Nice job on all those shades Jage. I bought the Heatshield custom-fit windshield and front window screens which are more or less the same thing (cut to fit and edged with material) and they do a great job keeping the heat out while the SMB is parked. Guess I now have another project for the SMB, making my own window shades for the other windows, not to mention the penthouse.

Any idea how much Reflectix you used? [edit: clearly between the time I intended to reply, and actually replied, someone else asked the same question]


Herb

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SMB-less as of 02/04/2012. Our savings account is richer, but our adventures are poorer.

So a different take on a similar question..... what kind of room does the set of insulation pieces take up?

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Greg in Austin
2008 Ford 6.0PSD EB/E-PH SMB 4X4 Aluminess f/r bumpers (13.5mpg avg, 15mpg hwy) 52k miles [Texas McBeast]
2006 Toyota Prius (48 to 68 mpg) 120k miles [Penelope]
2013 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon (15 to 18 mpg) [Johnnie]
2012 Mitsubishi MiEV (no gas required) ($.50/day in electricity) [Evie]
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I store the 2 top pieces on the front part of the bed, overlapped a few inches in the center to keep them out of the framework.

The rest are stacked on the rear cusion of the PH bed, leaving the J-hook hole clear.

For day trips we just stack the lower pieces on the 50 bed, or put them in back, where the chairs usually go and the upper pieces on the rear of the PH bed.

Our PH bed is cabled 98% of the time- dropping the front corner helps get the top pieces arranged in the gap.

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Jage, We did the same type of design with ours, except I did the penthouse in a three piece solution and for downstairs I backed all the individual windows with fabric on the inside.

I just have one question ....when you arctic up completly do you get a lot of moisture in the van ? and do you run the heat at all?

I sleep with a window cracked and no heat durring the nite and we get a ton of moisture in between the insulation and the canvase top in the penthouse.

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CJ

Moisture has never been a problem. Have done with heat and without, in everything from teens to 50s, by myself and with both of us. Of course all the places have been very dry, and not raining so humidity might be a factor.

If I know it's going to be colder than 20º I'll just put the top down.

In Palo Duro we took them down each day for 3 nights, and in Meeker I had them up for almost 10 nights straight.

Hope this helps.

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Every little bit helps, theanks much

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CJ

We just snow camped 25 miles south of the grand canyon 2 nights ago. It was below zero. Fresh water pump stopped working and the windshield wiper fluid froze. Thats with Antifreeze! With the propane furnace running all night, we still froze. The penthouse was probably still in the 30's. The bottom bed was probably 40-50 degrees. I guess when its -7 to -17 there's only so much you can do.

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Dave and Yoshi [Ki6LBB]
https://www.adventureduo.com
2003 Baja Tan SMB EB50 V10 (SOLD in 2008)
2003 Baja Tan SMB EB DYO 7.3 Diesel

Tread Lightly! Trainer
Pack it in Pack it Out>>>> https://www.trasharoo.com

Actually a Chilly Dog system would help with that. It starts your van at specific temps inside, and would run periodically keeping the engine and the cabin (via the dashboard vents) warm.

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Jage, I have the chilly dog system and while I know it will start the van or page me via the keyfob when high temp limits are reached I am not thinking that it has such a setting for low temp limits that would trigger the engine (and heat) in winter. I could be wrong but never saw anything in my literature that told of that function.

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Mike W
Pueblo Gold Ford EB 350 v10 with EB 50 floor plan & Quigley 4x4 from Huntington (aka: Minerva)

I've never actually programmed the Chilly Dog, but there is a low and high threshold setting on mine.. here is the low:



You can only have one or the other, but since you're setting the dash controls manually to heat or cool that makes sense.

It also looks like there are different models, athough only one is listed as the Chilly Dogâ„¢ on the manufacturers website.

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