Insulating darkening agents

After the bed, another basic for a van are the darkening/insulating, and is that if you do not want to wake up sweating at 8 am in the morning of a summer near the beach, you better have these elements, which will allow you to keep dreaming in your camper van.

In my case, I didn’t have it until the third vehicle, and I was pulling with an accordion protector on the front windshield, and some side protected it with fabrics, the insulating mat, or other botches, which covered from prying eyes, but failed to quench the heat of the first hours of sunshine inside the van, and after half an hour of direct sun, there was no one who could stand the heat.

With insulation, which reflects the sun’s rays coming through the windows of your camper, you can greatly improve the rise in interior temperature.

To insulate from the cold, they are not the definitive solution, but they do help a lot, and above all they improve the condensation dripping on the glass panes in cold weather.

For windows, there are 2 types of insulation/darkening agents:

• Those with suction cups. They are almost universal (they work on all types of van glass except when we have many anti-fogging resistor lines).
• Those with magnets. They have the advantage that they do not fall off if the suction cup is not properly attached. They work in contact with the sheet metal of our camper van (when visible in commercial or mixed vans), or with small steel parts that are glued to the bodywork.

If sewing is your thing, you can also buy the kit of fabric and suction cups, take measurements and start sewing, but keep in mind that you may end up ruining the sewing machine, and the operation will be much more expensive than if you buy them already made to measure.

But if you still want to do it, you can buy the magnets here:

• https://www.superimanes.com/
• https://www.imagnetshop.com

You can also buy the suction cups, and add magnets to those parts that you change more often, such as the front windows.

Another very similar basic are mosquito nets, which can be easily made with magnets to put on the outside, and will let you sleep without mosquitoes in the bed of your van all night long.