Joined in 2023 
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Use a special formulation closed cell foam with excellent thermal and acoustic properties. Ideal to reduce noise, insulate the vehicle and to isolate barriers and trim panels. I put one full sheet on every single panel inside the van, minus the two panels that I’d since had windows fitted in. For the wall panels, this was 4 on the side panels, 4 on the side doors and 1 on the barn doors, so a total of 9 sheets used.
I started with the thermal liner which came on a 10-metre roll and I used a tape measureto roughly work out the size I needed for each panel and cut this with my heavy duty scissors. Once I had a smaller piece to work with I found the best technique was pushing the thermal liner into the curved corners, bending it down then cutting to create the shape. Again, this didn’t need to be perfect but I was aiming for maximum coverage. Your van is essentially a metal box! Metal conducts both heat and cold, therefore when it’s cold outside your van will mirror the temperature. I started staying in my van during March in the UK, I had temperatures of minus 6 at night, maybe colder and I can confirm that insulation made a HUGE difference. I woke up one morning with ice inside my van on the exposed metal sections, but the insulated areas were a normal temperature to touch by hand. What did I use to insulate my van? Since you may already have the tools for the job, or you’re able to borrow them here’s the breakdown of the sound deadening and insulation materials and the tools. The Dodo Mat Super linercame as a 6-metre roll, measuring 500 mm wide, therefore covering a total of 3 metre squared. I’d roughly in my head thought it would be enough, but in reality it came up a little short for my van. In hindsight, my van measures 2.5-metres x 1.3 metres so I failed on the maths there! I have planned to add another type of insulation in the gaps but I’m yet to work out what’s right. It’s too expensive to buy another roll when I’d only be using 1-metre at the most. Watch this space for an update.
Dodo Super Liner
Where possible, I tried to use full pieces of thermal liner for the panels, which was fine for the upper (nicely shaped panels) but this became completely impossible for the lower door panels and lower side panels. In these instance, I measured out the shape with a tape measure but often ended up cutting the piece in half or thirds to be able to manoeuvre it into place. Dodo Super Liner is an affordable, self-adhesive flexible foam liner that is perfect for vehicle heat and sound insulation when applied over sound deadening. The unique Dodo closed-cell foam formulation has been designed to give superb thermal insulation and acoustic absorption in a low 6mm (1/4″) profile.
I’ll break down my insulation into the three main areas I fitted it to – the side panels and doors, the floor and the ceiling. Ceiling insulation I fitted mine on a warm day and rubbed my hands over them to warm them up. Sound deadening sheets + roller to secure in place Was 30 sheets enough for my Vauxhall Vivaro Mk3?Foam spray looks like it would be great, getting in every single small gap but after watching a few YouTube videos I decided it was not for me, in fact, many people do opt for a professional foam spray job because it’s really that messy. I also researched that you needed to measure and cut extra to allow for the bumps, I added about 30 mm to my first measurement, which was slightly too but but better being that way than too short. It’s worth getting good scissors for this job, I bought these large heavy duty scissors and they’ve turned out very handy. I made a couple of cardboard templates for awkward sections, but the rest I just filled the gaps with all the off cuts. It’s not a perfect finish but as regards to sound deadening it worked! Campervan Insulation Do you need insulation in your van?
As soon as I removed all my plywood panels and the bulkhead the noise of the van during normal driving was apparent, all those speed bumps or potholes caused even more noise and rattling of the metal, that was noisy even with the music on. My van is a medium sized van, long-wheel based, approximately 2.5 m long by 1.4 m wide and 1.4 m high, to help you visualise and compare to your van.Before I fitted my sound deadening and insulation I opted to have two windows fitted by a professional to my van, I’m glad I did these before the insulation as metal filings can get everywhere and although Sarah did a fab job of cleaning up afterwards it was made more sense to do it this way round. You can see my windows being fitted in my last post on removing the panels and bulkhead (scroll to the bottom to see the windows going in). One of my first jobs on Dennis (my van) was my insulation, firstly, that’s because how it works with a van and secondly, I wanted to do a few trips away and since it was still winter/early spring in the UK I wanted to be warm. When installed in your vehicle Dodo Super Liner will act as a thermal insulating layer to help stabilise vehicle cabin temperatures through the year. After the ceiling, walls and doors were done I had 1.5 metres of Dodo Mat thermal linerleft, I could have put additional insulation over some of the gaps, in fact, I did do this with some of the small leftovers. But I had plans for this last bit of insulation – make my own window covers (I’ve already made one so I’ll share how I did it in another post). Floor insulation Dodo Super Liner for the floor insulation The wheel arches, I decided to go with 100% coverage, although they don’t look that big they took 5.5 sheets each, so 11 in total. And finally the ceiling was comprised of 5 long panels, with a divided in the middle, so 10 panels in total. I used a full sheets on the 4 wide panels
For the ceiling insulation I used the Dodo Mat thermal liner,I used a tape measureto work out the size I needed for each panel and cut this with my heavy duty scissors. The van has a metal divider in the middle so the strips were roughly 1.25 metres long by 40 cm wide so an easy size to work with Use on all metal panels up to 50% coverage for most cost effective results, or 100% on outer panels for a fully comprehensive job. This product can be used on any metal panel in your vehicle, with the most common areas to treat being the sides, wheel arches, roof and bulkhead. You may also add deadening to the floor if required, however the floor pan generally suffers least from vibration issues and will use a lot of extra material. This self-adhesive, high-quality liner can maintain shape under pressure yet be flexible enough to trim easily in many areas of the vehicle. It is water and high-temperature resistant and flame-retardant to UK vehicle standards.There’s an abundance of information about the best insulation for campervans out there, so a lot of my choices were based researching what was right for me, based on my skill level for fitting and also my budget available. But first let’s talk about sound deadening and whether you need it? Sound deadening on my wheel arch Do you need sound deadening?
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