Jump to content

Vents and dust


Mrs Lynn Astill

Recommended Posts

Hi all,

Leaving in a month for all points west and busy getting everything sorted and ready. Just wondering what everyone does to keep the dust out of the fridge and exhaust vents when travelling on the dirt. I was considering vinyl and velcro, but not sure how effective it would be. I have put two thicknesses of airconditioning filter in the other vents. Looking forward to your responses.

Regards

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Merv,

I have just installed lpg and CO alarms in the van so that I can close off the door vent when in the stix. Legal ramifications may be dubious.

Regards

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

G'day Merv

Having exhausted every other method of keeping dust coming in through door vent, we have now gaffer taped an old towel (2 thicknesses)and now hope that it works. We have tried the A.C. filter, Fail! The full coverage with Gaffer tape, Bad fail! and hell to get off. :o

Taping cardboard over it. Fail!,and plastic garbage bag. Fail!

Good luck

Cheers

Rick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Chris and Lynn. We, like others have taped the vent on the bottom of our door as we have a rear door and that is a spot where the dust likes to enter. We also used an excellent idea that Rod and Mavis gave us some time back and that is to place a threaded poly pipe over the external exhaust vent from the stove, we screw a poly lid on when going down the dirt and take it off for other times. This is of course only of interest if you have a stove on the rear wall of your van.

In 2012 we travelled the road from Cape Crawford to Roper Bar and despite all of the bull dust one good thing I can say for our van is with those two modifications she never let in the slightest of dust. Hmmm.. I stand corrected... I did forget to shut the back window properly and when we stopped for morning tea after the first 50 kilometres of dirt we spent the rest of the day literally shovelling dust out but that was my fault. :rolleyes:

Do let us know were you are travelling in WA, we may well be in the vicinity and be able to catch up.

Sue

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi folks

Earlier this year while at Woodgate, there was a purpose-built off-road van which appeared to be a one-of, but very professionally constructed.

I was intrigued by the air cleaner on the van and asked the owner what it was for. The answer was that when they are off-road, they turn on a blower (sucker?) which pressurises the inside of the van, drawing air through the air cleaner.

Ship chandlers and the like sell bilge blowers which would do the trick nicely. They move a large volume of air but don't draw a lot of current.

There would be a bit of work in setting up such a system and the air cleaner would have to be located in a place where there is not a lot of dust, but it is permanent and once done, no more taping up etc.

Cheers, Barry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your replies folks. Can I assume that the fridge and exhaust vents on the drivers side are not a dust ingress issue?

Regards

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Sue,

We hope to leave Brissie on Oct 24 and head for Port Augusta and across the Nullarbor to the southern corner. Will let you know where we are down the track.

Regards

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Chris & Lynn

We've recently done about 7000km of dirt roads. Taped up the boot vents internally, used some builders membrane and gaffer tape to cover the fridge vent, door vent and 4 seasons hatch (covered the hatch externally on the roof)

I also ran a line of tape over the hinged side of all external hatches boot covers, this still allowed them to open and close as normal.

It was our best effort yet in keeping the dirt out but like others I've seen you still get dirt in at the HWS below the fridge and the edges and holes in the vinyl in cupboards.

One unrated tip is to tie off your shackle pins to prevent them unscrewing.

Cheers John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi again Chris and Lyn

We (read Ian) recently had cause to take our Vitrofrigo out of its housing - it didn't have much dust in the cavity we had expected a lot more given that it had been down some pretty dusty tracks. Ours is on the drivers side of the van with the double vents and sits over the top of the water heater probably just like yours.

Our friends are permanent caravaners who spend all of their time hunting geocaches - they made a similar device to mentioned above to pressurise their van and swear by it. We used to have a scupper hatch in our old Coromal which did the same thing, I am surprised that Kedron don't have them as they work really well too, just have to remember to lift the hatch when you hit the dirt.

See you in WA :) have a safe trip.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks again guys. Looks like I better get the sticky tape out..lol

Chris

in a post some years ago someone referred to dust coming in through the 4 seasons hatch and they suggested to cut some heavy duty foam the same size as the ceiling opening .Thats what I have done and it will be tested next week around Sandstone WA.I also use the silver reflective tape produced by air cell to tape up our door vent looks good and works.

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Hi, we have a 2002 XC 23ft which we have taken across many dirt roads, more recently the GCR in 2011. Our method is to tape the inside of the (rear) door, tape the bottom of the passenger side windows outside (the camber of the road can jiggle the latches open) and open the 4 seasons front hatch (front opening) to the storm (rain) setting. This provides a positive pressure inside the van. We have been doing this for the last 7 years with no issues. Cheers Rod

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...