Rodent Proofing

[rbrent]

I also went underneath and sealed every nook and cranny in the plastic underbelly. There is no way a rodent can get inside thru the bottom of the trailer so I'm not too worried about the holes where the piping goes thru the floor to the underbelly. i have done this to my many other campers and have never had a problem.

[tslarson]

The first thing I did to our trailer when we got it last year was to seal up every single hole in the floor I could find. I just used spray foam. I think that if you keep the air and heat from passing through a mouse won't be attracted to the area. I looked everywhere and hope I found every penetration in the floor. I also worked from underneath trying to improve on the factory's spray foam job, which actually was pretty good.

[moallen]

This 24rls is our 5th camper. I've always crawled underneath and sealed around pipes and cables. The gaps were never huge, but supposedly a mouse can squeeze through a 1/4" crack. Except for the engine compartment of a class c, we've never had a problem with rodents getting inside.

Our new 24rls has the Artic package, and a fiberglass blanket covers the entire bottom side. The bottom side is covered with a heavy duty vinyl, and the top side is covered with a thin aluminum foil. it looks rather secure from underneath the trailer and it would be impossible to find any places to seal.

I opened up 4 places inside and looked for any opportunities to seal things - under the refrigerator, under the kitchen sink drawers, under the bath sink and under the shower. These are all covered by access panels.

I was astonished by the size of the holes cut during manufacture with no attempt to seal them. For example, the opening under the shower was about 8" x 8". Apparently Starcraft expects the Artic package's insulation blanket to keep pests out. I'm not that confident and sealed them with sheet metal, stainless steel wool and RTV caulk.

I could feel air movement in each of those places. In fact, wires actually penetrated the insulation in several places. I have always heard mice have keen senses and can detect warm air and odors in places they might like to homestead.

It wasn't easy sealing up these places. But now I can rest easy.

Refrigerator

Refrig.JPG (114.17 KiB) Viewed 1042 times

Kitchen Sink

Kit_Sink.JPG (84.25 KiB) Viewed 1042 times

Shower

Shower.JPG (106.39 KiB) Viewed 1042 times