water on battery tray

[donnieg]

Hi I was working on my van today and noticed water sitting on my battery tray, with a drip falling on it every few seconds. My question is, could this be comming from my side vent? I had a look at the other side and it was bone dry.If someone could help with some advice that would be great.

[toomanytoys]

"battery tray"??? do you mean behind the rear wheel below the air intakes?? then its from rain/washing it..

[kevtherev]

is it a diesel??

[toomanytoys]

is it a diesel??

Even so Kev, its still gonna come from the air intakes.. or be battery acid.....

[donnieg]

yes it is a diesel the battery tray is behind my back lights drivers side,it seems as if the rain is getting in from the side vents and dripping onto the tray.I have drilled a small hole in the tray to let the water out but i need to find out where it is getting in so i can stop it.It is not battery acid as i was watching it drip down.If it is the air intakes how do i stop it.
Thanks

[toomanytoys]

you dont....

[donnieg]

Thanks very much for the replies guys

[peasant]

To keep most of the water out, run a bead of sealant along the rear edge of the air intake.
Most ofthe water doesn't rain or fall into the intake directly but runs off from the guttering and then diverts into the intake half way down ...especially so when parked slightly off level.

Do a walkaround during the next rainfall and you'll see what I mean.
The other thing to do is to waxoil both sides behind the light clusters to prevent the water starting rust in the seams

[toomanytoys]

I was just going to say.. clean it all and waxoyl it to death...

[Plasticman]

which is why I made my repair like this so what comes in can get out.

and sloped it away from the outer skin, also as has been said a mod is worth it so the gutter doesnt discharge into the airvent/scoops or whatever,.
mike

[CovKid]

I noticed that AngeloEVS has two cable ties (one each side) at the top of his rear vents which point to the rear of his camper. I presume (didn't ask him at the time) that he put them there to divert water that runs off the guttering, away from the vents in the same manner as adding sealant, only simpler. Might be worth experimenting with this yourself by seeing how the water runs down and creating a similar diversion. The subject has come up before so I presume its covered in one or more threads. I know it creates an annoying noise and as AngeloEVS spends a lot of time in his camped out, I guess that was his solution. There may be others.

Always better to address the cause rather then the effect. In this instance its a design weakness, rather like the built-in swimming pool behind the front bumper that eventually rots out the lower front panel. I often think that VW would have benefited from talking to hardened bus owners to iron out these weaknesses as we're the best testing ground there is.

[horns]

I noticed that AngeloEVS has two cable ties (one each side) at the top of his rear vents which point to the rear of his camper. I presume (didn't ask him at the time) that he put them there to divert water that runs off the guttering, away from the vents in the same manner as adding sealant, only simpler.

I'm pretty sure you're right - I remember he (or whoever came up with the idea, if he didn't) posted this solution a while ago.

[peasant]

The thing is, the water doesn't get anywhere near the actual plastic vent.
Ok ...raindrops that hit the vent directly do, but that's not the cause of the flooding.

It's the runoff from the gutter that does the damage.
The water doesn't run off quite straight down from the gutter but takes kink towards the vent opening sometimes. If it does so, it then meets a burr/nose on the plastic part and diverts straight into the vent.

During a good rainshower and when all the wrong circumstances (lean/tilt of the parked vehicle) meet, basically the whole runoff from the roof (and that's quite some square footage) can end up in one vent shaft.

[Plasticman]

Aye and plenty water where you are..

mike

[donnieg]

Can't but thank you all very much guys if any of you are going to mighty dud fest this weekend look me up and i will buy you a pint.