Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hello, I have seen a repair to a roof on a large camper, which is working perfectly well, and it seems pretty incredible to me, that I never considered it before. My camper is 66" wide, matching my 4 x 4. Purchasing a suitable skin to withstand brilliant sun and also incredible hails at high altitude produced costs for material, shipping and wasted excess materials that was ridiculous. I was also bothered by long term leakage after spending a fair amount of time in the Pacific Northwest with all its drizzle and moisture.

Why couldn't a camper use the same system as is used with some roofs in our area? An undercoating which is both a sealer and glue could be applied to my plywood/ steel reinforced camper body. Then an attractive one piece membrane that can be contoured over various angle is all applied in one, impervious sheet. Thus leakage is minimized and the whole covering process is done in one process for the front, and the roof. The galley would be a single, separate piece.

This material is meant to face exterior weather permanently. If weight is an issue, it is NOT with me since this small trailer will be admittedly heavy, but still easily pulled behind my 4 x 4. The single problem I can see would be permanent adhesion, especially when a camper is being pulled down the road and the wind pressure might cause delamination.

I am wide open for any other persons' insight as to why this process won't work and will do a very good job. Please let me know. I am in the process of building this camper singly and virtnot ever seeing any of these in my lifetime.
Thanks, Gene So

There's a company about an hour away that does that. I'm intrigued by it.
http://www.seichemicalcanada.com/rv-roof

I used a strip of this to seal moisture out of my galley hinge. 3 years in the weather, and so far so good. I have the same membrane on my patio, and love it, very cool stuff as roofing they claim 20 year roof life, i would expect more. Only failures i see on commercial buildings is from sharp objects piercing the membrane

I used commercial type TPO white membrane on my build. Tough as nails not much sticks to it so be care full and get the right glue.

Kaz wrote:I used commercial type TPO white membrane on my build. Tough as nails not much sticks to it so be care full and get the right glue.

What glue did you use for this?

While I admittedly haven't installed any myself, my understanding is that most of the conventional RV roofing membranes - TPO, PVC, and EPDM - will certainly work as roofing membranes on a teardrop camper. I suspect they haven't caught on because 1) they don't sport retro appeal, 2) they are difficult in some places to purchase by-the-foot, 3) many cleaners aren't cross-compatible between aluminum and the common membranes, and 3) most people intuitively trust metal more than plastics? Anyways, I say go for it. You won't be the only one. Casual Turtle campers uses a white PVC membrane on its roofs, I think. Whatever membrane you choose, you might consider lathering on a protectant, such as RV Armor. Again, I haven't used, but I've heard good things.

Jados wrote:

Kaz wrote:I used commercial type TPO white membrane on my build. Tough as nails not much sticks to it so be care full and get the right glue.

What glue did you use for this?

The place I got it from recommended that I use “Dicor Corp. 901BA”, I found it on eBay for about $60. It sticks really well to the TPO! But it also sticks to anything else that touches it so be careful.