fulltimer wanting to keep camper cool (temperature)....

Hi everyone, this might be a dumb question, but would putting a white parachute over the top of my 5th wheel help keep it cooler (my camper is brown)? I get direct sunlight overhead (and east/west) and am thinking that a parachute would block direct sunlight, but also allow for breathing.....any thoughts? I know it'd probably look tacky, but wanting to keep cooler than forcing the A/C to run all day at full blast.

thanks,
Chad

I think you would find that a parachute would let a great deal of light through. Just put one over your head and see. It can't be better than what you see and can be less effective than that. It can't be belter than what you feel.

1) you need to reflect infrared light away, not visible.

2) 50% of the light absorbed with still get to the RV. 100% of the light reflected

Put a thermometer on a picnic table. (or better yet do it on top of your RV)

1) measure the temperature without the parachute

2) measure the temperature with the parachute over the thermometer and in contact with it.

In each case wait at lease 15-30 minutes to make the temp reading.(always the same amount of time.)

repeat several time to remove changes in sunlight.

thanks Bohemian,

But wouldn't that shade my 5th wheel enough to keep the direct sunlight off? I'm trying to be cheap and practical

thanks,
Chad

sorry Bohemian,

Wasn't paying attention to your post.

thanks
Chad

It could help extremely little or a great deal. ONLY testing will tell.

I don't know if you have slides or not but I have seen one 5th wheel with slides that had some kind of pad over the slide outs. It seems to be about 2 - 3 inches thick. I think a lot of heat comes in via the slide tops as they are not insulated as well.

We have a large rear window....and don't know about others but we don't sit inside gazing out a lot. Not to mention our TV is in front of the window and impossible (well difficult) to watch when daylight. I purchased a blue piece of strofoam at a big box store. Get the stiff kind not the white fluffy kind and I cut it to size to fit the window. When the sun is bright I get a blue hue coming through the shade and it is not offensive and very cool. I used some left over to cover the two windows in my bed slide. Again lots of heat comes through the windows too.

good luck

I've seen people with that aluminum coated bubble wrap stuff (same stuff they use in the underbelly on top of the underbelly), on the windows-summer & winter. Also they sell a pad thing that goes in the vents & skylight in the shower. They sell them at RV stores, & possibly the bubble wrap stuff can be bought at Lowes or Home Depot. Seems to work for them. We are going to try it soon, as we are heading to ND to work in the sugar beet harvest.

I just altered (cut and hemmed) some ready-made thermal curtains to fit all of our living room windows. I used spring-tension rods in the cornice box to hold them. Really helps with cutting the Texas Summer heat through the single-pane windows. I can easily take them down when they aren't needed.


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