Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

by **Dahlia47** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 6:29 pm

I have some canned food and some other powdered food in a glass jar (not boiled/sterilized canned). I have some Oatmeal packetsnoodles, in a jar, rice in a jar, and some sealed breakfast bars and sealed beef jerky. Would they keep in a hot trailer or should I take them out? I remember we used to keep canned food in our camper, but that was on a mountain where it didn't get above 90 deg and always dipped below freezing, even during the summer months. I'm in South Texas now. It gets hot. Like, 110+ deg hot. Humid, sticky, icky hot. So what do you not store in a hot camper?

I only ask, because 1, its pretty damned hot. 2...we have already taken our camper out 3 times this month. Kinda pain in the hiney to unload and load every weekend. But I need to be safe.

by **Rainier70** » Wed Jun 26, 2019 7:05 pm

I would take it out. Heat can deteriorate food. Not make it poisonous, but it might not taste good, or things like beans maybe harder to cook to tender.

Maybe pack your items in several bags/totes that are labeled and easy to move back and forth.

by **swoody126** » Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:01 am

we have left food in our travel trailer for the entire "season" for many years

our trailer summers(May - October) in Port Aransas and returns to north Texas for the winter where it becomes our guest house

the bridal unit does rotate all food stuffs 1x/year

this is the same MO as my parents before us

as mentioned above some of your opened foods may succumb to humidity issues and loose some of it's tastiness butt we've never had a safety issue pop up

i'll admit this has only been going on in "travel trailers" since the 1970's(tent trailers back into the 1950's) so our experience may not have enough history for your peace of mind ;-)

btw, we use plastic jars tupperware tupperware type vessels and even recycled butter tubs(simpy washed out not sterilized) for storage not glass which we attempt to avoid

sw

by **booyah** » Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:57 am

I remove all food from the camper just to take away that extra invite for mice.

Few things make e go from :thumbsup:

to

quite as fast as mice

by **Pinstriper** » Thu Jun 27, 2019 10:15 am

Mice will get thru tupperware and plastic but not glass jars or cans.

Same for humidity.

It really is a matter of heat, which I think the canned food having already been cooked in the can as part of the canning would probably not be disastrous, and dry stuff in a jar should be ok.

Anything not canned, with high oil content could go rancid just from short shelf life before the heat killed it. Thinking rice, nuts, jerky, etc.

Probably the most stable would be dehydrated foods in their original sealed pouches, then stored in mouseproof containers - think metal .50cal cans but man thats heavy.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

by **swoody126** » Thu Jun 27, 2019 9:09 pm

for meese... shave bits of Irish Spring deoderant soap around

the ittle rascals don't like the smell

sw

by **S. Heisley** » Fri Jun 28, 2019 8:42 pm

I live where it gets into the triple digits but leave canned goods and pantry items in the trailer year-round. ...Gotta be prepared to bug out in emergencies!

My open foods in are in jars within a hard plastic wheeled tool box so I can wheel it to the bear box at questionable campgrounds. The tool box has an air-tight lid; so, little critters don't get in. Metal canned goods keep fine in the galley drawer and need no special treatment against critters or weather. Things like rice can become stale plus I check through everything before each year's first spring camp trip and take out/replace anything that is more than one year old. It's recommended that vacuum sealed dehydrated and freeze dried foods be replaced or used up within 5 years as the flavors can deteriorate. Dehydrated and freeze dried foods that are not vacuum sealed will usually last a year or more before the flavor noticeably deteriorates. In high moisture areas, dried foods can absorb moisture from the air and then mold or spoil if not sealed tightly.

by **Bill n Robi** » Sun Jun 30, 2019 5:11 pm

From personal experience:
My home dried stuff although good, did not seem to last like commercial dried food. So, I store commercial stuff in one plastic storage box, easy to toss in the truck, one 'food' box is my home grown dried stuff from the house for trips and it gets rotated. I can empty a shelf in a few seconds into my bins, mostly grab the cat food containers and case or two of food.

We have practiced an emergency plan which after our move will be another drill since we will be in a wild fire zone.

by **NevadaBlue** » Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:08 pm

I’ll be keeping everything but ‘perishable’ (read needs to be in a cooler) in the trailer. Everything that goes along will be in there but the stuff that is in the cooler. That includes clothes and all. Maybe toss in a few last minute things, but to me, the trailer is to be kept ready to roll with very little to do but hook up and go. :thumbsup:

by **Woodbutcher** » Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:16 pm

NevadaBlue wrote:I’ll be keeping everything but ‘perishable’ (read needs to be in a cooler) in the trailer. Everything that goes along will be in there but the stuff that is in the cooler. That includes clothes and all. Maybe toss in a few last minute things, but to me, the trailer is to be kept ready to roll with very little to do but hook up and go.

I do the same as Ken. At the end of the season everything comes out. My trailers have all been built by me. Stored in a barn in the country. I have never had a mouse inside.

by **Vtec44** » Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:48 pm

I have a 12v DC freezer and a solar system so I generally leave some stuff in the trailer. I try to to as much out as possible unless they don't need refrigeration.

by **slowcowboy** » Tue Jan 14, 2020 8:26 am

I dont store any thing in mine of food items as I only get to go camping once or twice a year in the bad econey years combine that with farming and my summers get loaded up...even canned food has exasperation dates and my memorys not good enough to swap it out I have very little room for storage on my four wide so..i normaly load up all on fresh stuff a day before every trip..kinda hard to camp cook the way i do with stuff from a can unless it's canned milk which I hear makes better pan gravey....slow..