White is the modern trend and color choice of camper owners nowadays. There are some excellent and beneficial features associated with white paint, that is why it is so popular.
Why Are Campers Always White? White is the color of nature and has excellent heat-reflecting properties. It is the first choice for campers to keep the inside of the cabin cool during summer. Other benefits of white-colored RVs can be their elegant and stylish look, better resale value, cost-effectiveness, durability, easy cleaning, and low repairing cost.
Why Are Campers Always White?
You go to a camper dealer or a campground; you will find more than 90% of the campers having white color or with white background.
It can be a market trend or some excellent white color features that make it stand out from other dark or light shades.
Good heat reflecting properties
White paint has excellent heat reflecting properties, and it reflects almost 80-90% of the visible light falling on its surface.
It only absorbs Ultraviolet and a portion of infrared waves that can cause mild heating of the camper surface. On the other hand, dark colors, specifically black, absorbs all the sunlight on its surface.
Due to less sunlight’s absorbance on the camper’s exterior, its interior temperature can be 4-5°C lower than ambient temperature.
You can add some specific polymer materials that can reflect UV and other invisible radiation. It is the main reason for the popularity of white-painted camper vans.
It enables tourists and campers to travel in the summer season. Moreover, it has other added benefits in lesser cooling requirements and additional related savings in cost.
Although other solar reflective dark paints keep your camper cool, they are expensive to apply and are less efficient than white as they can only reflect UV and infrared rays.
White gives an elegant and more astonishing look to the camper
If some color is elegant and stylish despite its simplicity, it is the white color.
Darker or other shades need careful painting and sophisticated graphics selection to avoid dirty or amalgam of colors look.
However, in the case of white, you don’t need to worry about this problem, and a few coats of white will ensure the cool and elegant look of your RV.
As white reflects the whole spectrum of visible light, your camper looks bright and larger than life if it is the white one.
Better Resale Value
Due to high market trends and its light-reflecting properties in summer, it has an excellent resale value.
Moreover, white paint has a slow aging and fading process compared to darker colors. Therefore it maintains its look longer than them.
This fresh look can attract customers to your used RV, and you can earn good dollars even after using it for a few years.
If any vehicle has low market demand, the owner must wait for a longer duration to get it sold and find a potential customer.
In this scenario, a white painted camper has an edge that you will instantly get your cashback whenever you have to sell it.
White always gives a fresh newer look to the camper
White is a timeless color that is never outdated. Because of its fresh and brighter look, your RV always looks brand new.
You can add a few decals with graphics in other shades to give your camper a modified look.
Furthermore, due to weather-resistant properties and the slow aging process, white paint will last longer than the darker shades.
It will maintain the fresh look of the vehicle and save money in terms of maintenance costs.
Inexpensive to paint
Commonly used paint shades like white are readily available in the market. You don’t have to search the whole market for some specific shades that need preparation by mixing different colors. It is the reason white paint is cheaper than other shades.
Multicolor choices need preparation of all shades separately, and then for applying them, you need to refill the sprayer for each shade.
It will result in more time to complete the paint job, more money to purchase all colors, and increased labor cost.
In the case of white paint, you have to prepare only one shade. Painters will complete the task in less than the half time it takes to paint multi-shaded designs.
Easy to clean
Light-colored campers are the easiest to clean due to any dirt’s visibility and are therefore preferred by customers.
Silver and grey colors perform better in dusty environments as they hide the light stains and dust due to their matching color.
However, white also has good stain stealthy features as compared to darker shades such as black.
While traveling on muddy roads, desert areas, or during the rainy season, tires pick up the mud and dirt and spread it over the vehicle body.
You cannot quickly locate the mud or dirt spots on the darker-colored vehicles. While in white or other light-colored vehicles, you won’t have to search for those spots.
As soon as you see the dirty areas, it will be easy for you to wash and clean those specific areas instead of cleaning the whole camper and still leaving a few spots unattended.
Most camper’s customers look for the ones that are easy to clean as it is a hectic job to clean and wash a larger RV.
Therefore, the white one can be their prime choice due to this ease in cleaning feature at a camping site.
White paint has a slower chalking and fading effect than darker colors
Dark-colored campers absorb all kinds of radiation falling on their surface. Due to which the ultraviolet rays damage the colored pigments in the paint.
It causes their oxidation and results in faded color with time. It chalks and comes off the RV surface in powdered form, peels, and flakes in extreme cases.
On the other hand, white absorbs less UV light and maintains its color longer than different shades.
Therefore you will not observe paint fading and powder-like softening problems so quickly as you watch in other colored campers. Some of the shades prone to fading are red, blue, black, and orange.
Another reason for the slower fading of white paint is the absence of any color pigmentation. Therefore, you cannot quickly notice its aging and dull color.
This feature enhances the expected life of white paint and maintains the newer look of your camper.
Easy to maintain
Due to better light-reflecting properties, minor scratches and dents on these campers go unnoticeable.
Moreover, you can easily maintain these minor problems by repainting that spot as white paint is readily available.
In other shades, you have to find or prepare those specific colors to perform the maintenance job. Otherwise, you will end up having a different colored spot on your camper, causing it to have an ugly look.
Due to easy availability and inexpensive nature, it is aplomb to maintain the minor scratches or flaking of paint at any spots due to rusting problems.
Even you can go for the option of repainting your camper to give it a new look.
Less air conditioning requirement and less environmental pollution
More than 90% of the customers living in warm US states like Arizona, Florida, and Texas prefer white-colored campers due to their better sunlight and heat-reflecting properties.
It keeps the exterior of the trailer 10-15℃ cooler than the black colored. Moreover, it keeps the interior temperature 4-5℃ lower than its counterparts, having darker shades.
Due to this heat-resistant feature, you can save plenty of dollars in energy costs to cool your cabin during summer.
Lower capacity air conditioning requirements also put a lesser burden on your vehicle’s power requirements and fuel economy. It also reduces the working hours of the air conditioner to cool the area.
Due to lower capacity air conditioning, it also positively impacts the environment in terms of less carbon dioxide or other harmful emissions from your vehicle’s exhaust pipe as it will consume less fuel to operate the AC.
You can also enhance the performance efficiency of the air conditioner installed with your camper by choosing the outer unit of white color.
In this situation, its condenser unit will optimally perform and result in better cooling efficiency.
Easy to blend in a lot of white campers on a campground
The presence of plenty of white RV on a campground gives it an edge and stealth quality as you can easily blend in with this crowd of vehicles.
If your RV has a different, unique, or bright color, it is easy to locate you.
In case of any hostility or fight with somebody or a chase, you can easily hide in the ocean of white campervans.
It is also necessary to go unnoticeable during a camping trip to protect your privacy. Furthermore, it will give you plenty of time to relax and enjoy your camping experience.
Camping is one way to enjoy nature and spend relaxed time with your family and friends. You don’t want to draw anybody’s attention and want to pass your time in peace during this.
In this situation, a low profile and visual camouflage nature of white color help you spend your leisure time without interference and disturbance by anybody.
White is more visible at night
Light-colored vehicles are the most visible at night due to better light-reflecting properties.
Due to better visibility at night, the white camper has the edge over dark-colored ones. Other drivers can easily see your motorhome and safely overtake you.
Therefore, it is safer to drive at night in a white camper than a darker one. It comes in handy in situations when your backlights are malfunctioning, and you are in entirely dark.
White is the preferred background color for graphics and swoopy designs
Despite the abundance of white campers, you will find only a few having plain white color.
Most of them have colorful graphics decals and swoopy designs along the side walls. It is easy to draw or place these colorful design stickers on white painted sidewalls.
If campers have dark-sided walls, your designs will not be visible and snub their beauty instead of enhancing them.
While on white background, their original colors will be visible, and they will add to the style and aesthetics of your camper.
Other Variants or options for white colors
There are two or three light colors that have similar features as that of a white one. You can opt for any of them if you want to get a slightly different look of your camper while keeping the cool features of white. Possible options are silver, grey, and off-white colors.
Why are Camper Manufacturers Hesitant to Go for Other Colors than White?
Because of the current market trends, high demand, and better resale value of white campers, manufacturers don’t try different designs and colors.
Although there is a demand for some stylish designs and bright colors, that is significantly less than the overall market bias towards the white color.
Some manufacturers offer customization options to choose the side panels according to your choice at the cost of extra money.
You can also select the vinyl wrappings or repaint your camper with the color of your choice.
However, to make the orange, pink, or other unique colored campers part of the systematic market at dealer levels, it will take some time to increase caravans’ use. It may urge some camper manufacturers to introduce new designs and shades other than white.
Are there any drawbacks of White Painted Campers?
Despite having a lot of good features, there are few minor cons associated with white campers.
● Due to the better visibility of stains, mud, and dirt on a white surface, they require regular cleaning to maintain their elegant looks.
● Due to the popularity of white color, it is common and lacks the uniqueness factor that makes your camper stand out in a crowd.
● Rusting or corrosion is more visible on these than dark-colored motorhomes. Sometimes, it is difficult to remove black streaks from the white trailer.
● In snowy areas, it will be less visible to other drivers and increase the chances of accidents.
● In case of your camper’s theft, it isn’t easy to find it in plenty of similar-looking ones.
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