Decals Starting to look Shabby

[joelc]

I have a 5er and I noticed that some of the decals are starting to look like they are growing scales. Starting to age. Has anyone done anything to slow or stop this aging process, so they don't look like ****? I was thinking of putting a coat of polyurathane over them, but don't want to even attempt it if it won't work. Open for suggestions.

[joelc]

I want to thank all for their input, however, my question remains unanswered. Can you apply ployurathane coating over the decals to get them to last longer.

Kampinguru, it is good that your manufacturer sent you a new set of graphics. That must have been a lot of work reinstalling them. Mine aren't that bad yet. I want to just try to preserve them a bit. I have a Carriage 5er, and getting graphics would be difficult, as Carriage is out of business.

[kampinguru]

I contacted the RV manufacturer and asked to buy a set of graphics. They sent them to me at no charge. I asked if it was going to be cost effective to replace them or just remove them an leave it white. They offered to send me the graphics for the front nose and two sites for free. Takes a lot of work to peel the old ones off and clean the cap before putting on the new ones.

[Weldon]

Gdlow what paint did you use? I am thinking of painting some of mine.

[Gdlow]

I know there are alot of naysayers here, but I painted over my graphics...looks good two years in...

[Isaac-1]

I was in the vinyl sign business for a number of years, and I can tell you the reason for these problems is that the RV industry uses cheap vinyl for its graphics. Like almost everything else it is about saying a buck. Done right with quality vinyl graphics can last for 15+ years and still look good. I know of one sign I made 22 years ago that is still up and still looks ok, if not great. It used 2 different grades of vinyl, one was fancy sparkly blue vinyl with ultra aggressive adhesive that was a pain to work with, but still looks good, the rest was in a premium green vinyl, which has started to fail over the last few years.

[ppine]

I have removed some before. It is possible to replace them.
Many rigs would look better with fewer graphics.

[ScottG]

No need to blame yourself Dutch, of all the RV's I've had, wax never hurt the graphics.
It was just the sun that did them in.
I can say that for certain because the sides of them were protected from direct sunlight but the front got direct sun all afternoon and those were the only stickers that went to pot.

After they start to go there's really nothing that will help them.
You may be able to slow down the damage by protecting it from the sun but I know that's sometimes hard to do.

[DutchmenSport]

We had our 2nd travel trailer for 8 years. About the 4th year I noticed the graphics starting to age. I think I used the wrong wax on them, pretty much my own fault, which accelerated the aging process. I never did do anything with the graphics. When we traded, the graphics added no extra value one way or the other. They were peeling and chipping and curling, and starting to look really, really aged. I figured (in the 4th year) the cost of replacing them was not worth it. I never did find a way to stop the aging on them. Resale at trade time, we got a pretty good (very acceptable) offer on it (we were very content with the offer).

More than likely, your graphics are starting to fail. There isn't much you can do to stop the process. It's already started. Face it, everything dies! Even graphics!