While in Wilsonville, Or. at Pheasant Ridge RV Park I met another full-timer who had a Keystone Everest and showed me some insulation he had added. He said it made quite a difference in both cooling and heating of the coach. Now that I have done it I can see why. He had taken a styro-foam insulation and had placed it in the ceiling of his basement between the aluminum floor rails/studs. I took it one step further and also removed the cheap 1/4″ cotton bats of insulation between the belly pan and tanks and replaced it as well. Below I describe what I did….
Here is a picture of the basement ceiling before the insulation. You can see the aluminum floor braces and the plywood flooring, I first measured the voids where the insulation would go then cut them slightly over-sized and then wedge them in.
In this picture you can see the insulation after it was put in place. All I left to do here is trim/cut and loose material to give it a clean looking fit.
I used R-Tech Insulfoam (styro-foam). It can be bought at Home Depot. Good thing is the R ratings are great and it weighs virtually nothing. All you need to do this is a tape measure, ink pen, razor knife to cut the foam with and a vacuum to clean up all the loose bits of Styro-foam afterwards. A regular Razor knife with a long blade cuts it easily.
I used the same material in the area below the basement in the underbelly. The area between the belly pan and my tanks which is also heated by my furnace ducting. I pulled out the cheap 1/4″ cotton bats the manufacturer used and replaced it with the R-Tech bats. Great insulation and even of you do have a flood/leak you can simply pul it out let it dry and put it back in. It does not absorb water. Overall by putting the insulation in both the belly and basement ceiling it added a significant insulation factor to the coach. The full-timer I met who had done it and showed me said it made quite a difference in cooling and heating. Later I will extend the insulation in the basement storage all the way back as far as it will go beyond the basement wall toward the rear of the trailer. I’ll have to pull the basement walls to do so, but no biggie as I need to do my annual check of water lines and fittings for tightness. the whole project in both areas. It is a good days job, but not hard at all. Just time consuming. Pulling the belly pan is much easier with a good cordless screw driver by the way! I’m working on another cheap insulation project and will ad it when I am done. the overall cost of this project was only $57!!
For more information on R-Tech Insulfoam you can visit their website here.
*** Remember this project is specific to Keystone Challengers, Everest’s and Montana”s. It may not be prudent or effective on others depending on design.
For those interested here is some information regarding the type of foam insulation I used and some factors regarding the rigid foam type insulation….
Rigid Foam Insulation. One form of insulation whose popularity has grown steadily in recent years is rigid foam, also called foam board. Rigid foam insulation is typically used to insulate foundations and slabs. It also is applied on exterior roofs and walls, and may substitute for loose-fill or batts in walls, roofs and floor cavities, although it must be tightly fitted to prevent air infiltration.
Rigid foam insulation has insulation values nearly twice the R-value per inch of standard fiberglass and cellulose. Some rigid foam products are ideally suited for foundation insulation because they are water resistant and can be buried in the ground on a foundation’s exterior.