Air Vents for Canopies

I assume we are talking canvas canopies here and if so a couple of vents in the front face of the canopy does help pressurise the canopy to some extent when open and travelling at the front of a convoy of vehicles in clean air.

I had one tho and gave up in the end beoaming sick of the constant cleaning out every time you stop for the night - so I invested in Aluminium and love it.

Not a whisker of dust inside now.

Lance,

Got one of those pop-up vents in the top/centre of my Flexiglass canopy. IMHO most of the dust is sucked in around the tailgate area and this vent seems to pressurize the canopy enough to minimize that. You'll still get some dust but not enough to worry about.

I see you have a fibreglass canopy, open the sliding window half way, it works for me in 50,000 km of dirt in last 3 years. I was going to install one of those pop up vents, but the guy at ARB said not necessary, and he's right.

GB

G'day Lance, many of the coaches that travel on dirt roads have the same problem with dust getting into the luggage bins.

That is generally overcome by putting a fan under one of the seats drawing air from inside and blowing it down into the luggage bins. Fixes that problem quick smart as long as you remember to switch the fan on.

Thinking along those lines, can you run some sort of tube or pipe from the cab to the tray?

I was thinking something along the lines of a pipe connected to one of the drain plugs in the floor of the cab, or similar. I think the larger diameter pipe the better.
Getting the air from the cab is the cleanest air.

Generally the A/C is on, or just switch the fan on while your travelling on a dusty road.

Another old model coach I know of had an air inlet with a small air filter attached near the headlight and channelled that pipe into the luggage bins. It was disguised by a small grille and virtually built into the bodywork.

Hope this helps.

Dave

I fitted a pair of these to a Bravo I had, worked great and are open all the time, rain can't enter either. They are designed for boats, about $10 each from most boating shops.

Yep - been there - with venting in the right place up top of the canopy, you can pressurise the tray area and no sealing around the tailgate is required - pretty well dust free ! I made a vent out of HD 50-60mm black irrigation fittings - then plumbed it with some flexible piping to the front of the roofrack - worked very well.
As long as you have free air flow to the pickup point, be it on the canopy roof, or forward of that, it works - we provided fresh air for the dogs too (exhaust gases getting back in being a big risk for them). As a telltale / indicator, we had a bit of pastic ribbon hanging down from the inlet into the actual canopy area - we could see it fluttering in the rear view mirror.