Heat vents for the rear deck.

Sgtjohn · December 2015

Yes but there's gotta be a bigger printer! ;>)

Nomad · December 2015

Sgtjohn - There are but they cost more than a T@B :-)

Ratkity · December 2015

My vents arrived! I think Chris laced them with catnip

My cat was batting the bag containing the vents all over the place. He hasn't played that game in a while (he's an old man cat). It was funny to watch. I have a T@B project this weekend! Thanks Chris!

Tabaz · December 2015

Ratkity - make sure you use a 2 1/4" hole saw with teeth all around. I bought one from HomDepot (Vermont American) that had only 8 teeth. Tried it on a test board first. It ate up the surrounding wood around the hole. Would have been a disaster on the wood veneer on the rear shelf. Just an FYI.

Ratkity · December 2015

OutbackAZ said:

Ratkity - make sure you use a 2 1/4" hole saw with teeth all around. I bought one from HomDepot (Vermont American) that had only 8 teeth. Tried it on a test board first. It ate up the surrounding wood around the hole. Would have been a disaster on the wood veneer on the rear shelf. Just an FYI.

Thank you for the tip! I have a lock saw I need to measure that might be 2.25", but if not, I'll make sure I get what you recommended (and test it first!).

TerryV6 · March 2017

Bringing back this topic:
I like the ones that Chris made. I've been looking for ones that are similar. I found this idea, which is a cross between the wonderful scroll work Verna did and a purchased vent product. They are 2x12 and you could put in 2, I think.. Opinions? Also on the rear deck board.. Why put in 3 hinged section, when you only need access to the glycol area, thus only one section would be needed...

Ratkity · March 2017

Nice looking vent! Looks thin enough for the back shelf.

Verna · March 2017

Nice, @TerryV6! It would take me a while to scroll that, and I'd have to cut the long board into 18" pieces (max) so I could scroll it comfortably in the 20" throats of my scrollsaw.

Ratkity · March 2017

Verna said:

Nice, @TerryV6! It would take me a while to scroll that, and I'd have to cut the long board into 18" pieces (max) so I could scroll it comfortably in the 20" throats of my scrollsaw.

V started speaking another language after the first sentence! lol.

drpprmt · March 2017

Looks great. Also, if you are tired of having that long deck smash shut on your fingers a magnetic latch works great.

Fergie · March 2017

A little over a year ago shortly after we brought our T@B, there were several posts on creating heat ventilation holes and other things you could do with the deck. Below are photos of what I did. I removed the panel and drilled the holes on my drill press with a forstner drill bit for clean holes and then chamfered the edges with a large countersink bit. Then I mounted the towel racks in back of the holes still leaving room for the plastic containers. We found due to the bouncing around of the camper it was necessary to secure the containers while in transit. A spring loaded curtain rod seems to work well for that as shown.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/xv/g5qrf07k53qa.jpg

Also, just for the record, here is another modification I have made that I haven't seen anyone posted to date.

Since there is no closet in our T@B I mounted a sturdy hanger bar mounted across the back the trailer. We sleep heads forward so hanging clothes over our feet is no problem. It was made from a standard hardwood closet hanger bar mounted with standard hardware obtained from any home improvement store. I sanded and varnished the bar and chose attractive hardware to complement T@B finishing standards. To prevent the open end of the mounting bracket from jumping out during travel I used a stainless steel hose clamp as shown. I also ordered "Stay Put" plastic hangers from an RV site that snap onto the bar and don't bounce off during travel. Cheap plastic hardware clamps keep the hangers to the areas you wish them to be. We traveled over 3600 miles visiting my family back east this past summer and these mods worked very well

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/68/w75scu82w2rd.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/8p/rposxdvqic68.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/gm/4cb0yvja4k6l.jpg

I have really enjoyed and benefited from the T@B blog and hope it continues. As a RV newbie a couple of years ago I have received a lot of valuable information from this forum and I feel an obligation to "pay it forward".

Mn Fergie

Ratkity · March 2017

@Fergie, what wonderful mods!! The smooth holes in the back and towel racks holding the tubs are very innovative.

jkjenn · March 2017

Very clever!

Homebodyatheart · March 2017

Fergie I like your shelf mod a lot! Those tension rods seem to come in handy in a lot of spots in the T@b. I also like the hanging rod, but I did see one in dalehelmans T@b last weekend. Great minds think alike!

gbell · March 2017

in the same place Fergie's hanger rod, I also put on up using a tension rod and each end inside closet Rod Socket 1 3/8, these end pieces are held up with command strips. holds great. I did not know they sale RV hangers, I'll have to pick some of those up just using regular ones.

Fergie · March 2017

For gbell:

I probably should have put this link in my post for the "Stay-Put" hangers.

Stay-Put RV Clothes Hangers

https://www.amazon.com/Tri-Lynx-1200W-Lynx-Stay-Put-Hanger/dp/B000NJ97C0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490824907&sr=8-1&keywords=stay+put+hanger

MN Fergie

Nomad · March 2017

Yep, shelf looks pretty much like mine including the Rubbermaid containers except my holes run the full width. One of the first mods I made after I camped in cold weather and wanted more heat. Has worked out well.

Fergie · March 2017

For PXLated:

Actually I only showed the driver's side of the shelf. The passenger side was done identically. The larger hole in the middle was done to give a finger hole to grab when needing to remove the shelf without having to pry it out with a screwdriver as I did when I originally removed it for drilling! Our mod also has worked out well. This fall we did a brief camping weekend in November and had plenty of heat even with all our bedding blocking the factory slots below.

MN Fergie

Nomad · March 2017

Fergie - I have found that when boondocking and rough roads - could even be potholes in a town - that those rubbermaid tubs can get bounced around or even out of the rails - I no longer keep sugar and coffee back there - twas a mess to clean up.
Mine came with the middle finger hole.

Fergie · March 2017

To: PXLated

This probably is way off topic, but --

We are not into boon docking much at our age so we tend to paved roads. However, we are likely to encounter gravel on our trip to Alaska this summer. So far the spring loaded curtain rod has kept the containers "contained" everywhere on our travels, especially during our 3600 mile round trip back east this past summer. I am sure we will rethink many RV issues as we make this long journey to Alaska! We made a decision early on to not take anything in bulk (like sugar) in the rear containers. For instance all our sugar is in packets. You have to deal with the paper from the empties, but -- ! Coffee is kept in a large lockable container up front, all seasonings are kept in another lockable container, etc.

For some reason our T@B didn't have a finger hole in the shelf. I probably saw the factory holes in the pictures of the early posts here and thought it was a good idea since I had difficulty getting the board off for drilling without scraping it. There is so much great information on this site that it is easy to forget where you got ideas.

MN Fergie

Nomad · March 2017

Yep, millions of ideas here and if one goes back and reads them all, it's hard to keep track of what's what and from where. And so many little varients.

richardlacroix · July 2017

Hi Fergie. Many thanks for the info and the pictures. Did you screw the mounting brackets for the "hanger bar" onto the walls, or did you use Vekcro?

Richard Lacroix

CincyKid · April 2018

@ChrisK In the first post in the thread I see the photo ChrisK posted, and noticed the vertical wood surface has two long slots cut into the wood. My 320S doesn't have those slots and now I am wondering if that has limited my ALDE heating.....

Homebodyatheart · April 2018

@CincyKid what year is your Tab? Starting 2017 they reconfigured that area, created a storage area with hatch and the Alde heat goes up behind it. Pre2017 venting that hatch was helpful. @ericnliz has an awesome hatch design in his, as does @Verna

duckblind123 · April 2018

We opted for a clothes bar as well. However, I did not want to permanently attach it to the inside. So, I built two small holding brackets that sit in the shelf/nook above the window. I used felt on the backside of the bracket so it doesn't scratch the wallpaper. Bar works great when we need it and can be removed when we don't. Below is a pic of the bar and one of the brackets.

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Heat vents for the rear deck.

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