winter camping insulation idea.

[brian90744]

With winter camping season approaching, here’s an idea to keep your Pop-up Truck camper warm inside.
I purchased a roll of silver bubble insulation from HD 25’x24”, cut a piece the width and length of my top pop-up just to see if it worked in cold weather.
We went on the Southern Calf, American Adventurist group “Mountain Rendezvous” camp out in Big Bear, CA, day temps 75F and nights 39F degree; I installed the insulation across the back and behind the lift bars on the side. It still needs to be cut to the correct width. I’m happy to report it worked great, inside at night stayed warm with the heater on the lowest setting. See pic

 

[brianjwilson]

I used a ton of that (and dense foam board) in my poorly insulated hard side, made all the difference in the world when it was cold.
I have actually cut some for half of my jeep top too, but it already retains body heat pretty well.

 

[skrewd]

Hello, I posted this about three months ago. Also used extra material to insulate, lp box, circular inserts to fantastic fan, outdoor shower door, cover lower windows and door window, air conditioner vents and interior hot water / electric access door. Only problem is you will over sleep, as it is dark in there. Two days ago it dipped into the 20's, furnace cycled only twice an hour set for 68.

 

[kerry]

Got it for mine. We store it under the mattress. Seems to work quite well.

 

[andytruck]

Looks terrible, but better than being cold. Have you tried just some drape fabric? That would create an air gap between the outside wall and the inside air.
I am working on my camper and finding that there is no insulation even on the hard walls, just wide empty spaces between the aluminum exterior and the cheap wood paneling inside. I am insulating it when I can.

 

[Motafinga]

Looks terrible, but better than being cold. Have you tried just some drape fabric? That would create an air gap between the outside wall and the inside air.

When I had my Palomino we did this with thick theatre (duvatine) curtains that would slid open and closed on elastic string. It did help but I end up getting reflectix also to add behind the duvatine on really cold nights and it helped a ton

 

[robert]

Unless you use some sort of insulated fabric it won't work nearly as well as the Reflectix (don't these companies make an "arctic pack" for most of these pop-ups?). As an example, my old VW camper had the Westfalia curtains which, while fashionably 1970's green, did very little to actually change the felt or measured temperature inside. Even folks who have made insulated curtains for their VWs have said that, while it helped, it was nowhere near as effective as when they cut panels of Reflectix and pushed them into place against the windows. There have been several discussion threads about this on thesamba.com including one where I wrote a somewhat lengthy piece about insulating inside the bus and making window covers out of Reflectix. The VW, having large flat metal surfaces, cabinets and lots of glass loses heat rapidly so the best fix is to insulate everywhere (most use Reflectix or some other type of non-water absorbing insulation behind all of the panels and headliner) and to also cut pieces to cover the windows. Keeping the fiberglss top closed helps too because it's non-insulated. Several people went so far as to glue closed cell foam into their poptops but it's hard to make it look good.

In really cold weather, the best thing I found, other than running a heater and wearing warm clothing to bed, was to keep the top down and hang a wool blanket from the top bunk in front of the bottom to reduce the space I was trying to heat and insulate from the colder front air; not really why you buy a popup camper though. I did something similar in the fiberglass shell in my last Tacoma as well as the current one; I have hooks and parachute cord lines in it so that I can hang a couple of surplus wool army blankets; kind of like building a fort as a kid. It definitely helps but it has to be done in conjuction with other insulating mods. Eliminate air leaks and insulate everywhere (especially windows and anywhere you have metal including support poles/rods). Make sure you insualte under your sleeping surface as well. Try not to use any materials that absorb water as your breath puts a lot of moisture in the air as you sleep.

 

[rotti]

Some have been putting the Reflectix on the exterior of the popup fabric. The advantage being much less interior condensation:

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/11668-the-turtle-shell-91-hawk-rebuild/page-2?hl=reflectix

And:

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/6428-cold-weather/page-2