Dust Mitigation

After rodent-proofing the space under the galley, I noticed that I was getting a lot of dust in there, presumably due to the front passenger-side tire. Placing my hand above the opening, there was even a slight breeze coming through this space, so I decided to cover the mesh with a layer of Flex Tape to keep the dust & air exchange at a minimum.  As you can see in the picture, I ran out of Flex Tape in the final quadrant, so I used duct tape for the next few weeks until I can get more Flex Tape.

Note: it appears that WGO kept this space open so that warm cabin air can circulate through here and avoid freezing the uninsulated pipes that pull water from the tank just below it. Since I live in a climate where freezing never occurs, and I rarely visit areas that are below freezing for longer than 8 hours or so, I went ahead and covered it. If I need to get warmth in there sometime, I'll just peel the tape back.

15-March-2021

Rodent-Proofing Under the Galley

Mice in a van are terrible, and I've been concerned for a long time about possible ingress points, especially above the fresh water tank under the galley. I finally got around to doing something about it. I cut a piece of hardware cloth about 6"x10" and covered the opening securely. I had to loosen all 4 screws on the bracket that holds the junction box, but otherwise it was a 20-minute job. To access the space, I took off the vent cover near the coach power switch, and I took out the lowest drawer.

(Note: I used hardware cloth because I thought it would possibly be useful to have warm air from the cabin circulating around these non-insulated pipes in a cold climate. Update 2021: I decided to go ahead and seal this area off due to excessive road dust coming through here. See this post.)

26-August-2020