Van Insulation

[wizwilson]

Hi,
Am starting my T25 van to camper conversion, and as it is competley empty have plenty of room to carry out all the basics without clutter, so have read a lot on the subject of insulation, but have been thinking about " Spray Foam " as many years ago had a narrow boat and this was the method used to insulate that, and it worked very well, just wondered if anybody on here has used it ?

Thanks Graham

[Plasticman]

do we get picks of the van
may help to advise you but there are good reasons Not to use it
mm

[Dougal devon]

do we get picks of the van
may help to advise you but there are good reasons Not to use it
mm

Would the van rusting itself to bits from the inside out be one .......
I have used tri-iso super 10 . It comes in a10m roll 1500 wide enough to put two layers in all the panels and it weighs the best part of nothing. About 150 a roll but well worth the money . Hope this helps . Dougal

[Cyrus]

Some information in the wiki
http://wiki.club8090.co.uk/index.php/Bo ... Insulation

I'm going to redo mine at some point, I'll put self adhesive tar like flash banding on the large panels to sound deaded and the use the double bubble foil insulation next then the hardboard/ply on covered with veltrim.
Hoping that should insulate it a bit from heat and sound. At the moment it sounds like a bean tin inside!!

[thecyrusvirus]

I used a roll of this stuff for all of the metal panels along with flashband:

http://www.ybsinsulation.com/superquilt.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Then for the hightop I just used the double foil bubble wrap and hightemp contact adhesive. Seems to have done a pretty good job.

[RogerT]

Over the spring I put two or three layers of flashband on loads of panels, and then covered them all with foil bubble wrap, and the another layer of foil bubble wrap under the hardboard/ply, and recovered the ply with veltrim or some such stuff. Very effective. Unfortunately I have gone from the effect of rolling down a hill in a metal dustbin (ever do that as a kid?) to being in a wind tunnel! I can hear all the wind noise that was drowned out by reverberating panels. And I can hear the engine too!

I've now used some Seals Direct ETS2481 to the leading edge of the doors, which helped a lot, so I'll do as much round the front doors as I can with that,(can't really see it with the doors closed, but really noticeable with doors open) and maybe get some lead sandwich for the rear slope.

Onwards and upwards...

[SamsBus2012]

The key issue with any form of insulation is vapour control. The wiki covers this, but essentially any water vapour inside the van (and we, along with our cookers and heaters etc make an awful lot of it), will want to go somewhere and a nice heap of insulation in a void will make a cosy place for it to go. The temperature inside the insulation will cool slowly as it gets nearer the outside or body panel in the case of our vans and when that temperature gets cool enough we have a wonderful thing called the dew point and hey presto water vapour turns back into water, getting our nice voids wet. IF the vapour cant get to the insulation this wont happen. Create a vapour barrier by blocking off the voids where you have stuffed whatever insulation you've used with a polythene membrane taped to the metal work before closing off the panels with your nicely decorated trim and/or door cards. As stated by others, you probably wont stop all of it but you can certainly minimise it. Tri-Iso products or foil bubble wrap can act as a vapour control themselves but you have to put them in the right place to be effective. I'm a building surveyor and I've seen what water vapour does to timber frame buildings when there is no vapour control - basically they turn into weatabix (quickly!). Same problem on a smaller scale in our vans, albeit rust.

[Dougal devon]

As our surveyor has said vapour barrier if you tape the tri iso to the Inner skin then double it up it is fine we sleep comfortably in minus temps and we dont need the heater on . As for road noise turn up the stereo!!!! I dont really mind the noise as it is not too bad in my it has a few sound deadening panels where needed. Good luck and happy taping. Dougal

[wizwilson]

Update on insulating van, have decided to use the thin foam backed tin foil used for behind house radiators, then plastic membrane behind the new wood panels covering the holes, will post some pictures latter.

[poops1966]

Hi, have a look at this website for insulation http://www.caddistribution.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
If you ring them and speak to Mike, tell him Gary put you on to him, he is a good friend of mine.

[GrahamL]

Hi,
I have just purchased this from Kiravans - link below.
Thermo acoustic campervan insulation - self adhesive 7mm closed cell foam with foil inner surface.

http://www.kiravans.co.uk/campervan-par ... rface.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Regards
Graham

[CovKid]

I mentioned this some time ago but now and again ALDI do packs of what they describe as 'play mats' which can slot together in a jigsaw fashion. They're closed cell too and you get a lot in a pack. I used it for a long while over my engine lid and it virtually silenced it before I moved to some heavy ex-army rubber mat that was even better - another great aquisition from the 80-90 Steampunk event.

Good insulation isn't particularly cheap but even foil bubble wrap helps make the interior cosy in Winter and cooler in Summer. Definately worth doing but time spent covering the area up and over the engine bay with something that helps deaden sound is really worth doing. A stock camper - particularly a converted panel van can be incredibly noisy without it. Glass fibre is ok but ONLY if sealed in plastic bags. Thats what I used in rear sections and it made for much quieter sleep-overs.

[maryandjack]

Hi,
Am starting my T25 van to camper conversion, and as it is competley empty have plenty of room to carry out all the basics without clutter, so have read a lot on the subject of insulation, but have been thinking about " Spray Foam " as many years ago had a narrow boat and this was the method used to insulate that, and it worked very well, just wondered if anybody on here has used it ?

Thanks Graham

Well, I am not sure about spray foam but we insulated our van using adhesive thermal insulation and it done a job.
We used sound deadening called Peacemat XR as the first layer to reduce panel resonance and rattling. Then thermal insulation called Glassmat XR as the second layer and Absoft 25mm to fill the gaps. Our van simnifically cooler in a heat now. We used a local company called Carinsulation.co.uk and collected, but I know they deliver too.

[R0B]

You are only 10 years too late to the conversation.  Better late than never eh?

[Oldiebut goodie]

I thought it odd, wait for the link!