Summer season RV upkeep often begins with the A/C system, and for good motive. When temperatures climb, our first intuition is to ensure the inside stays cool so our households and pets are comfy.
However the influence doesn’t cease on the thermostat. Direct solar, dry air, scorching pavement, and coastal humidity can take a large toll on the elements of your rig which are best to miss. Midseason is an efficient time to test the areas which may not usually be on the prime of your record. We’re speaking about issues like tires that age out earlier than the tread wears down, wheel bearings that want service earlier than a cross-country haul, and roof and exterior seals baking within the solar.
Fast Summer season RV Upkeep Guidelines
As soon as you already know your A/C is able to deal with the warmth, these are the following areas you need to examine earlier than hitting the highway:
| Space to Test | Why Summer season Makes It Worse | What to Do Now |
| Tires | Warmth, UV rays, age, and sitting idle contribute to dry rot and deterioration. | Test chilly stress, examine sidewalls, confirm date codes, and use tire covers. |
| Wheel bearings | Summer season journey often means longer drives, hotter pavement, and heavier hundreds. | Evaluate service data and examine or repack bearings if due. |
| Roof seals | Intense warmth and UV publicity can dry out, shrink, or crack sealants. | Examine seams, vents, skylights, antennas, and roof edges. |
| Exterior openings | Sealant round home windows and doorways can fail lengthy earlier than a leak is clear inside. | Take away failing caulk and reseal with an RV-specific product. |
| Rubber roofs | Solar harm, tree sap, and harsh cleaners will shorten your roof’s lifespan. | Clear and keep the membrane with roof-compatible merchandise. |
| Interiors | Dry warmth shrinks wooden, loosens adhesives, and opens wallpaper seams. | Monitor and handle inside humidity and temperature throughout storage. |
| RV underbelly | Salt air and humidity from coastal journey drastically velocity up rust on uncovered metallic. | Completely rinse the undercarriage after any coastal tenting. |
Low Mileage Doesn’t Imply RV Tires Are Secure
RV tires steadily age out earlier than they put on out. That is very true for RVs that sit parked for months between journeys.
Daylight, heat climates, and poor storage situations degrade the rubber over time, and sustained excessive temperatures on the highway can simply result in blowouts or tread separation. Some of the necessary issues to recollect with RV tires is that low mileage doesn’t robotically imply the tires are secure.
Earlier than you proceed your summer time adventures, be sure to test:
- Tire age (utilizing the DOT tire identification quantity on the sidewall).
- Chilly tire stress earlier than you begin driving.
- Sidewall situation for cracking, cuts, bulges, or climate checking.
- Tread put on to make sure it isn’t uneven or cupping.
- Valve stems and extensions for leaks or cracks.
- The spare tire’s situation and stress (don’t neglect this one!).
Professional Ideas: Tire covers are an effective way to scale back UV publicity when parked. In the event you use a tire cleaner or protectant, be sure it’s explicitly permitted by your tire producer. Don’t assume a shiny tire dressing is definitely defending the rubber until the producer says so.
Recheck Wheel Bearings Earlier than the Subsequent Lengthy Haul
Summer season doesn’t magically destroy wheel bearings, but it surely does create the proper storm to reveal uncared for upkeep. You’re coping with longer journey days, heavier hundreds, hotter pavement, and sustained freeway speeds.
For many towables, wheel bearing service must be a part of your annual routine. Dexter, for instance, recommends bearing lubrication each 12 months or 12,000 miles for its axles. At all times test the proprietor’s guide, and undoubtedly examine them (or take them to a licensed service location) if in case you have just lately:
- Taken a protracted, grueling journey.
- Pushed by heavy rain or deep standing water.
- Saved the RV for an prolonged interval.
- Observed grease leaking on the within of a wheel.
- Felt a vibration or pulling whereas towing.
- Heard grinding or growling noises.
- Observed uncommon or speedy tire put on.
Professional Tip: Don’t simply pump a grease gun into the hub and assume you’re good to go. Over-greasing can blow out the rear seals and push grease straight into brake parts. In the event you aren’t comfy tearing down and repacking bearings your self, have a certified RV store deal with it. Motorhomes usually have completely different hub necessities, so defer to your chassis producer’s schedule.
Test Roof Seals Earlier than Warmth Finds a Weak Spot
Roof seals take a beating year-round, however summer time warmth and UV rays are particularly brutal on them. You wish to look intently at all over the place water would possibly discover a manner in, like:
- Entrance and rear cap seams
- Roof edge seams
- Plumbing and roof vents
- Skylights and A/C openings
- Antennas and photo voltaic wire entry factors
- Ladder mounts and clearance lights
Preserve a watch out for cracks, gaps, lifted edges, effervescent, or mushy spots. A tiny sealant failure now can flip into a large structural restore if a sudden summer time thunderstorm pushes water into your roof.
Professional Tip: Solely rise up in your roof if you are able to do so safely. Moist membranes are extraordinarily slippery, and a few RV roofs aren’t meant to be walked on with out distributing your weight throughout plywood panels.
Give Rubber Roofs the Proper Summer season Care
Rubber roofs want summer time consideration’ as nicely, however throwing random family cleaners at them will do extra hurt than good. Dicor notes that some EPDM roof oxidation (that white chalky runoff) is regular, and it recommends cleansing an EPDM roof about 4 instances a yr.
When tackling summer time roof care:
- Determine your roof: Know whether or not you may have EPDM, TPO, PVC, or fiberglass.
- Use the fitting merchandise: Persist with cleaners permitted in your roof’s particular membrane. Keep away from petroleum distillates and harsh abrasives fully until the producer says in any other case.
- Don’t wait: Clear off tree sap, chook droppings, and heavy filth as quickly as you discover them, not after they bake into the roof for months.
- Learn the label: At all times comply with the temperature, shade, and cure-time necessities in your roof merchandise.
Reseal Home windows, Vents, and Seams Rigorously
The RV’s roof isn’t the one place leaks and warmth switch occur. That’s why summer time is a good time to stroll the RV’s perimeter and examine home windows, baggage doorways, seams, exterior lights, fridge vents, and cable inlets. Don’t assume a random tube of family silicone caulk from the ironmongery shop is the fitting repair. The product you want relies on the floor materials and whether or not the sealant must self-level (for flat roofs) or keep put vertically (for RV facet partitions).
Here’s a safer method to resealing:
- Wash and fully dry the world.
- Examine for free, cracked, or separated sealant.
- Rigorously take away solely the failing materials. Don’t gouge the roof membrane or fiberglass facet partitions.
- Clear the floor in accordance with the brand new sealant’s directions.
- Apply the proper RV-compatible sealant.
- Enable it to completely remedy earlier than washing the rig, touring, or exposing it to rain.
Needless to say intense warmth impacts how sealants remedy. Many sealant producers warn in opposition to making use of roof coatings in direct noon solar as a result of they’ll remedy too quick and fail to bond correctly.
Dry Warmth Can Harm RV Cupboards, Wallpaper, and Trim
Summer season warmth doesn’t simply harm the outside. In a dry local weather, the inside wooden, veneers, wallpaper, and adhesives can react to the shortage of humidity, particularly if the RV is just not in use for an prolonged time period. When the air will get too dry, wooden shrinks. You would possibly begin seeing wallpaper seams lifting, cupboard doorways falling out of alignment, veneer edges curling, or trim pulling away from the partitions.
Earlier than including moisture, use a small hygrometer to see whether or not the RV inside is definitely too dry, and act accordingly. Some RVers use a small bucket or pan of water in very dry storage areas so as to add moisture to the air, however that may be a tough workaround, not a managed treatment. A greater possibility could also be a small moveable humidifier or a humidity-control product designed for enclosed areas. The purpose is to not make the RV damp. It’s to maintain the inside from getting so dry that wallpaper seams, trim, cupboard doorways, and adhesives start to shrink or separate.
In the event you add moisture, preserve the supply secure, keep away from spills, and monitor the humidity degree. An excessive amount of humidity can commerce one downside for one more, (assume mould, mildew, or condensation).
Tenting Close to the Coast? Wash the Undercarriage
There’s nothing fairly like a cool ocean breeze in August, however that coastal salt air is ruthless on uncovered metallic. Salt accelerates rust every time oxygen and moisture are current.
In the event you take your RV to the seashore, make it a behavior to offer the undercarriage an intensive fresh-water rinse earlier than heading dwelling. Pay particular consideration to:
- Body rails and cross-members
- Stabilizer jacks and entry steps
- Hitch parts and suspension elements
- Axles and wheel wells
- Battery trays and propane brackets
Use a mild rinse. Don’t blast a high-pressure energy washer straight into the wheel bearings, brake assemblies, or electrical connectors. The purpose is to clean away the salt movie, not jet water into locations it shouldn’t be.
Summer season Warmth RV Upkeep Errors to Keep away from
Don’t let simple errors flip commonplace summer time wear-and-tear into a large restore invoice. Keep away from doing the next:
- Judging tires by tread depth alone. (Bear in mind the age rule!).
- Forgetting the spare tire.
- Ignoring wheel bearings simply because the RV “hasn’t gone that far.”
- Utilizing family silicone caulk as a common fix-all.
- Scraping outdated roof sealant aggressively and tearing the roof membrane.
- Making use of roof coatings in direct, blistering solar.
- Utilizing harsh chemical cleaners on a rubber roof.
- Including moisture to the inside for humidity with out checking that it actually wants it first.
- Stress-washing the undercarriage straight into electrical or brake elements.
- Skipping roof checks simply since you don’t see water dripping inside but.
Closing Pre-Journey Warmth Guidelines
Earlier than you pull out of the driveway in your subsequent hot-weather journey, confirm these previous couple of objects:
- Tire date codes checked.
- Chilly tire stress set precisely.
- Tire sidewalls away from cracks, bulges, or cuts.
- Wheel bearings serviced, if due.
- Roof seams, skylights, and vents inspected.
- Exterior window/wall openings checked for failing caulk.
- Inside humidity monitored.
- Undercarriage rinsed (if coming from the coast).
Professional Tip: If you make a pit cease on the freeway, rigorously place your hand close to (however circuitously on!) the wheel hubs. A heat hub is regular. A hub that’s scalding scorching, smells like burnt metallic, leaks grease, or comes with vibration wants fast consideration.
As soon as these heat-related checks are dealt with, the remainder of your summer time journey will get lots simpler to get pleasure from. Just a little consideration now can imply fewer surprises later, leaving extra time for the rationale you got the RV within the first place: getting out, cooling off, and profiting from the highway forward.
Test your tire stress when the tires are chilly proper earlier than you journey, and not less than month-to-month in the course of the tenting season. The NHTSA recommends checking all tires (together with the spare) not less than as soon as a month.
Completely. RV tires age even when sitting nonetheless. Low mileage, lengthy storage durations, UV publicity, and warmth all contribute to the rubber breaking down from the within out.
At all times comply with your particular axle producer’s schedule. As a baseline, Dexter recommends bearing lubrication each 12 months or 12,000 miles.
Not as a default. You must use a sealant particularly formulated in your roof materials (like Dicor self-leveling lap sealant for flat roof areas). Silicone hardly ever sticks nicely to RV membranes and is notoriously tough to take away later.
There is no such thing as a common mileage rule. If the RV has been uncovered to salt air, ocean spray, seashore tenting, or seen salt movie, rinse the undercarriage with contemporary water earlier than long-term storage or the following lengthy drive.
