Floor vents - Montana Owners Club

stiles watson · 07-12-2011, 07:07 AM

We did not like the OEM floor vents in our Big Sky, so we went to Lowe's and picked up some bronze colored ones that had an adjustment slide to alter the air flow to suit us. We have liked them and used them for near four years now. It is not too hard to keep the surface clean, but underneath..........

We had a spill in the kitchen and, of course, it went down the vent. I removed the vent and took it to an outside faucet to clean it. I noticed that it was mostly plastic and could, with care, be taken apart for more effective cleaning. All three of the floor vents were dirty and needed cleaning, but the kitchen vent was extremely cruddy.

After vacuuming and washing as much duct as I could get to, all was re-assembled. Just another little task that ought to be done at least annually or more often for the kitchen floor vent.

CORattler · 07-12-2011, 07:22 AM

I can see where this might need to be done more often than once a year if fulltiming.
Personally, I dislike having the vents running down the middle of the RV. It ruins the aesthetics and I don't like stepping on them in my bare feet. I wonder if any RV out there has them located elsewhere out of the way?

stiles watson · 07-12-2011, 09:31 AM

In my rig, they are located in areas where you would not normally walk, i.e., right at each end of the kitchen island or "U" and between the recliners. In the bedroom, it is under the king sized mattress over hang, again not in normal traffic flow. Since that heating duct is an integral part of the under belly heating system to keep pipes from freezing, I suspect it would be difficult to place it elsewhere.

I do remember that in our first Big Sky the vents were in the traffic lane because it was all open with the kitchen on the side and not wrapped around as it is in the 340RLQ.

snfexpress · 07-12-2011, 11:42 AM

Like Stiles, we have the bronze colored vents that we can close off if we want. We have a dog so we have to clean more often...

CORattler · 07-12-2011, 11:49 AM

I have a vent smack dab in the middle of the kitchen area. Poor location... whine, whine, whine.... where's my cheese?

exav8tr · 07-12-2011, 12:05 PM

Stiles, I always used the vent in the bedroom to make sure I still had heat, i.e. propane running to the furnace, just hung my foot out in the middle of the night. We had to close the one between the recliners as we moved the couch to that area and didn't want that heat blowing under the couch. Worked for us.....I have stepped on the kitchen one several times. We changed them out for the brown ones with controls on them. Looked much better with our decor......We did remove them several times a year and stuck the vacuumn hose in as far as it would go to clean the vents.

TAKPAK · 07-15-2011, 06:36 AM

[quote]Originally posted by exav8tr

Stiles, I always used the vent in the bedroom to make sure I still had heat, i.e. propane running to the furnace, just hung my foot out in the middle of the night. We had to close the one between the recliners as we moved the couch to that area and didn't want that heat blowing under the couch.

Exav8tr, I closed off the vent in the bedroom....well, sort of. It just got too hot up there (heat rises). I actually turned it into a "return" vent. I removed the hose from the furnace and bought a "blank-off" plate for the hole in the furnace. That now makes the duct (and grill) for that vent a "return" right to the furnace, by virtue that the old supply hole in the duct is in the air return to the furnace from the rest of the trailer. Of course, we like it a bit cooler in the bedroom at night, but found it would be up to 5 degrees warmer in the BR due to the heat rising up there. We also moved our couch to the rear window. I bought one of those plastic/magnetic deflectors from Lowes to put over the grill and deflect the air out from under the sofa. Works great. And, side benefit....if you are sitting barefooted on the sofa, it sure warms the tootsies.......!

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