Dehumidifying my trailer

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Dehumidifying my trailer

Postby lfhoward » Tue May 30, 2017 4:20 pm

Hi Everyone,

One thing I've noticed living in the northeast/midatlantic region is that the humidity gets to my trailer. Part of it is the humidity from my breathing, but a big part is the weather. We've had a record amount of rain this May. My trailer is 1-1/4" sandwich construction: 1/4 ply outside, 3/4 styrofoam insulation around a 1x3 wooden skeleton, and 1/4" cedar planks on the inside. The surface wood on the interior absorbs moisture from the atmosphere and expands, but the exterior plywood just underneath the aluminum skin does not. It's protected from the humidity by the aluminum on one side and styrofoam insulation on the other. The problem is that after a month or two, the ceiling and the back door become concave (looking at them from the outside, or convex from the inside). The top and bottom of the door pooch out from the seals along the door jamb, which can let in water. The ceiling arches inward so the top of the trailer can hold 1/2 inch deep pool of water around the fantastic fan! Luckily the fan is waterproofed so no water pours in. Anyone else have this issue?

The solution I've found is pretty simple. Stick a 1200 watt space heater in it for a couple of days, with the windows slightly open and the vent cap in the ceiling slightly open. The warm air inside the trailer absorbs water out of the wood (because as air warms, its relative humidity goes down, creating a differential that makes the water in the wood want to equalize by diffusing into the cabin air). The the warm air rises out of the vent taking the water with it, and pulls in cooler air with lower water content through the windows. Within a couple of days, the door and the ceiling and my bed slats all return to their normal shapes and sizes and the trailer is happy again for a few more months.

I suppose a dehumidifier machine would work just as well, and maybe use less electricity than a 1200W space heater on high, but I don't have one. I just thought I'd share what I've learned! I've dehumidified the trailer this way 3 or 4 times in the last year and a half.
My off-road camper build on an M116A3 military chassis:
http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=62581
Tow vehicle: 2008 Jeep Liberty with a 4 inch lift.
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Re: Dehumidifying my trailer

Postby John61CT » Tue May 30, 2017 4:37 pm

Prevention if at all possible is better than having to periodically fix the problem, the repeated swelling can break things down.

High cfm ventilation running all the while things are humid should be the goal.

Water pooling and entry from outside is a different likely more urgent problem to fix.
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Re: Dehumidifying my trailer

Postby Padilen » Tue May 30, 2017 5:09 pm

Same issues here in Mi. Usually damp maybe dry spell in August. My CTC was 80% humidity before I spent the night in it. But after a shower and sleeping with electric heater on it didn't increase. I remember my folks always left a disk heater on low heat in their motor home. And fan on in summer.


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Re: Dehumidifying my trailer

Postby elcam84 » Wed May 31, 2017 4:52 pm

I would much prefer a dehumidifier over a heater. It actually removes moisture from the air where as a heater just changes the amount of water the air can hold.

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Re: Dehumidifying my trailer

Postby lfhoward » Wed May 31, 2017 8:07 pm

I started doing some research on small dehumidifiers in response to your suggestion. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot out there that is small enough for my 240 cubic foot (8x6x5) trailer, but here are a couple of possibilities.

Image
http://www.simplygoodstuff.com/eva_dry-e500.html
This one can hold 8-10 oz of water in silica gel drying crystals and uses no electricity. Supposedly it can dry 500 cubic feet of space and you "empty" it by plugging it in to evaporate the water overnight (not inside the teardrop, obviously).

Image
http://www.simplygoodstuff.com/eva_dry-edv1100.html
This one plugs in but runs on Peltier tech so there is no compressor. It can take 8 oz of water out of the air per day and has a 16 oz reservoir that can be removed and dumped out. It is 22.5 watts, so low power consumption (has an AC to DC adaptor) but I imagine it might be directly wired to DC for better efficiency. At 12 volts, it would pull less than 2 amps (but I don't know if it needs a specialized voltage).

Does anyone have any experience with either of these dehumidifier devices? Or any other models that you like?
My off-road camper build on an M116A3 military chassis:
http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=62581
Tow vehicle: 2008 Jeep Liberty with a 4 inch lift.
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Re: Dehumidifying my trailer

Postby elcam84 » Wed May 31, 2017 8:16 pm

The peltier units dont work. Well they do work but they barely take any moisture out of the air.
The other thing has pellets in it like the ones used in air line driers for spray guns. I have a couple i use and they turn purple when they get wet then i take them apart and dry them in a toaster oven.

Unfortunately the only dehumidifiers that work are the ones with a compressor.

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