snail powered Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 A lot of the older Toy Homes don't have cab air conditioning... Be very careful that you watch yourself and any passengers for signs of heat exhuastion as it can creep up on you without realizing you are developing it. I will now and forever more carry with me a good quality medical thermometer that is easy to read. Be sure you stop and check if you even begin to think you might have symptoms of heat exhaustion. It is easy to fix when it starts happening but debilitating and pottentialy lethal if you don't catch it quickly. I just got back from a cross country trip in which I was driving my friend's little black Mazda MX-5 back from Colorado to Seattle. I was following him while he was driving his big van pulling a cargo trailer. His sports car is a convertible and does not have air conditioning, the hard top on for this trip. The outdoor temperature was not overly hot, 80 degrees at mid day. But I was still sweating buckets from the heat from the engine, transmission, heat coming up from the road and heat hitting the black roof top. It is difficult to drive at average speeds of 65+ mph with the windows fully down due to the noise and irritation to the ear drums. But even windows down do not cool off the floor and the lower seat area. I totally missed the onset signs of heat exhaustion caused by my bodies core temperature taking a climb even though I was well hydrated as I was contuinualy taking in fluids as I was driving and when resting too. First sign was being irritable, not surprising as I had not slept well the night before. But also things like trying to understand what he was planning for travel routes and stops were just a bit more than I could follow as a string of long events for a days drive. Plus trying to deal with GPS programming, changing channels on walkie talkie all seemed way too much tech garbage to want to deal with. In other words mental confusion...literal brain melt down. Second sign was waking up the morning after the first long day of driving with a headache and mild double vision. I thought that was from driving into the blinding setting sun for more than an hour the evening before. Headache continuned but I take Ibuprofen to keep my back from getting sore while driving so it was not too much of an issue. Third sign was the increasing exhaustion and feeling like all I could do was lie in the shade and rest instead of drive but that was not an option as we wanted to get to out chosen campground for the night. So after an hours break we headed on out. Fourth sign was mild upset stomach but I am prone to that anyway as I have acid reflux issues so I ignored it. Fith sign which fortunately did not happen until after we had gotten off the road for the evening was projectile vomiting. Sixth sign was dizzy and seveth was muscle weakness to the point it was hard to stand up. When those last three occured all at once I knew exactly what I had, a really bad case of heat exhuastion. My friend dug into his cargo trailer and pulled out a temp sensor which we used as an thermometer and I had a reading of 102 degrees. Bad enough but at least not up to 104 which would have meant an immediate trip to an emergency room. We had to leave the MX-5 at the campground about 6 hours from home as I was much too weak with little muscle tone and too ill. We finished the drive in the air conditioned van and my friend took a tow dolly back to pickup his car. It took almost a full day of rest and cooling treatments to get my temperature back to near normal. So no disaster in the end but a hard learned lesson that I felt was a good one to share with others on the forum. I did learn from reading on the Mayo clinic web site that if you try cooling someone down and they start shivering that the shivering itself will raise the body's temperature. The doctor's treat the person with muscle relaxers to keep the shivering from occuring so thatmore rapid cooling can happen. Fortunately I always travel with muscle relaxers as I have a bad back. So it seems to me if you are going to be camping in really hot areas and you don't have air conditioning you might talk to your doctor about getting a couple of muscle relaxer tablets to keep in your emergency first aid kit along with that thermometer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey 4x4 Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Like I say, always drink enough water so that you always have to go to the bathroom. This shows that your body is always fully hydrated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snail powered Posted June 8, 2013 Author Share Posted June 8, 2013 Like I say, always drink enough water so that you always have to go to the bathroom. This shows that your body is always fully hydrated! I was not dehyrated as I was replacing fluids faster than I was loosing them. For quite a few people they quit sweating when the outdoor temperature increases as the bodies response to overheating. But I was still sweating and drinking lots of fluids to replace what I was loosing. This was a case of my bodies core temperature gradually increasing over 3 days of extended driving sitting on top of a hot engine and transmission with no air conditioning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mason Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 Thanks for the early warning. It can get hot very quickly in the coach. You have to have a thermometer inside the coach or the van. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MontanaChinook Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 Good to think about, as I wouldn't have considered the whole "cumulative effect of being too hot" over multiple days. I always think about it on hikes and doing outdoor work, but wouldn't really have considered worrying about just being a bit too hot for a few days in a row. Time to find a cool lake or creek to jump into! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphinite no longer here Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Not to be too flippant on this subject, but I've always had good luck with vast quantities of designer beer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snail powered Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Not to be too flippant on this subject, but I've always had good luck with vast quantities of designer beer... while you are driving??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MontanaChinook Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 We ARE in Montana.... But sorry, it's not really funny to joke about drunk driving. Too many people effected by it. We only had an open container law passed a few years ago. Up until then, it was perfectly legal to have a beer while you were driving. Still against the law to drive DRUNK, aka over the limit, but as long as you were under the limit, having a beer on your drive home from skiing, rafting, a hike, whatever, was completely ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WME Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 In the good ol days, before we had a car with a/c, desert crossing were done at night when the temps were lower (still not cool). Day time crossings the standard head gear was a hand towel soaked in water and held on with a sweat band. The big deal was "helping" others keep their covering wet. It does work well as the head loses more heat than other parts of the body. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snail powered Posted June 13, 2013 Author Share Posted June 13, 2013 In the good ol days, before we had a car with a/c, desert crossing were done at night when the temps were lower (still not cool). Day time crossings the standard head gear was a hand towel soaked in water and held on with a sweat band. The big deal was "helping" others keep their covering wet. It does work well as the head loses more heat than other parts of the body. Actually I wet my long hair down at the rest stops while driving. I can't drive at night as I no longer have good night vision due to cataracts. My cataracts are not bad enough to bother my daytime vision therefore it is years to early yet for surgery. But loss of good night vision is one of the first signs of having them. Too many road repairs, twisting mountain passes and animals darting into the road. Its hard enough with excellent night vision, downright foolish without it. Its on thing to drive on a big 4 to 6 line divided interstate at night but another to drive on the twisting blue highways out in the middle of nowhere. Its a real shame because I used to love driving late at night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MontanaChinook Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 My eyes are still good, but I've noticed I just don't feel very safe driving at night anymore, either. Mostly because I just know there's a deer/moose/elk waiting behind every bush and rock about to jump in front of my truck and total it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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