Dampening Sound & Vibrations

  An empty cargo van can be very noisy. Especially when rain or hail make the roof and walls sound like 100 drums, keeping you up at night 😅  Tiles of deadening material are typically applied to the walls and ceiling to dampen the vibrations and offending sounds.
 
  Cheap bitumen based products can be used. They are often byproducts of the Russian or Chinese oil & gaz industries, can outgas a lot, and contain a wide spectrum of petroleum products. Sounds great for the wallet, not so much for the lungs in an enclosed van space.
 
  Rubber and Butyl sheets, used in OEM and custom automotive applications, outgas less and emit fewer compounds. But they cost noticeably more. I ordered 2 products:
  • NVX SDRF20 Adhesive Black Foam Rubber Tri-Layer tiles (~$3.5/sqft Dec'20)
  • Vibro Black 80 mil Car Sound Deadening tiles (~$5.1/sqft Dec'20)
 
  Now, no need to go crazy with dampening, as it can noticeably impact weight & cost. It can mainly be used on the most resonating areas. These can be found out easily by sounding panels around the van with bare knuckles.
 
  Also, when taking into account that the roof will be covered with solar panels, and that the interior walls will be doubled up with insulation and 1/4" wood panels, most of the actual noise might end up coming from just a few areas. In this van those are, by decreasing importance:
  1.  Above the cabin's headliner (imagine hail banging on that huge 'forehead')
  2.  Wall cavities on each side of the ceiling
  3.  Vertical walls behind the driver (pantry) and in the back on the passenger side (electrical panel)
  So efforts focused there (not shown are the tiles above the headliner):
 
  With hindsight, I would now only use NVX. Not only is it cheaper but it also does a better job at dampening sound, and across a larger range of frequencies.
 
  Unfortunately, such select dampening might not help much in case indelicate RVers pull alongside us and turn on their generator at night... I guess we'll still have to hastily get moving, refraining from slashing their tires 😂

  How about dampening road noise ? Don't see much of a need, here, as many layers and cabinets will isolate the wheel wells and cargo floor from the living space. We'll see, though. Maybe I'll have to eat my croissant on this one... 😅  [Update] above 65mph a medium loud noise suddenly appears. That seems to come from the rear wheel wells. Despite having added a square of dampening material on each well, and left in place the factory foam and plastic cover. It sounds like a 'rolling' noise, maybe from the bearings. Oh well, 65mph is my max highway speed with this beast, to limit gas siphoning and pollution, so not a problem. It is a good reminder actually 😂

____________________________________ 

 
 
<<< previous post: Insulation
 

Comments

Post a Comment