Rodent damage and repair options?

CelticRambler

An unplanned winter lay-up of a few months has seen my MH infested by a plague of rodents, with lots of what looked like small-scale damage - chewed carpets, chewed edges of cabinetry, chewed food containers, chewed bedding, chewed baggage harnesses, droppings and urine stains .... :mad:

Then I went looking for a suspect chewed wire to the cab light and found this:



Little feckers :mad: :mad: :mad:

Having removed four carrier bags of shredded foam (?insulation), blankets, socks, newspaper, acorns and other unidentified stuff, I'm left with this:



I don't know where all that blue-green foam came from, but a few patches still stuck to the ceiling trim suggest it used to cover the whole space between the trim and the original cab ceiling.

Is there any good reason why I shouldn't fill that space now with an expanding foam insulation? As there are so many nooks and crannies, and it's been impossible to clean the whole area thoroughly, I'm concerned that another family of critters will decide to set up home there in the future if I leave any voids.

endacl

Whatever your fill it with, add steel wool. They don’t like that.

CJhaughey

Expanding foam is powerful stuff, I have seen it push things off walls when it expands. Be very careful if you go down that road.
I'd be more inclined to get some closed cell PE foam in thin sheets and glue that in place.

CelticRambler

There's no way I could get sheets to fit into all the fiddly spaces, and definitely not without stripping out all the ceiling trim (which, at the moment, I can't even see how to detach from the original roof). If I was going down that route, it'd be easier to stuff the spaces with rockwool.

autumnalcore

Its original purpose was acoustic damping for the tin top when the chassis left the factory. Looks like half the tins cut out in yours and with all the timber etc above it I doubt you'll notice much difference. If you left it.

If you are going the rockwool route get rockwool batts as they are more water repellant. If going expanding foam you want a low expansion ratio closed cell foam.

spaceHopper

No harm in getting a quote to have it done professionally also is it worth checking if insurance covers it

CelticRambler

spaceHopper wrote: »

No harm in getting a quote to have it done professionally also is it worth checking if insurance covers it

Nope! I only have third party & windscreen cover, so definitely no chance of getting paid for a mouse attack!

autumnalcore wrote: »

Its original purpose was acoustic damping for the tin top when the chassis left the factory. Looks like half the tins cut out in yours and with all the timber etc above it I doubt you'll notice much difference. If you left it.

If you are going the rockwool route get rockwool batts as they are more water repellant. If going expanding foam you want a low expansion ratio closed cell foam.

There's well over half the roof cut out - a margin of only about 20cm left on three sides. If the original purpose was acoustic damping, then maybe I'll experiment with other removable "stuffing" materials instead to see if that improves the in-cab-on-the-road noise - fill up a few more of those cavities that must surely be enhancing the natural reverberations.

Also have to think of a creative use for the two holes in the ceiling trim (one each side of the cab light) that I previously thought the little feckers had made so they could abseil down to the dashboard, but now think were accidental excavations where they'd stripped off all the foam and kept going till they hit empty space.

CelticRambler

Well ... I'm no Sir Liamalot, but I think this might be why the cab courtesy light stopped working :eek:



I'm not sure whether I'm more concerned about the extent of the damage, or the fact that the relevant fuse decided it wasn't worth cutting off the supply to the bare wires.

And here's one of the little feckers responsible - sleeping eternally beside the suspension bearing on the opposite side.


Cables chewed literally left, right and centre behind the dashboard :mad:, although fortunately the rest of the wires were "only" exposed and not chewed right through. All repaired now, and half the dashboard put back in place (why does it have to be such a jigsaw puzzle?), and I've decided to leave the overcab without any additional/replacement insulation. Seeing as there's a pile of shredded copper wire amongst the débris (mixed in witht the crumbs of red plastic insulation in the first photo), I'm not sure steel wool would have been much of a deterrent in any case.

CelticRambler

CelticRambler wrote: »

Well ... I'm no Sir Liamalot, but I think this might be why the cab courtesy light stopped working :eek:

:pac:

Yurp! There's yer problem!

CelticRambler wrote: »

I'm not sure whether I'm more concerned about the extent of the damage, or the fact that the relevant fuse decided it wasn't worth cutting off the supply to the bare wires.

Probably hasn't shorted yet...Or it's open circuit and there's another break you haven't found yet.