dew dripping down while sleeping.

[qckate]

Help!  We bought a used 1998 Viking PU at the end of last year and did not use it until this year.  The 2 times we went camping in it, the dew would drip on you waking you up early in the a.m.  It is vinyl/canvas.  We tried to waterproof the top outside and inside, but it still dripped on us.  We are afraid what it will do if it rains.  Anyone have any ideas on what to use and where to get it?

[NadMat]

Help!  We bought a used 1998 Viking PU at the end of last year and did not use it until this year.  The 2 times we went camping in it, the dew would drip on you waking you up early in the a.m.  It is vinyl/canvas.  We tried to waterproof the top outside and inside, but it still dripped on us.  We are afraid what it will do if it rains.  Anyone have any ideas on what to use and where to get it?

Are you talking outside dew or inside condensation? If you do not have some cross ventalation going, extra humidity inside warm camper will condense on cooler surfaces inside camper. Outside dew should not be able to trouble you inside, unless the drip drip of it from camper roof onto bunkend cover bothers you.

[mike4947]

The cure is to stop breathing....LOL

It's condensation, and it's mainly from the breath of occupants in the bunk end. Each adult puts out a pint or more of moisture over apx 8 hours. That's quart of water that has to go somewhere. The problem gets worse the lower the outside temp is as the cooler roof material acts just like a cold frosty beverage on a hot humid day. Moisture condenses.
 
The "cures" are ventilate, insulate, circulate.
Opening a flap/window/roof vent slightly allows the moisture some place to escape.
Bunk end covers can help keep the roof material close to the inside air temps. No temp differential, no condensation.
And fans can help move the moisture laden stagnent air so the moisture doesn't contact the roof material.
 
As an aside, one below freezing morning, our first movments had it "snowing" in the bunk end. The moisture had turned to frost on the inside of the roof material and got dislodged with us moving around.

[NadMat]

The cure is to stop breathing....LOL

It's condensation, and it's mainly from the breath of occupants in the bunk end. Each adult puts out a pint or more of moisture over apx 8 hours. That's quart of water that has to go somewhere. The problem gets worse the lower the outside temp is as the cooler roof material acts just like a cold frosty beverage on a hot humid day. Moisture condenses.
 
The "cures" are ventilate, insulate, circulate.
Opening a flap/window/roof vent slightly allows the moisture some place to escape.
Bunk end covers can help keep the roof material close to the inside air temps. No temp differential, no condensation.
And fans can help move the moisture laden stagnent air so the moisture doesn't contact the roof material.
 
As an aside, one below freezing morning, our first movments had it "snowing" in the bunk end. The moisture had turned to frost on the inside of the roof material and got dislodged with us moving around.

One of those many little moments that make our camping time so special

[oldmoose]

As soon as we bought our Popup Gizmos, our dew/condensation problem disappeared.

Moose

[qckate]

As soon as we bought our Popup Gizmos, our dew/condensation problem disappeared.

Moose

Thank you for all your replies.  What are pop-up gizmos?  I am new to this.

[mike4947]

Covers designed mainly for keeping bunk ends cooler and cleaner, but they work well during cooler weather to help prevent condensation.

http://www.popupgizmos.com/

[tlhdoc]

Welcome to PUT!  Everyone has given you good advice.  Have a great time camping.  Where do you like to camp?

[qckate]

Welcome to PUT!  Everyone has given you good advice.  Have a great time camping.  Where do you like to camp?

My favorite place to camp was in the Smokey Mountains.  We used to have a pop-up over 18 yrs ago and we camped there.  Racoons broker into our cooler at night and were steeling eggs and choc. candy.  We were scared to go out, because we were afraid it might be skunks.  From then on, we locked in our truck at night.  It is so beautiful and so much wildlife there.  We now are camping again with adult children and one grandson.  We are camping mostly on weekends in NE Ohio.  How about you?

[pershingd]

Welcome to the wonderful world of condensation! We were up in your neck of the woods (Sagamore Hills, OH) when we dripped awake in the middle of a storm.

The answer is to ventilate, ventilate, ventilate. We also found a small (really small) dehumidifier at walmart that we run when we are inside and can't ventilate well enough. The Gizmos will help a lot, but I haven't got mine yet.

David

[tlhdoc]

My favorite place to camp was in the Smokey Mountains. We used to have a pop-up over 18 yrs ago and we camped there. Racoons broker into our cooler at night and were steeling eggs and choc. candy. We were scared to go out, because we were afraid it might be skunks. From then on, we locked in our truck at night. It is so beautiful and so much wildlife there. We now are camping again with adult children and one grandson. We are camping mostly on weekends in NE Ohio. How about you?

We had our first trip to the Smokey Mts last year.  I loved it there.  We also love camping in Maine at Acadia NP and we go at least twice a year to Assateague Island National Seashore in MD.  Each year we do several trips to NY and of course camp in PA, usually in state parks.  Good luck with the camper.

[mountainrev]

One of my first SPUTs many years ago involved condensation.  We were camping at about 10,000', so it got cold at night.  My old Starcraft did not have a furnace, and we had a small child, so I thought it would be nice to warm up the camper a bit before putting him to bed.  

The camper did have a stove, so I put a kettle of water on to boil, figuring that the heat from the boiling water would warm up the camper nicely.  It did.  But you can guess what happened during the night:  drip, drip, drip.  All night long, like Chinese water torture on our foreheads.

[flyfisherman]

It's amazing what just covering the outside bunk ends with those plastic tarps will do for inside condensation when there's a temp difference between the interior of the popup and the outside temp.

I've used the Reflectix sheets for my bunk ends now for five years. We were into this method here at PUT before Popup Gizmos were on the market. What I usually do is clip on the Reflectix and then cover with the plastic tarps. Cold or hot weather, do make a big difference on the interior!



Fly

[hozz2]

We've noticed that even the slightest venting helps tremendously.  We usually have just about 4-6" of a bunkend window unzipped on opposite corners of the pop-up, and have never had any problems yet.  During one early October trip, the temps were in the 40s and it was pouring down rain....made the pop-up feel damp. We didn't get any condensation, but wanted to KEEP it that way!  Since we couldn't really have the windows unzipped during the rain, we turned the A/C on LOW and then also had the ceramic heater running at the same time.  Seems a little weird (and redundent or wasteful) but man, did it work like a champ!  No damp feeling, no condensation, lots of circulation and COMFORT! (and, hey, why not use the CG's electric?! )

[crazymommaof4boys]

Thanks for the info/website for those popup gizmos...they are having a "garage sale" on covers right now and I just emailed them to see if they had my trailer's size in stock.....
 
Christine