Skirting - a really good idea in cold climates

First of all, why skirting? Well, when the weather gets cold and the wind blows, the space under your rig is cold, resulting in cold floors. Applying skirting creates an air pocket that can easily be 20+ degrees warmer than the outside.

Now we have heated floors, so we don't really feel this, but with a warmer underbelly, the floor heaters do not have to work as hard. And if you have just a regular furnace or mini-split, a warmer underbelly will reduce your energy consumption for sure.

When we first started off, we really did not appreciate the need for skirting. And we certainly did not design with it in mind. Skirting, like everything, comes in a variety of types and a lot of people also do their own. It also depends on how long you stay in one place. Initially, we knew we were going to move around a lot, even in the winter, visiting ski resorts all around the Rockies. So it made sense to look at options that were easy to take off and on.

I recall a place in CO that offered custom cut skirts and another with channels that you simply could pull the skirting along. However, we thought we would go a simpler route and ordered skirting with snaps that could be easily removed with a tool and then reapplied. It made sense. We can tell you, cutting the fabric and applying all the snaps was a bit of a nuisance. Taking it down, moving to the next location, and putting it on again, only happened a couple of times. The grommets that you snap onto were a combination of screw-on and sticky tape. Suffice it to say, that solution did not last long.

Our second version, which we were quite excited about and I do think have potential, especially if you move often, are the inflatable AirSkirts. Here you have tubes in different length, we had 4', 6', and 8', which you place under the rig, along the edge. Depending on how smooth you transitions are and what you may protruding here and there, you do have to supplement with some other materials to make a more or less tight space. As I mentioned at the top, it is really the cold air and wind that causes most of the temperature drops, so it is important to have a fairly tight seal. Well, the reality of these bags are that overtime, some of them loose air. Having to go out and refill them is not ideal. We should add that they provided some good procedures to try to locate the leak and also offered to replace any that could not be fixed.

Nevertheless, we were ready for something different. This one is definitely a bit more DYI but we are honestly very happy with it. We are staying the entire season in one place, so that makes a huge difference and we could make something a little more semi permanent.

We took regular foam insulation panels in the 4'x8' sheet size (silver on one side and white printed foam on the other). The silver side will go inside to bounce any heat back under the rig. After we measured and cut the sizes we wanted, we painted them black with a roller to match up and make a seamless transition with the trailer chassis.

We used 2x4 pieces of wood to stabilize the bottom of each panel and connected them with screws. All seams were taped and we also use tape to secure it to the chassis/rig. We think it turned out really well.

At the end of our stay we will simply remove this and store it away for the summer. Hopefully we can easily reapply it next season.

What we learned from this is that there are definitively many ways to solve this and it depends greatly on what your travel schedule is. We also realized that we can easily design and build attachment points, channels, or other means to secure the skirting during our manufacturing phase. Knowing that a client will use their Travel Home as a four season residence will allow us to create the the optimum solution for them.

We had temperature sensors outside and inside the skirting and it makes a HUGE difference. We would not stay in winter climates without it. The more you move around, the more important it is to making it easy and reliable to put on and off.

What skirting do you use? What would be your ultimate way of doing it? Please comment or send us a note.