I have the 05 36' raptor 5th wheel with alot of extras and the gena nd such....I love most of this trailer and I love the floor layout and the fact the garage is separate... I bought this for the comfort of my parents who are elderly and we found problems on a 2 week trip to The southern deserts.
Problem #1
When in 100 degree heat, running the Generator, and running the A/C, the heat from the generator migrates to the storage area, making it hot, and thus to the floor above it, the bedroom/bathroom area.. ....Toilet and carpet floor in the bedroom was hot so A/C was ineffective...(can you say radiant floor heating???)
Added 2 full sheets of R-10 2" foam board ($100) in the spaces between the frame in the storage compartment. Also to the floor directly above the generator... which in it's cabinet, is not insulated in the metal "Box"... I removed the side "pretty" walls in the S.C. to find 1/8" panneling between the S.C. and the livingroom... added foam there... expando foam filled in open areas by drains and such...
Problem #2
Insulation again in 2 areas... The pantry by the fridge and cabinet above it, is short because the panneling on the rear of it is the vent for the fridge...HOT Wall there, That 1/8" paneling is the only thing separating.....Again, cutting 2" foam to fit in that space...More sq. footage there....
In the front wardrobe closet....Remove the upper narrow panneling that is angled, and you will find yourself looking directly at the fibreglass cap....NO INSULATION!!! ....In fact, the meager insulation had settled down to just above the indented shelf.....I added 3, 7' R-19 Corning batting strips to this area until it was filled then replaced the trim... Much better...
All total, the Heat gain Sq. Footage of all the areas was over 90!!! No wonder the A/C wasn't doing good...
For a necessary Option, I went ahead and got the second A/C over the front bed ($570)...Installation went pretty easy save for lifting the 150# unit to the roof.
The 5500 gen is able to run both A/c's on low provided you pop the breaker for the microwave and the converter (I have solar panels)...What a difference!! it was 95 out and in 1 hour, on the gen, it got down to 85 and was getting cooler fast... This is what I expected from a 4 season trailer..
Another thing I did was to coat the ramp door with Dupli-color truck liner for a non-slip surface. the painted wood was slippery when wet.
Here is my truck and Raptor at the desert in Utah. I did the image on the wind deflector through a place called www.rvart.com ...Took a pic of the front of the trailer, sent it to the company and they made a sticker for it.. In the size I wanted..
I hope all the Raptor Owners out there will do the things I did and you will have a trailer that is much better insulated. I did other things like use all LED Marker lights and 60 LED Oval taillights....
Look at the gallery in this link to see some of the thigs I did to this.
Eric I think you're expecting too much from your camper. A "Raptor" isn't a 4 season high end rig and insulation isn't something manufacturer's that produce middle of the road RV's use alot of; as you discovered. Our 5er is suffering from the same things; poor insulation, exposed water pipes in storage areas, etc, etc. etc. Your have a nice rig and your camper will serve you well for years; but a Teton or Travel Supreme it isn't.
Happy camping!!!
USAF RETIRED '92, "EITHER LEAD, FOLLOW OR GET OUTTA THE WAY"!!!
"THE SILVER FOX" 06 GMC 3500 CC DRW D/A LBZ 4X4 SLT
"THE BEAST", 00 DODGE 3500 QUAD CAB DRW CTD LARAMIE
04 HR 30SCD 5'ER OPTIONS? EVER DANG'ED ONE OF'EM!!!
Nice work ,I'm happy to see there are other men out there who aren't afraid to do some things for himself to make things "just the way he wants it" instead of sitting around wishing it was that way, and complaining that it isn't.
You should proud, knowing that yours is the only one like it.
My brother has a raptor 3612 and I will pass this info on to him and if he decides that he wants to do what you did, I'll help him tear into it.
P.S. at $55,000 list price for 24' of living space,[12'is garage] I don't think it is only "middle of the road".
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Hi Eric. I have a Raptor JUST like yours. We have taken our Raptor on 3 trips so far since getting it in May, and we had no apparent insulation problems until the trip we took to Florida back in June. It did fine then except for the one day it was hot as Hades. On that day we stayed around the campground because it was just too hot to do anything else and we had a heck of a time staying cool. Well, I take that back, we stayed cool enough, but in order for it to do so, the a/c ran nonstop without cutting off around the clock til it got dark. All the other trips we had no problem. It was VERY humid on this day.
When we bought the Raptor, we KNEW it was not as well insulated as the Jayco Designer we once had, but we figured it would be insulated enough. And for the most part it is. But there are times when it is a problem. We had even contemplated getting a second a/c when next summer comes.
I want to thank you for the very valuable information you have put in this post. It is very obvious that you care about your Raptor and want it to preform at it's peak. I imagine before next summer gets here, we will be doing some of the modifications that you have done to yours and going by what you have done. It sounds as though what you did would be just the trick.
I knew that the Raptor was not a 4 season unit when we got it and that we would not be doing much intense HOT (like the desert) camping with it, or any VERY cold trips. I think if we were to plan on full timing, and had the excess $$$ it would take to have a full time unit, we would go with something along the lines of a Escalade toy hauler by K-Z. It costs twice as much as our Raptor, but really meant for long use and more extreme weather conditions with upscaled living.
Wow, I enjoyed your pics!! I also really love the graphics you had done for your wind flector on your truck. Truly unique to have done that. I think taking your folks with you out west was really cool. I bet that's a wonderful story in and of itself. You really need to post about that too. I, for one, would be very interested in your trip. You must be a really great guy to have done that.
Anyway, just wanted to thank you very much for your taking the time to let us know exactly what you did to your Raptor to enhance some things. You did a very well written, well thought out, helpful post complete with great pics. Thank you!
Oh, and hope you don't mind....I made the sunset pic on the desert my wallpaper on my computer. Beautiful pic!
Rhonda
Enjoying life with my wonderful husband Allyn,
Our 2003 Newmar Mountain Aire Motorhome,
& various other assortment of wheels
hows does that pin extension affect the camper and have you checked the welds on the frame, seems like alot of weight to be hanging out there like that
'05 f350 srw black/w red flames loaded harly edition
'05 open road 340rbhs-5 fiver
'99 glastron 185gs[f/s]w/150hp johnson
'03 tahoeLT all options
'03 harley v-rod 100th ann. edition blk/sil
'03 polaris xc700sp x pkg blue snow
'04 1/2 polaris 600 sportsman atv
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Well Gosh gooly gee (blush) Thanks for the kind words.. I drive truck for a living so I am Detail oriented.
On the Dealer Lot I was informed it WAS a 4 season, Maybe not as good as a really good full timer trailer but there is NO excuse to skimp on insulation. Being at a Campground and the A/C running is better but try to run the gen dry camping in hot weather and you will have no luck stying cool. I am not kidding when I say the floor of the toilet was almost hot and the carpet was warm....
I would say to Def. get the second A/C as even on Gen, I was able to run both on low and with all the insulation stuff, it does great now.
Well Gosh gooly gee (blush) Thanks for the kind words.. I drive truck for a living so I am Detail oriented.
On the Dealer Lot I was informed it WAS a 4 season, Maybe not as good as a really good full timer trailer but there is NO excuse to skimp on insulation. Being at a Campground and the A/C running is better but try to run the gen dry camping in hot weather and you will have no luck stying cool. I am not kidding when I say the floor of the toilet was almost hot and the carpet was warm....
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You're welcome. I just like getting good information. I get all excited about toyhauling stuff as you can see.
steve700edgex wrote: hows does that pin extension affect the camper and have you checked the welds on the frame, seems like alot of weight to be hanging out there like that
I am wondering the same thing, as I would like to have one???
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