Gel Coat on a New Motorhome. Good Thing or Waste of Money?

Coachy wrote:
Getting ready to make the jump to a newer and bigger coach, a Tiffin Allegro Open Road 31SA with full paint like most coaches today.

Trying to decide if the additional cost of the gel coat is a necessary expense to protect the paint or another way for the dealer to just make additional profit? Or are there alternatives?

IMHO, once the Gel Coat is fully painted and protected by several layers of Clear Coat, there is nothing more needed.

The Clear Coat provides the UV protection we used to seek by waxing our paint. So wax is just extra effort and money on painted fiberglass. Wax is great on colored but non-painted Gel Coat (search for Red Max Pro discussions).

Polish buffing will bring up the shine a bit if the clear coat is dull, but polishing will remove some Clear Coat as polish is just a gentle abrasive. Too much polishing and you will need to replace the Clear Coat, which also will require new base coat. JMHO.

Although gel coat can be applied after the parts are made and assembled, I just did it on a 14 year old FG boat. It can be sprayed, rolled or painted on. Having said that I doubt that is what Tiffen is marketing. You don't want "extra" gel coat on because the thicker it is applied the more it is prone to surface cracking especially under darker painted exteriors that newer MH's have.

Coachy,

Might you possibly be getting "Gel Coat" confused with "Clear Coat"? As you say that the coach already has full body paint, it is already clear coated as well.

Sounds like dealer hooey! A coach with base coat/clear coat has urethane clear on it. IMO, paying dealers (car or RV) to put additional paint protection stuff, regardless of what they call it, is simply wasting your money and padded their pockets.

Just put some wax or polish on it once or twice a year and it will do fine.

VintageRacer wrote:
Gel coat is not something that a dealer could apply.

Spot on!

Gel coat is the outer layer of the fiberglass layup that is applied to the mold during the fiberglass part production process. It can be polished to a reasonable gloss and can last for a while unpainted, but most people find that it will oxidize and dull after a period. You can then either repolish and apply some kind of protective coat, or paint. Gel coat is not something that a dealer could apply. Now, some kind of gel coat protection they could apply. It's basically just polish and wax coat, I wouldn't bother with that if it costs more than a normal buff and polish job.

Brian

coachy
If you are buying a Tiffin I would not spend any additional money at the dealership for gel coat. Tiffin puts up to five coats of clear coat to protect the paint. You can call the Tiffin plant in Red Bay and I believe that they will tell you not to do it. If you would like to ask questions about the Tiffin you need to go to www.tiffinrvnetwork.com. There you can ask your questions to a large base of Tiffin owners. I think that you will find it to be helpful. Good luck with your purchase

There are different grades of Gel-coat. If they don't use the best grades then it will dull and deteriorate in the sun. Take a look at any cheaper trailer that's a few years old to see what I mean. You can probably find good examples on the dealers lot.
New paints are so good that I would just rather have them than GC.