Drilling a hole through an RV left (Curbside) wall

[chrisski]

I am drilling through my RV wall and do not know how they are constructed. Would you consider this a good place to drill though the wall without going through a beam? Please assume for the sake of discussion this is the only place. It is for a battery vent, and if wall idea doesn't work a pipe is getting inserted to go through the roof, and I really do not want to add a vertical pipe
Hole Inside.jpg

Hole Outside.jpg
Where I plan on drilling the hole is on the pink circle. To me on the inside pic, its below the aluminum frame so should be fine, and on the outside, the vent will fit there.

I'm hoping to avoid joining an RV forum to get an answer on this.

[Mike90250]

Looks like you could use that compartment just under the exterior circle, as some sort of feed thru. Be sure to angle the holes so that the outer is below the inner, so any water leaks don't funnel indoors.
Have you tried looking for access thru any fridge flue vent ?
or thru the floor, around a wheel well or something ?

[chrisski]

I want to get the hose angled so the hydrogen from the battery vent goes up. For the fridge vent, I thought of tapping into the plumbing vents, but I can’t find any. Also the fridge is at the rear and this battery bank is at the front. The small door on the right is a propane bottle enclosed in a sheet metal container. THere’s 4 GC2 batteries in the bigger compartment, the pass through under bedroom storage area. The vent that was already in the RV for the old battery is about 2 inches below the top of the hose. There’s access down like the old battery vent I mentioned and also a floor mounted vent, and also through the jacks, but nothing for the hydrogen to rise out of.

[foo1bar]

From the first pic, it looks to me like the aluminum frame is right at the bottom edge of the top of the door for your basement.
So I think if you make a hole as indicated in the second picture it will be going into your framing, which I would think is a bad idea.

I have not cut into the basement walls of an RV, but from the pictures, it looks like yours are relatively thin, like 3/4" plywood, or maybe 3/4" insulation board with thin plywood on the inside and the plastic/fiberglass body panel on the other.

I'd probably identify what louvered opening or whatever I was going to put in before I started making any holes.

Also - if you're putting a vent at the top of the compartment for exhaust gasses, is there already another vent for air to come into the compartment?

[chrisski]

I have the louvered vent purchased. It requires a 2 3/8” hole to be drilled. Also, the hole in the external pic should be shown lower to not go through the Aluminum frame so thanks for noticing.

Why do you ask about a vent coming in? There is the old battery vent hole I could leave uncovered if one were needed. Unfortunately it sits below the batteries for this project, so the gasses would not be going up to get to the old hole.

[foo1bar]

Why do you ask about a vent coming in?

If you are expecting to get much air/hydrogen going out of the vent, there will need to be air coming into the space from somewhere.
If there's a decent sized vent lower down to provide make-up air, then you shouldn't have a problem.
But if you only have 1 vent, you will have less air movement out of the space (and as I understand it, your goal is to have air movement out of this space)

The vent you're putting in is kind of like a chimney - chimneys only work well when you've got air coming into the room and into the stove/fireplace from outside. If you don't have makeup air coming in, the air can't go up and out the chimney very well.

[Mike90250]

If you are expecting to get much air/hydrogen going out of the vent, there will need to be air coming into the space from somewhere.
If there's a decent sized vent lower down to provide make-up air, then you shouldn't have a problem.
But if you only have 1 vent, you will have less air movement out of the space (and as I understand it, your goal is to have air movement out of this space)

The vent you're putting in is kind of like a chimney - chimneys only work well when you've got air coming into the room and into the stove/fireplace from outside. If you don't have makeup air coming in, the air can't go up and out the chimney very well.

I doubt any RV is very airtight, ones I've seen leak like sieves, but the point is valid. And my mistake at the beginning - I didn't catch it was a battery vent, which if unpowered, needs uphill slope all the way. HOWEVER - if these are flooded batteries, you might want a powered vent, with it's own little 10w panel. fumes from late stages of charging may not drift up and out fast enough to not make the inside stink.

[chrisski]

I did cut the hole in the RV for an additional vent. I put it on the front of the RV which is not shown in the picture. That slopes uphill slightly. I came very close to giving up on the vent and purchasing four LithIum Batteries today, but I got the vent drilled today.

I would like to cut an additional hole in the cargo door that is in the picture and put a sliding vent that I can open and close, but have not found anything to install yet. I would like a good amount, like 12” X 12” to open up on these sliding vents on each side of the RV and perhaps the front to get a good amount of air circulation when I’m camping and charging. I think these vents in the cargo doors would be a perfect place to add this powered fan.

I do wonder how much gasses will come out of the 4 Golf Cart batteries. There will be two charge controllers, one with a 24 amp set of panels and the other with a 36 amp set of panels. The only way I know how much my batteries off gas is when I go fill the water up every other week, and in the two months I’ve had the batteries, I charged them and have floated them since, and I have gone through about a half gallon of water, so that was broken down into gasses, but I’m sure when I start using them, it will be more than that.