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Old 08-25-2015, 02:41 PM   #1
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Camping for the first time in no shade

Greetings from Castaways in Berlin, Maryland. A few miles from Ocean City.

This is the first time I've ever camped without shade. I now know what folks mean when they say a 15k A/C unit will struggle. My unit ran nonstop to keep the house manageable, creeping ever so slowly to 78.

I ran out to Home Depot and grabbed a roll of Reflectix. Lined my windows with it - much better now. I'm sure I wouldn't need this mod in the shade, but full sun required me to do SOMETHING ...
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Old 08-25-2015, 04:00 PM   #2
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We were at Fort Whaley a few weeks ago, not far from Castaways. But we had shade there, lol.
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Old 08-25-2015, 04:37 PM   #3
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After our first trip last Labor Day where our site was in full sun, I have learned to:
1) pick a shaded site, or
2) pick a site where the awning is oriented towards the west where it intercepts the afternoon sun.

Both help immensely.
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Old 08-25-2015, 05:06 PM   #4
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Ha... and it wasn't even hot today! I know what you mean though. We were at Delaware Seashore National Park earlier this month and there is NO shade at all. No trees, no signs, no poles... NOTHING! It was HOT. We have the 15K AC, but also a large slide. We kept our blinds closed and reflectix on the windows and skylights to keep it manageable...
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Old 08-25-2015, 05:32 PM   #5
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We camped at Castaways in July 2014. We were in site # 245. We chose this site because it offered shade from midday on. In fact, almost all of the sites from from 235 to 268 offer shade from midday on.

This year we went to Pigeon Forge with a site in full sun. One day the temperature outside our TT was 104. Our 15k A/C struggled to keep the inside temps in the 80's.
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Old 08-25-2015, 06:44 PM   #6
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We camped at Castaways in July 2014. We were in site # 245. We chose this site because it offered shade from midday on. In fact, almost all of the sites from from 235 to 268 offer shade from midday on.

This year we went to Pigeon Forge with a site in full sun. One day the temperature outside our TT was 104. Our 15k A/C struggled to keep the inside temps in the 80's.
We're in the Club Castaways section. All sun. A tree would be nice.
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Old 08-25-2015, 07:03 PM   #7
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We're in the Club Castaways section. All sun. A tree would be nice.
I love Castaways, they just need to plant some trees.
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Old 08-25-2015, 08:18 PM   #8
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I was wondering about this place. We may try to squeeze a trip in there before the season is over...
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Old 08-26-2015, 04:06 AM   #9
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I was wondering about this place. We may try to squeeze a trip in there before the season is over...
I've been RVING for 34+ years and have been to many RV parks around the country. Castaways is one of the top RV parks we have been to in all of our years.
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Old 08-26-2015, 05:56 AM   #10
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We'll be at Castaways next week. Camped there in July and the A/C ran alot but kept the trailer at about 70. My wife had to put a throw over herself when inside. We camp there alot and yes..there are very few sites that have shade. This past trip, we rode around in the golf cart the day before leaving and marked a bunch of sites that were shaded or partially shaded. If you can, stay in Paradise Cove in site 13A. Very nice and huge site with plenty of shade. It's the sites on the right before getting to the main office. You'll need a cart if you plan on going to the beach area or Tiki bar. It's a long walk.
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Old 08-26-2015, 06:00 AM   #11
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Also, if possible, face away from the ocean side. Face West...this will keep your awning side cool pretty much of the day. Evening sun is a little more forgiving than the noon day sun.
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Old 08-31-2015, 08:27 AM   #12
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I've decided to try an additional mod.

So far I've cut Reflectix to fit against the individual window panes. And that worked, but I could still feel a lot of heat coming through. Plus the heat transfer on the window frame itself was pretty remarkable.

So now I'm thinking of adding an additional layer, but over the whole window frame. I was considering glueing some black velcro strips on the black window pane sections, and that cutting/taping a big panel of Reflectix to match the entire window cutout. Add the corresponding Velcro strips to the back of this big panel of Reflectix. This would give me 2 layers of Reflectix plus a pocket of air in the middle (not sealed of course).

Thoughts?
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Old 08-31-2015, 10:35 AM   #13
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We are down in Myrtle Beach this week at the travel park. Our first stop upon arrival was at Camping World to pick up the ADCO exterior windshield cover. Putting the exterior cover on so sun never meets glass made a huge difference.

That being said the weather here was really only warm and sunny for two days, and on those days I was amazed how much the A/C was struggling.

It seems to me it would be a nice feature to pre-wire the Greyhawks for an optional 2nd A/C in the master bedroom... although I assume that would mean a 50 amp panel, so probably not fiscally feasible
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Old 08-31-2015, 10:55 AM   #14
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I grabbed those solar reflectors from Heat Saver. I put them in the windshield and the two door windows.

https://www.heatshieldstore.com/
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Old 06-03-2016, 10:15 AM   #15
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Resureccting this from oblivion.

Due mostly to another forum member posting this product in the travel trailer forum, I have purchased a bunch of these to cover my windows.

RV Accessory Store - RV TOY STORE - 1-800-334-5533

I opted for the Velcro fasteners as I'm not big on drilling holes into my fiberglass. I'm heading back to Castaways in 2 weeks; I'm determined to have a better time in my full sun site. These purportedly help a tremendous deal, I will post back w/ my findings upon my return.
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Old 06-03-2016, 10:43 AM   #16
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I'm not understanding the problem
We just finished desert camping. There isn't a tree for miles
We did have wind. We opened the windows inside and filled the sink
Evaporative cooling. We were dry camping
Set the awning side to the east. Quite comfortable in 100 degrees
You might think of ways to just run a fan over water if your a/c can't keep up
We did have to run it last night in Arkansas. Very humid and still
So humid the darn smoke detector kept going off
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Old 06-03-2016, 10:49 AM   #17
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Its heat gain. I have ~10 extra feet of length, + 2 slideouts which adds more volume. The driver side of my coach is largely all single pane windows. The way my site at Castaways is oriented, I face due south, so the sun comes up and bakes all 32' of glass and fiberglass in the AM and than cooks the passenger side in the PM. My 15k BTU A/C never let it go above 78, but if I can add something to help it along I will.

What can I say, I like it crisp.
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Old 06-03-2016, 11:40 AM   #18
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We camp mostly in Arizona, but we rarely encounter sites with no shade at all; we do have an awning, and we got the insulation package (which is advertised as good for chilly weather, but helps in heat too). We're not very long - 23' inside the box - so when we're plugged in, the air co works fine. When we are not, it gets warm, but we're used to coordinating open windows at home, so we do the same at camp. We may well try out the open window and full sink idea, though.
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Old 06-03-2016, 12:43 PM   #19
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Resureccting this from oblivion.
Thanks for this - you reminded me to make our reservation at Frontier Town for Labor Day 2017...ugh. Making reservations 454 days in advance is so unlike me.
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Old 06-03-2016, 02:51 PM   #20
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This is interesting. I have the 15K/heat pump as well. I'm in FLA and have been in the full sun and have had no issues. And it has been hot down here! The first thing I do is turn on the fantastic fan in the bedroom to help suck the hot air out of the coach. I also open the air dump vents on the main unit in the living area. Our coach has actually been so cold that we have to adjust the thermostat up! Having summer time temps down here already, I run the genset to start the cooling process and fire up the fridge to get it cold on my way to our camping location. hmmmm...
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