Maintenance Free Roof

Being a reel pain having to climb up and clean and inspect all of the vents, edges, and openings on the roof for cracks in the sealers used, wouldn't it be nice if they could deliver it with a maintenance free roof. Having to do this 2 to 3 times a year is a burden on us older people. I've been reading up on different roof repair methods from liquid rubber to the Eternabond tape. I kind of leaned to the Etenabond tape on my unit. It lasts as long or longer than the roof itself. After you make 10 different repairs, the caulk starts to look like a pile of dinosaur poop.
Just did my new Elkridge E289 prior to adding the 3 Maxxair vent covers. I noticed the sealer was put on very neat and sparingly used, as in a dab on the screw heads and around the edges. It was black in color and felt like a asphalt rubber mix. Not really hard to the touch. I cleaned and put down the tape over every sealed area on the roof except the caps and the side walls with the drip rail. I don't believe there will ever be a problem in those locations for the life of my unit.

If a company offered a guaranteed roof for 5 to 1o years at a premium, I would jump on it. What a great selling point. Just seems it could be done with the use of the Eternabond for sealing or with liquid EDPM rubber. Why isn't someone trying to deliver this? Is it possible? Our roofs are good for 10 plus years. Just seems like someone could take a newly installed roof and seal it up for good. The tape and liquid rubber are flexible.

Would like some thoughts on this or better ways to repair the roof without having a pile of crap reaching farther and farther out from the openings up there. Nobody is taking aerial photos of our roofs but the 'Lil
Guy's' roof looks neat as a pin up there.

I think there are a few out there after market.
http://www.rv-armor.com/

I saw an ad for a spray on one as well that was supposed to be permanent. Kind of like a spray liner for a truck.

I think there is a PVC roof material, that has some promise.

http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/rv-roofs/rv-pvc-roofing-membrane.htm

http://www.davidspermanentcoatings.com/ is another option.

The RV armor looks like the ticket. I wonder why the manufacturers don't opt for a process like this with a new clean roof? Seems like it would be a great selling point.

baker said:

The RV armor looks like the ticket. I wonder why the manufacturers don't opt for a process like this with a new clean roof? Seems like it would be a great selling point.

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Costs a lot more and weighs a lot more.

Wouldn't want a lot more weight but would expect to pay more for the convenience.

baker said:

The RV armor looks like the ticket. I wonder why the manufacturers don't opt for a process like this with a new clean roof? Seems like it would be a great selling point.

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While I can't remember who, there is at least one RV mfr that is offering this roof. But yeah, extra cost, more weight and a longer production time would be factors to consider. Your smaller mfrs can more easily offer this sort of thing.

I believe Excel offered a spray-on roof material. I don't know too much about it, the costs, life of the material, etc. and they recently stopped all production of trailers. As far as I know, they were the first to offer it from the factory.

baker said:

The RV armor looks like the ticket. I wonder why the manufacturers don't opt for a process like this with a new clean roof? Seems like it would be a great selling point.

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After touring a Heartland Plant making travel trailers recently, The roofs are far from clean during the manufacturing process. It was amazing to see how clean the units at the end of the line were considering just a few stations from the end the units were not clean by any means. The dust and debris was constantly being kicked up from one station to the next. Yet, Decals being applied were right next to the dust being created by the saws and yet the decals looked perfect when done.

I could only imagine how a spray-on roof would look if applied during production with out causing excess movement or delays in the production line.