Added a roof vent to my fiberglass topper shell.

Great thread.
This looks to be my next project.

 

Yes, there is a headliner. I did nothing to it. The ABS pipe vent is flush with the edge of the interior ceiling. Looks awesome. Will take a pic for you if you want.

 

Thanks. If you can that'd be great. So I assume that the saw that cut the cardboard/fiberglass also cut the fabric of the headliner, and no special treatment or trim was required inside. Did you cut the hole 4" for a 4" pipe, or make the hole slightly bigger diameter?

I orders the cap from Amazon and plan to do this before summer. Thanks again for your thread.

 

@Crom (and anyone else) instead of drilling with the rotary tool around the periphery of the template/hole drawing, what about using a in the proper diameter,
or a to cut the opening? Do you think they might splinter or shred the fiberglass, or what?
This is not a hypothetical question, I am going to install a 4 inch SOLAR VENT in my camper shell, and I want to know if others have any experience with these other methods of cutting a clean hole in the roof?

 

Just to be clear, I didn't use the rotary tool to make my initial holes, a cordless drill with regular drill bit. Then I used the rotary tool to connect the holes.

Whatever you do, put down some tape before you cut.

I think you'd be fine with the big hole saw.

I did a lot of reading in boat forums before I cut anything.

Good luck!

 

The solar powered window air ventilators (the type you hang outside your roll-up window) are USELESS. I had two and they did nothing. Later, saw a TV evaluation of them, and it proved the same thing: USELESS! They are underpowered, and must face the sun to work. No storage battery. Have you tried getting both sides of your truck to face the sun at the same time?

 

Vented windoors on my Leer 122 6' bed have locking handles, keyed alike to rear door. Sliders with screens can only be opened from inside, or with the windoor flipped open.

 

@Crom, You mentioned several possible sealants, including this one. Which did you finally use, and are you satisfied with it?

 

Sorry I missed your post.

I'm using Through the Roof by Sashco. Very happy with it.

http://www.sashco.com/products/through-the-roof/

 

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts/issues about weight support after an install. I have a Snugtop HiLiner with a 500lb roof. It's made of honeycomb. I do put a few hundred lbs on a rack fairly often. I'm slightly concerned about putting a hole through it but would love a 12v fan. Snugtop wasn't much help except to tell me it will void my warranty. Thanks for any help!

 

Depends on the size of the hole. My roof had honeycomb structure too. The 4" hole hasn't affected mine in the least bit that I can tell, and load my roof up pretty good and go off road and bounce down the trail.

 

Same here.

 

Thanks guys. Well, the hole I need to make would be 6.25 inches. So that precludes me from using PVC to strengthen it...Looks like that was a good call as it's very strong, particularly at shorter lengths. https://www.pvcfittingsonline.com/resource-center/strength-of-pvc-pipe-with-strength-chart/. That solar vent looks pretty interesting, did you go with that Jnossoff? I was looking at this one:https://www.etrailer.com/RV-Vents-and-Fans/Ventline/VP-543SP.html

 

@creidenouer :Over a year ago I did complete installing the vent with solar and battery powered fan. I have attached a description of how I did it. I am very pleased with the installation and with the product. It helps remove moisture to reduce inside condensation in rainy and/or cold conditions, but it does not eliminate condensation entirely. With a wind-door cracked open, it will exhaust some heat, but not much. It comes with two fan blades, and I have only used the exhaust blade, and never the intake fan blade.

If any one wants to try it, I will sell you the hole saw and mandrel for 1/2 price, plus shipping. Just Private Message me via Tacoma World. Any questions? Post them here so others can benefit.

 

That is the most professional write-up I've ever seen on here. Nice work Joel!

 

Wow, yeah, that is helpful. If I decide to go this way, I'll definitely buy the hole saw from you. I'm mainly wanting to move out heat, so undecided but thank you.

 

I also had an Issue with heat and humidity, I ended up buying a spring horse vent because I wanted to keep low profile due to the fact that we use a ladder rack on occasion with the camper as well as we did not want any protrusions to hit our heads on while camping, this unit closes flush on the inside. Once we had the vent we used a jig saw to cut the hole, we insulated and sealed the hole then added insulation and cloth interior carpeting to the rest of the interior.

We bolted the vent on with acorn loc nuts as they are small enough that they do not protrude from the insulation/carpeting. To aid in the vent moving air I purchased a dual computer fan assembly and mounted them together to fit over the hole. We use a jackery 250 battery with 100w solar panel for excursions so using this fan unit all night only uses roughly 10% power and is recharged by 11am on an average day.

$25 White Pop Up Vent (Small) - Trailer Horse Float Livestock Truck Caravan RV
https://www.ebay.com/itm/112329865703 -Vent

$22 AC Infinity MULTIFAN S7, Quiet Dual 120mm USB Fan, UL-Certified for Receiver DVR PlayStation Xbox Computer Cabinet Cooling

$20 AC Infinity MULTIFAN S7, Quiet Dual 120mm USB Fan for Receiver DVR Playstation Xbox Computer Cabinet Cooling
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JLV4BWC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 -Fans

 

Great idea! Tandem fans and vent appear to be different shapes and sizes. How did you get them to function together?
Fan is USB powered; did you install a switch? Where did you run the USB cable to?

 

Awesome!!!

 

The fan unit came prewired with a switch and running together with 3 power settings (unfortunately no reverse), jackery/solar panel are our off grid power so we can plug directly into those with usb, a/c, or d/c, the battery is in an open air compartment under the mattress area.

As the fan is only in when we are outing the cable is run down the wall along the large window in the back with velcro so we can store it away when not in use.

Since the hole ceiling hole and fans are not perfectly matched up in size with one another (good eye jnossoff) I bought some flexible window frame seals to box in the gap between the fan bodies and the ceiling, the fans on high (where we leave it overnight) runs at 104 cfm, so even with a semi decent seal, the air is pulled out pretty efficiently, enough to make a light breeze inside with another window open.