Roof Construction--Pros and Cons?
Up to this point we've only owned a trailer and 5th wheel and both had a rubber roof. We didn't have problems with either RV and maintenance consisted of replacing the caulking every 5 years. I no...
Forum Discussion
There is more than one kind of fiberglass roof.
There is the roof that is a flat, flexible lightweight sheet of FRP wide enough and long enough to cover the whole from front to back. This one usually has front and rear caps, is bonded to a foam plastic core (the way laminated walls are built), is rolled over the sides to make a seam with the walls, and sometimes has front and rear caps. Compared to lighter composite sheet materials, it is harder to tear through and unlikely to weather through, but you still have to take care of all the seams and openings.
The other is a full molded shell of FRP, much like a boat hull. This is usually heavier, somewhat self-supporting, but still has to overlap or underlap sidewalls and front and rear caps. Front, rear, side seams, and openings all have to be maintained.
I've not seen many aluminum roofs, but all I've seen have had seams. We had a two-piece aluminum roof on our first RV, an unpainted textured anodized material. This one corroded through the metal before the seams leaked. Nobody is currently doing anything like that now, the material is either much heavier (like Airstream) or finished for corrosion protection.
There is the roof that is a flat, flexible lightweight sheet of FRP wide enough and long enough to cover the whole from front to back. This one usually has front and rear caps, is bonded to a foam plastic core (the way laminated walls are built), is rolled over the sides to make a seam with the walls, and sometimes has front and rear caps. Compared to lighter composite sheet materials, it is harder to tear through and unlikely to weather through, but you still have to take care of all the seams and openings.
The other is a full molded shell of FRP, much like a boat hull. This is usually heavier, somewhat self-supporting, but still has to overlap or underlap sidewalls and front and rear caps. Front, rear, side seams, and openings all have to be maintained.
I've not seen many aluminum roofs, but all I've seen have had seams. We had a two-piece aluminum roof on our first RV, an unpainted textured anodized material. This one corroded through the metal before the seams leaked. Nobody is currently doing anything like that now, the material is either much heavier (like Airstream) or finished for corrosion protection.
