Screens on vents

[NCFischers]

My neighbor at the campground this past weekend suggested that I put screens on all the vents to keep out flying, stinging nest building critters so I bought a vent for the heater at CW and got out some old screen and the glue gun today. I put screens on the refer vents and the water heater vent. I glued the screen on the inside of the vents. The job came out looking good and now don't need to worry about vent invaders.

[Silver Max]

That's great Jim. I covered all of ours within the first month after we bought our 2955. It's like you said, it keeps all the flying insects out, especially dirt daubers. Let me suggest one more place to put a screen that you didn't mention. Drop the outer edge of one panel that covers your underbelly. Wherever you think your heater duct hose is blowing out at under your camper. Grab the hose and pull it out so you can work on the end of it easier. Cover the end of it with a screen. This will keep mice out. I used a zip tie to hold some metal screen over the end of it. Doing this as well as sealing all the holes in the floor, has eliminated all our mice problems.

[bsmeaton]

All good ideas! Just a word of caution - not exactly sure how or where you applied the glue stick, but the combustion exhaust from your hot water tank can far exeed the melt temperature of that glue, and you might find it dripping down the side of your trailer. Forgive me if I misunderstood, but it just seemed to ring a few alarm bells in my brain.

[NCFischers]

Gary, Thanks for the suggestion on the duct.
Brad, Thanks for the heads up on the water heater. I'll try it and see how it holds up.

[KTManiac]

The guy that did my PDI with me, a tech that knows his stuff, said it would be OK to put a screen on the furnace exhaust, but not on the refer & water heater panels. Something about it making the refer burner/condenser coil area too warm, or some such thing. That all may be a bunch of hooey, but just relaying what I was told, FYI. I know there is a lot of concern about refer failures and resulting fires in that area, with some kind of recall involving adding sheet metal shielding to certain older Dometic units.

I'm not sure about his reluctance to put screening on the WH though. I could call and find out more detail on why he recommends not screening the refer & WH if you like.