Do you need a caravan dust buster?

There are few things as dispiriting after a long day’s drive to your remote off-grid camp site than opening your caravan door to find everything, from your pillow to prep bench, covered in a layer of red dust. OK, seeing the contents of your broken drawers strewn all over floor comes close!

But re-assembling the drawers and ensuring they're properly locked ends the latter problem; but if you have an inherent dust-sealing problem, it’s your nightmare every day off the bitumen.

Perhaps the worst thing about dust is that it finds its way everywhere: inside your cupboards, onto clothes and even onto the bristles of your toothbrush, and the search has been on for years to find a foolproof way to stop the blasted stuff getting in.

This cause has been aided in recent years by the move to all-electric caravan appliances. This means you don’t need the otherwise compulsory lower gas venting in the entry door and further venting in the upper walls to release any trapped vapours.

Solving the dust problem

Some makers like Queensland’s Bushtracker and Australian Off Road have dodged the dust door problem by fitting flip-up, or flip-sideways compression flaps ostensibly described as water-proofing, to block dust entry via the door. Another solution is to ensure any appliance air venting, such as behind a three-way fridge, is sealed to the inside of the van.

Off-road specialists like Melbourne’s Trakmaster on some models used to fit a rooftop vent that when raised manually on dusty roads, forced clean air inside to pressurise the van’s interior and keep dust-heavy air out.

Of course there have been much more technical solutions since...

Ever-inventive Enzo Gnocato at Melbourne’s Van Cruiser claimed his vans would be ‘100 per cent dust free’ by fitting its optional roof-mounted 12-volt Cabin Pressure System that blew filtered dust-free air into the cabin when travelling.  But it was ugly and found few takers.

Kimberley Karavans then made its more sophisticated in-house developed Dust Suppression System that balanced outside with inside air pressure to keep dust at bay. 

Then there's Urban Caravans' own Dust Suppression System that uses a marine-grade air pump that pushes 3000 square inches of air per minute into the van. The roof-mounted system is powered from the tow vehicle instead of draining the van’s house batteries and with an inexpensive washable automotive-type filter, is economical to run. 

In 2019 Kedron introduced a simple, retrofittable roof-mounted hatch that creates positive pressure in the caravan and keeps dust out. It’s also completely serviceable from inside the van, without tools, with its simplicity being a major attraction.

The same year Dometic released its rooftop-mounted and hence retro-fittable Dust Reduction System that's designed to fit all caravans.

Developed with computer modelling and tested extensively in Outback Australia, the non-powered unit with a replaceable filter works while you're driving by allowing filtered, clean air to enter and pressurise the vehicle.

State-of-the-art dust reduction

Since then, most manufacturers of ‘off-road’ caravans have offered either the Dometic unit or some other system of dust suppression, but the one we saw on the just-launched Pioneer Verve is perhaps the most elegant we have seen to date.

Employing technology already proven on machines such as the combine harvesters used in broad-acre farming, the Pioneer ‘dust-buster’ is also an option on Track's T4 premium hybrid range. It starts on a positive note, as the Verve with its two 100Ah lithium batteries and 1000 Watt inverter operates gas-free internally, so no gas venting is required.

Like other systems on the market, the Pioneer’s pressurises the Verve’s interior, preventing dust from entering. But the way it does this breaks new ground.

Unlike some other on the market, the system offered as a $3650 extra-cost option for the Verve is power operated, with the compressor elegantly located out of sight in its own compartment in the van’s front quarter. Because it draws high amps, the system requires the tow vehicle’s Anderson plug to be connected when travelling to power it.

The driver activates the system while driving on dusty unsealed roads by turning on the parking lights, redirecting the incoming charge from the caravan’s battery. Switching the parking lights off again when you hit the bitumen resumes the charge to the caravan battery.

The fully integrated positive pressurisation system, features a powered ‘fresh air’ pre cleaner/filter and pressuriser employing Vortex Hyper Flow Technology that comes straight from the agriculture industry.

It draws air from a snorkel behind the Verve’s front nosecone, forcing pre-cleaned, filtered and pressurised air into all the compartments and the interior of the Pioneer, with this positive pressure hopefully ensuring dust proofing.

The dust particles extracted in the process can easily be emptied from the base of the filter at the roadside, or at night, whenever convenient.

The system uses a brushless motor, as it's suitably distant from the Verve’s battery for electrical safety, while a cheaper version using brushed motor technology is currently being refined for the Track T4 range, as it's located much closer to the batteries, that are also housed in the clamshell front compartment.

Now, the killer question: do you really need to go to all this trouble and expense? Perhaps not. It really depends on your dust tolerance.

Personally I would not choose to buy a caravan with an opening front or rear window, as their rubbers, once compressed by regularly opening and closing, become classic dust entry spots.

And it's possible to reduce dust entry via the door by storing things on the internal step and to get inside all the cupboards with a sealant gun to plug all possible holes open to outside air. This is best done at night with outside lights on and inside lights off, so you can easily see where light enters.

There are of course other more drastic measures you can take, but you risk contravening the gas regulation, putting yourself and your family at risk, or evening facing a fine. We are not going to list or condone these.

Some tow vehicle dust flaps also limit the amount of dust your caravan or camper can ingest on an unsealed road, but there are no reliable figures to validate this.

In the meantime, I encourage you to investigate the legal measures that your caravan manufacturer has taken to solve the problem. With some, it stops with the ‘Off Road’ decal on the outer wall. But if they, or the salesman, do make some real claims, keep a record of them.

That way, you’ll have someone to complain to!