Road dust inside kitchen cabinets

[raj]

I have a Winnebago 2108FBS trailer. As we start to sometimes take it down dirt roads (carefully, since we have already had the sewage lines fixed twice from dragging!), we have started noticing a fine layer of dust on all of the silverware and utensils in the two kitchen drawers. I noticed there were some large (1” or more!) between the sheet metal of the wheel well and the flooring under the kitchen cabinets. I cleaned it all of dust, then used a lot of Gorilla tape to seal it off. I then cleaned everything in the drawers and the drawers themselves. This last time taking it out, I noticed the dust is back again!

The dust is a very fine grained gray. It looks like road dust.

Has anyone else seen this, did you fix it, and, if so, how?

[Ray,IN]

The only solution is to seal EVERY air leak in the trailer. If you leave a window or roof vent open it creates a negative pressure in the trailer, which then sucks dust inside.
Continue your search for holes and cracks anywhere on the trailer, not just on the floor area.

[Marine359]

The trailer twists and torques itself when you’re driving off-pavement. Dust gets in through the entry door and window frames and pass through. It’s easy enough to forget to tightly close roof vents. Dust will also come in the trough the A/C. You can partially protect against this by cutting a cardboard template that will fit securely inside the interior vent above the foam filter. But yeah, there’s really no way to stop all dust from getting in. If you do a lot of off-pavement travel, you need to check two things routinely

Us folks who do a lot of off-pavement have learned:

Check your fresh water tank bolts and support crossbar. If it loosens, continued pounding off road may cause tank to fall out. Best precaution is to put in a metal strut under the tank below the coroplast, supported by u-bolts that will fit over the frame rails and down through the strut.

Check your fridge if it’s a 12v compressor model. Winnebago mounts the 12v fridge in the same cabinet space as the propane/electric models. Trouble is the 12v fridge is dimensionally smaller on the interior of the cabinet and is supported only by a couple of screws on the front top and bottom mounting plates. The propane/electric fridge is big enough to be supported inside the cabinet. If the mounting screws on your 12v fridge loosen, they will wrench themselves out of the holes bored into the fridge, and the fridge may fall out. Winnebago won’t accept any responsibility for their bad design even under warranty. PM me if you ever need a fix for this, but for now just check the fridge mounts and make sure the fridge doesn’t move with a bit of nudging.

[arbogajim]

We had the same problem with our 2019 Micro Minnie 2306BHS. Turns out it was the sheet metal in the wheel well below the kitchen cabinets had lost the screws meant to attach it to another piece of sheet metal that was supposed to seal off the area below the cabinets. I tried replacing the screws but they didn't hold since they were just going through another piece of sheet metal. I ended up riveting the pieces together for the final fix.

[raj]

I'm thinking maybe I need to put a flexible, expanding, foam around where the sheet metal of the wheel well meets the wood below the kitchen cabinets. I don't understand how to rivet it together. Maybe I need to investigate this some more.

[RocknRoll]

Riveting is easy and secure. Plenty of U-Tube videos out there. Pick up a kit at Harbor Freight.

[Rbarbot2]

Are you sure it’s not debris from the manufacturing process, such as fine saw dust? I have shop vacced all the crevices and even removed access panels, yet every time we go down the road there is still new saw dust that has worked its way out of some cracks.

[SactoSteve]

Amen!

[raj]

I don't think what I'm seeing is left over debris. It wasn't there for the first few years after purchasing new. Also, the nature of it is a very fine black powder which covers everything in the drawers and can't be fully cleaned off of rough surfaces like wood.

"Arbogajim" describes exactly what I'm seeing and looking at the outside of the wheel well which is positioned under the sink shows that 3 screws are completely missing, just as he described. Looks as if a riveter is in my future.

[raj]

Any information about what size and length of rivets to use? I’m new to riveting, so any info is good.

[Bcborn]

Originally Posted by raj

Any information about what size and length of rivets to use? I’m new to riveting, so any info is good.

Rivet discussion and size noted in another post here.

https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/...ds-367097.html

[raj]

Great info! Thanks!