Thor Forums

[Long & Winding road]

So I did some more Mods this weekend after reading a few AC threads. I was going to post with one of them but I knew this would be a long one and I didn’t want to get it lost in the shuffle. Plus it’s not about the AC unit at all. - Its about making the cab area more insulated for hot and cold and to reduce road/wind noise.

These tips were mentioned by a few Thor Forum Members - so I cannot take credit for them - but I wanted to share what I did and the overall results.

The Bulkhead above the dash (Over the windshield and next to the drop down bunk on my Axis) is not insulated at all – its just a hollow dead space. Like I mentioned - a few members pointed this out – Its Just open space and you can see the fiberglass roof. This area is around 7 foot long - 10 inch deep and 12 inches wide or so - then I have about an inch space (It varies) between the inner ceiling and the outer fiberglass roof. So after inspecting this area I decided to make a trip to Home Depot to look for some insulation that might work. I spent about 30 bucks (plus about $100 on Amazon for Kill Matt and Fat Mat – I love this stuff – but its pricey).

When I looked into this bulkhead you can feel the tops of the A Pillars are empty (but on my unit the factory used foam to fill the under lower ends that connect inside engine compartment - so that was good). I took two foam pipe insulators then covered with some Frost King batting with aluminum backing (held on with duct tape) and shoved them down into the A pillars - cut to fit then bent down some to shove in the hole. This took some time – very tight fit.

Next I used some Killmat (half the price of Dynomat but is a little thinner but not as sticky) and covered fiberglass roof part (including the tops of A pillars). I went as far back has I could stick my hand into the smaller spaces.

Then I used the 1/2-inch Styrofoam board (4 x 8 sheet) that has an aluminum backing. I cut that into aprox 2 foot x 6 foot strips so I could slide one at a time in-between this section. I was able to curve it down to the very front bottom part of this bulkhead.

Next I installed the 3/4 inch Fat Mat in the main area only and over the A pillars,.

Followed up with some Frost King (2 inch thick aprox 15 inch wide batting with aluminum backing).

Then I thought why not used some left over Frost King over the batting - but this is the kind that is thin with sticky back and aluminum top side.

Lastly put some leftover non-fiberglass batting in every crack and crevice that I could reach over the bunk area.

So if you were counting 5 layers thick with some extra batting in spots! (most with aluminum backing on them!) All of them with different densities and thicknesses. I figured more is better – Right?

The results – hard to say rigth now. On the interstate I think it help slightly – But I only went about 10 miles or so - might find better results on a windy day? Heat wised I don’t know yet – it was a cool cloudy/rainy day today. So will have to check on that later. I like to think it will help some in the summer and wintertime. Im still glad I insulated it - Im trying to eliminate any areas that can build up heat or radiate noise with driving.

Conclusions. Not sure how much good it did - But I think it was worth it. I think if I just used the Styrofoam board with some non-fiberglass batting and maybe a layer of frost king with aluminum backing it would be just as good and only cost like $30 bucks and I think that would be good enough (along with my A pillar insulation).

Total job took about 4 hours including cleanup.

Oh yeah, I installed some 12 gauge wires for my next project - 12 volt fan in the cockpit area. You can see from the pictures the factory had a 1-inch hole already drilled for it.