Squeaks and Rattles Inside My Van

[OCBlue88]

As I work through my old camper van's big ticket items, the van is getting more "fun" to drive around. The one thing I've noticed when I first got the van was the amount of racket the interior has when going down the road. It's bad. This on an empty camper van (no pots and pans, not utensils, plates, etc).

So this weekend I went through the interior of the van and found a bunch of loose cabinet doors as well as my bathroom door bouncing around. I fitted all of them with felt liners. I also wrapped the microwave oven plate with a towel and the stove top cover with a thick blanket. This got rid of the big bangs and clatter while on the move. Noticeable improvement, but there are still squeaks, that sound like rubbing of wood against wood. What do you guys use to shim pieces of wood panels or other similar items to remove the squeaks? Any pointers or areas commonly causing these squeaks?

 

[Ohiosnowbird]

We ignore the squeaks. Bigger fish to fry with our rig usually. And, anything unnecessary that one has to undo once at the campground definitely gets ignored.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

In mine it seems to make a little less racket when loaded up. I stuff a pillow in the oven and towels in the microwave. The main TV mount has a squeak that's quelled with a drop of dish soap. The dash has a rattle I fixed with some electrical tape as a shim/cushion but it came back, and I lack sufficient motivation/attention span to tear into it again. So good luck with that, if you ever manage to vanquish them all you're in a very select group.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Martian]

Can't help with the rest but an easy solution to the microwave plate making noise is to cut a piece of pool noodle a little longer than the distance from the plate to the top and then put it in. The little bit of pressure will keep it in place.

 

[8Muddypaws]

Squeaks & rattles are the universes way of telling you that you should get a better radio. After about 40 years you’ll hardly even notice it.

 

[OCBlue88]

Ok ladies and gentlemen. I went on a mission to reduce/eliminate the orchestra of sounds inside my Falcon 190. To make a long story short: SUCCESS! Ok not 100% yet but I'd say 80%, which is a lot more than it sounds. No pun in intended! It worked so well, my wife wanted to know why the van feels "faster". Well it just sounds faster because it is so much quieter inside it!

I attacked the low hanging fruit first, which are the cabinet doors/drawers. Fitted these soft felt pads on the doors. Added the pads on the bottom of drawers (they wobbled and hit the openings, which made multiple small banging sounds of wood on wood). I used these simple ones in varying sizes. Some I cut to smaller sizes when needed.
Felt Pads from Amazon

Then I geolocated a number of areas where there were cabinets mating with a wall. Most where secure as the builder did add anti-squeak seals on those joints. But the ones with complex corners definitely had loose spots that moved! I pushed wedges into those seams that had gaps. These little wedge shims are just the right size (not too big not too small and I was able to cut a couple of them to size into the smaller gaps.
Rubber Furniture Levers from Amazon

Then I found a couple of more areas that had plastic rubbing against plastic. There, I used Felt Tape to cover a small area of the plastic where they are touching. These felt tape also happen to work great wrapping loose wiring if you have any.
Felt Tape

Took me no more than 45 minutes. But the results were amazing! Not 100%, but I'm close. There are items inside the cabinet that will bounce when I hit a big bump. Just have to secure those. There is still a steel rattle or two and I think it's the bracket for the countertop extension and outside table attached to one of the doors. The van is much quieter now even on semi rough pavement. It is super quiet on smooth pavement. I can actually hear the tire hum now.

 

[Kirk]

Your story reminds me of the time we traveled about 60 miles of gravel forest service road to shortcut along the Montana border with our motorhome. I swear that it took 3 days for our dishes and pans to stop rattling!

 

[Domo]

As with sticks and bricks homes, the small triumph when you tighten a window frame and the squeak stops, or pad the blind where it hits the frame when only turning right, or adjusting the side view mirrors to reduce the wind noise all add up to enjoyment of RV ownership.

Of course, the big ticket items/problems are also good to get completed - but the little ones give a daily/hourly "atta-boy" to our self-esteem.

I have a small torpedo level that I used to use from the captain's seat to verify our levelers where doing their job. Our dash would squeak against the front and side walls/cabinets as we drove - well, that torpedo level is just the right shape to wedge between the dash and the side cabinet!