Insulation Lining
Insulation and Lining
Lining and insulating the interior of a pantech
We found that in mid summer our bus motorhome was a furnace without using the airconditioner, so we wanted to better insulate the new one, to avoid sweltering in summer heat, and freezing during mid winter.
The system we chose works fantastically, with the interior of the motorhome being a cool change from the summer heat, and still nice and cosy during the winter. Coaches often have a double metal skin, and retaining a lot of glass also presents insulation problems.
The first process we adopted was the liberal application of sound-deadener or underbody sealer to the interior of the aluminium pantechnion. The stuff we started with was a thick black gel that we applied by daubing with a 4 inch brush. This provided an initial thick coating that not only cut down the sound of rain on the metal, but also dropped the interior temperature a few degrees as well.
A second coat of thick Ormonoid black sealer was brushed on the same way, and used as an adhesive for the insulation batts. The existing aluminium studs made our wall thickness 40mm, which is an odd size, so we used 50mm thick batts, which compressed nicely into the wall cavity when the ply-wood lining was attached. The main difficulty was holding the batts in position while trying to align the sheets, and thats when we discovered that slapping a thick coat of Ormonoid on first then quickly pressing the insulation batts into position before it began to set, was a great solution.
The walls were lined with 3mm veneered ply, or “caravan wood” if you wish. The sheets were cut to size, checked for fit, then afixed with a generous application of construction adhesive, and a few pop-rivets. Fortunately, our pantech already had tracks or rails in the corners for the ply to fit into. This saved a lot of work in adding noggins or timber studs for mounting the sheets to. Extra noggins were added around window areas, and wherever there could be extra pressure placed against the walls by people leaning etc.
After struggling with sheets and the insulation batts, once we discovered “gluing” the batts into position with the Ormonoid or bitumen coat, fixing the sheets was a breeze. The exception was the ceiling, as the sheets had to fit into a groove along each wall, and also into the groove on the joiner strips, so trying to connect the 3 grooves, balance the sheet in position, drill holes and pop-rivet, it became a real balancing job on timber “toms”, to try and hold the fragile sheets up to the ceiling.
Once the interior lining and insulation was completed, the change in the inside temperature of the pan was immediately noticable. Difficult areas like the door take a little extra time, but the difference in the ambient temperature is well worth the result. During a mid winter frosty night, even a small heater was too much to leave running more than a few minutes, and now in the soaring summer temperatures, a small fan is enough to keep the temperature down around 26 deg celcius. We will add a small airconditioner in the future, but would prefer to run without one as much as possible.