Screens around Dormobile vents
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Hello, all:
I’ve just finished a project (actually half-finished, for reasons I’ll explain) that I’ve been wanting to do since I got my bus. One of the drawbacks of the Dormobile vent system is that it doesn’t lend itself easily to screens, which I have found to be very useful when camping in areas we have to share with our six-legged and eight-legged friends. Since the screen would block the strut mechanism that hold the vent up, it would have to be removed to open and close the vents. For a while, I toyed with the idea of a screen frame that would fit over the vents, but I didn’t want to drill any holes into the roof that weren’t there already.
I decided to use the flexible nylon screening one can find here in the US without much trouble. I also bought some 1″ (25 mm) Velcro tape, which came in the same width. The hook side of the tape was fastened around the vent area with a double-sided tape from Loctite called “Power Grip” which describes the product well, in that once it’s on, it will stay in place in a variety of climates, heat, and what have you. I presume that similar products are available elsewhere in the world. I should add that Velco comes in a sticky-back form, but the adhesive isn’t all that strong and I doubt that it would hold up to the rigors of use.
Note that there is a strip of Velcro running along the bottom of the vent area, but it’s hard to see in the picture because it’s stuck to the area below where the curve of the vent well is.
I then prepared the screening to fit the area, leaving an extra inch of border all the way around. This border was folded in to seal the edge of the screen, and secured with some double-sided tape (no need for the Power-Grip here, so I used some less tacky tape I had around). Then I put the pile side of the fastening tape
As figure 1 shows, the fastening strip was taped to accomodate a screen about 18″ (46 cm) by 24″ (56 cm) in size. I used the pile strip here because I was going to sew it to the screen, and pile happens to run through my sewing machine more easily than the hook side. I sewed the tape down with a seam on each border, inside and out. The following picture shows all the edges of the screen folded in, with the Velcro applied to the top and bottom but not yet to the sides.
The screen is then attached to the roof with the velcro once the vent is open, with the vent struts staying pretty much out of the way.
And when it’s time to close the vent, I just peel away the part of the screen that blocks it. The struts prevent the screen from going back on, but that’s no biggie because the screen isn’t needed when the vent is closed. The last figure shows what the screen looks like when it’s in the vents-closed “travel” position.
The screen fabric hangs down a little when the top is down, but presents no more problems than the vent struts themselves do. (Am I the only one who keeps hitting his head on them?)
Why is the project only half finished? It’s because just did one screen. I’ll see how it all works and if it’s a success over the summer, I’ll do the other one, on the rear vent.
An update: it seems that the double-sided tape I used to stick the velcro around the vents wasn’t up to the heat of a California Central Valley summer. So I may be forced to glue the velcro directly to the roof itself, using a contact-type cement.
Update #2: I gave up on the double-sided tape and glued the velcro directly to the roof with Weldwood (TM) Contact Cement, a xylene-based cement. If it’s not available in the UK, I’m sure that there are similar products. On my first go, I let the glue dry too long (fifteen minutes) before I pressed the surfaces together, and it didn’t adhere well. I tried again, shortening the “curing” time to around ten minutes, and so far it seems to be working well … and my laser thermometer has read 124 degrees F (about 51 degrees C) as the temperature of the roof on a good sunny day.
Update #3: The Weldwood Contact Cement seems to be doing the trick. We’ve had a few days this year of temperatures of over 40 Centigrade (105 Fahrenheit) and there’s been no peel.
One more update: The Weldwood Contact Cement gave up after a couple of years. I’ve written up my latest experiment, along with the pictures that were deleted from the thread, but I’m having trouble posting it. I’ll keep trying.
I put everything on my web site, so you can see the entire original post with the illustrations, and an update on the types of adhesives I’ve dried. It’s all here: http://dragonwing.biz/dormobile%20vent%20screens.htm
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