Mosquito proof your rig

[iveofione]

Bug season will be here soon and with more people than ever sleeping in their rigs keeping bugs out is a high priority when overnighting near a stream or lake. My Casa has netting on 3 sides and ventilates very well, the only bugs getting in occur when I have the canopy door open. I carry an electronic fly swatter with me in season and make quick work of mosquito's before bedtime.

But now with gas prices spiraling upward I have decided to use my Subaru Outback for overnight or short 2-3 day trips. I mounted an electric fridge in it this weekend and am starting on a bed platform today. My tri-fold mattress is 25'' x 75'' and will fit in the Outback just perfect giving me the same sleeping space as the Casa but with less headroom. But how to ventilate without bugs? There are available mesh window coverings that fit over doors like an envelope but they have 3 inherit problems. First they are 2 thicknesses of net material so any actual airflow is suppressed unless there is considerable breeze. The second problem is that they are a generic fit and may not fit your specific rig. And the 3rd problem is they are expensive, particularly in light of the fact that they may not be satisfactory at all.

The answer is to build my own and custom fit them to the Outback. I have a roll of netting on hand and cut a piece of it a little bigger than the window and taped it in place then took a razor blade and cut around the perimeter. Then using 3M 3350 foil tape that was 2'' wide I folded an inch over each edge to make a sandwich that protects the edge from fraying and helps retain the shape. Using magnets it attaches to the door frame and completely seals against any bug intrusion. I have ordered some stainless steel pin magnets that are easy to grip and store in a provided box, installation taking less than a minute.

I tested 4 different tapes to see which would work best on the netting. Three were Gorilla tapes- Chrystal Clear, Pure White and Black Duct Tape, the other the aforementioned 3M 3350. I applied all 4 tapes to a single piece of netting and placed them in a bowl of hot water then checked them in the morning. All were rolled hard against a granite surface to insure the best adhesion giving every chance to seat the netting into the adhesive. My first takeaway was the the black duct tape was the least effective pulling open early in the test. The other two Gorilla tapes were better with the Chrystal Clear being superior to the white tape. But easily the winner was the 3M 3350. It showed no sign of weakness overnight and still had good adhesion the next day. Don't confuse this with the Reflectix brand metallic tape, I have that too but it is an inferior tape.

I think the cost of buying ready made window coverings and building your own is roughly the same but the ones you make with a single layer of fabric will ventilate better and certainly fit much better than the generic models. Give it a try, about 15 minutes apiece to build and you will sleep much better having them in place.

 

[Northern]

Sweet.

I also custom made screens for my van. With the sliding doors, the big drape-over style you can buy won't work.
For me, as I often roll into camp at dusk when mozzies are at their worst, I do NOT want to open my doors if at all possible, unless I want my evening entertainment to be killing mosqitoes on the headliner.
No doubt that these are ugly and inelegant, but the advantage is that I can install them from inside the van. (This is what they look like after a couple seasons of camping)


I used a roll of fine window screen I had laying around. Cheap drugstore tag board was used to cut out frames matching the shape of the upper 10" or so of the door frame, x2. Screen was sandwiched between the matched frames and glued in with all weather wood glue. Then I covered the edges with duct tape.

They are flexible, and get slid up into the top of the window frame, between the glass and inside frame. After the screen is in place, I hold it steady while lowering the window 2 to 6 inches, then seal the bottom edge to the glass with blue painter's tape.
I usually just leave the strip of tape attached to the screen when I reverse the process in the morning, as it stays sticky enough to work through several installations. I do have window rain deflectors, so unless it's raining sideways, they stay dry. You can see one installed here:


Not too bad for 30 min and probably 10 bucks. I keep looking for some kind of thin but rigid plastic sheet I could use to make more durable ones, but haven't found anything yet.