A Women's RV Forum run by Women RVer's!

I was curious as to those of you who like to camp next to the ocean/park on the beaches. Isn't the salt air and salty sand hard on an RV?

Lenora, my instinct says yes. I would imagine the salt air and water spray would be just as bad for RVs as it is for cars and trucks. Linda

If your that close to air borne salt, then yes it will be bad for the finish, the seals and rubber. And any plastic parts. Read that somewhere too.

I'm not anywhere close to being an expert but there are a lot of people in very expensive rigs who come down here year after year and stay for months at a time so I'm guessing that it requires periodic maintenance, like most other things, but is certainly not terminal.

Check out this - Tioga and George today http://blog.vagabonders-supreme.net/ he is taking care of the problem

I looked at a nice looking c class motorhome and it was eaten up by rust. The more I looked the more I saw. Apparently they had it parked near salt water for a long time and did not maintain it. All exposed metal that I could see was severely rusted and wondered how much was rusted that I could not see.

So yes parking for an extended period of time near salt water will cause metal parts to rust, unless you do something to maintain it and keep it washed down.

Nan

The worst salt damage I've encountered on car or rv was on a van that had spent all it's life in WI and IL. They use salt on the roads and the underside was rusted away badly.

When I stayed so much in Port Aransas, I had undercoating done to my rig - even though it already had rust from the 8 or 9 years on the road.

Yes, salt is damaging - but you can also look at places near the ocean in California that have some of the oldest and best kept cars around. It's a matter of a different type of maintenance. I know that rinsing off with regular water was what I was taught in the midwest with the salt on the roads. So, I'm sure that's still not a bad idea. Just talked to some folks about their kayaks here - they rinse them with regular water at least every 2nd time out. And rust proofing is probably a good thing near the oceans and beaches a lot.

Rusty cars are just the norm around here! My (red) car is just white with salt right now and I just washed it a week ago! Most newer cars (90's and newer) now come with underbody and lower body rust proofing. I think my car must have that because it is 10 years old with no rust so far.
When I lived in CA, most people who lived right on the ocean covered their cars with nylon covers to protect them from the salt.

Barbie

I wasn't aware that they still used salt on the icy roads. In Alaska they only use sand and also throw in some pea gravel, which really does a job on your windshields etc when a passing vehicle throws it up at you or you are traveling too close to someone. After winter is over in AK they use frontend loaders to scoop the sand off the roads!

In Colorado they don't use salt either, mostly sand. The pea gravel does do a number on the front end of cars and windshields! A lot of people put those plastic shields on the front of their cars to deflect some of it. I lived in the foothills of Denver and was amazed the first time it snowed and they dumped just a ton of sand on the roads around there! I was wondering how they could do that everytime it snowed, but then I discovered that the snow melts in a day or so and then they come by with street sweepers a few days later and clean up all the sand to use for the next snowstorm! If they did that here, we would have 3 feet of sand on the roads by spring! As it is, they mix some sand with the salt and it still adds up to quite a bit of sand by spring and then they come by with the sweepers to clean it up then.

Barbie