Dust mitigation through Suburban Furnace

[arctictraveller]

I've been fighting dust ingress for years, but I finally have a good handle on it. What proved helpful was completely wiping down every area with dust with a wet cloth, then after a dusty trip I was able to see areas that had gotten dusty again. In my case, the worst offender was the gap where the hinges enter the door. There is suppose to be a gasket on each one, but they get old and brittle, and finally fall out. I sealed each one with silicone and solved that area. Next up was the door gaskets. There were several areas where dust was accumulating, so I bought a couple rolls of stick on bulb seal and ran the stuff all the way around the sides of the gaskets where they are attached to the body. That helped, and I also did the same to the front doors to reduce the wind noise which helped too. Next I found dust entering through the battery compartment vent, so I cut a piece of furnace filter, sprayed it with some filter oil and stuffed it in the tube. That stopped most of it, but some still gets in there, but it's now confined to the battery box. After all that, the amount of dust entering has been reduced by perhaps 90%. After every trip, I look closely for any new dust paths, attempt to add more bulb seal, and then clean it all up until the next trip. It's not perfect, but I now have way less getting in.

[larrie]

Originally Posted by arctictraveller

I've been fighting dust ingress for years, but I finally have a good handle on it. What proved helpful was completely wiping down every area with dust with a wet cloth, then after a dusty trip I was able to see areas that had gotten dusty again. In my case, the worst offender was the gap where the hinges enter the door. There is suppose to be a gasket on each one, but they get old and brittle, and finally fall out. I sealed each one with silicone and solved that area. Next up was the door gaskets. There were several areas where dust was accumulating, so I bought a couple rolls of stick on bulb seal and ran the stuff all the way around the sides of the gaskets where they are attached to the body. That helped, and I also did the same to the front doors to reduce the wind noise which helped too. Next I found dust entering through the battery compartment vent, so I cut a piece of furnace filter, sprayed it with some filter oil and stuffed it in the tube. That stopped most of it, but some still gets in there, but it's now confined to the battery box. After all that, the amount of dust entering has been reduced by perhaps 90%. After every trip, I look closely for any new dust paths, attempt to add more bulb seal, and then clean it all up until the next trip. It's not perfect, but I now have way less getting in.

I like the description of your dust chasing process. Can you post a link for the bulb seal?

[arctictraveller]

Originally Posted by larrie

I like the description of your dust chasing process. Can you post a link for the bulb seal?

Amazon lists numerous different configurations of self adhesive rubber D and other shaped seals. I actually bought a couple different shapes and sizes in order to fit in different places. I used the largest size that would still allow the doors to close with out too much effort and in some places I used more than one shape. Here is the one I used the most. https://www.amazon.com/D-Shape-Weath...s%2C480&sr=8-5

[dhally]

Based on advice from this forum, we keep all windows closed on dusty roads, and the AC fan on. This seems to pressurize the cabin and help keep dust out. When we drove with Windows open, the back doors sucked in lots of dust.

The furnace combustion chamber is sealed so gasses can't get into the cabin, but dust could enter AROUND the exhaust fitting.

[Clarkboulder]

I dug back into this issue. The dust is certainly coming in from a number of spots around the wheel well and side van wall. I opened the combustion chamber and no dust there obviously. Suburban maintenance papers say to blow out with air compressor. But ever since I did that, the heater no longer gets gas so now I have a dust distribution system that doesn't even heat when needed. All the dust is coming from the driver side. No noticeable dust comes from the passenger side. weird.