Roof coatings

[Star152]

A question to all.
Has any one used or put on the roof of the camper any of the rubber coatings offered from let say camping world? If so does it work. If not do you think it would be a good idea to coat the roof.

Another idea I have is to Rhino line the roof. What do you think?

 

[winter200]

At some point if you are having troubles with it it would probably be easier to just replace it with a one piece. From my experience, once you start laying stuff out on the roof you open a can of worms that ends up taking more coatings and more time and work to prep it. I have found a lot of fish house supply places are selling one piece roofs for fishhouses. This is what I am going to do with mine when I get back to rebuilding it.

 

[benburnett]

What you will find if you start to coat the roof is that it will get very hard to push up. The coatings that most people have tried add too much weight to the roof. It may not seem like it but take our word for it. I have seen this happen before and we ended up replacing the roof skin.

For upkeep, just seal the screws on the roof and the outer edge about every 6 or 7 years and you should be fine.

 

[Star152]

Thx Ben.... I was thinking out loud I wanted to look ahead just in case.After yesterdays rain I opened up the camper and it was all dry.......but I can't believe one gal. of rhino type liner would weigh so much?

 

[benburnett]

One gallon

I know. You wouldn't think that it would add that much weight. The snow seal is the really heavy one that I have seen people use and then we replace the roof skin. I have seen some very thin coats of sealer on roofs that worked but still added weight to the roof. I could tell the difference when lifting them. The one thing besides the weight that I don't like about sealers is that if you ever want to work on something on the roof or change a vent, it just causes a lot more work in the long run.

The campers have been designed over the years not to leak. No one seems to believe me on this one. If the roof is leaking there is a reason for it and it can be fixed. A little maintenance and it will stay leak proof for years to come.

Now some of the older campers did have some problems in the roof and do require more work to seal them up. The newer campers and I mean from about 96 on are pretty water tight. I fixed the last problem that the roofs had around that time and they have been going strong ever since.

I notice that yours is an 04. The only roof problem on that model was some condensation that would build up in the roof tubes and run to the inside of the camper in the front bed corners. This does not happen all the time. Depends on humidity and conditions that you are in. Again though, it can be fixed.

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

Hello Star152


that was going to be my first question ... is the roof leaking ?

but it sounds like it is not leaking

I'm guessing that you were thinking that coating the roof ahead of time might prevent some future leaks ?


I have seen some older junker campers come in that have had a roof coating applied to them, and most of the time they look horrible.

It will add weight to the roof like Ben said, and it just makes the camper look terrible -- some I have seen had a white chalky residue running down the outside of the camper walls.

So, if you do get a leak down the road, just call or e-mail us and we can give you some easier tips & tricks of what & where to seal up the roof.



.