Ya. They chew that.

[insyncro]

Not our cats
All spade, neutered and trained.

[Vanagon Nut]

bluebus86: maybe an image in the gallery here? Took a couple quick pics.

Though there's a grill covering the intake, it seems vermin might get in through uncovered portion of this intake.

- While camping somewhere in OR, during the time I chatted with the host, I watched a small squirrel run around the front bumper and disappear behind the lower grill. -

In my case, since the hoses were chewed from the outside, and since I saw no evidence in the heater box of dung, maybe vermin got in some other way? I had left the engine cover off for some time, (van sat for over a year) but I figure if vermin got in there, why go all the way to the front behind dash? OTOH there was one hose elbow at a dash vent that was chewed. Maybe they crawled through the heat box, then chewed their way out at the elbow. (having run into a dead end at the dash vent)

My hope is that they didn't get up and past wires in windshield pillar to area above headliner. The wires were severed at the opening to this pillar.

While doing my engine swap, I thought myself clever to redesign the heater box (it was an air cooled so it needed to be changed to accept the heater core) so it would recycle cab air. Fan on, it indeed did pull air through the side vent holes. Part of the plan was to build a flap at the air intake as this would make the box pull even more air through the side intakes. But..... Pulled the grill off yesterday, found the fetid flap I'd made (project stalled there) but NO air intake grill.

If I knew then what I know now..... Irony; I have at least two of these small grills in the basment!

Too bad there isn't a flap at the inlets from the fresh air. One could get in the habit of closing those.....


Neil.

_________________
1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA
(VW Gas I4)

1988 Westy DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[Vanagon Nut]

Thankfully no signs of rodents in headliner but found more wire damage. 5 in total.

Not rocket surgery, but this is proving to be an overall PITA. Folks. Do what you can to prevent this.

Neil.

_________________
1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA
(VW Gas I4)

1988 Westy DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[Vanagon Nut]

So the saga continues.

While prepping the cabinet for a TF-49 DC Truckfridge install, I removed the 110VAC outlet. I tugged kinda hard on the box to pull it off the wires. (I have no intention for future use of these) Thinking I might've damaged the wire casing where it's strapped down, had a close look.

Damaged bits do NOT line up with the straps. Very likely a rodent chewed on these. Something also chewed on the wrap I put on the Dometic exhaust.

Edit: while I'm certain a rodent chewed the insulation on the Dometic exhaust pipe, and though I was careful to qualify my suspicions, someone more knowledgable than I of these things suggested the wire damage may not be done by vermin.

Ironically, since I'd installed rigid board insulation, I suspect the vermin crawled through the front door vent, used the top of the insulation as a bridge (irony) and into area behind fridge.

Not complaining, just a heads up.

Neil.

Looks like the bugger chewed right through the copper.

_________________
1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA
(VW Gas I4)

1988 Westy DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[randywebb]

where are the places on the front of the Van that you need to protect to keep rodents out?

any pics with arrows that someone can post?
_________________
1986 2.1L Westy 2wd Auto Trans.

[dobryan]

[kgold708]

Rodents will avoid areas that smell like fresh cat urine, its like hard wired into their brains or something. I've seen and fixed some horrific rodent damage, they love those wires and the shelter provided by a stationary vehicle.
_________________
ASE Master Tech.
ASE L1 Advanced engine performance specialist.
ASE L2 Advanced electronic diesel engine specialist.

[berkeleyjack]

Cat pee smells an awful lot like ammonia, and googling brings up some pages suggesting using ammonia to get rid of mice, so cleaning out a van with a 1/1 ammonia/water mix might be a good idea.

But that seems more preventative or getting rid of a mouse that's living in your van. Won't do much to help once the mouse has already made a mess of things.
_________________
All-grain homebrewer with a 1990 Vanagon Carat.

[kgold708]

All animal urine smells like ammonia, we produce ammonia as a waste product and excrete it through our urine along with other things. Even us lowly humans can smell the difference between various animal urines and ammonia, cat, dog, human, etc. So I wouldn't count on ammonia having any real effect.
_________________
ASE Master Tech.
ASE L1 Advanced engine performance specialist.
ASE L2 Advanced electronic diesel engine specialist.

[berkeleyjack]

I guess? Depends on how smart the mouse is.

But my cat's pee smells almost exactly like straight-from-the-bottle ammonia, but people pee doesn't.
_________________
All-grain homebrewer with a 1990 Vanagon Carat.

[kgold708]

Yeah IDK, I think ammonia is a byproduct of protein consumption. All cats require a very high protein intake, they can't process carbs like people or dogs so maybe ammonia is the thing the rodentia avoid? Btw almost all ammonia sold in stores these days has a soaping agent added to it to prevent people from useing it to make meth or bombs. The last time I bought REAL ammonia I had to fill out a form and provide state issued ID at my local hardware store. You can tell the difference by simply shaking the bottle, REAL ammonia doesn't foam up. We live in interesting times! What they do to the LEAST of us they WILL do to ALL of us.rant off.
_________________
ASE Master Tech.
ASE L1 Advanced engine performance specialist.
ASE L2 Advanced electronic diesel engine specialist.

[Vanagon Nut]