dampness in storage

[HorizonSeeker]

I have been seeing some dampness in the forward storage compartment. Granted, we have had torrential rains of late. Dried it out last week after first discovering it upon my return from the weekend at the dog trials where we experience 4" of rain my first day there. Discovered it damp again this weekend after strong storms/hail/rain on Friday night. Will try to dry it out again this week but we are expecting bad weather from now till Thursday. Any ideas about the cause?

Needs new seal? Leak from the roof?

No sign of dampness anywhere inside. No other compartments affected. Not the whole compartment. Only damp about 2-3" in from the door. This is my deepest compartment, of course.

Any suggestions, ideas?

[kdmac]

I can honestly say, without exaggeration, that in the last 5 months I have been in the pouring rain and wind with only 12 days without rain. The people here have never seen this much rain in their lifetimes...I am waiting for this weather to get stable before I start heading out into mountain passes, etc. The storage doors aren't airtight like the windows and doors of the living space. They have little more purpose than to keep the stored contents from falling out. So, I recognized the dampness and moisture early on and devised a way to remedy that.

So, during the day I keep my bed lifted so the storage space under it gets aired and warm like my living space is. My bed is on hydarlic lift arms so it only has "all the way open or nothing" which is fine but if yours' doesn't have the dydraulic arms then you could put some type of spacers (like pilllows or folded blankets) to lift it open a large crack. On good days (when the sun is actually out and the rain is not pouring down) I open both outside storage doors and allow pass-through breeze. Just doing both of those things has kept it nice and dry in there...otherwise even just the wet humidity of this type of weather causes dampness and the dreaded "mold".

[kdmac]

I can honestly say, without exaggeration, that in the last 5 months I have been in the pouring rain and wind with only 12 days without rain. The people here have never seen this much rain in their lifetimes...I am waiting for this weather to get stable before I start heading out into mountain passes, etc. The storage doors aren't airtight like the windows and doors of the living space. They have little more purpose than to keep the stored contents from falling out. So, I recognized the dampness and moisture early on and devised a way to remedy that.

So, during the day I keep my bed lifted so the storage space under it gets aired and warm like my living space is. My bed is on hydarlic lift arms so it only has "all the way open or nothing" which is fine but if yours' doesn't have the dydraulic arms then you could put some type of spacers (like pilllows or folded blankets) to lift it open a large crack. On good days (when the sun is actually out and the rain is not pouring down) I open both outside storage doors and allow pass-through breeze. Just doing both of those things has kept it nice and dry in there...otherwise even just the wet humidity of this type of weather causes dampness and the dreaded "mold".

[HorizonSeeker]

Ooh, good thought about raising the bed. I only have a 24' rv with no bed, but I do think I'll open up the dinnette seat over that compartment. There's nothing really in there at the moment but it couldn't hurt. I'm still just spending weekends in Seeker and weekdays/workdays in the house. All bets are off this week as it will be in the shop for a couple of days getting the Blue Ox tow system installed. Thursday and Friday promise to be dry and sunny so I will open up all the windows and doors to allow good air flow.

[Bethers]

Knock on wood, I've never had water in my storage compartments. That said, you need to determine if it's condensation from the wet damp weather - which you might not be able to prevent. However if water IS getting in the compartment, I'd look closely at the seals and see if you can fix it.