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I’m going to fit some in my van as I do some long journeys on occasions and it would be nice to quieten things down a wee bit. Been looking at Dodo mat etc but seen some cheaper stuff as well. Much of a muchness?
I have a feeling that this thread will be exhibit A.
And thats each way!
😆
All you need in here https://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/accessories/deadening/damping-mats
You can also use some flashband if you are a cheapskate but it may fall off in a heatwave.
Stop vibration, damp and absorb for the best results.
Silent Coat on the steel - no need for 100% cover, it's just adding mass to stop resonance so aim for the middle of the panels.
Don't do the roof. It'll get hot in summer and just sag and fall off. Waste of time.
Something like dodo mat thermal liner on top. I think I found something much cheaper like stick on carry mat.
Carpet the metal/ply. I used megavan matt stretch carpet.
On the first drive after completion a mate said "It's 40 here.". He was used to having lifts and thought I was only doing 20. So much quiter. Also warmer and cosier for sleeping in.
Thanks guys, plenty to go on there.
The sound deadener stuff like dodomat deadn to stop panel booming/reverbration is basically all just mass loading, it doesn't matter at all how you do it. Dodo even say in their product description that the nice shiny silver is only there to make it easier to apply, it's the butyl that's doing the work. Self adhesive roof flashing tape works exactly as well at a fraction of the cost, it's just a bit more effort to fit (and I will admit less satisfying) I've done one car with dodomat, one car with flashing tape, result is identical.
(Dodo make some really good products but they get a big black mark for changing all their deadn fitment pictures to complete coverage, just so they can sell more. It doesn't work better than doing the middles, it just looks nicer and costs more. Not cool. But I suppose they're not alone in that, I just kind of expected better from them than from ebay scumbos)
It's also worth tracking more specific vibrations, like, my current car's interior was just quite squeaky, I reckon some parts had been removed and refitted in the past and not done quite perfectly. No amount of sound deadening would fix that, I had to refit it properly and also did some taping and sticking and lubricating and general desqueaking, took a while but cost basically nothing and totally worth it. Age and damage tend to make everything squeak or rattle. Actually worth taking this out of the cab- I had a squeak that drove me crazy, thought it was in the back seat, it turned out to be the handbrake cable against the underside! Basically good maintenance can cut irritations.
Actual sound insulation- ie keeping sound out- is harder, especially because we're mostly fighting lowish frequencies and they penetrate well, but also because barrier protection is pretty much impossible because there's bits of vehicle all over the place. (lining a camper is different of course) It's pretty obvious that hardly any sound barrier products for cars make any actual verifiable claims, it's mostly "significant reduction" or "can reduce noise". I fitted dodo barrier in some key places, especially around the wheels and maybe it worked? Maybe it didn't? I felt quite good about doing it 😉
Came here to say not flashing tape. It goes on fine, bit when I popped some panels after a few years large parts had come off and slumped to the bottom of the doors.
Did Silent Coat exactly the same way on another car and it's still there about 12 years later. So that would be my recommendation!
I've converted two vans (of the same type.
The second was considerably quieter, the difference being that rather than ply screwed to the floor, or battens and insulation board followed by ply, I put a layer of those lightweight foam floor/gym tiles down (and cut a load into strips to fill the grooves in the floor) and then laid ply over the top (using half lap joints between the ply sheets as a butt joint would need a batten). Then a bead of PU adhesive round the edge... the result is the ply is completely isolated from vibration and all the noisy stuff under the van (tyres, suspension, gearbox, engine, exhaust, diff and stones etc) I didn't bother going under the cab mat as that's already fairly thick.
I also fitted some deadening tape to the walls, it does make the panels sound less boomy but nothing like as effective as doing the floor.
submarined
Free MemberCame here to say not flashing tape. It goes on fine, bit when I popped some panels after a few years large parts had come off and slumped to the bottom of the doors.
To that I say, use better stuff. Though in fairness it's quite hard to know what is best or worst, I did buy some that was barely sticky off the roll.
I've used Dodomat and cheap flashing tape on different vans and found the sound deadening effects identical. If you're finishing it with insulation and carpeting you'd never tell the difference. You're literally just adding weight to a panel to stop it from resonating like a drum skin, it's not as complicated as they make it sound.
The cheap stuff also survived Italian heatwaves and never fell off or smelled funny.
The next one will probably use a combination of both as I've still got loads of Dodomat in the garage.
I also used flashband on the side panels & roof.
5+ years later it's still on (the bits that I can see, anyway), no funny smells, or anything untoward.
The thing that made the biggest difference was putting a floor down (roofing battens bonded to the metal floor, insulation in between and ply screwed to the top. Even with just this done and nothing else, it made a huge difference to the road noise.
My main reason for doing the roof was to deaden the racket from falling rain - it was very effective for that.
More stuff in my still un-finished conversion diary (conversion has been finished for ages, but the diary isn't):
https://misterg.org.uk/camper-van-build-diary-4-html/
The other significant difference was sealing all the holes in the cab floor & fitting sound deadening there, too (I used the pukka stuff for that):
Lots of small holes that let in a surprising amount of road/tyre noise:
Blocked up & sound deadened:
Bit more info here:
https://misterg.org.uk/camper-noise-html/
spooky_b329+1
The floors, engine bulkhead and wheelarches are the places to concentrate on for driving noise, especially in the cab. The steps inside each door, for example, are just a single thickness of steel and a plastic kick plate in my van
The manufacturer's sound-deadening is minimal in the cab and under-bonnet. These areas are also the most complicated to improve, so can be given up on (don't ask me how I know) unless you're determined
Sound-deadening applied to big panels noticeably improves them on a manual "thump" test but doesn't seem to improve driving noise as much as the floor, but this is a subjective judgement on a sample of one 🙂
The Dodo stuff is excellent quality
I’ve ordered some Dodomat and some cheap stuff as well.
It’s my work van at present and I have a ladder rack on the top which gets a lot of wind noise so I’m going to do the roof and all the panels as well and the gaps on the floor in the cabin.
Hopefully I shall be retiring in a couple of years time so I may even do some insulation and carpeting as well.