Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 10:44:27 -0700
Reply-To: Tobin Copley <tcopley@SFU.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tobin Copley <tcopley@SFU.CA>
Subject: MICE: points of ingress in cab area?
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Hi everyone,
I have a problem with mice getting into my diesel westy when camping at
certain spots here on the wet coast. There *are* a lot of mice in the
woods these days, and I suspect that as soon as they hear my westy come
clattering along, they all look up with envy and want to stow away
hoping for a run down the coast to a beach in Mexico or something. Or
maybe they are just after the food.
At any rate, it seems my camper is one big mouse collecting machine.
Last time camping on the coast, we caught 4 mice before we went to bed,
and 5 more in the night. There were still mice left uncaught. They
have the run of the place, and even run right over us while we are
lying in bed. It's quite something. They only seem to come in at
night. They do not stay in the camper, as we don't have any left in
the vehicle when we get home.
They are getting in somewhere in the cab area. It's obviously a pretty
easy route for them, because if we pull into a spot in the evening, we
have a mouse inside within a half house of dusk every time. I see them
popping out into the interior around the "accelerator" pedal, the far
forward part of the centre console covering on the floor, and the
shifter boot. There may be other spots they pop in and out, but I
haven't been able to see.
So: where are they getting in? Obviously, I'd like to block off the
entry points. Spots I can think of include:
1) The hole through the floor under the accelerator pedal. There's a
little plastic cover screwed in on the underside of the floor to try to
seal it off, but it's missing a couple of screws, and perhaps they are
squeezing in there.
2) The shift linkage box under the floor under the shift lever. I
don't know how to seal that off, or what kind of covering were stock
from the factory.
3) The hole in the very far forward right hand side of the cab where
the wiring loom that runs underneath the bus from the engine
compartment enters the cab near the floor. Perhaps there is a rubber
grommet or something missing there?
Anywhere else I should look? I'm looking for basically any
through-the-floor (through-hull) fittings in the forward portion of the
vehicle. At this point I seriously doubt they are getting in near the
rear of the vehicle, but I *could* be wrong.
I'd bring a cat with me when camping in mouse country, but I can't
stand cats. Then again, the mice are getting pretty annoying too...
Thanks for any help with this,
T.
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Tobin Copley Vancouver, BC, Canada 49deg 23'N-123deg 19'W
'82 Westfalia 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell =============
'99 daughter Margaret /_| |_L| |__|:| clatter
SPEED KILLS! [. = .| clatter!
Drive a Vanagon diesel ~-()-==----()-~ ~ ~