Storing Food

[cwalker]

I don't store much food in the Monty because we haven't been using it that much yet this year. I do keep dry things like tea bags there, but no canned foods. I do keep a can of PAM and cans of bug spray, etc. We are moving and the moving company wouldn't pack my can of PAM because they didn't want it to explode. So should I not store aerosols in the Monty? What do others do? Thanks!

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

I leave canned goods, spices, staples in my unit all the time, at home or on the road.

My unit stash has sometimes been the life saver when I am in the middle of food prep and realize I am out of some ingredient.

[jpkelpe]

I do the same as Carol and I have never had a can of PAM explode yet, and mine has even been in freezing temps and hot temps, after all I am in Nebraska and we get 100+ degrees and below zero

[1retired06]

I don't think you have anything to worry about. We keep Bug Spray, Pam, canned food, spray paint, WD-40, silicon spary etc and have never had a problem.

[DQDick]

Before we went full time we stored all that stuff in here all the time without a problem. Like Paul, we lived in Kansas, so everything survived so pretty bad extremes.

[BusyCarol]

I leave all my dried/canned/aerosols in the trailer from May -September. I keep all of the packaged foods like cereal, crackers, in plastic totes to protect them from mice issues(not sure if it does any good but gives me peace of mind). I just leave the canned and aerosols in their normal spot. I do remove them in winter and put everything in plastic totes and store them in my heated garage. I do this for two reasons. One because we have had temps down to -42F and I don't want something freezing and then not working when I need it, or worse, tasting bad. The other reason is because when I go to set up for the spring/summer season I remember what I have and what I need to pick up at the store.

We do remove our new fire extinguishers that we bought at Q because it said not to expose them to freezing temps. It is kind of interesting to find out whatever everyone else does.

[Rainer]

We also keep a full set of various aerosol products in our unit 7/24/52. From Off and Raid, to deodorant and oven cleaner. Never a problem in seven years.

I hope that that's a good enough recommendation for you.

[WeBeFulltime]

We have never had a problem storing aerosol products in the Montana.

[HOOK]

We keep ours stocked at all times, with all items. We want to be able to go on a moments notice.

[Art-n-Marge]

I think an insurance company lost a suit once over this and this is why moving companies do not allow aerosols to be tranported. All it takes is one lawsuit for a mishap that happens once and the nervous beancounters come up with a new rule.

I have heard/read an aerosol can will explode if the conditions are right and I don't know what those conditions are. I do know they are under some kind of pressure and for this reason handlers don't want to worry about handling them. We've moved our households a few times by moving companies and this was the requirement. I don't question it and leave these items out of their responsibilities. I either give them to someone else or "use them up", but I'll respect their requirements. It's simple enough to avoid.

As for the original topic, we don't store food in the rig but we don't go out as much as most. The rig is stored with everything else, though. The only items to stock the rig with for our outings are our clothing and some food items (a day or so worth). We prefer to shop locally at our destination versus carrying all the weight of the food enroute.

[K0LCB]

Did you ever build a rocket using hair spray?

[Parts Ed]

We keep everything in the trailer and will rotate food items out to the main house when things are getting close to the use by date and as Carol (Mrs. Country Gal) stated having food in the trailer has saved me from having to make a trip to the store.

[Samiterry]

We have be camping in campers since 1994. We have gone through snow and extreme heat, mountains and lowlands. I like others have stated above keep the camper stocked with dry goods, coffee, canned goods, pan spray, bug spray and aerosol hair spray. Never had any issues with any of these things. We did have a friend that had a butane long necked lighter explode when they had there lower (basement) compartment door open and it was very hot and sitting in direct sunlight. Thanks, Sammie

[cwalker]

Thank you everyone for your responses. It was interesting to see what everyone does. We aren't able to store our Monty at our house, but years ago when we had another 5th wheel it saved me trips to the store too. The aerosols, lighers and dried foods will stay in the 5th wheel.

[cwalker]

We have moved into our new stick house. Because of delays with the buyer's loan company we had to leave all our stuff in the heat on a moving truck at the moving warehouse lot for 7 days. When I opened a box of canned goods I noticed a smell, moved a few cans around and didn't see anything. When I finally started emptying the box at the bottom there was a can that had exploded. I had to wash half of the cans in the box to get them clean and get the smell off of them. After that experience I don't think I'm going to leave any more canned goods in the 5er when in storage.