[paparata]

Just returned from driving some fine stretches of red dust roads and have been hammering the vacuum cleaner since to clean the red dust film that developed inside the GV. I was wondering what measures people take to reduce the amount of dust getting in the cab when travelling the unsealed roads. Lots of dust seems to come out of air vents in the rear of the GV so I figured the best plan was to have all the windows shut and air con on but this is not always practical when you are far from a gas station. What do others do to reduce the dust level in the cab?

[atari4x4]

someone has done a write up on replacing the rubber flaps on the rear vents that are part of the flow through ventilation

i've had a quick search as i thought it was Shabz... but i can't find anything from him.

[atari4x4]

found it, it was Shabz... silly search engine was ignoring "GV" viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6234&hilit=vent&start=180

shabz wrote:

For a while now i've had a problem with dust getting in the GV. Noticeable when driving on dry dusty dirty roads. Tried every combination of windows open, closed, air con on and off, fan on and off etc etc...

Bad enough sometimes to need to stop and get out of the car is how bad it gets.
All the dust is coming in from all the gaps in the plastic in the rear, behind the back seats. So i decided to pull out the rear drawers, and plastics out of the car to investigate where it's coming in from.

Here's a pic showing some dust where the jack lives - mind you i blasted it with compressed air before taking the plastic off, this is just whats left




The dust was that bad all the way up to the roof liner!

This is a pic with the jack removed and looking down - you can see there's some vents in the body work


Next the rear bar came of. Very easy job, 4 plastic clips across the top, 2 screws near the number plate, and a few clips behind each mud flap. After the bar was off it was obvious what the problem is


The vents are completely missing, they've just worn away and come off, here's a pic of the other side, one of the vents is just barely hanging on


These vents have a very thin rubber flap that opens with a bit of pressure from inside the car, and seal to stop air getting in the car. Given that these flaps are gone, and being right behind the rear wheel, no wonder im getting so much dust in the car.

Rubber flaps are about 1mm thick, thinnest i could find at clark rubber was 1.5mm.
Here's a pic of the one flap that was still attached, and a new one i made. Because the new rubber was slightly thicker, i couldn't make the little loops to hold it in place, as you can see in the pic. So instead i put a bit of glue across the top edge, which would hold it in place, yet still let the bottom of the flap open just by lightly blowing on it.


Finished. Hopefully this stops just getting in.


I'd imagine vits have the same setup, and this must be pretty common coz i remember someone here had the same problem getting heaps of dust in their GV.


While i had the drawers out i decided to add a 12v socket. Here's what the back of it looks with the air line and wiring.

who ever says cannabis use effects memory can go jump ship

[droverdave]

I dunno if its relavent, but on rally cars they have a little flap that opens on the roof to flow air from the outside into the cabin.

Apparently it's to create positive pressure inside the car so it stops the dust coming into the car through all the holes/cracks etc.

Dunno how that would go on a road car though.

[Gwagensteve]

Yes they work (Roof vents) but I can't say most people would be keen to cut holes in the roof of a GV.

I'd say shabz fix will see to it.

Steve.

[shep]

Windows up, aircon on flat out and on refresh will stop most dust. This has worked on every car I have owned that has a proper roof.

[Gwagensteve]

Do you mean "fresh" or "recirculate" Shep?

I've always heard that running on recirculate minimises dust ingress, but I'm not really sure why. I understand the point if you are following another cars dust trail, but as a lone car I can't see it making any difference, but I may well be wrong.

Steve

[shep]

No mate it has to be on fresh. It slightly raises the pressure in the cab stopping dust creeping in. My old hardtop swb Sierra was compleatly dust tight as long as the fan was on flatout and the vent open.

I have done many millions of km on dirt roads and hate breathing dust so have experimented lots with this.

When I was a young fella it was 1500km of dirt road to get anywhere and useing the vent open method even a xa wagon was dust tight.

[Built4thrashing]

shep wrote:

No mate it has to be on fresh. It slightly raises the pressure in the cab stopping dust creeping in. My old hardtop swb Sierra was compleatly dust tight as long as the fan was on flatout and the vent open.

I have done many millions of km on dirt roads and hate breathing dust so have experimented lots with this.

When I was a young fella it was 1500km of dirt road to get anywhere and useing the vent open method even a xa wagon was dust tight.

This works but only if there are no cars in front of you creating dust....

If your driving in dust put it to recurculate with windows up and fan on med/high. A/c helps keep the interior cool. Some airborne dust will get stuck to the A/C evaporator coil and get washed away but not enough to matter.

[shep]

You shouldn't be driving in dust. It is dangerious and unnessasery, only city people with their tailgating habbits seem to do it. Back off a 100 meters or so and you are out of the dust.

[Plum]

Agree guys, keep out of the dust where possible.
I have done some dust testing for work and it surprising how much less dust there was on fresh.
If you can be bothered put it on recirculate as cars go past then back to fresh.