moisture under your mattress in the morning? And I'm not talkin' wetting the bed, I mean condensation from the temp difference. (If not, have you ever lifted the mattress to check? Can get icky wet under there).
Does your RTT suffer from...
- Thread starter Antarctican
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sailor mentioned some marine matting to put under there.
I need to find that stuff.
I need to find that stuff.
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The marine stuff is a little expensive if you're talking about Hypervent. Even Autohome's solution is $200. I might just have an inexpensive solution, will have to test and report back here. Just wanted to confirm if it happens to u guys or just me cuz of my hawt bod
It's not just you. Interested to see with what you come up with.
Yes, it's an issue of air circulation and the body heat. I looked into the fancy marine stuff but as soon as I saw the price I chose to ignore the issue.
The problem is that you create heat, which escapes, even through the sleeping bag, and the surface you are contacting is the one that suffers the most. Where the cold air is hitting the area where you are giving off heat is where you get the condensation. I noticed that mine was primarily in the area of the joint of the tent (coincidentally the centre of the mattress). So if you can allow air to circulate or insulate it further, you should be OK. Maybe use something like dynamat on the floor of the tent? To create space for air circulation I looked around but could not find anything cost effective.
The problem is that you create heat, which escapes, even through the sleeping bag, and the surface you are contacting is the one that suffers the most. Where the cold air is hitting the area where you are giving off heat is where you get the condensation. I noticed that mine was primarily in the area of the joint of the tent (coincidentally the centre of the mattress). So if you can allow air to circulate or insulate it further, you should be OK. Maybe use something like dynamat on the floor of the tent? To create space for air circulation I looked around but could not find anything cost effective.
sailor
Jackass of all trades
Yeah well I have a bunch of hypervent.. Yes it is an issue.
So is mine, but it is a Chinese knock off so they may have cheaped out.
Curious if the base material would make a difference in condensation? Some RTT bases are made of aluminum and some wood.
This problem is worse in high humidity environments where warm moist air (heat loss from the sleeping bag, etc.) comes in contact with cold surfaces like aluminum, metal, tent material exposed to outside air and cools the air and creates condensation.
Various remedies - desiccants can work - the little plastic desiccant holders for boats can absorb the air moisture and when saturated you can put in the oven at 250F and dry it out for further use. There is a cat litter than works well as desiccant- looking into to for my plasma cutter - needs super dry air.
Alternatively a small catalytic heater in the RTT can dry out the interior using the 1 lb propane bottles
The best is sunshine with is often a rare commodity on the wet coast
Various remedies - desiccants can work - the little plastic desiccant holders for boats can absorb the air moisture and when saturated you can put in the oven at 250F and dry it out for further use. There is a cat litter than works well as desiccant- looking into to for my plasma cutter - needs super dry air.
Alternatively a small catalytic heater in the RTT can dry out the interior using the 1 lb propane bottles
The best is sunshine with is often a rare commodity on the wet coast
anytime you burn fuel, you generate carbon oxides and water so a propane heater will even bring in more humidity that you need to get rid of. to decrease the humidity, you need dry heat like an electric heater or have a heater that has and exhaust.
to see how much water is generated, just point a propane torch to a cold surface like a piece of steel and see the condensation.
back to topic, insulating the bottom is best.
using the sticky crap thats for insulation water tanks may be an option.
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Going to test the material I have this weekend to see how it fares
Stop drinking all that cold beer and pissing the bed..........
What about a sheet of the ol' skool blue camping mat placed under the tent mattress? It should fold/store fine. Might need a bit of manually straightening when setting up the tent, but it would be a barrier between the aluminium and the mattress.
Stop drinking all that cold beer and pissing the bed..........
LOL! Thats actually what I thought when I first saw it!
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- #16
LOL! Thats actually what I thought when I first saw it!
Which is why I originally said "And I'm not talkin' wetting the bed,"
<-- hey this is supposed to be the flipoff smiley, appears to be 
Stop drinking all that cold beer and pissing the bed..........
what are your suggesting? warm beer?
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- #19
Success, half the moisture as normal, and it was on the floorboards not the mattress. By the time I drove home (< 2hrs) it was almost entirely gone. Pulled the back of the cover off to let the remainder dry. Will post pics and details soon
in that case, its a good time to give some input to Andy regarding ordering the next batch. he is not in town right now but if i talk to him soon, i'll direct him to this thread.