A Class A motorhome is a serious investment, and for most owners, it represents something beyond that. It's the freedom to go where you want, stay as long as you like, and bring the comforts of home with you. Keeping that freedom intact requires staying ahead of wear and tear, especially on the exterior where sun, rain, road vibration, and temperature changes work against your coach every season.
The math on preventive maintenance is straightforward. Replacing a worn part on your schedule before failure costs a fraction of what it costs to replace the part after it takes other components down with it. A degraded sealant that gets addressed in autumn is a $12 fix. A degraded sealant that goes unnoticed through a wet winter can mean water intrusion, rot, and interior damage that costs thousands. Reactive repair also tends to happen at the worst time, mid-trip, with rush shipping timelines and shop availability that may not be in your favor.
Small issues compound. What starts as a slightly sticky awning switch or a hairline crack in a skylight gasket doesn't stay small when it stays neglected. It becomes a bigger mechanical failure, a safety concern, or structural damage that wasn't there the season before.
This motorhome exterior maintenance checklist covers three replacement tasks that should be on your checklist every year. Stay ahead of these annually, and you'll spend less time troubleshooting and more time on the road.
Essential RV Parts for Annual Exterior Maintenance
Exterior Sealants
Sealant is the primary barrier between your coach's exterior and the water, humidity, and road debris it encounters every season. It protects roof seams, window edges, vent openings, and any other penetration point on the exterior. Over time, exposure to UV, temperature cycling, and movement from road vibration causes sealant to dry out, crack, and pull away from the surfaces it's supposed to protect.
The problem with degraded sealant is that it doesn't always look like it’s failed. A bead that appears intact on the surface may have lost adhesion underneath, allowing water to track behind it without any visible sign of intrusion. By the time you notice a water stain on an interior wall or ceiling, the moisture has been present long enough to cause deeper damage.
Sealant inspection and reapplication should happen on an annual basis, ideally before winter storage or at the start of spring prep. Walk the full exterior of your RV and check each of these areas:
- Roof seams and field seams where panels meet
- Vent collars and skylight perimeters
- Window edges and slide-out trim
For roof seams, skylights, and other horizontal applications, a self-leveling lap sealant is the right choice. It flows into the joint and levels itself out, creating a complete seal without requiring tooling. The RV Dicor Self-Leveling Rubber Sealant is well-suited for this. It adheres to aluminum, fiberglass, wood, vinyl, galvanized metal, and concrete; covers skylight installations, vents, and exterior cracks or joints; and comes in a standard 10.3 oz cartridge.
Awning Switch
Your awning gets used at nearly every campsite. Every extension and retraction cycles the switch, and over the course of a full travel season, that amounts to lots of usage. While the switch itself is located inside your coach with other controls, it still wears down from repeated use, and the awning hardware it operates is fully exposed to moisture, road grime, and temperature swings.
Awning switches fail in predictable ways. The internal contacts wear from repeated use and eventually stop working reliably. Moisture gets inside, which causes corrosion that creates resistance or prevents operation entirely. Physical damage from road vibration or accidental contact can crack the housing and accelerate both problems.
An awning that won't retract is more than an inconvenience. Driving with the awning out is a safety risk and will damage the awning arms and fabric, while an awning that won't extend takes away a major convenience of your campsite setup. Neither situation is hard to prevent with a routine swap.
At the start of each season, test your awning with a full extend-and-retract cycle. Watch out for any of these before the switch quits entirely:
- Hesitation on extend or retract
- Needing to press twice to get a response
- Sluggish movement on one direction but not the other
The RV Carefree Awning Rocker Switch is a direct OEM replacement and is commonly used on many Holiday Rambler, Monaco, American Coach, and Fleetwood Class A motorhomes. It includes both On/Off and Retract/Extend controls and should take care of the problem.
Rubber Step Treads
Your entry steps take more direct physical abuse than almost any other exterior component on your coach. Every trip in and out of the motorhome means foot traffic across the step surface, and that's before factoring in rain, mud, road grime, and the temperature cycling that causes rubber to harden and crack over seasons of use.
The problem with worn step treads isn't just cosmetic. A tread that has hardened, cracked, or started to peel away from the step platform becomes a slip hazard, particularly when wet. For a coach that's regularly used in varying weather conditions, that risk is present more often than most owners think about.
Inspect your step treads at the start of each season. Look for surface cracking, separation at the edges, or areas where the rubber has compressed flat and lost its grip texture. Any of those are signs it's time to replace rather than monitor. The replacement itself is straightforward, and having a fresh tread in place before your first trip costs far less than an injury or a damaged step assembly.
The RV Rubber Step Tread is used on many different Class A entry step assemblies. Contact us to verify compatibility with your coach and keep your steps looking and performing their best.
Annual Exterior Maintenance Checklist
Run through these each year before your first trip of the season.
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Exterior Sealants: Inspect all roof seams, window edges, and penetration points. Remove and reapply any failing material → Shop self-leveling sealant
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Awning Switch: Test full extend and retract operation. Replace if response is inconsistent or delayed → Shop awning rocker switch
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Rubber Step Treads: Inspect for cracking, edge separation, or loss of grip texture. Replace before surface becomes a slip hazard → Shop rubber step tread
Keep Your Motorhome Road Ready
Exterior maintenance on a Class A motorhome isn't complicated, but it does require consistency. The coaches that hold up well over years of travel aren't necessarily the ones with the most expensive repairs on record. They're the ones with owners who stayed ahead of the small stuff.
RV Elite Parts stocks OEM components specifically for Holiday Rambler, Monaco, American Coach, and Fleetwood motorhomes. In-stock items ship the same day on orders placed before 4:30 PM EST. If you're uncertain about fit for your specific model year, our team can confirm the right part before you order.
Browse the full catalog, or reach out directly at [email protected] or 616-330-1832.
