Roof vents

Started by morcarwork, March 28, 2017, 03:06:49 PM

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morcarwork

Hello all,
  Unfortunately, now that I've joined the forum, you may be hearing from me often.   :'( >:( We have a '14 8x24 that we bough new in '15. We fell in love with the layout and premise of an all aluminum hauler. But we'll start with one problem at a time.

I left the Bathroom roof vent open about 2 " on one of our trips down I-25 to Colorado Springs to find the roof vent missing when we arrived.  Thinking it was a fluke I replaced it with a white (was smoke)  camco unit. After a couple more short day trips with all vents closed, that roof vent went AWAL as well. So I replaced with the "Premium Unbreakable" white cover.

One more trip left me missing not only the vent, but it tore the spotwelded flange off of the vent body. I made a new flange and have riveted it to the body and have installed another unbreakable lid. I'm now considering installing one of these to make sure it stays there.



Anyone else have any problems keeping vent covers on?

Also last summer found the rear smoke vent cover(the one over the bed) leaking during our vacation at Taylor Park where it continued to rain for several more days. Once home, I found that the cover was dry checked and brittle. (I replaced all the remaining smoke covers with White unbreakable covers) I find a vent cover that deteriorates within 2 years of purchase completely unacceptable.

I love the idea of the trailer, but so far the components (Mostly Dometic) are a major disappointment.  :-\ 

DavidM

From your trials and tribulations it sounds like the vent may be mounted backwards. The opening should face aft and the hinge should be forward. I leave mine open at least an 1" or so on the road and have never had a problem.

David

morcarwork

They are all mounted in the correct direction. The only thing I can think of since it is just that vent is some type of turbulence or vortex that would cause the vent to shake and shimmy to the open position. Our previous hauler we owned for 18 years and over 100000 miles and never had to replace a vent cover. And we would ride with them open on cross country trips. 

slipshaft

I had the same problem until I covered the cheap dome covers (made by Heng's--super cheezy) with the heavier white one that you included in a picture.  The ones I used are made by camco and I covered all 3 of my roof vents with them.  I cant believe your flange ripped off!  You must've encountered some serious wind!!  I rarely exceed 70mph when pulling my VRV.  I trailered it all the way from Michigan to Florida and back and thank god all my covers are still in place. 

morcarwork

We definitely encounter some wind here on the front range. I'll go ahead and put the cover on that one. The rest don't see to be an issue.  Thanks for at least letting me know I'm not the only one. We had some good gusts yesterday and everything stayed where it should. One thing I didn't mention is I have in the past had both the upper front wall vent and the lower rear vent open and now I have them closed. I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

Stevepro172

I have a 2013 8x22 VRV and the middle cover has come off of mine no less than 7 times.  I finally got tired of replacing it and bolted it on.  No more worries but I have no idea why it keeps on coming off.

evinpville

We had a hail storm and are now replacing those covers... Thank you for the good info; we'll be replacing them with better ones.  But the video we watched talked about taking the fan out to re-attach the actuator...  And the screws in that are some kind of strange thing -- with torx-type points and 2 Allen-type flat surfaces.  1.  Do we need to drop the fan to re-attach the actuator? 2. If we do, what the heck are those screws?

Mitch

I had a vent open itself on my last trip.  I'm 100% sure it was closed (it was the bathroom vent) and after my first stop I noticed it was 1/2 way open.  I closed it again, tightly, and it stayed closed.  I'm assuming that the vibrations and wind let it slowly open as I was driving.  I was prepared to rig up something to keep the handle inside from turning but it wasn't necessary.

PYG RYDR

Quote from: evinpville on August 21, 2017, 01:55:53 PM
We had a hail storm and are now replacing those covers... Thank you for the good info; we'll be replacing them with better ones.  But the video we watched talked about taking the fan out to re-attach the actuator...  And the screws in that are some kind of strange thing -- with torx-type points and 2 Allen-type flat surfaces.  1.  Do we need to drop the fan to re-attach the actuator? 2. If we do, what the heck are those screws?

I just replaced original cover with metal lid.  Tools-number 2 square, Phillips head and needle nose pliers.  This video was helpful, but does not include fan information. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKORCcsBbfU  You do need to remove the fan to access the actuator screws, but take your time and it relatively easy.

795poo


Soffit vents are to let air in, ridge vents let it out. If the roof vents let the soffit air out, then all the air from the roof vents to the ridge could stagnate, heat up, and cause the shingles to fail. The ridge vent will only work if there is some other air to replace what is leaving. I'm not saying this is happening, only that it's a possibility. If there are gable vents too, then the fresh air could come from them for the peak.

It's all about the "design" and the building science behind it. If you install two things that are supposed to work together, and then add a third that isn't. That third is just going to get in the way...

K Syrah Syrah

Quote from: 795poo on April 15, 2018, 07:06:52 AM

Soffit vents are to let air in, ridge vents let it out. If the roof vents let the soffit air out, then all the air from the roof vents to the ridge could stagnate, heat up, and cause the shingles to fail. The ridge vent will only work if there is some other air to replace what is leaving. I'm not saying this is happening, only that it's a possibility. If there are gable vents too, then the fresh air could come from them for the peak.

It's all about the "design" and the building science behind it. If you install two things that are supposed to work together, and then add a third that isn't. That third is just going to get in the way...

Gables? Shingles?  Never seen any of those on travel trailers. Must be a fancy-schmancy one!
2018 CL14DBS XL Platinum
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