Vent cover opinions.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, my Safari has two roof vents; One is a fantastic Vent and the other one is just a plain Jane 14" X 14" vent. I would like to leave a vent, or two, open at times with out fear of rain and/or while driving. My thought is that I should buy two MaxxAir (white) Fan Mate #850's. First, I need one that will work with my Fantastic Vent. I may, or may not, ever change my rear vent, but if I cover it, I want the covers to match. I want the white vent covers because they only make white and black, I don't want to paint them silver, I want them the same color as my A/C shroud, and the black covers model #950 cost more. What are your opinions on what I plan to do? What have you done and why? Are there any other options? And is Amazon the best price at about $86.00 each, delivered?

[ROBERT CROSS]

Bob,

How hard are they to take off for cleaning, just spent time on the roof polishing out the FV's, any more holes in the roof needed?

I been tink'n 'bout it for awhile now BUT, DW hates the look, too much cr@p on the roof already.

[reinergirl]

Personally I agree with your DW, those are pretty ugly! Why not just go with a white fantastic vent with a rain sensor? That would match the white ac shroud....

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

Bob,

How hard are they to take off for cleaning, just spent time on the roof polishing out the FV's, any more holes in the roof needed?

I been tink'n 'bout it for awhile now BUT, DW hates the look, too much cr@p on the roof already.

Hi, they mount onto the frame of the vent in four places for four brackets. They hinge on one side for cleaning. They recommend drilling one hole in the roof for an additional screw mounting, but not required; I do not want to drill that extra hole in mine.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by reinergirl

Personally I agree with your DW, those are pretty ugly! Why not just go with a white fantastic vent with a rain sensor? That would match the white ac shroud....

Hi, although not the prettiest things, they are functional. I have one Fantastic Vent with rain sensor, but the rain sensor won't work if you manually raise the lid or if you turn the fan off. My rear vent lid was blown off in a tail wind while boondooking. I borrowed a ladder and temporarily duct taped it in place; That night we had a huge rain storm. The rear vent is dead center over our bed. These covers would allow me to leave my vents open without fear of rain or wind damage.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, well we went to Camping World to look at the vent covers on display. They had free ice cream too, but we really went to check out the vent covers. The one I mentioned earlier is really huge and heavy. So I decided to buy the MAXXAIR II type covers. Two of these covers is about the same price as one of the other ones. Thank You to camping World for letting me see, touch, and feel the vent covers, but as usual, Amazon was much cheaper. I will let you know when I get them and mount them. And hopefully test them out.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

Hi, although not the prettiest things, they are functional. I have one Fantastic Vent with rain sensor, but the rain sensor won't work if you manually raise the lid or if you turn the fan off.

Bob,

I wonder if FV makes different rain sensor models?

The rear FV, (with the thermo on the wall) does work different than the front. It only opens with the thermo switch, the front has an open/close switch on the fan. But if I pull the the "wheel" down and open either and remember to push it back to the auto position they will both close with the sensor, at least so far.
When I was up top replacing the skylight I noticed how dirty both FV's were under the covers, wiping with a damp cloth will now activate both.

[polarlyse]

From reading this thread do I gather correctly that the FF must be on for the rain sensor to close the cover ????? I have been leaving the fan covers open when our trailer is parked thinking that they will close if it rains. But I will have to re-think this if the sensor is only active if the fan is on. We have not been having much rain lately so I don't think this will create a leak issue but it sure may later on.

Thanks all.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Roger,

It took me a full Season to figge'r these FV's out.....I think.

The front fan, the one with the colored thermostat on the fan. The fan speed switch must be on, !-3? speeds. Most of the time when I have it open the in-out switch is off, (fan not running), if it opens under power the rain sensor will close it. If I manually open it partially, and remember to push the knob in, the rain sensor will close it. If it reaches the temp set on the thermo, and the fan is set to run it will shut the fan off but not close. So..the fan stops but it stays open til it gets wet.... Is that clear.....not so much.

On the rear with the wall thermo, again the fan speed switch must be on. This one will close AND shut the fan off when set temp is reached or the sensor gets wet.

Thats my story and I'm stick'n to it.....til the floor gets wet.

[Smartstream]

Bob I just installed a MaxxFan by MaxAir. Having lived on a boat for many years you learn that ventilation is the key to comfort. I choose the MaxxFan because you can leave it open in the rain with or without the fan running or worrying about sensers opening or closing. Also it sports a very low profile, even lower than my low profile A/C.

Cheers, Dan

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, let's see if I can confuse the confused. Like Robert said, on mine the fan must be on for the automatic rain sensor to work. When it gets wet it will close the lid and shut off the fan. None of this will work or matter when I put the covers on. Slightly different than Robert said, setting the temperature control knob only turns the fan on and off, but the lid doesn't close for the temperature control. Dan those vents should work good; I have taken my trailer into all kinds of unfamiliar weather, as you know, but at home we don't have any weather so my trailer sits all closed up. We are trying to take another random trip and I think these vent covers will make things more livable.

[Smartstream]

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

Hi, let's see if I can confuse the confused. Like Robert said, on mine the fan must be on for the automatic rain sensor to work. When it gets wet it will close the lid and shut off the fan. None of this will work or matter when I put the covers on. Slightly different than Robert said, setting the temperature control knob only turns the fan on and off, but the lid doesn't close for the temperature control. Dan those vents should work good; I have taken my trailer into all kinds of unfamiliar weather, as you know, but at home we don't have any weather so my trailer sits all closed up. We are trying to take another random trip and I think these vent covers will make things more livable.

I agree Robert if I had the Fantastic Fans I would go for a cover of some sort. In those hot summer rains you need ventilation. I have the old aluminum vents that the cover isn't hinged but remains horizontal and opens about 2" and has a single speed fan. As long as I had to upgrade the whole vent I went with the MaxxFan. By the way the old vent is available if any restorers are interested.

Cheers, Dan

[noreen&sal]

What Dan said. Love the Maxxfan.Cant wait for my front {original} fan to quit so ill have an excuse to buy another Maxx. Sal.

[polarlyse]

Thanks Bob. I had left my trailer with both FF fans open. I had opened them under power and left them with the fan shut off. I keep it parked at my son's house about 10 miles away. Just today I went over there during a rain storm. I found both fans open and, yes, the floor wet. Both of my FF's are the same ( no wall thermostat). I had left the fan speed switch in the off (0) position.

I'm still confused. The trailer is plugged in so all this time I was thinking that they would automatically close if it rained. Fortunately we have not had much rain lately. I am glad that it was raining today and that I found that they were not closing. They are closed until further notice.

O Tay. I just read on the FF website what has already mentioned here. That the fan speed switch must be on position 1, 2 or 3. The temp switch can be set to any temp. As the temp that is pre-set is reached the fan motor will switch itself off and the cover will remain open and will close if the rain sensor gets wet. I will try this first chance I have and see if things work as expected. Thanks for the input.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Roger,

Like I mentioned it took awhile for me to learn that that speed switch needed to be on.....

came back to the AS, been raining, vents open, floor wet, got fizzed.....
DW.....did you read the 'structions?? now "I'm really fizzed.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, tonight when we came home, I found some boxes on my porch. My vent covers are here. Now I have to figure out when I can install them. And no, they aren't going to be mounted on the Galaxie's truck lid.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, well today was the day to install my vent covers. I spent the whole after noon on top of my trailer. I'm pretty particular about doing things to any of my vehicles that involves drilling. Think about it, look at it, measure everything, dry fit it, look at it and all of the parts again, measure and mark everything, and OMG start drilling. Now the front vent is a Fantastic Vent and the rear vent is just a plain Jane vent. On the front vent I found the center of the side at 8 1/2"s. The space between the brackets was 7 1/2"s. So from the center line I went 3 3/4"s each way. I lined up the brackets and taped them in place. Then I dry fitted the vent cover, marked the two holes per bracket, drilled and screwed them in place. On the street side there is a guide bumper that has to be removed for the bracket, but I was lucky that I could put it back in the same place after the bracket was mounted. On the Fantastic Vent, the mounting brackets use two little stainless steel screws that screw into the plastic housing. Now all of the measurements on the plain Jane rear vent are the same, but because the frame is metal, it takes only one screw each. These screws go in the slotted center hole and have a flat washer, a lock washer, and a nut to hold them in place. I decided that the brackets also needed a small flat washer on the outside as well. The rear vent sits lower and the brackets looked like they were not going to sit flat, so I used four of the vent mounting screws to help hold the brackets down. Two of the brackets didn't line up with the mounting screws so I drilled them to fit. I think I did a pretty good job installing them and they look pretty good too. As others have said, these vents do restrict some of the airflow from the power vent, but not enough to matter for us as we usually only use the slow fan speed anyway. [Note: the front vent cover is quite close to the front radio antenna and I'm not sure if the larger vent covers would clear it] [MAXXAIR Fan Mate]

[Tino643]

It look nice. I will do my AS too....