? RVs and Salt Air?

I live less than 600' from the ocean with a prevailing onshore breeze & an almost constant sea breaking on the rocks. Rust & corrosion are a fact of life. Keeping material such as brass inside the house looking good is next to impossible.

RVs are as cheap as they are because of the quality of materials used & a lack of a decent paint job on the frames. They are held together with low quality steel fasteners.

Any RV exposed to salt air is going to deteriorate before its time. Rinsing it off is not going to help the damage being done underneath. If you keep your RV at a shoreside RV park that is windward to the prevailing wind, expect problems.

No, WD40 is not going to work. The stuff is good for temporary fixes for squeaks but it is not a rust discourager by any stretch of the imagination. For that you will need what saltwater boaters use.

My favourite weapon of choice is something called Boeshield. It was developed for the aviation industry & sprays on thin but turns into a waxy film. The idea was that this stuff sprayed onto landing gear stayed on even while hurtling down a wet runway at 150mph. Keeps RV steps moving quite freely with a couple sprays a year. WD40 is gone in a couple of days. For the frame I'd use a spray on undercoater or bedliner of some type.

dcmac214 wrote:
retired Navy Sailor mentioned how his auto insurance paid for salt air exposure to his cars when he was stationed in Hawaii.

That sounds like a 'Sea Story' to me. I think the insurance company would go bankrupt fixing all the rusted cars in Hawaii and other coastal areas.
Rust isn't sudden or accidental. I think it would be a failure to maintain the vehicle.
But, I've been wrong before. :)

Our RV is stored outdoors 6 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Most of our RV destinations are at Beach campsites up and down the coast of California. Along the coast and inland where our RV is stored the mornings are foggy close to 50% of the days. This fog comes in from the ocean and carries salt with it.

I typically rinse the salt off after each trip to the coast (about 10 per year 4 to 14 day trips). The RV is washed an average of 2 times per year.

Our 5th wheel is 22 years old and only shows signs of surface rust on any unpainted metal. On our previous 16 year old TT the frame was beginning to show lots of rust, I used a wire brush to get rid of the surface rust and then rattle can painted it with rustoleum paint.

Sharing our experience... Our RVs have held up very well.

Whenever I come home from my Ocean front, 2 week trip to Myrtle Beach the FIRST thing I do is use my pressure washer to get ALL salt residue off. I even go onto the roof and hit the AC's and their fins..

I lay under and hit the entire under carriage, rotors, calipers, ect....

One year while in MB, I was next to a 1 year old DRV... The owner had it kept in their ( MBTP ) storage yard a little bit up the road and has it delivered to site when needed.
Every piece of metal that could rust, DID and looked horrible.... the owner was looking into solutions...

Poorly.

Salt and aluminum dont play well together. The steel components will rust just like any other metal exposed to salt air.

Not good. My metal steps started rusting in just 4 days of ocean mist. WD40 might work, or covering them, but best to limit your exposure.