On Dec 11, 1:42*pm, Andy wrote:
Last year for the first time since I bought my gilder I discovered
what cold, humid, Northern California winter air can do to the
untreated steel parts on my glider. *This year I was determined to
keep corrosion at bay and bought a dehumidifier to put in the
trailer. *I also bought one of those radio-remote temperature and
humidity sensors to put inside the trailer to keep track of the
effectiveness of my efforts.

My Cobra trailer is pretty well sealed except for a gap between the
tailgate and the fiberglass top. I positioned the dehumidifier on the
trailer floor between the tailboom and the wing and sealed the air
gap. I checked after the first week and discovered the dehumidifier's
water receptacle was about 1/3 full. The past couple of days have been
rainy and cool - low 50s and 77% humidity this morning. Inside the
trailer it's a few degrees warmer and the really good news is the
humidity is 22%.

I'll probably do a couple of experiments in the coming weeks to see
how long it takes to get the humidity down and how long it takes to
drift back up to ambient levels with the dehumidifier of. I know that
not everyone keeps their trailer near 110v power outlets and my
dehumidifier is 330 watts, so batteries with an inverter and/or solar
cells are not an option for continuous operation, but maybe it would
work if you could get things dry in a burst and let the trailer sit
for a period of time before giving it another burst.

Here's the dehumidifier I bought:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product

9B


I think Andy is goign about this right. I face rust issues on
machinery in my woodwork shop and use a DeLonghi Dehumidifier, as well
as special covers and waxing on exposed die cast surfaces etc. to keep
rust issues down. The exact humidifier I uses is no longer
manufactured, its a fairly large one designed for basements etc, with
a built in pump to get the caught water outside. If I had my trailer
at home I would probalby have a similar dehumidifier in the front,
turn it down to a pretty low humidity and let it run. All it needs is
for the temperature to get warm enough and it kick on an scrub out the
moisture (where Andy lives near me this is not a problem). In colder
weather I'd think about insulation and lightbulbs/heaters as well.

Andy I hope you have a fiberglass trailer top or some way of putting
the antenna of the sensor outside? Are you logging this to a computer?
The results would be interesting.

With a dehumidier like this inside you want to seal the trailer really
well. You can go around the trailer carefully sealing up obvious holes/
vents etc. but as a warning I've also noticed on my 18m Cobra trailer
at least that the gas struts deform the side of the lid enough that it
is a poor seal along the sides near where the gas struts attach to the
lid. Somethign I've not tried to fix and not sure if there is an easy
fix for. So I wonder about this happening on a 15m trailer as well.
You want to do some playing inside the trailer and see if it seals
well for you.

I remain skeptical of some of the solar vents as being that useful and
maybe contribute themselves to problems. I'd like to see actual
humidity and air and surface temperature measurements inside trailers
and started to build a system to do this but never finished it.


Darryl