Wanted: Shade
I really love our Safari Condo Alto F2414. The signature Big Front Window (BFW) brings in a lots of light. The walls and roof are made of aluminum and composite panels. This makes for a very strong and lightweight camper with great ventilation and great views.
A drawback to this construction is that it can make Mosey very hot in the summer months, and the refrigerator, even on propane, has to work extra hard to keep things cool.
The awning, air conditioning, fans and opening the windows helps, but sometimes it’s a challenge to keep up. When you are dry camping, you need to find ways to keep cool without air conditioning.
When we’re selecting a site, we always try to find one with some shade on the non-awning side where the refrigerator is installed. Sometimes that’s not possible, and we have to make our own shade.
Vic Does a McGyver
In February, when we were camping at Lake Louisa State Park in Clermont, Florida, we experienced temperatures in the high 80s F. Our site had a few scrubby trees, which shaded the refrigerator side, but the sun shining through the BFW really heated up the inside of the trailer. We needed to shade the BFW, ASAP!
The BFW is made out of Lexan, and it does have a screen and a shade on the inside. Safari Condo recommends that you don’t use the inside shade in direct sun because the heat generated in between could damage the window.
As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Vic got to work quickly with items we had on hand and (inspired by McGyver) fashioned a cover for our BFW from our felt-backed picnic tablecloth, four pennies, four suction cups and some line. Once it installed over the BFW, we noticed a big difference in the temperature inside the trailer.
After we returned home, we considered some commercially made shades. Magne Shade makes high quality shades for RV windows that get great reviews by other Alto owners. But I just can’t get beyond the $400 price tag. We’ll keep using the tablecloth until it wears out!
Aluminets and Airheads
During our trip to Florida we met and became fast friends with Joel and Kathy, who have a Pleasure Way camper van. Kathy showed us how she shades the refrigerator side of her camper with an Aluminet shade cloth and two Airhead SUP suction cup tiedowns.
Aluminet is lightweight and highly reflective shade cloth, often used in agriculture. It reflects heat and light.
The Airhead tie-downs are easy to install and remove. They’re heavy duty and attach to smooth surfaces with mechanical levers. When they’re on correctly, they don’t come off unless you push back the lever.
When we got home, I ordered both.
The Aluminet shade cloth we selected screens 70 percent of sunlight. It’s 6.5 by 8 feet with grommets along the edges and comes with elastic ties that you can use to stake it down.
We tried out our setup in our driveway first, and found that the exterior shaded area of the camper was much cooler to the touch than the non-shaded area.
When we set up in our driveway, we also realized that it would be beneficial to shade the rest of the non-awning side, so we ordered another shade cloth and two more Airhead tie-downs.
Real World Testing
The big test of our shading system happened in July, when we attended the Safari Condo Grande Rassemblement, or “Great Gathering,” held in the Beauce region of Quebec. The camping during the event was a large parking lot next to a community sports center with no hookups and spotty shade from nearby buildings.
We put out the awning and set up the tablecloth on the BFW and the two Aluminet cloths, which gave us shade on all sides except for the rear window. We cranked up the fan and opened the windows. I’m happy to report that during the very sunny days, the camper was comfortable inside and the refrigerator worked great (on propane).
A second test was conducted while dry camping at a Harvest Hosts stay in Vermont. We set up the awning and one shade cloth on the driver’s side, shading the refrigerator. With the windows open and the fan on high, the camper cooled down quickly.
Extra Awning Shade
When we are in a site with little shade, and the sun is low on the horizon, our awning is sometimes ineffective in shading the passenger side of the camper. We found a solution for that, too!
We have a Fiamma 45S awning on our Alto. Searching online, we found an old version of the Fiamma Sun View XL — that slides into the groove of the awning box and hangs down vertically. It can also be staked down. Fiamma also offers a Sun Blocker.
We used it earlier this year at Machicomoco State Park in Gloucester, Virginia. This is a new campground without many mature trees, so shade was in short supply.
Other options are also available — several on Amazon. If we hadn’t found the Fiamma shade, we would have purchased this one from TentProInc.
In Conclusion
Shade from trees/outcroppings/mountains is great when you can find it, but that’s not always possible. And the need for shade is not specific to campers made by Safari Condo. In the sunny summer months, anyone who has a camper can benefit from additional shade.
Two Aluminet shade cloths attached with Airhead SUP tie-downs works great to shade the non-awning side of the camper.
The shade cloths and tie-downs don’t take up much space, but are invaluable when you need a little shade. We won’t set out on a trip without them!
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