Outside Temperature

While on the road home with Nepenthe we stopped at a Walmart in South Dakota to pick up a couple of things including a small clock. Found what we wanted but right next to the clocks was this little Inside/Outside temperature monitor. It is quite small and has a little "sensor box" that you mount somewhere outside to give you the outside temperature. It only cost $10 so I bought it. I walked around the trailer a couple of times trying to decide where the best place to put it was and, because we had just gotten off a very rough washboard dusty dirt road in the Badlands decided that since it only came with that double sided sticky tape that the small "outside" compartment would be better than sticking it to the frame or somewhere underneath the trailer. I say small outside compartment because we have the heater option and that takes up 95% of the "outside" storage. So I calmly mounted the thermometer to the front wooden wall of the little compartment and sure enough, the monitor was showing both inside and outside temperatures. Pretty neat. We woke up very early in the morning to the sound of rain as well as the sound of my teeth chattering. Remember that cold front that swept across the country a couple of weeks ago? We we were right in the middle of while camped near Mt. Rushmore. My new trusty temperature monitor said it was 50 something in the cabin and 36 degrees outside. So we reached up and turned on the heater. Needless to say the outside temperature appeared to climb rapidly. Faster than in the cabin I might add. As an added note, we were not prepared for that kind of cold and wet weather. Getting the wet side tent down and everything buttoned up when you have lost all communication with your fingers adds greatly to the time it takes. We live just north of San Diego where there are only two seasons, Daytime and Nighttime. Still looking for a better place to put the temperature gauge.

 

Jim
How about putting it near the hitch? On the tongue side surface?

 

I want one like that, but we were having the same issue. We have them for the house, and they work like a charm, but I was worried about rocks hitting teh undercarriage, and with my luck, would knock the thing off (we live on a gravel road, so we are always driving on them, plus our roads are sanded in winter and I was worried aout how it would handle that and the wet). I found a travel one, about the size of a small mobile phone that I keep in the galley. You can clip it on a backpack while hiking and it has a little stand too. Can't see it from the cabin, but it will let me know about pressures and to get in soon.

We are starting to have 2 seasons up here too, really wet and damp. Our 3 weeks of summer has me thinking Hawaii would be a pretty nice place to live. They gray and lack of light is killing us, and I am an Oregon native (6th generation, so you would think the coping mechanism would be in my DNA!).

Let me know what you come up with, I am curious! Good luck!

Sarah

 

Ken and Kathy,
The problem with putting it on the metal frame is that once the metal gets to ambient temperature it will "hold" that temperature for an extended period. The metal will stay cold or hot long after the air temperature has changed. I'm not trying to be too a**l about this but I would prefer to have it somewhere more indicative of air temperature. Unless I left the locker door open the front storage locker (cubby hole) was a bad choice for many reasons. I am looking at the leading edge of the fan vent cover (plastic) as a possibility.
Jim

 

My Taylor in/out has a 6 or 8' wire with a temperature sensing bulb covered in plastic on the end. The bulb is 1/4" diameter. I drilled a HOLE in the floor of the upper storage compartment of the alcan where the sending unit stays and ran the wire down into the lower compartment.

When we set up camp I stick about 6" of the wire out the drain hole in the corner of the lower compartment that CI put there. Now the sensor is not only in the shade which is important but being under the alcan it is out of the rain too - touching nothing. Just pull it up into the storage compartment when it is time to go. I mounted the base unit on the storage door next to the television and get good realistic temps from both in & out. The base has a night light button. The base mounting bracket is my design and quite complicated to make so I won't take you there. Have fun!

Hilditch

 

Would help as in isolator or partial insulator from the steel?
Just a thought.
Ken in Louisville

 

we have in door temp monitor and a weather radio. We keep them in our little bin with the keys, cell phone etc. Living in the north (Minnesota) we are pretty keen on reading natures signs of outdoor temperature when it is on the cool side - we are less adept at knowing how hot it is. The small weather radio is great.

 

Always worked for us. Actually, forget the wet finger, just look out the window and if still in doubt, open the door.

 

I'm weather geek myself, and a new 560 Ultra owner. I was thinking the same thing. "Should I install an actual OAT (outside Air Temperature) gage and sending unit I previously removed my my aircraft, or do something cheep and elegant?" Cheep and wireless seems to be the easiest! Amazon.com: Amemo Weather Station FT0423 Digital Hygrometer Thermometer LED Display Indoor Outdoor Temperature Meter Humidity Monitor.: Home & Kitchen

For $15 it can give you a lot of information while you're just laying there in bed (without freezing your finger!

 

I dad one on my old teardrop and enjoyed seeing how cold it was outside. May just have to get another one. On a side note I also have one for the house that can read up tp four remote sensors. Good for outside and the garage.

 

I just bought an $8 inside/outside temp sensor (wireless) on amazon. I zip tied the outside sensors under trailer between the fresh and grey tanks. Used sticky Velcro to mound sensor in cabin. Simple, works great. Awesome!

 

Why not put the outside sensor someplace in the tow vehicle? Protected from rain and road rocks. Might read high during a sunny day but I imagine what I'd be most interested in is the night time and early morning outside temp.

 

Prompted by your idea I ordered this one:
WeatherShack.com

I really like it because it is in color, has a clock and a backlight. I always wake up in the middle of the night wondering what time it is.

Randy

 

Being the Nerd that I am, I went with 4 temperature readouts. Cabin, Galley, Outside and Battery. Not a cheap option, but it is part of my battery monitoring setup. Here is a picture of the display in the cabin - it also has an app and I can use my phone to see the temps if I want. The display is mounted next to the furnace thermostat and has screens to show battery status, temps, tank levels (working on this one) and barometric pressure. I put temp probes in the cabin under the cabinets, in the galley - top right shelf corner, the outside is under the trailer and the battery is on the battery.

 

Wow! That's awesome!

 

What is the temperature monitor you are using?

 

It is not really a temperature monitor. It is a smart battery monitor made by Simarine. Smart marine battery monitor system - Simarine
They are a relatively new company in the battery monitoring business. The main target for this business is yachts and sailboats, but the hardware translates well to RVs or Caravans as they would say in Europe. It uses a shunt, voltage input and software to monitor the state of the battery and can do other functions like monitor temperatures tank levels and electrical usage of individual equipment. It is overkill for a teardrop, but that has never stopped me before. It performed well on my recent 3 week trip and it is cool plugging in the solar panel and seeing how much current is being produced and how long it will take to charge the battery.

 

Thanks. I am looking at a remote temperature/battery monitors for pet safety since we have a older little dog (14 pounder) that we want to travel with us.

 

Super cool! I may need to upgrade to this at some point! For those that want a little cheeper inside/outside thermometer, my little $15 solution (not $8 as I previously stated) may work for you Amazon.com: Amemo Weather Station FT0423 Digital Hygrometer Thermometer LED Display Indoor Outdoor Temperature Meter Humidity Monitor.: Home & Kitchen