Arizona sun & heat

G.Lewis wrote:
As it gets a little warm in south Texas, I make this input. Build a barn if you have the land to do so. I keep my boat and RV inside when not in use. It is worth the money.

Agree, covered is the only way to go in AZ.

Yup, the sun will damage anything you leave outside here in AZ. My coach is 20 years old and has never been stored inside. I have only owned it for 5 years. Just recently, I have acquired a house with a huge building in the back yard, so I will be parking it inside. I just re-coated the roof, and replaced the a/c unit, so I want to keep it inside as much as I can. Don't waste your money on a cover, as stated, it's hard to put on, and hard to leave when you want to easily. The wind will tear it apart like it did mine on my large 5th wheel. Never again. If you have a nice RV, do yourself a favor and at least put it in covered storage, you'll thank yourself for it.

If you're still working it might be different.
We have a house in Las Vegas and and a house 80 miles from Phoenix. The rv spends most of the time in AZ and some in Las Vegas. We don't cover the rv.
The motorhome travels out of the heat during the summer to where it is cooler, like Oregon and Washington. Its why we bought it.
Our rv is a 2003 Monaco Dipl. and is doing fine. We don't see any abnormal wear and tear.

We've replaced tires at about 6 -7 years. Belts at about 35000 miles. Our slides rubber seals are still good. Decals went bad at about 6 years. Normal wear?

now the legal stuff
yourwearandtearmayvaryaccordingtouseandhowhotitreallygetsinthephoenixsuncauseboyitreallygetswaytoohotthereinthesummertimegoodluckandenjoy!

We are looking at a coach with full body paint - will never own another with decals.

I am mostly concerned about the fibreglas roof, rubber components such as hoses and belts, and batteries. How can I protect those?

Trix wrote:
Yep, the sun and heat are tough on equipment stored outside here. All good suggestions above. Make a note to put a 5 gal bucket of water in your unit to keep more moisture in the air. I believe it helps prevent interior wood from cracking, particularly glued joints.

It's drier where I live than it is in Phoenix and I've never had to do this. My rigs outside with no special precautions. Everything works as it should. No extra wear. My old 5th wheel DID have its stickers start peeling and fading after two years. A painted coach won't have those issues.

As it gets a little warm in south Texas, I make this input. Build a barn if you have the land to do so. I keep my boat and RV inside when not in use. It is worth the money.

Tires need to be changed every five years. They start getting sun rot if the coach is not used much on the road. If you use the coach at least once a month, it sure helps.

I just changed the air conditioner covers at ten years. The paint job on my coach still looks like the day I bought it ten years ago, so I guess I either got a good paint job or maybe the dry wash that I use helps keeping the paint in good condition. I use The Solution to wash my coach. I do not live in Arizona, but I do live in Barstow which gets up to 110 in the summer.

Yep, the sun and heat are tough on equipment stored outside here. All good suggestions above. Make a note to put a 5 gal bucket of water in your unit to keep more moisture in the air. I believe it helps prevent interior wood from cracking, particularly glued joints.

I store mine in the garage with the cooler running :B
However my trailer has to stay outside. Like has been said already the plastic is the one of the first to go along with any unpainted wood. Glues, calking, and seals will dry out and harden. Painted surfaces will fade and gel coat will oxidize.
In my opinion, the tires are really an issue. For the last 9 years keeping them covered, I average a set of tires ever 2 years on the trailer. I will have one come apart so I replace all of them. On the last set I removed them and put them in the garage. We'll see if that helps.
It's just better all around to store inside in the summer.

I use Aerospace #303 on everything due to it has UV Protectant in it and is very easy to use. I was in AZ. 7 months last year and not the summer months. If I was in AZ. during the Summer months I would flat out consider covered storage either buy a house that had covered storage, for around $200.00 a month at a storage place or buy a good sun reflective RV cover. IMHO