First big road trip coming soon worried about cabin cool down

[12ptdroptine]

As stated. The 22nd of July we are.leaving for the Smokey Mountain National park in Garlinburg TN. We will be pulling a Jayco 265RLSW with a single 13500 btu ac However we are going to stop in Frankfort KY for an overnighter at the Elkhorn campground. Figuring we will be traveling about 9 hours on the first leg. Worried.as.to how.long its going to take to cool down to sleeping temps.that.night. We will all be hot tired and cranky from travelig. Thinking about one of those outer vent cover that you can leave.open while.under way. Maybe leave.a.window.ooen to keep air.moving? Who does.what that.works? And from Gatlinburg.we are headed over to Greenville SC for a few.days.seems.about 1750 miles
Thank you in advance
Drop

[NewBlackDak]

Leaving anything open while traveling will probably have you walking into a huge mess when you get to your destination.

[ttavasc]

There are a few things you can do to help keep the camper cooler while underway. We've implemented all of these over the last couple of seasons and it has made a notable difference:

- Maxx-Air or similar vent covers over all roof vents so you can leave them open while underway. Do not leave any windows open - as others have stated you'll likely wind up with a mess.
- Powered fans in roof vents that you can run while underway. Our unit didn't come with fans in the vents so we installed Heng's Vortex II conversions and tapped into 12v power from nearby lights
- Reflective window treatments. We made ours from some collapsible auto sun shades and attach them with sticky-backed velcro. We put these in all the windows and then pull the factory shades down behind them
- Reflective or insulating material in sky lights.

On average we've seen around 10-15 degrees cooler temps inside the camper after pulling for an extended period of time. What may have been 90 or 100 inside is around 80-85 when we stop. Doesn't sound like much but it makes a difference. Depending on how late it is we may not need the A/C at all, rather just run our portable 12v Fantastic Breeze fan and/or the roof vent fans. We also added a second Group 24 battery to ensure we have plenty of power available to run the 12v fans overnight.

[RogerR]

I don't leave my fans on but do leave both vents open when traveling.

What I do upon arrival if very hot is to connect the AC and turn on the little 5,000 btu AC and let it run while I level the trailer, disconnect the hitch, etc. That few minutes makes it fine inside by the time the outside is set up.