🥵 RVing in EXTREME HEAT! ☀️ (Full Time RV Life)
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- Опубликовано: 4 авг 2024
- We recently had the misfortune to be RVing in some VERY hot weather! We're talking 120 degrees Fahrenheit kind of heat! So, we had to break out all of our tricks and invent some new ones!
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I use ice packs in my refrigerator when I go camping in hot days Put him in the freezer at night and then move into the fridge during the day
Glad to see you back, hope everything is going well for you and yours.
I was there a few weeks ago. I cannot imagine trying to tough it out in an RV! Walking into that wall of heat when you step outside must be experienced to truly understand. Glad you all survived.
As always, great video guys! It’s been hot here too! Hope your enjoying some cooler weather now! Hope all is well. Have to catch up with you guys again soon!
You guys do great vids. Thanks! Shade is critical, your comments about servicing AC are appreciated.
The best tip for keeping your RV cool in the summer heat is,…..’You have wheels, move to a cooler climate!’ Hehe 😜
Your video was great info and I didn’t know about the RV Shades til now. Great idea. You guys covered it all. Stay cool 😎👍.
Pretty much the whole reason to have an RV in the 1st place...
Great tips on working through the power issues and heat. I am sure when the series hits the airwaves it will be all worth it. Thanks for another great video.
One of your best videos so far! Great information on a serious subject. Thanks!
Can't wait to see yall on the RV TV show and what awesome new adventures to come your way, love yall 3000!
Could you please tell me what RV TV show it is? . We love watching shows about RVs, but they just don’t have any on Television anymore. Thank you!
Bought our first RV in May in AZ! A super C w/ two ac’s. Due to new RV issues and delayed parts, we are still here! Boy did these newbies learn a lot about living in the RV in 122 heat!! I put decorative pillows in the overhead fans until I happened upon the pillow you showed in your video, at an RV store! It also took us a while to find reflective stuff as we didn’t know what it was, lol, and happened upon it in a hardware store by accident! We also did what you suggested by lowering our thermostat in the evenings and that really worked! We admire y’all and felt proud of ourselves after watching this video and realizing we did some of the easy stuff you suggested!
Being a Floridian this video really opened my eyes to things I still need to learn. Afterall I will be doing adventures with my 2 Grandchildren. AC is very important. So much to learn my heads spinning. But you really are helping people like us. From my heart thank you. Safe travels
Great information, thanks. Always enjoy your videos! Safe travels
We use Micro Air Easy Starts on our Airstream and it's amazing how low the amps become with those in use and have never had an issue with our AC's starting and staying on during high heat situations. Highly recommend you get those put on your rig Chad. You won't regret it!
Hey Chad and Tara, I am stationary living full time. When the heat gets above 90 I place a 10" round fan in all just above the steps. This helps pull the cold air down the hall and pushes it into bye main living area. It also helps cool down the hallway. This keeps the5th wheel in the upper 70s. Worked in 117 degree heat. We have 3 a/c s going and it works. 2 adults and 2 toddlers. Reflects in the windows. I wanna thank you both for channel, it helps me learn how to keep are home safe and maintained.
I came over here from Phil and Stacy’s channel. You’ve given us some good information. I will be checking out more of your videos especially on maintaining the AC. I’ve cleaned the inside part of the unit and changed filters but never the outside. Guessing we are overdue for that.
Loved the video. My first time in Vegas was in July I felt like a turkey in an oven 🔥🌶
Y’all. We watched this as a kind of painful nostalgia! We sold our 397 last October and rented a house with a view of Lake Mead. Even in the house we had trouble staying cool during that heat wave, but at least it didn’t go up to 90 like it did in the rig. I survived last summer wearing a ThermApparel cooling vest. I have the Extended Cool Packs plus a set to swap out. It has assisted me though 100 degree Bike Nights here as well. I hate that we didn’t get to say hi while y’all were here. Ride safe and stay cool!
I love all the injects, lol. Especially the Raiders of the Lost Ark! Very creative.
Great tips guys! Thanks! We were there the same time as y’all and our dash AC (class A) went out on the drive there! Not fun! Our generator was also hating the heat too! The struggle was real! Luckily we stayed in a park (we usually boondock) and didn’t have any voltage problems running our 2 AC units. 🥵
Great content keeps me coming back. We just bought a Grand Design 297QB and are waiting to pick up. Can’t wait! These videos help.
Been there, done that. A few tips I learned from camping in Phoenix, Vegas and my old home of Fontana, Ca.
Solar Screens knock out 90% of the sun and heat and are on the outside of the glass before the heat even makes it's way in.
Reflextix needs a small air gap to be really effective, 1/2" usually suffices.
Reflectix on the AC bulkhead where the motor is mounted (Coleman style units). The air is drawn in through the read and pulled through the condenser coil and blown at the bulkhead. On the other side of that bulkhead is your cool plenum. I cut sheets to fit around the motor, wire and refrigerant line entrances at the bulkhead to help block some of that heat from the bulkhead wall.
Block off your heater vent to the inside. Your cargo bays collect heat and that heat makes its way into the rig through the heater vent. I used cardboard before but reflectix this year. Want to know how much air moves through this vent, place your hand over it and open a slide with the doors and windows closed. You'll move a lot of air through here.
Easy Starts make a big difference when your compressor cycles, get busy and get them installed, they're easy to do. I'll bet part of your GoPower issue was overloads when the compressor cycled. The easy start fixes that. When you program your easy start be on shore power pass thru or the easy start will not learn properly to your compressor's detriment.
A couple of fans inside to circulate air will help too. I position one in my bedroom to move air out of that box into the hallway and one in the rear living area to circulate air around.
Open your closets and cupboards at night as well to allow the heat out. Relefectix on the outboard cupboard walls help with this but i've never subscribed to this as my outside walls never feel hot from inside the cupboard.
A FLIR camera can show hot inside areas that need to be dealt with.
Solar panels do help keep some of the sun off your roof and help keep the inside cooler.
I have one RV Airflow on my mid AC unit, my rear main unit is a whisper quiet and my bedroom unit I left in the standard config. When I get to a camp site after driving all day I can close the bedroom door and open the dumps to really cool down the bedroom in a hurry, then close the dumps and go back to ducts to assist with cooling the rest of the rig.
For power and I was going to write you about this on the solar video but here goes for this video.
I have two Victron 24/2000/70 Multiplus inverters (I went 24v for cabling size efficiency and gains from the MPPT). These inverters are each fed a leg from my shore power connection, I don't have an onboard generator because I wanted the space for blue power gear. Inverter 1 is the master and inverter 2 is the split phase slave so in this configuration I'm supplying 240v to the rig's power panel. Now the issue I found after this install was live after a few months is that leg 2 has heavier loads with 2 ACs on it vs leg 1 just has 1 AC. This makes inverter 2 work harder while inverter 1 naps. So I installed a Victron Autotransformer to load balance the output and now each inverter production is even and I have access to all of the available power. I've run all 3 ACs, residential fridge, TV and laptop off of the inverters in island mode (no shore power). Now with all of that load of course the batteries aren't going to hold out long even with 1300 watts of solar helping. So I can either plug into 50A shore power and both inverter go into power assist so if the pedestal power is weak the inverters make up the difference from the batteries/solar or 30A shore/inverter generator will supply 1 inverter on leg 1 while the second inverter takes power from the batteries. Solar and inverter 1 then charge the batteries for the new difference.
The side effect for all of this is a happy me but also heat. The Victron inverters have a output curve where the hotter they get the less current the deliver. The inverters are rated at 2400 watts All of my gear is also mounted in my forward bay below the bedroom and the floor gets toasty. To help with the power curve issue and toasty floor, plus equipment life I installed a boat bilge fan controlled by a temperature controller. The fan pulls heat from the top of the compartment and blows it out the driver side propane compartment via a dryer duct. The duct is below the propane tank deck so the heat doesn't affect the tanks. The cool (relatively) air comes from the passenger side propane compartment which I use for storage since my Jayco Northpoint 377RLBH has both main propane tanks on the driver side; the third tank for genny prep lives on the passenger side normally. You'll have the same heat issues as I do with that small compartment, before the fan I would just open the bay door completely, now I just leave it part way open, just hanging on it's hinges open.
With this system I can start the ACs about 45 minutes or so before arriving so the cool down process has already started. This will leave me plenty of battery left for any unforeseen issues that come up before or at the campground. I'm about to increase my battery capacity by going from 6 12v 105ah Lion Energy batteries (24v wired) to 6 DIY EVE battery sets at 310Ah each 12v set.
The Victrons also have a low voltage cut off where they'll not accept voltage that is too low to be useful, this is where the Hughes Autoformer or a Victron Autotransformer comes in handy but iirc the low voltage is like 99 volts before shore is ignored. I've moochdocked on 15A outlets with all 3 ACs running so these inverters are very powerful in their capabilities.
I live 30 minutes NW of San Antonio in the Hill Country and would love to help you or just show my install, one of these days I'll have to film my setup but I don't have Tara to edit it so it'll just be relatively raw.
That sounds like a great setup, Jeremy! I've also been pondering how to cool that front bay as we have tripped the overtemp on our gopower a couple of times. I'm just not sure about venting into the propane compartments as I would be limited on the driver side (with the genny) to a vent higher up in the compartment. So, I'm still at the drawing board there.. My "hack" plan is just a box fan in the door...
@@ChangingLanes Thanks. Maybe a dryer duct vent and cover out the side wall of the rig or even the front bay door itself. The great thing about the bilge fans is they're sealed since they're made to vent fumes out of the boat bilge and engine compartments.
Don't forget that your batteries enjoy cool temps as well.
About how much would all this (keeping camper cool) cost? Just a ballpark figure. I want to know how much we would need to save for all this. Thank you so much.
@@cindydavis597 My setup all in all cost around 15k with the most expensive part being the batteries, i installed everything myself. You can write 26% of the costs off on your taxes with the solar credit.
@@ChangingLanes NOT SURE WHY the RV makers have not gone to the MINI-SPLITS the only need 500-800 WATTS to run 12,000 BTUs
unlike that (3) bricks you call AC-Units @ 1,300 +++ WATTS (@4,000 Watts)
Great video guy’s, enjoyed watching, stay cool 😎!
Another great video. Some things we do: We run our covered fans when we’re driving to a hot area so when we get there it doesn’t take as long to get the RV cooled down. We have a Lifan 7000 generator that runs both of our ACs and because it is not onboard we don’t have to worry about any heat it produces. We added additional reflective tinting to our patio doors (huge difference) We also put reflective shades in all the other windows. Here’s to surviving the heat.
Great video as usual. We just downsized into our RV here in San Antonio and will be doing some of these tips to save on electricity. Safe travels.
This was really insightful! We love Vegas, but have only ever flown there. We've looked at planning a cross country trip there, but never considered it being "too hot" to comfortably camp. Vegas in the winter, here we come!
Hey guys ,
Your not kidding about Vegas, I've been to Vegas 4 times,once in July & the rest was in Dec & Feb.
But July was 111 degrees , such a dry heat .
Awesome tips!!! & Awesome channel !!! . Always looking forward to my Sunday evening so i can watch you guys.
Be safe and best wishes.
Tony & Donna Hall
Felton Delaware.
Chad, FYI. A good hack for low voltage problems is to run a small water line (1/4" poly flow) to a mister nozzle in front of condenser. Makes a small mess but will lower compressor amperage alot.
Thanks for all the tips from a Texan fleeing the Texas heat in July! Love your shirt Tara! 👚
I've been working in 110 heat for 12 hours a day in full coveralls. You learn to adapt. Also, electrolyte packs that you put in water are great. Like gatorade but without the sugar.
We rode around the Williams AZ area on a 119°F day during that same time. It was NUTS!
Great job Tara and Chad, Thanks.
Once again great information. Really appreciate it.
Wow, so many great tips! Very much enjoy your explanations 🖖🏻👍🏻😘🙏🏻
Having lived in the desert for the last 57 years, you did a great job quickly figuring out good tactics for surviving the heat. Evaporation is another tool. In addition to fans wetting down towels, tea towels, pillow cases, anything that will absorb some water. If you have a drying frame, using it to hang towels in front of fans creates an evaporative cooler. Self-cooling things like wet (not dripping, but if you get your clothes wet that’ll be fine!) towels, clothes-cotton, mesh, white. Keep covered, seems odd to wear long sleeves, but very loose open ended white shirts and pants. Think about the open robe designs of the desert nomads, wide bell arms and legs (or dress like at the bottom). Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate you and your pets. I drink at least 1 gal/day in the summer heat. Glad you survived, great tips!
Hi Guys, Can definitely relate we have been in Quartzsite Az since June. Installed 2 Micro air easy starts in our Ac units along with RV Airflow thanks to you. We have 2020 Grand Design Reflection 29rs. Haven't thought to check the voltage at the pedestal but with the soft starts have had no problems with tripping breakers the temperatures here were as hot as Vegas if not hotter managed to get 23 to 25degrees cooler than outside. Our rig is only 31 feet but between both upgrades along with slide toppers we're hanging in there. We can relate to the hot wind too. Today is the coolest day we've had since we got back here. We alternate Ac's bedroom at night and living room during the day both if it gets to hot as our pooches need to stay cool too.
Former Nevadans from the Reno area.
Take care and try to stay cool.
D & C Hopper
We just brought our new 5th wheel home and for craps and giggles we tried the A/C and it ran for at least 45 minutes then the house circuit blew. Its only plugged into 110 but we had the house ac going, lights on etc. Its one of those Whisper Quiet A/C's so not sure if it has a soft start but our Rockwood just had a regular RV A/C and it would pop a circuit in a second. It's been hot and humid here too in the NE, put a coat of wax on the new rig and swear I lost like 10lbs, its 43ft long so it took me a bit. Seems like you guys did everything you could possibly do. One thing I love about this new rig is residential fridge/freezer! No more stupid rv fridge getting into the 40's.
Two things for advice. The military uses a screen type of tarp over our tents in Kuwait extreme heat for sure. They are breathable but provide shade to create air space between the inner and outer surface. Second the cover on the A/C are critical to divert air flow through the coils and condenser. Without the cover the fans just blows into the air and not through the system. White covers with additional air ports are helpful to divert more air through the system. Good luck in the heat. Drink water!!
Helps refrig: to shade driver side of RV with tarp or solar screen, open outside refrig cover, and also have heard where use of 2 computer fans to exhaust the heat. Can use frozen jugs of water & blow fan behind it to cool the air. My hubby was on our RV roof working on AC unit at 100 degrees, so 120 had to be hell. AC cleaning done before going to beach from then on. White AC covers makes more sense to reflect
I love how you insert the video clips! So funny. Love your videos guy’s and thank you for all the tips, tricks and knowledge. Always safe travels!
Thanks!😎
I’m waiting for the delivery of my new Grand design momentum. I’ve watched all your vids and pretty much modeled much of my rv and truck after your recommendations. Keep up the great vids
Crazy temps! Great info!
I agree the post should have been as expected, but I do have a SoftStart and I’ve found it makes a HUGE difference. It requires much less power to run my AC and my AC is MUCH quieter, which means there’s much lower likelihood of blowing a breaker. I’m definitely a fan!! I also have a diagnosing surge protector that would have proven to that campground that the post was at least part of the underlying issue.
Great tips you too. Love the channel!
A timely video for me as I happen to be in Vegas right now here in mid July. Yuk. 104° at 1am. OMG 😱. I've even done most of the tricks/hacks that you have done. I'm a 37' 5th wheel running 2 ac's. Fortunately this RV park have full hookups with 120/122v at the pole. I also had issues that had to be taken care here in Vegas at this time. Also was in the northern Ca., thinking it would be cooler but the tamarac 🔥 fires and smoke drove me out. This heat and smoke is no joke.
By the way, went to Ventura Beach RV last weekend, it was only in the 70s. I had watched your water system cleanout video and used the knowledge I gained. Thanks. Keep them coming.
Well I live in Arizona.. and plan on rving full-time... Sooooo my solution was just to build my own RV. I started with a super insulated 4 inch thick floor walls and ceiling commercial refrigerated trailer.. added solar and battery Bank, 12v mini-split AC with heat pump, (PS it's way quieter) built a full recirculating shower with filtration and UV light, internet, 65 inch TV, full kitchen with sink countertop cabinetry microwave convection oven air fryer, 12-volt compressor fridge freezer, (and yes my power system can run literally everything in my RV at the same time) convertible living room bedroom.. and wallah, 72° inside when it's 120 outside on solar power! Battery bank will run everything all through the night!! If you want the ultimate boondock rig you have to build it. But mine only took eight days of my labor and $10,000 still needs cosmetics but all the functionality is there and working flawlessly! Oh and the best part yet I can pull it with a half-ton truck! 😂
You are so talented
@@cynthiaellis8041 Awh.. Thank you Cynthia😊
Love the video… been there done that many times. Lots of good idea. Hope you make it to CALIFORNIA, north of LA normally has cool evening and night degs
Glad y’all made it through. Definitely not any fun. Tara, you by far out did yourself with the movie clip inserts this time! Appropriate would be an understatement. Looking forward to the fun stuff with Phil and Stacy- especially zip lining over the downtown area. I get the “stunts” shirt now, Tara. You’ve earned that one. Thanks for the tips, guys. Troy
Well done video with the cool cut ins. We stayed in El Paso. 115 degrees oh and a major sand storm. We were parked during it.
Great Tips, very informative video. AH, nothing like Vegas in the Summer. Hope the slots paid off for you both.
Yes I was in AZ in my off grid house when it hit 126 one day. I only had a swamp cooler and knew it wouldn't keep the house cool, so I went and bought an inverter AC just for the bedroom. I had to switch off my solar over to running my Honda generator during the night to run the AC in the Bedroom and the Swamp cooler for the living room and kitchen. My house has vaulted ceilings and you could feel the heat radiating from the ceiling during the day. I did the same and put reflectics in all the windows which helped a ton. I had my motor-home down there to bring back to WA state but waited till we finally had a cool day of 108 to leave. Lucky for my by the time I got to Vegas they were having thunderstorms and rain so I was cool the rest of the drive. You gave the best video on dealing with the heat in an RV I have seen. Good job
I go to Vegas every summer to play in the WSOP but this summer we had the RV and it was tough keeping it cool! I was happy that they moved the WSOP to October so we could leave that hot weather! Great tips guys..thanks!!!
You know, I was surprised at a cancelation due to the size of your rig. Interesting twist to how weather can play a factor. Happy travels, you two!
I have a very small fan inside the refrigerator that I bought online years ago. It is like a computer fan, along with a fan in the outside compartment to blow air across the coils. It helps tremendously in high heat.
Word of advice. The foam pillows for the vents will reflects the heat back up to the cover and side walls of the vent. We installed that on our vent and it warped the plastic frame of the vent, to the point that the fan started to touch the side wall. So, just be aware.
I grew up in Az and moved to Fl. I love when ppl say "oh, but az is a dry heat"...ya, no shit, have you ever opened an oven and get slapped in the face with that "dry" heat. That's how it feels. No thanks, I'll take the humidity and swamp ass any day over that dry heat BS. Always fun to watch you two.
Thank you for all the great advise.
Man that is 40 celsius up here in PEI. Love the NL vacation references. With all the great tips you guys have would love to see yas do a cooking video, when you cool off that is. We have been living in our camper all summer and have been experimenting with the oven. Hope you cool off soon.
Great video. After watching, I went out to my unit and was going to do this modification. However, I found that my plenum was built and sealed pretty well. It had a very rigid divider. This was great because the insert you showed probably would not fit anyway - there are wires and a control box in the way. Anyway, one big discovery I must thank you for is that I found my dump vent slider greatly restricted the outflow of cold air even when it was open. Fortunately, I can triple (I guess-stimate) the outbound cold air flow just by removing that half of the cover panel, which is easily done. Should make at least 15-30% air flow gain. Side comment - I built some inch thick window inserts out of common foam board and wrapped the edges. I painted one side (the non-silvered side, reflective side goes out) to match the interior of our rig. They snug-fit easily. They came out very elegant looking and even had some visitors state they thought they were an OEM option. We use them mostly at night for cold nights, and they black out the interior so you can sleep in late if you want. They would also work in the really hot days.
I have been intermittently watching your videos and now I will become a subscriber. Thanks!
What a great informative video. We just suffered everything you did and are newbies to RVing. I wish we would have seen this video before our tirp. But we survived and will use ALL of this info, which would have helped us, going forward. Thank you!
RV'd in Vegas for 2 months during the summer...warning for the reflextics...we put it on all the windows and it worked great. Drawback is the TREMENDUS HEAT BUILDUP between the reflextics and window. Be careful of things that can be damaged by heat. I totally warped the window divides in the front of the coach's sliding windows. The windows had to be replaced because they could not be repaired. I recommend getting magnets and securing the reflectics on the outside of the glass!!
Great video thank you!
New to the channel, sorry it to so long for me to subscribe. Very informative, now I got to roll back and look at more of your stuff.
I really enjoy all the movie clips you put in your videos. They are so much fun trying to guess the movie. Thanks for the laughs and all your great content.
Just started watching your you tube channel and we love it. We had an RV that never cooled no matter what and we ended up buying a portable dual hose a/c and it worked amazing. We just cut the plastic that vents out the window and set it up in the slide by the couch. Out of the way and helped tremendously.
Welcome to our channel! 😊
Great tips.
Very informative. Thank you
Lol loved the video clips!
Excellent tips. Thanks.
We were in Northern Oregon at a Harvest Host in Baker City..(Copper Belt Winery which is awesome!!) It was 120!! It was cooler by Zion when we got down there! We used your ref/freezer video before we left and it was brilliant!!
Mini Split 3 zone compressor mounted in your Garage will use just slightly more power than 1 of your roof AC units and provide more AC or Heat to all 3 areas at a much lower decibel level. Just enclose the compressor unit and large vent to outside then remove those old roof units and seal and insulate the opening. Or at the least do 1 in the bedroom for the lower sound level.
The soft starts will work great with the 5500 watt generator. I was amazed at the difference they make on my 5th wheel.
I can totally relate to your experience in Vegas. during my deployment to Kuwait and Iraq, the summer months were brutal, (120-130 deg) had to wear gloves to handle our weapons and open the doors on the vehicles. Stepping out into the heat was like opening the door on Thanksgiving day to check the turkey. I was fortunate to be there before the vehicles came with any AC. Praise to you guys for getting through your stay.
Thank you for your service.
We made the mistake 3 years ago of being down there in the 115 degree heatwave, and it was miserable. It was even worse because we were out at the Famcamp, and when the winds came through they were 100mph gusts that were tearing awning off rigs if they were extended, so in the day you put it out, but as soon as it got dark you brought them back in. Not one of our better RV camping memories to be sure! We also put our solar shade on the outside of our front windshield, plus covers on the inside to help keep the heat away from the front end as much as possible.
Well, this makes sense to me now! I had a similar problem at Wenatchee Confluence State Park about 8 years ago, when it was 107F outside, and the forward (Zone 1) circuit breaker kept tripping. We had 50A hook ups, but I didn't have a multimeter, and never thought of testing the power at the meter. I just installed a Hughes Watchdog with Bluetooth, and it's neat looking at the readouts when I first hook it up. (And, yes, your electrical video on this was my guide!) Thanks from a fellow (black shoe) Squid!
I also used reflection on walls inside pantry and cabinets. That seems to help with our heat here in FL.
All good tips. We do mostly dog shows and try to avoid summer but sometimes we get surprised by 110-115 degrees. One thing we added was window awnings to our class A and they help a lot. We have the Hughes Autoformer and it has been a life saver. At the dog shows you have a parking lot full of 200-300 RV's all running the AC in the heat of the day via a very stretched thin electrical distribution system of spider boexs and 20A circuits to duplex receptacles all in the hot sun. Again, without the Hughes we would be stuck do to low voltage.
The one thing that I did that made the most difference was covering my furnace ducts, I discovered this by accident one day when I got my face close to the furnace discharge and there was a cold stream of air coming out( cold air sinks, it makes sense). I went from the ac’s running all day, to them actually cycling off some.
Wife and I were camping in Maine this year during June when temperatures were reaching 96F. Our campsite electric hookup was cycling between 110 and 102 Volts which was blowing our surge protector and shutting off our AC/frig. I was worried that our compressor frig and AC unit might be damaged from the low voltage, so I ran them off our LiFePO4 battery bank through our inverter and used the non-surge protected low voltage campsite hookup to charge the batteries. The AC and frig saw good voltage from our inverter and the batteries stayed topped off. We ran that way for 5 days without issue. Sometime you have to MacGyver your systems when the campsite utilities are dubious.
Heya- love your channel. Try Hughes Autoformer and Soft Start on all ACs.
Another tip is to take a look at your doors! Both external and internal, they all should have some sort of gasket, although lately, with the cost cutting going on with RV companies, there are alot being sold without them. If your gasket material is old or compressed enough where you're not getting a good seal, or are non-existent, have them replaced. In a pinch you can use towels to put in-between the door and the frame when shut. You can test whether you're getting a good seal by shaking the door while closed, if you can see/feel lateral movement you're not sealed. Also with internal doors, I've seen some very well gasketed seals but with a huge gap under the door. You really want to seal that gap with towels or blankets to keep that (hopefully) cold air from leaving that room you're in. Stay cool!
You need to get the Soft Start devices for your roof air conditioners. They not only help to get them started without the big current surge but they help with the overall operation of the air units to last longer.
I feel you guys. We have a 42 footer. I think we got to 118 Phoenix AZ. Thankfully we have great voltage. We don't have a toy hauler so that might have helped but we needed to make adjustments fast. One day (109°) we found one of the shade slid off the roll. The glue had soften to the point it couldn't hold anymore. Putting that back on was a challenge. The biggest difference was that reflectix in every window and the shades down. We also have the awnings out when it wasn't very windy and slide top awnings which I believe help keep the sun/heat off the slides. We have the 3rd A/C on from morning to sundown. We also added the RVairflow. Door closed as much as possible. We also have the Norclold 18 cb ft but it did well maybe because its newer. We also had heat coming from the stairs and found that there is a furnace vent there. I blocked that hole and that kept that doorway and hallway cooler as well. We will be in cooler places the next time for sure. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us it makes a difference.
We full time here in Vegas at the base and it was hard during that heat wave! But luckily, the base has nice spots with a lot of bigger trees to help with shade!
Great videos!
We live in Palm Springs and we deal with Temps like these every summer!! Our a/c man says even home units are not made to work properly over 105! With the RV refrigerator I had a string of misters so I tucked one head on this line up in front of the cooling fins are and this along with fans I had previously installed that blows air up thru the cooling fins. And the fine spray of just a little water spraying made a huge difference!
Great tip about putting a fan by the circuit panel. I didn’t know they were tripped but heat. We stayed at a park in upstate New York where my EMS kept tripping due to low voltage. It showed 95 volts. The park electrician tried to convince me that there was a problem with my RV. When I showed him that my EMS worked fine with my generator he admitted that the park had power issues and that they had a 3 year plan to upgrade the electrical in the park.
I definitely recommend the Softstartrv for the AC. It works great! 👍
We spent a month in Boulder City where the temp was 116 every day. Previously I had installed reflexit in every cabinet and had cut outs for every window and windshield. I went to Ace Hardware and bought a Patio Water Mister Kit like the ones used at Disney World. I installed them on top of each air conditioner and pointed them toward the cooling fins. I also ran a line down the middle of the roof. Water Misters, reflexit, clean ac units helped us maintain 80 inside. Make sure you have soft water to avoid mineral stains on the side of the rv. We have one and most of the time the water never came off the roof. We have a 2011 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40'. Another solution would be a Soaker Hose for the roof and Water Mister for the ac cooling fins.
Chad and Tara thank you so much for this video. I was going to ask you about what to do in this heat with the Rvs air conditioning and all but I forgot about. But glad you read my mind. I was wondering how Daisy was holding up in the heat. But you answered it in the video. I’m glad it is cooling down a bit now. Our poor country in this heat. I like that idea to put that material we like in our cars and trucks to protect from heat using them in them in the Rv windows too. Thank you again Chad and Tara. Hope you have a great week and can’t wait until I see your video on your Vegas trip. Stay safe and stay cool in this summer heat.
I acted on the comments about covering floor registers to keep the cool air inside the living area from escaping into the basement. I have also covered the furnace air intake grates for the same reason. Just remember to remove all these coverings before you fire up your furnace!
I was at the same RV park when you guys were there. It was hot 🥵
Great Video! We found that by putting the thermostat up to 80 degrees during the day and then lowering at night helped when the power was below 120V.
The fan and compressor are simply on or off. The temperature setting shouldn't really matter.?
Yes it makes your videos better when you reference Classic Star Trek and Indiana Jones!
I am a travel nurse that was in ridgecrest last year that was 122 at the fair grounds with no shade. I had to do the fans to the fridge (I did dryer louvers so when not in use stayed covered), the airflow ac hack, reflectix in the windows made 15 degree difference, reflectix in all the cabinets that touch the outside (this included my closet), black covers for the maxi air and bathroom fans, relectix in the shower as well with ivy tape.. you could tell in the evening when the sun heat let up cause it would start to get cool again.. I bought booties for the pup as well.. the coldest place was the spot that went to the crate for pup and the bathroom after covering fan/skylight. I have a reflection. I saw in bakerfield ca a nurse who had the sunshade and said it worked. In bakersfield many of them put in a window unit that ran better than the rv ac. This year I am in fresno with 110 ish and with shade, soooo it's a tad better cause hot shade is still hot. the 120 plus days the rv did get to low 90 in rv and with a fan was tolerable but no way fun at all... I am going to get me a ice maker this year to put ice in bins in fridge to help.. I am doing water bottles but the freezer take a few days to freeze them..
Been watching for some time. We plan to start our RV adventure in 7-8 years. As we empty nest. We plan to move south and start a home base home with space for our RV. And travel the country in spurts. Maybe 1-2 months at a time. Do you have a home base or always on the road?
Was looking for information on:
1- RV insurance. what is / not covered. Maybe you can cover what you carry in insurance.
2- Major repairs. Is it hard to find help on the road to address major issues. Say broken axle or problem with the hitch box.
3- What if a tree limb falls on your RV at a site and causes enough damage you can not tow. What is the plan to get assistance with those repairs?
4- Do you ever run from storms? Obviously yes to a hurricane but have you found the need to run from others?
After living in Yuma AZ for 10 years, it is so funny to hear people talk about the heat.
Right? I live in PHX
Sure, like the people in Flagstaff and Pine top AZ. They think its too hot in Phoenix in summer time yet they live in Arizona, what a surprise!
Very timely! We have to go to Salt Lake City mid August to drop kids at college. I am installing the fridge vent fan today and added fridge interior fan last night. Need to look at the A/C unit for cleanliness next.
I put 1-1/2" of foam board on top of refrigerator under slideout roof. Made a big difference. The temp we were in was 88 degrees and slideout roof was just over 100 degrees. So protected the top of freezer from extreme heat. Put in aux fans in bottom vent and top vent to push air then pull out. Haven't had a need to use them yet.
I love winter rv’ing. IWe originally had to do it out of necessity as I am disabled. I also live with my brother who who is battling cancer. As a result we are impoverished. We have a great spot to park our rv and are going to be installing a wood stove.
We can only dream of h to e way you guys live but we are happy for you that you can.
We live in the mountains twins of British Columbia, which after the extreme heat wave we had this summer should be called the Smoky Mountains. We were 45 Celsius with no shade for days Thank goodness for an air conditioner and I will be checking out your air conditioner maintenance video for sure.