Caravan Ventalation Holes??

Submitted: Tuesday, Jun 07, 2011 at 06:31

ThreadID: 86807 Views:2314 Replies:2 FollowUps:1

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shakey 69

Hi there, Recently bought an old Viscount (82) Van went away for the first trip,Dusty road ,Opened the door on arrival,there was more dust inside than out!!Did alittle exploring below and found 3 separate large holes cut in floor, with metal scoops to direct air flow in(and Dust) Two of these where under the fridge.My question is did they use to use the gas fridge on the move back in the old days??Its only a two way fridge!I want to block all the holes up as i mainly do dirt roads,definatley wont be using the gas fridge on the move!! The fridge is a lrg one as well and its raised of the floor approx 300mm. Any help would be much appreciated.. Cheers, Craig

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Reply By: member - mazcan - Tuesday, Jun 07, 2011 at 10:42

Tuesday, Jun 07, 2011 at 10:42

hi shakey
those holes have been put there by previous owner/s and probably to make the the old gas fridge work better and maybe they only travelled on sealed roads
they could also be a benefit to the running of an electric fridge in hot conditions and yes a lot of poeple in the past used to travel with the gas fridge on as the electric 12 volt was inefficient in the hot temps
my advice is block them up ether by making plates and screw them on with self tappers so that you can also get air through if needed once you reach your destination by taking out 3 screws and swivelling them off the holes

or stick plywood over them permantly with liquid nails
if you dont think you will need them to help air flow in hot conditions in the future only you know that ????
make sure the vents at the back of the fridge are clean there should be 2 removable vent plates on the outside of the van where the fridge is

remove them and clean them they usually have fly mesh over the inside to stop bugs etc and do block up in dusty conditions
you may have to put new sealing compoud on them before refitting
selleys
butyl mastic or a sikaflex product that can be removed that doesn;t set hard in other words
hope this helps you nothing worst than opening the door to a dusted van
cheers barry

AnswerID: 456674

Follow Up By: member - mazcan - Tuesday, Jun 07, 2011 at 11:12

Tuesday, Jun 07, 2011 at 11:12

hi shakey 69
just remembered
in addition to the current dust entry problem you have
you may also be getting dust in the van along the sides where the aluminuim clading joins the plywood floor all the way around
i had a brand new viscount supreme 18ft in 1980 and spent the whole trip between bunbury and darwin constanly finding dust entry points and vacumming them out and putting butyl mastic in

if you dont suck the dust out first before sealing the butyl mastic will just sit on the dust instead of the material and wont seal properly
by the time we got to darwin i had it all sealed up and the wife was at last happy
the nw coastal hywy as they called it was very rough and very very dusty and every other side track we went on -same i also found that travelling with the front 4season hatch flap open slightly used to create a vacumn in the van astopped dust entry
travelled right around aus like that
yes its a hard job getting in under the bench seat and bunk areas but worth it in the long run also stopped ants coming in
cheers barry

FollowupID: 729764