Jfet wrote:moomps wrote:
Gee - I think I understand your suggestion. I'll get out my protractor from gradeschool so that I can make sure it's at a perfect 45 degree angle.
As silly as it sounded, it actually *does* work. After I posted that I went and tested on the aluminum of our RV roof using a 1 inch square half inch thick rare earth magnet. The magnet moved VERY slowly down the incline because the induced eddy currents acted to attract it toward the aluminum. It really is pretty neat.
moomps wrote:
Gee - I think I understand your suggestion. I'll get out my protractor from gradeschool so that I can make sure it's at a perfect 45 degree angle.
Jfet wrote:
That is a tricky one. How might one tell if a surface is aluminum?
A magnet will tell you it is not steel (possible exception of some stainless steels).
If you could prick it in two places without damaging it with the pointy leads of a multimeter, you could measure the conductivity (obviously if it were some sort of plastic or fiberglass it would not conduct).
I know! Tilt your camper about 45 degrees and get a flat disc magnet and a equal mass of non magnetic material with the same coefficient of friction. If the surface is aluminum the disc magnet will slide slower than the other non magnetic disc because of eddy currents induced in the aluminum.
I knew there had to be a simple solution!
Super_Dave wrote:
They make roller applied roof coatings that renew reflectiveness of the roof and years of life. I don't know how material specific the coatings are but that along with externabonding the joints would be the formula that I would consider.
