Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

i didn’t think i needed it but it looks like i’ll be applying a roof coating to reflect the sun. any recommendations for any particular product that you may have used?

Whatever it is , it's gotta be white .
My boss redid the shop roof in white and what a huge difference. Swamp coolers run even better in our dry desert climate.

Sent from my SM-A115AP using Tapatalk

I can't find it in my notes from when I was researching for my build but I remember that Henry brand came up a lot. perhaps this might work:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Henry-887-T ... /206029976
Reminds me another thing to do on my build, put this on top, ha!!
Harry

The roof on our 6X12 cargo trailer was too hot too rest your hand on. It was silver metal from the factory. I painted it with 2 generous coats of white elastomeric mobile home roof coating from Lowes and it now is MUCH cooler inside and you can rest your hand on the roof briefly, even in the noon sun. This is from SW Fla, where MANY roofs are white to keep the home cooler. It works!!

I considered using a silver elastomeric coating on the roof of mine, but never white (didn't match the color scheme in my head...silver, grey, and black), and I had problems with re-touching the white elastomeric coating on a neighbor's travel trailer, so I chose a silver/aluminum reflective paint, instead. Originally, I had thought of using "Aluthane", but it was mail-order only, so I shopped locally, and bought Valspar Heavy-Duty Aluminum Paint, at Tractor Supply in 2012.


It was easy to apply over the wood trailer, previously coated with the "mix" of polyurethane paint + paint thinner (mixed in three different ratios), followed by two coats of straight polurethane. I applied two coats of the silver/aluminum paint at first, then reapplied another coat the next year (mainly to touch-up places where there was marring. After that, I've not needed to touch it up for the past ten years.

Camping in N.Texas and S.Oklahoma, it's usually sunny and warm/hot, in between the Thunderstorms that ALWAYS happen when I camp (a tradidition that goes back to my Boy Scout days in the early '60s), so I expected that the silver reflective paint on the roof (and hatch, and sloping front) might help keep the interior cooler, but to what "degree", I had no idea. I chose not to insulate my all-wood trailer cabin, so it did get a little warm inside after a long sunny day, but my A/C cooled the cabin OK, anyway. But I wanted more protection overhead.

I had bought a pop-up canopy to use besides/away from the trailer as a sitting and cooking area (my "galley" has no room for cooking). But, I instead, chose to put the 8'x8' pop-up canopy directly over the 4'x8' trailer itself (4' over the trailer roof, and 4' over the curbside door, which I use as entry/exit, sitting area, cooking area, and it makes the entry into my pop-up potty tent semi-waterproof, during the inevitable T-sorms at night.

With the canopy atop the trailer roof, it acts as a shade to keep the sun off, and cools the trailer a lot. I use a light bvlue canopy, but perhaps a white canopy would've been better (is there a silver canopy?). Anyway, it works for me.

thanks for the info, looks like henry’s will be the route i take, readily available here in ontario

Henry's 587 was mentioned on this site quite often 6+ years ago. I put it on my 6x12 when I first built it and am getting ready to re apply after 6-7 years. Original can said Henry's Dura-Brite on it with the number 587 on the lower right corner, the new can purchase in July of 2024 still says the same thing, slightly different locations on the can. 1 can covered my 6x12 cargo trailer with 2ft V nose.

I see a lot of posts on the Facebook cargo conversion group about Henry's Tropic Cool. It seems to be the go to product for cargo trailer roofs.
Amazon Linky

Bruce

after a bit of research i found storm king rv heat reflector at the local hardware store for $39.99cdn/gal. claims to reduce heat transfer by 25%