I have an Autotrail Cheyene 696 with a fixed bed over a large garage.
On the last couple of trips when the weather has been cooler the mattress has become very damp in one corner. I do not think that it is a leak as I can find no leakage point and the dampness only occurs when we are using the Motorhome. Has anyone experienced anything similar and if so do you have any suggestions about how to improve or get rid of the problem?
Try putting some better insultation matting under the mattress to insulate the warmth of the occupied mattress from the cold coming from the garage void.
Although im a Caravanner, and not a Motorhomer, i have had similar problems to deal with in the past on boats, where the cold of the bilges has caused underbed condensation in the cabin during the night.
The only other thing to try is putting some form of heater in the garage to balance the tempreture differance somewhat, making sure that its a type safe for such a purpose of course.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
You say just one corner is getting wet, is it touching the wall, only if it is that is where you are getting the wet/damp from.
What normally happens is warm moist air hits the colder surface of the wall and condenses out into water and if your mattress is touching it acts like blotting paper soaking up the condense.
In order to stop the condense from condensing out on the wall you really need to ventilate better and keep the temperature up, you must always use extract fans if they are fitted when cooking or washing/showering etc.
However, if the underside of your mattress is getting moldy and damp then you need to raise it sufficiently to allow air to circulate, normally this can be achieved with the use of the bent slats that come with a lot of beds nowadays,
A good place to source them from is IKEA, you may need to cut them down to fit but they will help, my van also has a small duct from the Truma blown heating system that pushes a small amount of warm air into the void made by the slats which certainly helps the situation.
It also has a duct outlet into the garage itself albeit we normally keep it closed, but even so it still allows sufficient warmth to keep the garage temperature well above freezing.
Some folk fit a tube-type 'greenhouse' heater in the garage bit, just keeps the chill off. You are going to get condensation anywhere cold bits meet warm.
On a personal note, i panicked myself when i was rooting in the van this afternoon. I opened one of the 'food' lockers, and found all the labels on the tins damp. I thought it had sprung a leak, but its turned out the metal tins have attracted condensation in the closed locker now the night temps are in single figures. Nowhere else was affected, just the bit with the metal tins in. An adjacent locker with just 'paper' cartons was dry as a bone. Ive now left all the locker doors open, and stuck a small oil-filled rad. in on a low setting to keep the chill out.
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Topic: Condensation in Motorhome
