Winter living - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Mitch · RV-Dreams Community Member

Winter living

2RVNuts · RV-Dreams Community Member

Any leak is bad and will rotten your wood. May need to replace your seal around AC.

Mitch · RV-Dreams Community Member

The roof is wet all over. Front, back, middle. It's anywhere there is not a good amount of space between roof and ceiling. The camper is brand new I checked all the seals before this winter and everything looked good.

Mitch · RV-Dreams Community Member

Also the temps here are around -10. The walls on the slide have frost forming. So I'm guessing it is a condensation from the roof mixing with the heat from inside. Not even area to make a good neutral area like in a house attic.

igotjam · RV-Dreams Family Member

Mitch... you are correct about the condensation......just not enough air space.......warm inside air condensing on outside skin. You will notice rvs do not have a vapor barrier on warm side like houses. Its bad where you are but we even get it in humid but warmer areas. Not much you can do except try cracking a vent or window to make the inside air drier.

Mitch · RV-Dreams Community Member

We are at 30% humidity inside. Temp with 3 heaters is 75 ish. During the day now that the outside temp is 30 ish. Should hopefully dry that roof. But long term shouldn't root the roof, Should it?

Mitch · RV-Dreams Community Member

We are at 30% humidity inside. Temp with 3 heaters is 75 ish. During the day now that the outside temp is 30 ish. Should hopefully dry that roof. But long term shouldn't root the roof, Should it?

RetiredVagabond · RV-Dreams Community Member

I'm not that familiar with the winter freezing moisture, but would a dehumidifier help? I'm wintering in AZ and just crack the windows when they start steaming up, but I don't run the heater at night and I'm only dealing with night temps in the mid forties most of the time.

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

There is a reason that people generally don't full time in RVs in harsh winter conditions. The Rigs were never designed for it. I would worry a great deal about roof rotting.

Diana and Jim · RV-Dreams Family Member

I wrote several posts on this subject, starting back in November, 2014 on exploRVistas.com. We spent that winter in Michigan taking care of my wife's mom. A dehumidifier is a must, along with running an exhaust fan when cooking and showering. Humidity is your worst enemy. We have MaxxAir vent covers and we found that leaving the bath vent open actually helped cut down the humidity. We also skirted the rig with 3/4" foam board. Also, electric heaters don't generate humidity like propane does.

Good luck!

lonesomerider · RV-Dreams Community Member

Diana and Jim wrote:
I wrote several posts on this subject, starting back in November, 2014 on exploRVistas.com. We spent that winter in Michigan taking care of my wife's mom. A dehumidifier is a must, along with running an exhaust fan when cooking and showering. Humidity is your worst enemy. We have MaxxAir vent covers and we found that leaving the bath vent open actually helped cut down the humidity. We also skirted the rig with 3/4" foam board. Also, electric heaters don't generate humidity like propane does.

Good luck!

Hi, Diana and Jim, and thanks for the link! As we're going to spend our first winter in humid area, so we were looking for some tips. The trickiest part for me is a proper air conditioning and dealing with excess humidity, so we have already traded our big propane heater for an electric one. Though, I must ask - you have mentioned that you have EvaDry, but as I checked it's pretty small. We were thinking about getting a bigger dehumidifier, but now I'm confused - would it be an overkill for our RV? Which humidity level did you keep through the winter? Thanks in advance!