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Platinum Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 12,392
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New front carpet/mat
We have always disliked the living room, jute backed, carpet in the front of the Roadtrek. It was light tan, relatively deep nap and always getting stained and filthy. It was also put in on top of all the standard Chevy mat and pad, so it got thick under the pedals, especailly since we had a full coverage auto mat over it. The first thought was just to take out the carpet and go back to the Chevy mat and regular car mats on it. When I peaked under the carpet at the pedals, it looked like that would work, but when I took out the carpet, I found that Roadtrek had cut back the Chevy mat at the edges to make room for the carpet under the trim. Oh well, out it all came at that point. No wonder it was nearly up into the pedals, as there was an 1" plus of Chevy padding with a thick vinyl matting on top of it, then the 1/2" plus of the very inflexible carpet, and then our mat, that was also over 1/2" thick.
Stripped out, it was obvious there are a lot of things to go over and around, and lots of recesses and bumps in the flooring. Roadtrek had their carpet over the body control module computer, which just doesn't seem like a good idea. The Chevy mat was cut out around it.
When I removed the entry step plastic covers, I got a bit of a surprise when I found some rust under them, just starting. This van never has seen salt or been stored outside since it was on the lot when new.
The plastic step covers are held in with the normal GM clips into slots, but had rubber "seals" on them. I think that is what was leaking. I covered the slots and when I mounted the steps back in I used trim screws instead. I also coated the entire area with pickup truck bedliner, which I have found to work way better than undercoating when you don't want stuff to stick to it. It think the rust was made worse on the drivers side, because Roadtrek hadn't cleaned up the drilling chips from drilling the macerator wiring hole, or the water fill hole in the rear pillar. Unpainted chips rust very quickly. The passenger side had may 20% as much rust as there was no drilling there.
Roadtrek had also drilled a hole for the macerator pump wiring, and not bothered to plug it up well, so there was some rust there also. Needed some silicone to seal.
I did the normal rubber backed foil the first layer for quieting a bit, and used the leftovers in the step areas as they sounded like drums when you thumped them. We had some old rug that I use when under the vehicles and cut some strips to help fill the recesses in the floor to level it a bit, and ease the transitions over the wiring tracks.
The padding is auto carpet padding that allegedly is also more sound damping and insulating that the recycled stock stuff. It was two layers of different material about 1/2" thick.
The new "carpet" is really a commercial entry mat like you would find at the entrance of a bank or other business. Totally washable and cleanable with good cleaners, with a nitrile (Buna) rubber backing, about 1/4" thick. It is very flexible, but not stretchable, so some places were a challenge to get somewhat flat. I did a bunch of selective padding in the area coming off of the doghouse, which had a big bump up.
Lots of space under the pedals now, and it should be a lot easier to keep clean. We just need to get a couple of the thin car mats for directly under our feet.
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