Dust in ute

Hi Tony
Put one of those air vents that faces forward, but do not have it open above speeds over 100 kph. In that way it will act as the same as in your vehicle, pressurising the back of the ute and forcing any air out of the back tailgate.


Cheers


Stephen

I went to clark rubber and got some soft rubber strips about 4" wide and stuck them round areas that had dust entry.

The positive air works as long as the air coming in trough the roof vent is dust free.

That can be a problem following trucks on outback roads :-)

Soft rubber seals and silicon would be my suggestion.

That reminds me I need to do this to the new ute !

Hi,
i have a D22 navara and i'm pondering the same.....
what i have done is put some velcro along the bottom of the tub and up the sides just inside the tailgate, and also some across the top of the tailgate itself.
i then got a bit of light thickness rubber from good ol' Clark Rubber and, with a bit of creative cutting, cut to suit and stuck the opposite side of the velcro to the rubber, effectivley creating a temporary 'skirt' that sits just inside the tailgate and spans the entire width.
even in the early stages, i can see that it will be better off having the velcro stitched on to the rubber instead of relying entirely on the velcro's adhesive backing. i'm yet to give it a good test but i thought it would be worth while seeing as the materials cost me bugger all and it didnt take long to chuck together.

i was explaining it to a mate and he made a good point - what about river crossings........................ great! not sure that the velcro would be all that water tight!
i guess it depends on how seriously off road your going.
anyway, hope that helps, if you like i can try to put some photos up...

happy travelling,
jackson

I have the new MN triton. I just had the canopy fitted. I jumped in the back and was shocked at seeing huge gaps all round the edge of the tail-gate. I found a good park directly outside Clark Rubber and had a salesman come out and look at it. Many off-cuts later, we managed to plug all the gaps with contact adhesive and rubber including pinchweld. The round corners at the bottom of the tail gate needed several built up layers of 5mm rubber.
I'll be testing it out this w/e with hopefully a dry and dusty track.

Tony,

You haven't stated which brand of canopy you have but I have just done a test with mine.

I have an ARB canopy fitted to the Colorado and have also installed an ARB canopy vent.

Went to the Flinders Ranges over the ANZAC weekend and did a reasonable amount of dirt track driving.
Absolutely no dust inside the rear of the tailgate at all and no dust anywhere in the canopy.

The vent can be fitted to the front or rear of the canopy and is not affected by a roof rack.

No involvement with ARB apart from being a paying customer.
The vent really does work to pressurize the canopy interior.

Bill.

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What I have done is fit a self-adhesive rubber stip on bottom of tailgate, open roof vent and lock the sliding window on the first notch which leaves it open about 25mm that way you pressurise the canopy and still keep air flow going for fridges. Have been doing this for about 4 years now and get next to no dust inside the canopy.

Regards Rossco

It is quite simple really, have the air pressure higher inside the vehicle than the outside air pressure, being doing that with tractors ever since you could get them with cabs.

You don't need much to have even a little bit of 'positive' pressure in the canopy.
On our Rodeo, we had a boat deck vent- dunno the proper name- with an inlet of about 40mm. This worked great.
Have even seen l'il solar powered ones that have a fan to keep pressure in the canopy !!

Hi Tony,

You need to ditch the tub and fit a tray back. You could then fit an aluminium canopy with doors either side (not back).

These are a lot easier to dust proof and you get a lot more room to boot and less panels to worry about getting scratched/dented.

Cheers Wilko