where a wiring run goes before we open a wall saves time and avoids damage, and on owner installed systems the run is frequently somewhere no factory diagram would suggest.

Tell us who did the installation. If a professional installer is involved, coordinating with them on reinstallation is usually faster and cleaner than us reverse engineering the arrangement.

West Covina owners reach our Yorba Linda shop in about thirty to forty five minutes on the 10 or the 60 west to the 57 south, then the 91 east to Imperial Highway. We do not offer mobile service. Call (949) 799-3387 and mention the solar and lithium at booking, because it affects which bay and which sequence the job needs.