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Offline CACBServices

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Insulating a trailer
« on: September 13, 2011, 06:44:03 PM »
Decided to hold off on a cube van for now. It seem like the most economical option would be to insulate my trailer and adding an electric heater with an outside plug. This would, I hope, allow me to leave my feezables in the trailer in all but our coldest weather.  I'm sure it's not rocket science, but if any of you have gone this route your advice would be appreciated.
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Offline Mike M

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Re: Insulating a trailer
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2011, 07:31:56 PM »
I've had multiple trailers but never insulated one.

We heated a van the first winter in business (truckmount). Was hard to keep it warm enough. The low spots got cold enough to freeze sometimes. Also have to worry about power outages. Replaced a few wand valves and had to thaw some plumbing but no major damage.

Best to bring freezables in at night and winterize any equipment left outside.

That being said..............I'm sure you could insulate a trailer well enough to keep things from freezing. You can also use a remote thermometer with freeze warning to monitor the trailer. Most trailers have some sort of plywood or sheathing inside. You would need to remove that to properly insulate. I'm thinking fiberglass along with spray adhesive or blue board or spray in insulation like builders use. Maybe a combination of methods.
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Offline Infamousdave

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Re: Insulating a trailer
« Reply #2 on: September 13, 2011, 11:05:58 PM »
I have never insulated a trailer per se but have built and insulated a few fish houses.

The cheapest way would probably be styrofoam but make sure you use the pink stuff not the cheap white stuff. If the white stuff gets wet it just disintigrates.

A lot of guys recently are going to spray in foam insulation. I haven't researched this option myself yet since I am not in the market for a new fish house but I would assume it is more expensive but will give you a better r-rating and do a better job of filling all the gaps.

I'm not sure what type of electric heater you were thinking but if you put in a small ventless propane heater you could also keep the trailer warm while sitting at jobsites. Just a random thought.
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Offline micky navarro

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Re: Insulating a trailer
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2011, 12:46:29 AM »

when my son built a 2 story garage in his yard for his race care engine building, and other custom fabrications, we insulated the walls with that pink board stuff mentioned. while it dont get nearly as cold in jersey as you guys in the great north, we see temps down as low as 5 and 10 above zero.
not once has the temp dropped under freezing in the garage and he has yet the need to run the big overhead heaters during overnights!
he simply keeps on a small ceramic heater right in front of the garage door!

where you 3 guys live, i know it gets way way colder on a regular basis though!
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Offline Bud B

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Re: Insulating a trailer
« Reply #4 on: September 14, 2011, 07:25:49 PM »
    I have a canvas smelt fishing house we put on the iced rivers in winter.  We put 1" thick blue board on walls, 2'' thick in ceiling.   We use a kerosen heater, and other than getting it thawed after it sits frozen for a while we just put the heater on lowwwww.     Its a 8x9 with high ceilings.  it seems easy to heat but keep in mind its location, a frozen river, with cooold wind chill temps.      I will add that the lanterns we use for light do account for some of the heat output.    If we went with 2'' walls we could heat it with a match.   (not really)    ;D
       
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Offline Infamousdave

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Re: Insulating a trailer
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2011, 10:47:23 PM »
Yeah, in our fish house we have the smallest ventless heater we could find and rarely do we operate it above the lowest available setting. It can be -10 degrees outside and we are toasty warm inside. Of coarse the floor is usually a lot colder than up by the ceiling but I installed a 12 volt fan to push heat down toward the floor and it works like a charm!
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Offline Cleantech

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Re: Insulating a trailer
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2011, 02:29:55 PM »
get a quote for spray foam

thats what we HAVE to do up here with work vans/trailers if we dont want our equipment turning into .... ice  :great:

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Offline Mike Bertrand

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Re: Insulating a trailer
« Reply #7 on: September 15, 2011, 11:24:10 PM »
Hi Eric
I had the inside of my trailer foamed and the underneath as well. Then I installed a seal combustion chamber furnace that runs on lp.
I keep the stat at 60 degrees. I keep two 40lbs tanks to fuel the system. When it is extremely Minnesota cold sometimes the items on the floor will be froze. It works great and I would do it again.
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