Do you use anything in your RV to help remove moisture during winter storage? The lovely couple next door who have owned a variety of RV's over the past 55 years gave me a bit of advice on the weekend. To help remove moisture from the air and possibly form mattresses etc. ....place numerous plates of baking soda throughout your unit. On the beds, in cabinets? Bathroom etc......Place kitty litter in small containers and leave on the floor. In the spring the soda and litter are found in hard clumps. They also remove the covers from W/H and fridge vents. Place 4 mothballs inside, then place a piece of plastic over the opening and then replace the cover. This is one place rodents get in.

I think this depends mostly on where you live. "Up Nort" it gets so dry that your skin cracks and I know no-one to worry about moisture when they store their rigs. What we do when we put our 5'ver away down south for the summer to combat problems with moisture is four things. Put crush newspaper in the cabinetsPut pans of kitty litter outPut pans of charcoal outPut two big tubs of Damp Rid (buy at WalMart in the RV section) out.When we show up in the fall the 5'ver smells, looks, and feels like the day we put it into storage.

We use the "Damp Rid" bags you can buy from hardware / Walmart stores and hang them in the camper. This year we are trying a larger "bucket" this year. I put out Bounce dryer sheets (which I think also collect moisture) and Irish Spring soap throughout the camper. I would not put moth balls anywhere "inside" a camper - once that smell gets in, it is very difficult to get it out. I do put mothballs on the ground outside the camper around anything touching the ground, which for me are the tires and front jack. So far no mice after 10 years, the camper smells nice in the spring, and moisture / mold has been minimal.

nomad297 wrote:I wouldn't use the mothballs.For a long time they used mothballs inside their unit, until......The year they forgot and left 3 opened boxes of moth balls in the unit. It took 3 years to eliminate the smell, LOL

I have never used anything to remove moisture in our RVs. Have used Borax to remove ants and mousetraps to remove mice.

Do you remove moisture? | Good Sam Community

westend
Explorer
Oct 21, 2013
In Ontario, you shouldn't need any moisture control. The relative humidity is very low in the Winter.

I was worried about elephants getting inside my trailer so I put dryer sheets in all the cabinets. I haven't had an elephant problem in 10 years. :B
DutchmenSport
Explorer
Oct 21, 2013
I live in Indiana and the camper parks in my driveway. I don't do anything for moisture over the winter. We leave a window or a vent cracked and that's about it. As stated above, in the winter, it's so dry, your skin cracks. I agree.
donn0128
Explorer II
Oct 21, 2013
Used to be like others and do nothing. But the first trip in the spring the bedding was always damp and nasty to sleep on. Several years ago we started using a dehumidifier all winter. What a difference that makes. No more wet clammy feeling bedding, much warmer for the first trip of the season. Of course to use a dehumidifier you also need a source for 120VAC. But it is totally worth the effort. Never again will I leave my RV parked all winter without one running.
n7bsn
Explorer
Oct 21, 2013
Like Donn we live where it is REALLY damp in the winter (like we have had continuous 24-7 fog for days). A real dehumidifier is the answer. We run it 24-7 all winter.
2oldman
Explorer II
Oct 21, 2013
loulou57 wrote:
.....Place kitty litter in small containers and leave on the floor. In the spring the soda and litter are found in hard clumps.
I don't get how kitty litter is a dessicant.. does that really work? My cat's litter never does that.

Dri-Z-Air is a dessicant sold at many stores.
loulou57
Explorer
Oct 21, 2013
Last year we did nothing for moisture in our new trailer. It looked and smelled like a brand new trailer in the spring...so it should at 6 months old.

Our friends next door say we should be protecting against moisture. Hubby says poppy cock! It could be that the older couple are over cautious!

They do say the cat litter works.
2oldman
Explorer II
Oct 21, 2013
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John_Joey
Explorer
Oct 21, 2013
2oldman wrote:
loulou57 wrote:
.....Place kitty litter in small containers and leave on the floor. In the spring the soda and litter are found in hard clumps.
I don't get how kitty litter is a dessicant.. does that really work? My cat's litter never does that.

Dri-Z-Air is a dessicant sold at many stores.

It's real purpose is to absorb odor, just like the charcoal, and baking soda that people use. Does nothing for moisture, and if it does it isn't enough to make a noticeable difference.

The big buckets of Damp-rid are good for up to 6 months. If you close the place up tight they seem to last that long down south, at least for me (I use 2 of them.)
John_Joey
Explorer
Oct 21, 2013
loulou57 wrote:
It could be that the older couple are over cautious!

They do say the cat litter works.

Next time ask them if they were ever snowbirds. The things that they are telling you are things that snowbirds do when they leave their rigs down south over the summer.

If you left a rig lets say in Florida by the coast, all summer, all button up, in the fall the inside would be black with mold.

Also the mothballs could be a trick they used for mud dubbers. Just the fact that they put plastic on the fridge panel tells me they are more concern with bugs then rodents.
mlts22
Explorer
Oct 21, 2013
Damp-Rid buckets in a plastic tub or five gallon bucket. The reason for the secondary container is that the calcium chloride is very corrosive, so it is good to ensure that it won't spill should something knock the bucket over.