Outside Maintenance Question

What do you wish to accomplish? The aluminum siding will last a lifetime unless you park close to salt water. Most folks wish the paint not to fade and the graphics to do the same. A good Marine wax should accomplish some of that but UV is a very strong oxidizer of paint and plastic. The new automotive clear coats shield from UV but repainting the trailer would be expensive.

I always used Meguiars cleaner wax on my aluminum sided travel trailer. Removes oxidation, black streaks, and is easy on/off. It did not hurt my graphics.

Whatever you use to clean and protect your aluminum sided camper, do not, and I repeat DO NOT get any bug spray on your camper's paint job. How do I know? A few years back when I had a travel trailer with aluminum siding, we were camping at a State campground during a time of year that the bugs were unbearable. Rocket Scientist Rob got this great idea to spray bug spray around the entry door thinking it would help keep the bugs from coming in the trailer when we went in and out. Everything was fine at first or so I thought. I woke up the next morning to bare aluminum and the paint gone around the door. It had dripped down and dried at the bottom of the trailer near the steps in an unsightly mess. The bug spray had "melted" the paint right off the aluminum. That's also how I learned that there's the minimum amount of paint on travel trailers. Just enough to cover the aluminum so be very careful when doing any scrubbing. Like those ugly black streaks. Use a mild cleaner recommended by others on here and soft cloth or you'll have a story to tell as well. The trailer manufacturer was of no help giving me paint codes but fortunately, I have a automotive paint shop where I live that makes custom color paints. They were able to take photos with a special camera and then make me up spray cans of an exact match for each of the three paint colors I needed and unless you really looked, you couldn't tell I ever damaged my siding.

We have found that an oscillating fan set on high in back of our camp chairs keeps the bugs away pretty efficiently.

2012Coleman wrote:
We have found that an oscillating fan set on high in back of our camp chairs keeps the bugs away pretty efficiently.

That's a very good idea. If I encounter that problem again, I'll use a pedestal fan near the door. It should help some anyway.

I have a recommendation that is a bit out of the ordinary. I have used a product called Sharkhide. It's an epoxy based wipe on protectant made for bare aluminum but it also works well on painted aluminum and brings back the lustre on faded gel coat and fiberglass. It's about $60 per quart but that's enough to do a 30 ft trailer at least twice and last several years. I have been using it for about 6 years on our Nash. It gives a good semi glossy shine and helps dirt and bugs come off much more easily. Of course I've used it on my aluminum boat as well.