Insulation question

[Shrug53]

What is that pink board everyone uses for insulation? Where can I get it, what can I expect to pay, and is it flexible (for bending around curves).

Thanks!

[Chip]

any building supply house,,84 lumber,,home depot,,lowes,,scottys,,manards,,what ever is around you,,,its called eps boardie extruded polystyrene,,as apposed to eps expanded polystyrene,,,the latter is like bead board that is used for inexpensive coolers it bends a bit but can break if bent too tight,,,I sell it for about $5.50 a sheet for half inch and it has a r-2.5 per half inch,,it comes in 4x8,,and 2x8 sheets up to 4 inches thick,,,its marketed under owens corning label as oc pink
http://www.owenscorning.com/comminsul/p ... &System=79

thats pretty much it,,,,,

chip

[Dave Nathanson]

Well, after spending several chilly summer nights at 8600 feet altitude, I now know that I should have insulated the teardrop. The walls & floor are 1" thick plywood, and the roof is 3/8". The whole exterior is covered with aluminum. We have a 1 foot square roof vent, and we've taken to using a square of that aluminized bubble wrap insulation to cover it on cold nights. It might help, but it's sort of hard to tell. The windows do get a lot of condensation, but the walls mostly don't. The interior is covered with 1/4" oak. It looks really nice. But it's COLD at night. When the temp dips under 45, I've been sleeping with my fur "mad bomber" hat on and the sleeping bag all drawn up tight. It's just not warm in the TD, like I thought it would be.

So, I guess that the answer is one I'm not going to like, and that is to retrofit some insulation to the inside of the trailer, which will hide all that beautiful oak.

Any suggestions?

The inside looks like this: http://www.roughwheelers.com/montego/TD/TD_Construction_progress_Jan04/Pages/6.html

[Nick Taylor]

Dave,

Maybe you can make some removable insulation for those cold nights. How about some quilted fabric panels that can velcro to the walls and ceiling, with separate ones for the doors with flaps for the windows.

Also you might want to consider getting a 12v electric mattress pad. The wamth from below would make a lot of difference.

I haven't camped in my tear in really cold weather yet, if anything, I'm usually too warm and if I get chilly I have a nice down throw to pull over the top.

Nick.

[sftiggee]

when i slept in my minimally insulated Hunter at the grand canyon last december, the temps dipped into the 20s, the condensation was ridiculous (thinks flooded understorage from so much puddling), but I ROASTED inside. I literally would wake up int eh middle of the night and have to throw off my covers, sweating like crazy. I had the windows cracked as my only form of ventilation. I also had a thermo tarp over the top of my tear and i also had my EZ up up with the three sides down (windy as heck).

I'm amazed that you were so cold in your tear. Possibly you had too much ventilation going on, but then the drawback is a ton of condensation like what i had experienced. Did you have anything over the tear like i had? maybe look into a thermo tarp, i got mine at a camping supply store, and they aren't super expensive. they are metallic grey color though and look liek they were made entirely of duct tape. good ot have handy though.

Jolene

[Shrug53]

Nick, the best answer to this is radiant heat.
Please bear with me while I give a brief dissertation on heating.
A body will warm itself through convection. In other words the body will heat the air surrounding it. When the air around the body is not replaced at all (no ventilation) then as it meets cold air radiated in from the outside, you will get condensation. When the air around the body is replaced too quickly then you feel colder. This is known as wind chill.
In your case I believe you are probably too well ventilated. Look at an igloo. A 6' round igloo needs only a 4" hole in the top to vent it. This keeps the occupants at a dry and comfortable 70º.
Just as a brief side note wearing several layers of lightweight clothing will keep you cooler in hot weather than going shirtless will.
Anyway the easiest solution to your problem is radiant heat. This is quickly becoming a popular choice in RV's and buildings too. Heat is generated from the bottom of the space and it naturally radiates upward.
This is superior to trying to heat the air in a space, which must be constantly replaced to avoid the problem of condensation.
So in the simplest terms what you want to do is leave the trailer as is, with ventilation the way you have it and introduce a radiant heat source from the floor of the trailer. In even easier terms, stick a 12 volt heating pad under your mattress!

Hope this helps!

[twc3]

My T.D. is insulated however I think the Electro warmth 12v Electric Heat Pad would solve your problem.

They warm you and the Cabin up to a cozy temp.



They work great. I love mine.

[Dave Nathanson]

Well, I am totally willing to try one of those bed warmers. We use ThermaRest 1 1/2" air mattresses, that bed warmer won't hurt an air mattress will it? Can it run off a little portable 12v battery? The original Electro-warmth website seems to have disappeared.

Jolene, I never heard of a thermo-tarp. I'll have to check that out too, but I'm not wild about having to hide my beautiful little TearDrop every night. How big does it fold down to? Like a bed pillow size?

As for ventilation, we had the side windows opened just a tiny crack, so over-ventilation was not the problem. It was just as cold as camping in a tent. That was a big surprise to us, as we thought that all that plywood would count for something. I guesses that all our heat was flowing out the roof vent (even when closed) and we made a insulate cover for the inside of that vent. It's about 12" square, and we just stuff it up into the vent & it stays. Still cold though.

I looked up an old message from RKeller, who pointed out that plywood is only 1.25 R value per inch. We have only 3/8" plywood for the roof (plus the aluminum), so that may be why it's chilly inside.

I'm thinking that if it's even a good idea, I could do like Nick said and make up some removable insulation panels for the roof & front wall. Insulating the sides will be a lot more trouble than just doing the roof.

What do you guys think a reasonable R-Value for a TD ought to be?

Thanks,

[Shrug53]

First, a correction. I meant to direct my comments above to Mac, not Nick. Sorry.

Second I meant to give you some links on radiant heat:

http://www.radiantec.com/whyradiant.htm

http://www.radiantheat.net/how_works_forced_vs_radiant/

Hope these help!

[campadk]

We haven't had a need for a bedwarmer. Our Hunter has underbunk storage which provides a lot of insulation from the cold.

Only had to turn the heater on in November. Toastie blankies solve that.

[Shrug53]

With a hot wife like Dave's, who needs a bedwarmer!

[denverd0n]

The air mattress could be your problem. They are notorious for providing almost no insulation at all from the cold floor. Get a foam mattress, or even a thin, closed-cell, camping pad to put on top of the air mattress and my bet is that you'll sleep a LOT more comfortably.

[Nick Taylor]

Dave,

I agree that part of your problem may be your air mattress. I never find them to be very warm. My tear has a conventional RV spring mattress with foam on top and a couple layers of flannel sheets.

Instead of the quilted fabric, maybe this would work:

Depending on how much room you have between your mattress and side walls you could take some foam insulation board and cut panels to fit on the sides and roof and then wrap them in fabric. After looking at the interior pictures of your trailer, you could easily wedge the fabric covered foam panels between your horizontal roof members. The other advantage of a fabric interior is that it would feel warmer to the touch.

When you aren't going on a trip where you need the extra insulation, you could remove the panels and leave them at home. They wouldn't add much weight at all.

Nick.

[Chip]

ok,,got a idea for a heater that has been rolling around in my mind,,,,bare with me,,,ya'll tear it apart or improve on it,,curious what yall can come up with,,

using a length of exhaust pipe bend a tight coil of maybee 14 to 18" dia. with the ends coming oway about 18" or so,,hook a length of flexible pipe to both ends,,,and put a filter or screen on inlet end and a light flex hose on the other,,somewhere in line cut in a small 12v blower or fan,,the flexible tube would be an inlet into a teardrop,,

concept is,,coil is placed in middle of fire ring or campfire,,,cool air is drawn in and heated by fire ond coals,,and blown or sucked into the camper,,,crack a window for good continuous flow,,,

I know it would have the potential of bad air coming in and I dont have answers to all these questions but its a concept,,see what yall can do wid it

chip

[Guest]

I agree about the air mattress. They'd NEVER warm up to your body temp, doesn't seem like. Would be like constantly shifting to the cold part of the bed. Couple hours of that would leave anybody shivering.