Cooling Issues in my stealth camper

Gdetrailer wrote:

roadnurse wrote:
For what it's worth, I'm going to drywall the walls, but not the ceiling. I can then get a nice finish on the walls, and I can fix it easily if I need to. worst case scenario is that I cove it with luan.

I bought a 400 watt solar kit from Renogy and a quality 1000 watt inverter. Now for a bank of batteries and a battery charger. I'm going to buy one of the new fridgidaire 5000 watt ac's with an eer of 12.2, only uses a hair under 500 watts i think. When it's done, I'll have $7000 in my trailer, $2500 of that in the solar/batteries/electronics. The remaining and rather large issue is how much I can quiet the compressor.

I'm not shooting for so quiet you can't hear it running. I'm shooting for simply a very relatively quiet AC and generator. I don't care if people who look closely at it know it's a camper. This is about going anywhere and towing a compact, easy load instead of a traditional 5th wheel type of rv.

I'm simply going to look for inexpensive rv parks on assignments and then be able to boondock in nature on my days off. Should I need to do the Walmart thing while on the road, that's fine as well.

3/8 drywall weighs 1.4 lbs per square ft, one 4x8 sheet weighs 45 lbs

1/2 drywall weighs 1.6 lbs per square ft, one 4x8 ft sheet is 52 lbs

assuming 6ft high walls 3/8 dry wall will use 302 lbs of your trailers capacity

1/2 drywall will use 345 lbs of your trailers capacity..

And that is not including your drywall mud to finish and hide joints nor screws to hold the drywall on..

You will be adding about 400 lbs of dead non usable weight AND it will be cracking every time you move the trailer all so it can look like a sticks and brick home on the inside..

USE PANELING, it is less than 1/4 the weight of drywall and NO FINISHING involved. You are statring out handicapped anyway with a cargo trailer, they weigh in at twice the weight of a fully finished travel trailer then you are adding weight on top of that to finish it..

Now before you go spouting off about not liking paneling, well there is an alternative.. You can get sheets of 1/8" fiberglass panels called FRP.. It is designed for "wet" areas and is often used for industrial/public restrooms and any other high moisture area that would damage drywall..

One side is pebbled (this is the normal side that shows) and the other side is smooth.

You CAN put the pebbled side into the wall studs and leave the smooth side out.. Just make sure you not only glue it to the wall good but add in some screws for good measure.. Don't used for ceiling, not designed for that use..

Then you can paint the smooth side to your hearts content.

FRP weighs much less than drywall and moisture is not a concern and you can buy it at Home Depot or Lowes.