Keeping pets cool while you're away

DABZ wrote:
Anyone know a ballpark price on prepping a 41 ft 5th wheel with a generator as a back up?

They usually come prepped for a generator, but very few if any 5'ers ever come with a generator.

For starters, we try not to rv in the extreme heat but sometimes it can't be avoided. We have 3 A/C's and each room is tied to an A/C via a thermostat sensor for that room. We set each room to a temperature and let the A/C's do their thing. We have been known to be gone up to 8 hours on motorcycle rides or other excursions. Our two Malte-poos do fine while we're gone.

Anyone know a ballpark price on prepping a 41 ft 5th wheel with a generator as a back up?

A couple of thoughts:

What color is your RV? If it's white, you might be surprised at how long it takes to get uncomfortably-hot without the A/C running. If it's a dark color, it's going to heat up quickly, unless it's heavily shaded. You can cut Reflectix insulation (like bubble-wrap, with foil faces) to fit in the windows that will be facing the sun, to help keep it cooler, too. Just sitting out in a field with the windows covered in Reflectix, our white 5er never got above the ambient temperature during a Michigan summer with temps in the 90's; and usually felt about 10 degrees cooler, IMO.

What breed/type are your pets? A short-faced dog like a Shih-Tzu will overheat before a long-nosed Poodle will.

I agree with Naio, if your pets have access to water and a cool breeze via 12v, they should be able to endure a loss of power. On a hot day, maybe have a neighbor simply listen to make sure they hear the A/C running from time to time?

Dutch_12078 wrote:
Most RV parks with "No unattended pets" rules refer to leaving the pet tied up outside of the RV, but some do include leaving them inside as well. It's worth checking with the office to make sure you're in compliance before leaving them if the rule is not clear. Whenever we left our dog in the coach for more than an hour or so, we always made sure the park office had our cell numbers, and we usually gave them to a neighbor as well, just in case any issues came up while we were away.

Did you leave the door unlocked?

Most RV parks with "No unattended pets" rules refer to leaving the pet tied up outside of the RV, but some do include leaving them inside as well. It's worth checking with the office to make sure you're in compliance before leaving them if the rule is not clear. Whenever we left our dog in the coach for more than an hour or so, we always made sure the park office had our cell numbers, and we usually gave them to a neighbor as well, just in case any issues came up while we were away.

As we are not full timing, we found that most places have rules about leaving your pets. (Yes, I know, everyone thinks their dogs are special and cause no problems) We abide by the rules and the dogs would go with us when we went anywhere. We did the test and walked around the campground area to see if our dogs were noisy and never heard anything. That said, whenever we were farther away than we could hear, the pets were there with us. The only exception to this was for my mother in law's funeral, and we asked permission from the campground owners.

We use a Straight Talk hotSpot and a Nest camera. We leave a therm. in plain view. We can both see and hear what is going on in the RV when we are away. We can tell what the temp. is. We only buy data for the hotspot when we travel. Other times we use the Nest at home on our network.

I use 12v window fans connected to house battery -- one set to blow cool air in and one to blow hot air out -- and sometimes a strong chain that keeps the door open enough for the cat but not enough for a human. (He doesn't go out when I am not home, unless we've been in one spot for a few weeks and he feels safe, but the cracked door lets in a lot of cool air.)

This keeps my van at outside temperature, maximum. Most of the day it's cooler than outside. If it's a warm day I come back at the hottest point in the afternoon and check the thermometer and the kitty.

I don't go out for 8 hours, though. Max so far has been 3 or 4.

jplante4 wrote:
This plus this will set up an alarm at 85° and call your cell phone.

what if the electricity goes out? since my vacation home has a land line the first link would be sufficient and would it work to plug it into an APC?
bumpy