An r-pod dust bowl

Originally posted by techntrek The A/C doesn't have any opening or exchange of air with the outside, other than a very small drain hole to let condensation out.  The outer edge going through the roof is sealed to prevent rain water from entering.  I doubt the A/C is your problem.   More than once I've stopped for a rest stop and found the floor puffed up like a marshmallow, so air definitely gets in there, in my pod.   Might be easier to take a heavy-duty trash bag, open the fridge vent, insert the vent inside, then put the vent back on the pod while enclosed in the bag.  Then again it may be hard to get the locks to close so I may be wrong.

techntrek, good input that's appreciated.  I knew that the A/C had to be water tight and thus an unlikely source of the dust I see.  But closing the vents seems to be a good idea and it's easy to do. 

My problem is most likely the venting for the appliances, as I found in a post at another pod forum.  I hadn't thought of packing the inside of the vents with plastic garbage bags, but that's another alternative that sounds promising. 

My planned approach is to seal these vents before my next trip over dirt roads and compare the results (given your title I will note that I recognize the problems with a sample of 1) with my previous experience.  If I'm left with little doubt that the appliance vents are the source of my dust problem then I will look for a long term fix.  That would be something with attributes like a camera lens cap: keep the dust out and be easy to remove.  It would be best done as a factory mod so that interlocks for the appliances are incorporated with the vent covers.  But I get ahead of myself.  First I need to be sure I understand the root cause of my problem and then I'll set about crafting a fix.

Originally posted by furpod The ceiling vent over the bath.. open? hopefully not.. but even worse if it was open a bit and the fan was on.. BUT, having spent a bit of time in a couple different deserts in a previous life, dust gets into stuff that you KNOW is sealed and dust proof. (like inside a sealed bag of M&M's that were inside a ziplock, inside a duffel bag) The fact that it got into a camper doesn't surprise me at all. Nature of the beast so to say.

That dust got into the r-pod doesn't surprise me as I've lived in the desert most of my life.  That in spots it was 2-3 inches deep surprised me and it indicates some type of a problem.

Nope, the fan wasn't on but I will be closing the vents going forward.  However, I still don't believe that's the source of most of the dust I'm seeing.  On another forum (one that I don't frequent), I found a post about Montana dust getting into an r-pod while they were towing on a dirt road there.   The post sounded very much like my problem.

They tried, just as I was thinking, blue taping the vent ports for the hot water heater, refrigerator, and furnace.  It "fixed" their problem as when driving on dirt roads now the level of dust is what one would expect. 

I plan to try taping the vents and taking it on a dirt road as soon as next week.  I will let folks know here how it works.  If, as I suspect, it greatly reduces the amount of dust that enters the trailer then that seems like a "dust package" would be a good option for FR to offer. 

The ceiling vent over the bath.. open? hopefully not.. but even worse if it was open a bit and the fan was on..

BUT, having spent a bit of time in a couple different deserts in a previous life, dust gets into stuff that you KNOW is sealed and dust proof. (like inside a sealed bag of M&M's that were inside a ziplock, inside a duffel bag) The fact that it got into a camper doesn't surprise me at all. Nature of the beast so to say.

I thought they were pretty air tight, did you have the vent open, or the windows cracked ?