Cooling Issues in my stealth camper
Hi everyone. I'm going off the grid as a travel nurse, and I have just purchased a 12 * 6 toy hauler. It comes with a portable AC, which the guy I'm buying it from says works very well at night but ...
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Currently staying at a friend's RV storage place in a rural, wooded area. Coincidentally, it's 20 minutes from my assignment, so that worked out great. It's like camping out in the woods! I can run a generator there without issue and can do any sort of work on the trailer with power tools. As far as the money, the most costly upgrade element is the solar, by far. I'll have two thousand dollars in that, possibly more by the time I get batteries. This would be the same cost if I bought a traditional RV as well. I am figuring the cost of the trailer without solar to be $4500 max by the time I am finished.
The trailer came with an 8000 btu unit, and it never shuts off in the day, even though the trailer is in only about 1/4 sun. The roof area in the sun is extremely hot, so I know the insulation isn't very effective at all. First order of business is to take the paneling off the roof and look under there.
I found a material with foil on one side and it is very light but doesn't appear to be very flammable. Forgot what it's called but home depot carries it. It has both a radiant barrier and it has a decent R value as well, I think it's about 3/4 of an inch thick. I'm going to line the inside of the trailer with this stuff and I should be adequately insulated. It will certainly be a vast improvement on what's there now. If I can take off the paneling and replace the insulation there, and put the paneling back on and it tests out great, I'll just stop there.
I have plenty of weight capacity (buying a 6 cylinder 4 Runner), and 300 lbs in drywall (which will act a a cool sink and reduce AC cycling) isn't a deal breaker. I can't figure out why this bothers people so much. If it cracks, I'll throw luan over it. If it doesn't, I'll just let it be. I suspect it will crack, but it still should be effective as a cool sink and to reduce noise.
I'm looking to recover all of the money I've got in this over a couple of years. So it makes sense to me from an investment standpoint, plus it will make it very convenient when I roll in to a new town. I'm having fun with this! Life is short and that counts for something!
The trailer came with an 8000 btu unit, and it never shuts off in the day, even though the trailer is in only about 1/4 sun. The roof area in the sun is extremely hot, so I know the insulation isn't very effective at all. First order of business is to take the paneling off the roof and look under there.
I found a material with foil on one side and it is very light but doesn't appear to be very flammable. Forgot what it's called but home depot carries it. It has both a radiant barrier and it has a decent R value as well, I think it's about 3/4 of an inch thick. I'm going to line the inside of the trailer with this stuff and I should be adequately insulated. It will certainly be a vast improvement on what's there now. If I can take off the paneling and replace the insulation there, and put the paneling back on and it tests out great, I'll just stop there.
I have plenty of weight capacity (buying a 6 cylinder 4 Runner), and 300 lbs in drywall (which will act a a cool sink and reduce AC cycling) isn't a deal breaker. I can't figure out why this bothers people so much. If it cracks, I'll throw luan over it. If it doesn't, I'll just let it be. I suspect it will crack, but it still should be effective as a cool sink and to reduce noise.
I'm looking to recover all of the money I've got in this over a couple of years. So it makes sense to me from an investment standpoint, plus it will make it very convenient when I roll in to a new town. I'm having fun with this! Life is short and that counts for something!
