Solar Powered Vent Fit to Jayco Sterling

Four years ago I fitted one of these solar vents in the skylight of our bathroom and another one in the toilet of our home. It is not a difficult job and well within the scope of your average handyman - if there is such a creature!

The vents are still working gangbusters and start in the morning before the sun hits them. I figured one of them fitted to a roof hatch in the Sterling would circulate the air and get rid of any stuffiness if the van was not used for a period of time.

The item is a Sunvent SVT-212S and was purchased on the net. I didn't want one with a battery that I had to turn on and off so the stainless Sunvent filled the bill. Sol shines and Sunvent vents! Actually the vent works even with medium cloud cover.


I decided the easiest way to fit it was to remove the roof hatch and do the fit on the workbench. This would leave a hole in the van roof and we hoped it wouldn't rain! Removal is pretty simple with two hinge pins and two lever catch pins to be removed. This was done from inside the van.

Nice blue sky and no sign of rain so the fit begins.

The hatch has two layers of perspex about 12mm apart and the plan was to mark the opening using the rubber seal as a template and drill a 10mm hole to start the cut.

I then cut out the opening using a jigsaw with a very fine blade. A word of warning here. Don't stop halfway through the cut as the perspex melts as it is cut and when you stop it solidifies the blade to the job! The opening was cut undersize and then opened out to the correct size with a mini die grinder. Perspex residue gathers between the two layers and this was washed out with detergeant and water and the hatch dried in the sun.

Then I had a look outside and decided I needed to sharpen the footwork!
Them's rainclouds Shooter!

The solar vent was installed in the opening with a smear of glazing silicone on either side of the rubber seal. There are three stainless self tappers to fasten the solar vent to the hatch and about completes that side of the install. There is a slide over type of plastic gasket that hides the cut on the inside.

Then it was time to re-install the hatch. I had removed the hatch from inside the van but decided it would be quicker and easier to do the install from outside. Maybe not safer, but quicker! Fibreglass van roofs are slippery and driveways hard!

The whole operation took about 1 1/2 hours and the vent is working beautifully. Below are two pics showing the finished job.

And the dark clouds blew away without a drop of rain falling!