Avoiding condensation when heating an enclosed trailer?

[Dogmeat]

Ok, I kinda messed up my trailer the other day.

I bought one of those radiant propane heaters ... the kind that you just mount on top of your propane tank, and turn on...

I did this so I could thaw my sled out enough to work on it a little bit ..

Anyways, what happened was I wound up melting all the snow in the trailer, in and out, but then when the propane tank ran out, I didn't have more, and everything froze.

It basically ruined all my weather stripping

My question is, is there any way to avoid this or is this a problem every one of you with enclosed trailers has to deal with?

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[Blisteringsnorider]

Run a forced air heater.....another option would be to run a fan with your radiant and crack open your roof vent....good luck

 

[Dogmeat]

Run a forced air heater.....another option would be to run a fan with your radiant and crack open your roof vent....good luck

yeah, the whole reason I did it this way was to not have to run any extension cords into the trailer and have to keep the door open.

Maybe I'll do some kind of 100v outlet thing in there so I can run a forced air heater with the vents cracked....

 

[Bagger]

Try this

Dogmeat,
I installed an outlet box with the standard two outlet household setup. I wired the outlet to an extension cord, and ran the cord out the bottom of the trailer thru a vent that is removable.
When I get home and un-hook from the trailer, I raise the tounge jack up as high as it will go. I fire up either the propane heater, or an electric one, and a fan. As the snow melts it runs out the back of the trailer into the gravel where it's no longer a problem. Between the heat, and the fan, things are thawed out fairly quickly and dry. I painted the floor with a two part epoxy paint that is TOUGH.
As soon as things are dry, usually about three hours, I shut off the heat/fan and plug in my Battery Doc, which maintains the trailer's battery. The trailer is insulated, so it stays warm in there for quite some time.
BTW, while I was at it, I installed a 120 light so when the trailer is plugged in I don't have to use the battery lights.
You will want to keep your extension cord as short as possible. I went to the box store and bought an RV cord. Heavy gauge.
I don't know what kind of setup you have for plugin's. I park next to my shop. I found the outlet INSIDE the shop that was closest to the trailer, piggybacked an outlet off it to the outside, and made my cord run much shorter.
The next trailer is going to have a forced air system, but this works well, I can pull all of it out of this trailer if I want when I sell it, and not leave a buggered up mess for the next guy.
When it's time to go, I just pull the cord up thru the vent, reinstall the vent, wind the cord up and boogie.
Hope this helps. Bagger

 

[Adrenaline Revolution]

Keep in mind that the propane tank will vent excess gas from the overflow valve when it warms up if it is full.
Having those types of heaters inside a trailer with the tank inside as well could cause a big Boom.

 

[IdahoMike]

A good fan and good venting is the key to using a propane heater inside a enclosed trailer. I have the exact same set up that I use in my Triton Prestige trailer and have no problems with drying things out or condensation. Just my .02 worth

 

[rmkboxer]

I have a rv furnace that is installed in my trailer and it dries it out great, you have to drop a door to empty the water when you get home but other then that it dries it out great

 

[JMCX]

Don't forget your simple chemistry: Propane + Oxygen = Carbon Dioxide + Water + Heat.

Because your using one of those infrared units that's exhausting into the enclosed space you are adding a lot of moisture to the situation. The amount of water produced varies with the type of fuel but it is probably close to say that for every gallon of propane you burn you produce a gallon of water.

You need to have a vent open to exchange the air and to give the heater some oxygen.

And don't even think about working in there while that thing is firing (open flame type heater) and the trailer is closed up. There could potentially be a lot of carbon monoxide coming off that thing as well. I bet there are warnings on the heater.