I did an upgrade on our Shadow Cruiser popup truck camper roof fan over the last couple of days. Here are the highlights.
Previous owner had added a MaxxAir cover over the factory vent so it could be left open in the rain. The restrictions of an extra screen and louvers made the small factory fan worthless and it was also a very noisy one speed fan. The PO also was in love with silicon sealer so the MaxxAir was a lot of fun to remove, he must have used 2 or 3 tubes of silicon on it. The factory fan (and sealer) wasn't to bad to remove once I got to it. Found a life savor for the last of the silicon removal. I used a razor knives to cut as much of the sealer away as possible without doing damage then picked up some McKanica silicon remover. A bit expensive but I applied a generous coating and left it set for 3 hours and 90% of the job was done. Anded a new coating and left it for 2 hours (should have left it a bit longer) and I had a 99% clean surface. If I was to use it again I would let the first application set for 4 hours. The silicon was actually outside the new seal area but I wanted a clean roof.
My roof was just a little thicker than the minimum 1.125" that MaxxFan requires without adding extra spacers. After a final wipe down with mineral spirits to get rid of any original fan sealer, I put Butyl tape between the mounting flange and the roof, and used Dicor self leveling sealer on all the screws and around the vent for an extra seal. Pretty much just followed directions.
Here are a few pictures of the final results.
I mounted the remote by the door so I could start up the fan before I go in on hot days and also so I can use it to suck in the canvas when I'm cranking down the top. I can then just reach in and shut the fan off without going back inside. I had heard about people doing that and I tried it today and it works great. Still a bit of tucking by the vertical posts but that's it.
Here are the current draw I measured at the 10 different fan speeds, actually less than the factory claims.
10% - 200ma
20% - 300ma
30% - 450ma
40% - 650ma
50% - 900ma
60% - 1200ma
70% - 16o0ma
80% - 2000ma
90% - 2400ma
100% - 3100ma
Can't wait for our first outing to use the fan for real. It can be run blowing in or out and even closed just to circulate the air, which will be nice when we have the heat on since it is usually to hot up high and cold down where we are sitting.
Jim...
Previous owner had added a MaxxAir cover over the factory vent so it could be left open in the rain. The restrictions of an extra screen and louvers made the small factory fan worthless and it was also a very noisy one speed fan. The PO also was in love with silicon sealer so the MaxxAir was a lot of fun to remove, he must have used 2 or 3 tubes of silicon on it. The factory fan (and sealer) wasn't to bad to remove once I got to it. Found a life savor for the last of the silicon removal. I used a razor knives to cut as much of the sealer away as possible without doing damage then picked up some McKanica silicon remover. A bit expensive but I applied a generous coating and left it set for 3 hours and 90% of the job was done. Anded a new coating and left it for 2 hours (should have left it a bit longer) and I had a 99% clean surface. If I was to use it again I would let the first application set for 4 hours. The silicon was actually outside the new seal area but I wanted a clean roof.
My roof was just a little thicker than the minimum 1.125" that MaxxFan requires without adding extra spacers. After a final wipe down with mineral spirits to get rid of any original fan sealer, I put Butyl tape between the mounting flange and the roof, and used Dicor self leveling sealer on all the screws and around the vent for an extra seal. Pretty much just followed directions.
Here are a few pictures of the final results.
I mounted the remote by the door so I could start up the fan before I go in on hot days and also so I can use it to suck in the canvas when I'm cranking down the top. I can then just reach in and shut the fan off without going back inside. I had heard about people doing that and I tried it today and it works great. Still a bit of tucking by the vertical posts but that's it.
Here are the current draw I measured at the 10 different fan speeds, actually less than the factory claims.
10% - 200ma
20% - 300ma
30% - 450ma
40% - 650ma
50% - 900ma
60% - 1200ma
70% - 16o0ma
80% - 2000ma
90% - 2400ma
100% - 3100ma
Can't wait for our first outing to use the fan for real. It can be run blowing in or out and even closed just to circulate the air, which will be nice when we have the heat on since it is usually to hot up high and cold down where we are sitting.
Jim...
