It’s not something we want to think about, but we should. You’ve probably seen the aftermath beside the road—a large charred area of pavement, often on the shoulder of a mountain pass road. RVs can and do catch fire. Those who are prepared for that possibility are the ones that are far more likely to survive. In this story we’ll talk about what equipment you should have and how to use it, and, even more important, what you need to be mentally and physically prepared for an RV fire.

For RVers, this could be a long, hot summer. But getting out of the heat for many means getting away from the city and to the cool of the countryside. Nothing spoils an RV vacation faster than a breakdown on the road. One critical breakdown area can often be fixed before it ever breaks. A little advanced cooling system maintenance and repair can keep these kinds of breakdowns at bay.

Last month we explained the woes of dealing with a “dead on arrival” RV rubber roof, and began outlining our experience with replacing a blown camper roof with a whole new material called Peel and Seal. Having pulled off the old exhausted EPDM rubber and peeled back the rotted sheeting, we’re now ready to walk you through the completion of the new roof, and our observations on this product.

Some years back, the RV industry touted a whole new roofing material called  EPDM (for ethylene propylene diene monomer (M-class) rubber). Said to last the “life of your RV,” it would be a virtually maintenance free roof that should make RVers dance with joy. For a while, it was like that. But with time, RVers began to notice a few problems. For us old “metal roof” RVers, a switch to EPDM roofs brought on a new wrinkle in our maintenance routine: getting rid of the cursed  “black streaks.” Do EPDM rubber roofs cause black streaks? You can argue the point all day, but something about RVs with EPDM roofs seems to attract black streaks.