How long have you owned your trailer without a cover?

[BruceT]

I've owned campers for 30 years and have kept them an average 5-8 years. I live in New England so trees are a problem. Covers are great for keeping the tree debris, sap, crap, and crud off the camper. No trees? Just sun? Covers are great for keeping the sun off the roof and windows, bleaching out fabrics near windows, but even the most expensive covers can't fight the sun.
The covers are a royal pain to get on and off, the bigger the rig, the more it takes to muscle it on and off. Is there any way you can put a roof structure over the rig? The fabric "garages" are a good investment and are drive in and drive out. Regardless of what you do it won't change having to seal the roof every 4-5 years. Good luck!

[Rik in SoCAL]

10 years 2010 FR TBSS. A cover is the single best way to keep your exterior looking good but it is also lot of work. Family is good for 25 days a year and live near the ocean so the exterior gets dirty easy. We like to camp when the weather is good. A good cover is around $500 and they only last around 3 years so I have went through a few. $1500 is not going to get much more time so don't go overboard, but the quality (do the research) is important. My favorite was an Elementscovers.com. They just wear out due to the elements and wind and breakdown in the non double stitched/reinforced sections. Imagine not washing your car very often...or for months at a time. I do have to wash it every time I return before I cover it otherwise the inside of your cover gets dirty. I often don't use it for months or much in the winter. I uncover it and it looks great, ready to go with a pretty much fresh washed rig underneath. Otherwise, you have to detail it every time you go on a trip (again, if you care about having a clean shiny exterior). I also prep before i cover and use painters tape and cut tennis balls and attach to all the corners and sharp edges to extend the life of the cover. Check out some used TT's and you can tell the ones that are left uncovered and sun/weather damage does reduce the resale. Also, their awnings also go bad in the spot where the sun hits unless they have an awning cover $$. I take pride, like my stuff clean and to last. For some people its not as important. My 2 cents.

[carlson]

I have had a Rockwood Ultralight for the last 7 years and have always had it covered. I live in northern WI and it is uncovered during the summers so don't have the sunlight issue on the cover except over winters. First cover was the brown colored fabric with the Tyvek top and the brown fabric tore right away when I covered it for the first time. Caught on one of the rain spouts that I thought I had covered. I haven't looked at all the posts but the rain spouts will get you every time unless you cover them securely. I now use tennis balls that I drill a hole with a hole saw drill a little smaller than the spout diameter so the tennis balls go on snug. The first cover was about $500.00 from Camping World and lasted almost 7 years. I am on the second cover and I like it much better even though it has only seen one winter so far. It is a completely gray material and was about $200.00 on-line. The cover is from RVMasking and it is a heavier material 100% polypropylene and has a fabric backing. My camper is about 33 feet stem to stern including the spare tire and LP tanks and I think I bought the cover for 35 feet and it fits really good. I looked at a lot of reviews on-line about RV covers and decided on the RVMasking. I did a lot of research on covering vs. not covering and decided to cover with the idea that I will have to purchase a cover every few years regardless. Good luck.