Painting travel trailer white to reduce heat in summer?

You should put your money into a second A/C and a larger generator if you're going to AZ for the summer. The winters there are plenty warm for me, I always leave in March.

Bill

Our first rv was white. After a month of traveling mid April to mid May we settled in to our first volunteer camp hosting position. It was a well shaded site 50amp FHU. It was a a hot humid summer along the river but our 5er stayed cool. Cool enough that the exterior was covered with condensation.
Like to say that was always true but 104 temp in Arizona and little humidity mid 80s were the best we could do. Not the temp as much as not a bit of shade.

Not even sure how to respond.....for so many reasons.

Typically, shade (i.e., a sunlight-blocker with an air gap behind it) is a lot more effective.

The air gap is important, because it prevents the portion of heat being absorbed by the shade from being transferred to the walls and roof of the RV.

As stated above, our TT is white and gets plenty hot, we are from the Valley of the Sun and I would not under any circumstances do any RVing during the summer in the lower deserts of AZ. Now in the high country like Flagstaff and the White Mountains area of AZ would be fine for summer camping, although RV sites in those areas come at a premium if there are any available.

The roof is generally already white.

Unless it's a junker, a low quality paint job is likely going to diminish the resale value way to much to justify.

I have a 26ft TT which is painted white, still turns into a sweltering hot box in the deep south with 90F+ temps.

Don't bother slathering white paint on your rig unless the existing paint is worn out, just not going to notice the difference and will cost you more in paint that it is worth.

RVs just simply do not have enough insulation (R3 or a bit less), they have dark single pane windows which also does not help the cause one bit.

Best you can hope for is a few trees to park it under for some shade, you would be surprised at the cooling effect trees have on objects located under them..