Re: [VAL] White Roof

["Scott Scheuermann" <s.l.scheuermann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To have a white roof or not...that is the question.

Here's my limited experience.

My 1960 Overlander never had clearcoat on it. It oxidized....for 40 years
sitting outside. There was no more silver color to it. It was various shades
of white, gray and black. Looked worse than 99% of the Airstreams out there.

When parked in the sun it got unbearably hot. Acted like an oven.

in 1999 I had the trailer professionally polished and clearcoated. That
summer I noticed a tremendous difference! It was MUCH cooler. With the
windows open or closed. At the International rally that year we were parked
in the full sun. There was no power to run the A/C so we opened up the
windows and put a fan in one end to draw in fresh air. One day listening to
the radio they said that it was 95 degrees. Our trailer thermometer read 96
degrees. Not much room for improvement there!

So, do I think that painting the trailer white would make a difference?
Perhaps, several people including Airstream sayes it does, but my experience
says that a 1960 polished trailer does very well on its own, no need for
anything else.

Scott
1960 Overlander