Date: Thu, 20 May 2010 11:41:52 -0400
Reply-To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Re: Totally NEW Add-A-Room for Vanagons - Answering your Questions
In-Reply-To: <E8A09015965C460F96FDE7DD5DD02A8D@RON>
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At 10:17 AM 5/20/2010, The Bus Depot wrote:
> > Will this work on pax vans as well?
>
> only somewhat familiar with the Mercedess van.
I read "pax" as "passenger" -- from looking at your site I'm
confident in saying yes it will attach to a passenger van.
> > will the attached floor cover the gap under the vehicle so the
> > entire space will be bug free? That has always been the most
> > difficult obstacle to overcome in my tentative plans to fabricate
> > such an enclosure.
I bet a lot could be done with mosquito netting with a sand-weighted
edge to lie on the ground, and Velcro -- or the 3M stuff that has two
nubbly-stiff sides instead of one wooly and one sharp. Frame the
netting with a canvas strip* that carries the Velcro and the sand
"snake," Strong magnets embedded in the upper strip might serve
well to attach it to the van itself. Very strong magnets are
available free if your local computer outfit has a stack of junked
hard drives; might need a T-4 or T-6 Torx driver to get to
them. Either two or four in each drive, some glued on and some
merely held by their own magnetism. Try not to damage the nickel
plating because the magnet inside will shed particles easily, or
leave them attached to the frame pieces. Don't pinch your finger!
In the course of many years of cruising the Maine coast I've found
that spraying the netting itself with a DEET repellent will confuse
the little bloodsuckers and keep them from finding quarter-inch-wide
slits that they'd otherwise be lining up in squads to get through
(the slit I have in mind is at the forward end of the netting where
it slips under the companionway hatch slide, and the broad straight
highway to it is the sloping surface of the inside of the spray
dodger. Takes a mosquito about thirty seconds to come bouncing down
that CO2 trail right to the slit).
The netting material we used on that, btw, was/is ordinary
Fiberglas-core window screening. Much sturdier than regular 'skeeter
net and rolls up very nicely around the batten that stretches the
vertical part down to the lip of the companionway. It's on its
second screen now in about 40 years, first one had developed 4-5
slits which were a bit unsightly when sewed up; we just sewed a new
one onto the canvas and then cut the old one away from under it. Not
so elegant as the first one which was sandwiched into the canvas, but
perfectly serviceable.
It occurs to me that some form of batten or stiffening rod might come
in handy somewhere in constructing this thing.
* The forehatch screen is simply a square of screening stuck to the
inside of the hatch, and I sewed sticky Velcro directly to a
folded-over edge of it, all the way around. The other one has to
attach to the outside of a 2 1/2 by say 4 1/2 foot lipped opening
with an outside right-angle corner in the middle, no Velcro allowed,
so it needs more structure. Just in case this is useful -- the heart
of it is a tailored canvas corner pocket at each side of the turn of
the opening. Going forward there's a grommeted canvas tab halfway
along that slips over a screw-head in the side of the lip. There
might be a (dowel) batten at this point, I forget; also maybe at the
corner. All the way forward the edge is stiffened with a dowel and
is shoved under the lip of the sliding hatch cover. Going down from
the corner, there's a few inches of shock cord internally at the top
with about a half-inch of give in the canvas, and a flat batten at
the bottom with a couple 90-degree-bend s/s strips that stretch under
the bottom lip of the opening. The batten has a pair of leather
finger-handles inside and out that let you stretch it down to attach
and detach. All or most of the structural stress is taken by canvas;
the screen itself is snug but not really tight.
Yours,
David
