Have a mate who fitted a bilge blower with filter. Did the usual covering of vents, travelled into Lorella Springs and had no dust in his van.

Hi Neil.....not sure how far you want to go,but I wouldn't leave my driveway with that vent open! Wind pressure would have it off in minutes,I believe?  The system that Peter has no doubt would work well in his situation,as it is up high and at the front of his truck,but the same system on a van would have problems with dust ingress from the dust created by the car.I did much experimenting,and research,before eventually fitting the air intake from a truck,which feeds down into the front boot where I have a Donaldson air cleaner.The air then passes into a 300 litre/minute (I think?) bilge fan that pressurises the van.Because I do not use gas in the van,and I have a compressor fridge,I do not need  vents,and is easy to put plugs in the sink and the shower to help maintain positive pressure in the van.Just make sure that the windows and the hatches are closed! May be a bit of an overkill,but I believe in "Do it once,do it well!"  Cheers

-- Edited by yobarr on Saturday 1st of February 2020 03:46:30 PM

We have scupper vent fitted front middle on the flat of roof - It is high enough to avoid dust coming from vehicle wheels. It seems to work OK, although accidentally we left it open during massive dust storms at Dubbo and we got van full of red dust/dirt, not nice to come back to. Sh!t Happens.

 

Similar to ours which was factoy fitted; https://trailerpartsdirect.com.au/shop/vents/camec-scupper-vent-white/

-- Edited by Possum3 on Saturday 1st of February 2020 04:15:35 PM

oldbloke, just a note of caution; it is illegal to cover vents because of the dangers of NOT uncovering them when stopped in van - Previous van we stuffed an old pillow in the step-well before closing door, blocking the vents when travelling which fell out when we opened door. Legal solution to dust ingress through door vent. Fridge vents should have close fitting appliance so no problem with those.

oldbloke wrote:

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I think this vent is in a good location avoiding most of the dust from the ute. But I strongly suspect it would be just ripped off at speed. I dont plan on drving along too many dusty roads as the van is really designed for the bitumen.

At this point I think we will just cover all the vents, put plugs in sinks etc and see how we go. Perhaps try it at say 60kph sometime.

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 The air scoops are a great idea, we have two fitted to the front of the canopy on out twin cab. They create a positive air presure which prevents dust entering the canopy.  The will not blow.

We have what looks like the top section of a snorkel fitted to the roof of our camper, it leads through the roof into a air filter similar to the old Ford/Holden type that are available from Repco. The air is rammed down the snorkel head and through the filter. We never have any dust in the camper despite travelling on roads like The Gunbarrel, Connie Sue etc.

Cheers

Richard

bobsa wrote:

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... but they do let the bugs in

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 I have some stainless steel termite mesh in ours to stop the bugs.

Cheers,

Peter

Gooday,

Can vouch for Scupper. Vents, was a standard small one fitted to our. 21ft Caravan. Did the Plenty/Donoghue plus the Great Central when only 6 months old, and buckets of dust inside with the 1 Scupper Vent open, had worked perfectly on a previous 16Ft 6" Pop Top.

When we returned I took it to the Builder and had them install 2 more, Larger Scupper Vents, 1 either side of the original.

 A few years later did the same roads with extra 2 Vents without a spec of dust inside, worked fine, also did the Tanami on the same trip no problems. Certainly no good using open flap of 4 Seasons or one of those other Clear Plastic ones unless you wish to replace them.

We used to end up with a small stone on the bed when ww stopped for coffee etc but no insects its either.

Cheers,

Jayway.