Sand blowing through basement a/c duct work?

[LauraChrissy]

Hi Everyone,
It's been forever since posting. I gotta turn to you for some solid brainstorming because our Winnebago Adventurer has clean, dry sand dropping all over our dash. I reached up through a cutout between ceiling and roof in cabinet over driver's side and I felt a lot of sand up in there. (About a 3 inch space)
We have looked for cracks on the fiberglass roof, looked around the front cap, around the antenna's, satellite....I just don't know. We never drive with window open. Dash air does not work so we don't operate it. This sand appears while sitting up on driveway and we do keep the air on.
Also, when I removed the plastic pieces surrounding the windshield supports there was a lot of clean, dry sand in there too.
Can there be a way the basement air located in the back is picking up sand, blowing through duct work, and possibly dumping through a crack in our cab? Also, we don't have sand on driveway.
Any and all advice appreciated. Happy Travels, Laura

Edit: To add...I took off two of the front duct vents and one had some sand in it. That's what makes me think sand is perhaps circulating through system.

[FIRE_UP]

LauraChrissy wrote:
bad link....sorry folks Can't fiqure it out.

LauraChrissy,
Posting pics on most forums USED to be quite simple. There was a photo hosting site called "Photobucket". They kept all the photos for you and, whenever you were posting on a forum, no matter what forum, you could cruise over to their site and, grab whatever pics you wanted to share on the forum you were presently on and, that was it. But, they changed their tactics a while ago and, the "free" hosting of photos, at least from them, is no longer available.

There are other sites that can host them for you but, I've not found any that are as easily usable as Photobucket. That's why I haven't posted any pics on here in a long time. On IRV2, it's really easy to post photos but, not here.

As for your issues with sand in and around your ducts, well, without being there and seeing it, it's quite hard to help analyze what your issue(s) are or is. As stated earlier, the only real way for sand to get INSIDE your ducts is for it to be picked up by the intake of your basement A/C unit and distributed all throughout the ducting.

And, you have (or should have) an intake for that duct air, INSIDE your coach, not on the outside. We have one right close to the passenger side of the head of our bed. It also has a 14" x 20" x 1" replaceable filter.
Scott

[LauraChrissy]

x

[LauraChrissy]

I give up

[LauraChrissy]

bad link....sorry folks Can't fiqure it out.

[LauraChrissy]

It's Laura again....so I went ahead and removed the old clunker tv housing and took some pics. I will try to upload. Tons of sand behind all cabinets.
@Fire Up (Scott)
Everything looks intact at that 90 degree bend at basement ducting. However, where the water drains out there is a lot of sand caked to the underneath side at the drain.
Any thoughts. No sand is anywhere else. That drain exits directly behind the airintake/blower...not sure what it is? for the basement a/c. I'm trying to upload pics. now

[LauraChrissy]

It's raining now, can't pull tail light but I wanted to post what I just observed.

The passenger side duct work has a light amt. of sand in the area of kitchen and over passenger chair.
Also, there is what appears to be a steady flow of air seeping over the tv housing in a 3 inch spot on left side. Possibly spewing the sand towards dash area perhaps? As far as the driver's side, no sand in the duct work.

There is one other thing new that I just remembered. The a/c unit has a new noise, a rattle. We realized the noise in the past couple of weeks, it's not loud and it's not continuous. Possibly rattling at the loose connection (Scott)? We will hopefully know tomorrow.

Will post back once we get into that back tail light to see if anything is loose. I going to remove the rest of the registers and check for sand in ducting in the rest of the coach too.

I appreciate all of your feedback.

[FIRE_UP]

chuckftboy wrote:
I think you might find that road sand is being sucked up inside the rear cap. There is a lot of turbulence that creates a vacuum in the rear of a motorhome while moving down the highway. The sand is being sucked up and getting trapped between the roof and ceiling moving forward to the front of your coach.

Same thing happened to me recently but the sand was ending up in my rear bath cabinet drawers. I was lucky as there was enough room for me to get in there and seal the gap. Problem solved.

The trouble with that theory is, he's getting it INSIDE his A/C ducts. Even if the roof was completely open, front to back, the sand cannot get into the ducting due to it being a sealed (or supposed to be) system. And, for sand to travel, in between the top of the ceiling, and the bottom side of the roof, is highly unlikely due to the technique of construction.
Scott

[chuckftboy]

I think you might find that road sand is being sucked up inside the rear cap. There is a lot of turbulence that creates a vacuum in the rear of a motorhome while moving down the highway. The sand is being sucked up and getting trapped between the roof and ceiling moving forward to the front of your coach.

Same thing happened to me recently but the sand was ending up in my rear bath cabinet drawers. I was lucky as there was enough room for me to get in there and seal the gap. Problem solved.

[LauraChrissy]

Okay Scott,
Thank you, going to look now. Thank you and will post back.

[FIRE_UP]

One of the main problems with the basement air ducting is a possible separation of the vertical duct, just above the tail light on the passenger side. Many have removed that tail light to check that ducting and have found the ducting in not-so-good shape. Duct tape is the name of the game here.

But, this is just a suggestion. Remove that passenger tail light and, look around, either with a mirror or, any other means.

Second, that ducting starts at a 90 degree bend, right behind the basement A/C unit itself, at the very rear, lowest part. Make sure the seal there, where the ducting screws onto the basement A/C unit, is in good shape and no gaps.
Scott