how to disperse heat when traveling in the Desert SW

mccar1748

I'm a newbie w/ a 21Tab400 and will be taking a trip to Yellowstone next spring . I'll be traveling from the east coast going through Texas, New Mexico,Arizona, Neveda and I'm concerned about temps over 100 and how to prevent interior damage while doing side trips w/TV. I've have seen reflective material used but only on Motorhomes not travel trailers. Don't want to overwork A/C and expect to do some Boon Docking. Any suggestions  

rh5555

We do a fair amount of camping in Arizona in the spring, and generally the heat is not a problem.  What we did do was to upgrade the air circulation in the trailer.  First we upgraded the main Dometic roof fan with one of these kits, then swapped out the bathroom fan with another Dometic fan like this.  Both of these fans draw very little power, so can run all day.  They also come with a temperature control so they run faster as the cabin temperature increased.  We set one to exhaust and the other to bring air into the trailer so that we get a good turnover of air.

Tabnero

better to put some shade on the outside of the windows rather than reflectex on the inside of the window. if you put it on the inside then the heat gets reflected back to the window which is not good for them. So we use the window covers to keep the sun off all together.

Binghi

When you leave your trailer for the day, open all the windows at least halfway and turn on the main cabin fan at a low-medium speed. When you get back turn on the air conditioning for a while. That has worked for us in our home state of Texas and throughout the Southwest. We don’t use any reflective material on the windows.

mccar1748

thanks for the info

pthomas745

A visor on the side of the trailer can shade a lot of the sides of the trailer.  (Properly secured and tied down!)  There is a keder rail on the driver's side of the trailer, also, and with the appropriate "awning clips" I have secured "shade sail" type material on that side of the trailer, also.  For the front of my trailer, and my propane fridge, I try to rig up some sort of shade on the front, too.

Of course, I have been drummed out of the Glamping groups, because the trailer can sometimes look like a desert dweller tent!  It does work, to some extent. A windy day sort of makes this more difficult.

The top of the trailer is that solid sheet of aluminum.  Some owners have even used an easy up type shade over the top of the entire trailer.

There are a couple of threads on this sort of thing...

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/10280/awning/p1

And, one more, with an idea from owner "Tabaz"

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/120339#Comment_120339