Vent Covers

The wife and I like the Oregon and Washington coasts. The ever changing beauty is simply astonishing. Unfortunately the coastal weather is also ever changing and those changes usually involve rain in all its forms. Sometimes all at once! Straight rain, sideways rain, swirling rain, and even gravity defying rain will strike us at least once per trip. Fortunately we have yet to experience fish rain, mud rain or the touted dogs and cats rain.  Yet.

Rain in and of itself is no problem and can be very welcome, just ask the Californians who have been in a drought for quite some time now. Bringing rainbows and crisp clean air, rain for us is an old friend and one we've grown accustomed to having around. Rain is not so welcome a guest however when you find yourself cooped up in the rig without some sort of ventilation. The results are real close quarters, real fast and can even result in mold and mildew if not watched. Sure there are vent fans but without a weather cover of some sort you are just asking for the least loved of all rains - internal rain. A way to combat this is a vent fan cover.

There are several models and styles available ranging from opaque to transparent and small to large, so personal preference will come into play. I highly recommend shopping around and doing some research to meet your own needs.  Our choice was a semi-transparent (smoke) colored large cover called the Maxx Air II

It has a good warranty, is way easy to install, and as a bonus we caught it on sale for 50% off.

The installation was an absolute breeze and took about 15 minutes for each one. Now that the job is done I realize the hardest part of the whole exercise was breaking out a ladder (the Excursion does not come with one installed) and climbing up and down. Repeatedly. All because  I managed to forget a tool or item the 1st, 2nd and 3rd time round! I also made extensive use of the installation videos that are on the web - watching them several times before actually tackling the job. Since this was the first real alteration to our new home, I wanted to make sure there were no mistakes and when you consider my personal mechanical skills, slow and steady is a really good idea.

So, now that the covers are installed they are allowing a nice breeze with the vents open even with the fans off and the cooped up feeling is dissipated. A good amount of light makes it through the tinting and the smoke color even matches our black air conditioner units and T.V. antenna. Perhaps Fleetwood should consider these as standard equipment.