An Environmentally Friendly RV Roof Cover!

It’s hard to believe I’ve been living in my fun Gulf Stream Vintage travel trailer for nearly 3 years now. What started out as a wild idea turned into selling my home in Nashville, buying a van to live in full-time, selling that van, buying a travel trailer, and camping around the southeast (and so far, as far west as Texas; recaps here) visiting awesome locations all over the place. My favorite state park– no wait– my LEAST favorite state park is St. Andrews State Park near Panama City Beach, Florida. Definitely don’t go visit that one. It’s not incredibly beautiful, with idyllic sunset views, big sandy beaches, and luxurious campground accommodations. Yeah, don’t go there. 😉

But when I’m not towing the camper, I have it parked on family property. That’s all well and good except in the very beginning, I didn’t think about getting a shelter for it. Some kind of barn or carport. That would’ve protected the roof of the trailer from outdoor elements like sun, rain, leaves, etc. Actually, one of the biggest benefits would’ve been noise reduction. When it rains, it’s pretty loud. One of my pups has developed anxiety from loud noises so when it rains (and a Florida summer basically consists of rain every single day), she gets all shaky and whatnot.

I started looking at ways to cover the trailer with these as my guideline… 1. Temporary, 2. Discrete, 3. Not super expensive. Those metal roofs are surprisingly more pricey than I thought they’d be. Plus I’d have to also think about how to anchor them down, adding more costs. I also didn’t want to bring in something that draws attention to the camper. Nor did I want anything permanent since I’m technically on someone else’s land. I won’t be pouring concrete for a pad, or doing anything that can’t be undone.

As I researched, the idea of using the nearby trees became very interesting. So that’s what I’ve done (and it’s still a work in progress) to cover my trailer, and this would work for an RV, boat, etc. I found a sun sail at Home Depot that’s waterproof, lightweight, and strong. The trick to this was finding the right shape. Of course I’d love to have a rectangle outlining the shape of the trailer but I’m limited to what anchors are available (trees, house roof, etc). So I went with a triangle-shaped sun sail made by ColourTree. Here are a few pics with the sun sail positioned to cover as much of the camper as possible. I’ll be adding a second sun sail to cover the back end of the trailer, as well. A work in progress but I’m happy with it so far…

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What do you think? Do you have other environmentally-friendly ideas to help give some shade and noise reduction to the trailer? Chime in below!

-Out of the Wilderness