Check your caravan cladding to avoid buyer regret

If you're in the market for a new caravan clad in composite aluminium, it might pay to check with the caravan manufacturer what warranty cover you have for the cladding and, if possible, the quality of cladding used.

Reports online and from repairers are surfacing about fading finish and even corrosion on what appears to be lower quality composite cladding material.

These composite panels are not the 30-40mm-thick 'frame-less' sandwich panels used by some caravan builders, but the sheets covering the van frame (typically either timber or aluminium) that have been increasingly adopted by manufacturers in recent years to deliver a similar smooth-sided look, in lieu of the older style ‘corrugated’ aluminium sheeting that was a staple material for the RV industry since the 1960s.

Like any covering material, it has a lot to contend with in Australia’s harsh UV environment.

This relatively thin (3-4mm thick ) ‘composite’ (with thin inner and outer aluminium skins encasing a polyethylene core) is even used for street signs – although the standard of the material used for caravans should be of better, long lasting quality.

For example, Alucabond is a German company that claims that its product will last up to 70 years. It produces composite panels for a variety of applications, primarily commercial buildings, where long-lasting, quality cladding is important.

Alucabond says that its products add no significant contribution to fire, and are a non-combustible material with very low smoke production. Other brands such as Probond and The Shann Group, also claim a high standard of quality.

Like many materials, it can come down to the supplier and quality of material used to make the cladding.

Some caravan owners are reporting online that their composite cladding material is beginning to cloud or fade on caravans less than four years old.

Some in the industry say that their composite panels are supplied with a Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) coating, which resists corrosion, abrasion, and for colour panels, resists fading. PVDF is a resin-based liquid coating system applied during cladding manufacture.

While it’s worth asking the caravan manufacturer about cladding warranty, some of the suppliers are offering up to 15 years warranty for their PVDF-coated cladding products.

Meanwhile, cladding corrosion resistance is another issue. Danie Johanson, from Premium Caravan & Motorhome Services in Minto NSW, says that he has seen composite panels corrode as result of water ingress.

“I am seeing corrosion on caravans at two to four years of age, it appears to be some kind of electrolysis,” he told caravancampingsales.

“As the composite panels have multiple joins, that’s where they can also eventually leak.”

Johanson added that insurance companies are starting to reject claims involving this kind of water ingress.

While older corrugated aluminium-skinned vans can also suffer from corrosion and paint fade, they tend to be more than ten years old. It appears to be more of a problem with the newer composite cladding, especially where, for example, it joins with an H-moulding to checker plate along the lower side sections of the van.

Another industry insider we talked to said he had also seen this problem, and pointed to the potential for issues when caravan manufacturers use standard-size sheeting, as opposed to panels pre-cut to suit caravan measurements.

Where the composite side panel meets the checker plate aluminium, via an H-mould, water can collect if an inadequate amount of silicon sealing is applied. The exposed aluminium encased within the H-mould can eventually corrode.

Some caravan manufacturers have the purchasing power to specify their unique cladding panel size requirements, meaning that the side panel does not need to be cut and can therefore maintain its sealed edge.

However, the best quality cladding material doesn't come cheap – some in the industry point to the material cost being double for high-quality composite panels, but the upside is that they deal with fewer warranty claims.

Like anything, you get what you pay for, and for a caravan’s external skin, it might be worth paying the price for a higher-quality cladding.