Mice Broke our Motorhome!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ธ.ค. 2024
- Why won't the RV accelerate!? We shared our recent vehicle woes with the community they gave us a great tip to check on our Unity FX. After the dealer got into the engine it was pretty easy to see what the problem was...
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By background, we're journalists Mike and Jennifer Wendland and this channel is all about freedom and fun through RV travel! We travel North America in our RV doing travel videos, how-tos, RV walk-through tours and video tips about how to get the most out of the RV Lifestyle.
Thanks for joining in and being a part of our RV Lifestyle!
I had the exact same problem in my Sprinter. I solved it by installing carefully placed galvanized hardware fabric across the air intake at the drivers side of front grill. It’s the only way air (and mice) can get into the engine air filter compartment. Cost a few dollars for screws & washers and material. Good luck, Mike & Jennifer!
I did a similar thing to my Dodge truck. I took the wire mesh from the damaged air filter and bent it over the air intake so the mice couldn’t get
the air filter box. Haven’t have a problem since and it has been years.
AWESOME IDEA!
Fellow TH-camr Adventuring with Amanda, sprays Grandpa Gus Mouse Repellent all over her engine bay when she stops at her next campsite. She completely sold on that stuff. She also uses solar lights that keeps the under part of the car lit up. I know this is for your home property, but perhaps some lights and Grandpa Gus packets and spray would help. Making it less appealing than the barn might be all it takes to keep them out of the RV. Good luck!
This is so true!! We use everything and still get mice. Parked by a field Boondocking. I feel your pain.
We parked our truck here at our home base last April and didn't get back here until October. Some critter had gotten in and chewed up a lot of the wiring. Had to have it towed to a shop which ended up costing around $1400. But we claimed it on insurance which paid the bill.
Glad you got it sorted out! Could have been much worse. When we had our Unity in storage, birds built a nest in the AC unit. Birds also built two nests in the front fenders, got in through the front grille. Good luck with Jennifer's car.
Hi Mike I had the same thing happened to me what I did was I took steel wool and put it inside the air intake or you can try putting metal screen over-the-air and take also over the tail pipe that's what helped me the best good luck Mike just don't forget to remove the steel wool.
We have to keep the hood lifted when parked longer than just a few days. It doesn’t eliminate the problem but does lessen it. Driving and moving often is essential.
Mike and Jen, If you can find a nerf ball or maybe a soft rubber baseball or softball that will fit in that snorkel that will probably work to keep the mice out. I realize that you would have to remove it every time you drive the rig but it beats what you've gone through. Welcome to living in the country.
Moth Balls work. Put them in net bags and hang it in a place it won’t interfere with any moving parts. We stored our class A over winters and never had a mouse problem. I probably over did it but put the bags anywhere I thought mice might get in - in addition to each of the heat/air con flow vents on the inside. Also, I didn’t have a problem with moth ball smell in the spring when we got ready to roll again. Start with New moth balls each fall. Hope it helps.
Can you put hardware cloth over the air intake?
State Farm had our Sprinter RV towed 68 miles with a "low-boy" tow, which is a mechanism that comes out of the rear of a flatbed. The drivetrain had to be detached as well.
Not cheap. Cost them $2400 just for the tow.
Yikes $2400!!!
@@gailjohnson6670 and $8k to have Mercedes-Benz replace the exhaust system.
@@ChristianTravelers Wow!! $8K!! Did mice damage the exhaust system so it needed replacing?
@gailjohnson6670 No, in this case it was a football size rock that I didn't see and ran over.
@@ChristianTravelers Sorry this happened. I had no idea exhaust would be that expensive to replace. That seems extremely high dollar. It must be made of silver or gold!
I have a Mercedes AMG AND it had mice a year ago. I was really mad when the dealer said I had mice. Turns out the dealer told me the same thing…happens all the time. I put traps in the garage. Trying to catch them before they get in my car. BTW, our Subaru is parked right next to it. No mice. I guess our mice are into German food! 😊
Get a piece of 1/4" wire mesh/hardware cloth. Cut it to a tight fit and put it on the top of the air filter. Nothing will chew it and air passes unimpeded.
$200 was not bad at all! It could have been much worse...we use the Pest Chaser from Victor with excellent performance. Bought them from Walmart, you plug them into the electric sockets and won't need to worry again! They emit a high frequency sound the mice hate! Hope this helps and safe travels!
There's a Repellent small critter spray that you can douse your engine and other compartments with. Put a screen over air intake. Wiring is coated with soy that mice and critters are attracted to. Also keep hood lifted with lights works. Thank you for the video. Blessings to you.
Thanks for the update Mike and Jenn! Those garment can’t really cause trouble
200 bucks for dinner out now a days, I don't leave the Mercedes Service center without at least paying 500 dollars for any visit. You definitely made it out easy as that could have been way worse. You have a nice service center near you. Yes get a kitty, I love when they alert me and can be used as a deterrent .
Some people put a motion sensor lights under their engine compartments to deter mice.
Glad it wasn’t worse. Critters also like to chew on wires which can wreck havoc. Had our towing harness chewed thru once while parked in the garage. Unfortunately, I don’t have a suggestion to counter this.
We have field mice here in Il and they’re quite a nuisance so we gave in and got barn cats. We have auto feeders and our son refills them while we spend winters in Fl. Hopefully you won’t have it happen again. I do believe they hate peppermint smell. You could try spraying a mixture of peppermint oil,water and Dawn dish detergent under your camper maybe. Google it. I know it for sure kills bugs and deters insects. Good luck. Mice chewed my car wires and we almost got stranded one time and they will chew on farm equipment wires also. Quite the pesky little critters. But the barn cats fixed our problem. Good luck and God bless you all. 🙏😊❤️👍
We have the luxury of indoor storage and surround the inner edges of the garage with mousetraps. I also keep the hood open when in storage with the building lights on -- which we have been told this keeps the mice from making home in the engine compartment if it is not dark.
Sorry about the mice! Over about a year ago, I have had mice get into my onboard generator bay and chew wires!! So people need to be watching that area too. I now put motion lights (solar powered) under the generator bay area and under the engine. I also go one of those high frequency sound gadgets for the generator and engine areas. So far so good. Fingers crossed!
That happened to me too. Luckily, I could still go regular speed but with very little power.
Nice clip, I hear they like eating the wire coating on the wires too. In Seligman many leave the hoods open as they don’t like being exposed.
We had the same issue with our Toyota truck. My husband looked in the filter housing. There was no damage, but there was about 3 cups of dry dog food under the filter. We fed a hungry stray dog and put the bag of food in the bed of the truck. Live and learn.
Mike & Jennifer, I’ve heard from RV owners especially out West that you should lift your engine hood and set up as much light as possible. Apparently any type of intruders don’t like light. Good luck 😉
Irish spring worked really good .I keep the soap in the box and just open one end
Had te same problem. Solved the issue by putting a metal embedded kitchen scrub cloth( has 1/4 inch holes to let air pass through) over the air inlet to the engine( located driver's side of the grill. Hardware cloth would also work.
You were very lucky! Could have been so much worse. We had 17 mice in a 3 month period in our TT this past year. I think we picked up a mom and pop at the end of the season and family expanded. We were very fortunate, no wire or appliances damaged. Lucky for us we can monitor daily. I remove all food, paper and linens every season. Even Fresh Cab didn’t deter them this year.
Glad it was somewhat an Easy Fix ....Was the floor mat the issue on Jen's vehicle.... ? I enjoy your program.... thanks
Yes... the floor mat was indeed Jen's issue with her car. Simple fix.$90 towing fee.
@@RVLifestyle This same thing happened to Less Junk More Journey in their jeep!
Mike! Try K&N Air Filters. They are REUSEABLE air filters that have a Steel Mesh Outside to hold the Filter Material in place so you can wash them. Now They make a Circular one. and Maybe one of them on that air Inlet would be advisable so they can't even make a nest inside that pipe. They would even have a reusable filter that will match the one that the mice chewed through.
It is a miracle that the debris they brought in didn't damage the valves inside the engine.. You are a very lucky couple.
We spray rodent repellent that we buy at Lowes in the bug spray section. We spray it on tires, wheel wells, stabilizers and ground around the camper. We got 5 mice one year while camping at Standing Indian. I drove 24 miles roundtrip to get mice traps. We got 3 while at the campground, one on the way home at a Walmart but the last one broke its self free from the glue tray when we got home and we never saw him again. We have a 19’ Bambi and we put 28 traps of every type inside, it reminded me of the movie “Mouse Hunt” when the two brothers put like a 1000 traps in the kitchen 😂
Now when we travel we spray the replant and if we have shore power we put a rope light under the camper if we don’t have shore power we have solar LED lights. We have been told they don’t like lights at night. We also sealed all places they can enter from the underbelly. A friend that works at a pest control company said they are smart and recognize traps if they saw that one before with a dead family member in it. They can squeeze into a hole the size of a pencil eraser and they leave a trail of pee to know how to get back out.
We had the same problem last April took a few days to figure out but we cleaned all up and we were good to go again we have tried using cloves in ours has seemed to work
Wow! you guys were lucky. You will probably need to use several options all at once ! Good luck!
We had it happen to us and we were driving in the mountains. We used hardware cloth, cut it to fit the intake tube and haven’t had a problem in 2 yrs.
where is the intake tube?
@@tommyg.9069 it’s on the right hand side of the grill on the drivers side. It’s hard to get your hand in there but we were able to do it.
I wonder if you could put sticky matts around or under the camper somehow to catch them or slow them down alittle. I dk
We live in the country and I have a severe phobia of mice and all of these will work to a certain extent...none will be a 100%...but when using multiple things together, they work pretty well. If you are at home, put a strand of colorful LED's on timer under the unit...to turn on at dusk and off at sunrise, leave your engine compartment hood open. When plugged in/electronic sound "Victor's" works well (we keep one in the front of our unit and one in the back facing forward), used dryer sheets placed all around, irish spring soap chips (spread throughout your unit-replace 2X a year), peppermint oil on cottonballs...again spread thoughout your unit, "Uncle Gus's" or other similar sache packets of peppermint chips (these usually last about a month or so) and the big one Tomcat Black Plastic with bait (like you see around commercial buildings) placed on the outside of the unit/on a known mouse run (like up the side of your grass and driveway or next to your barn)..they eat the bait and then never go in the unit or barn. Most importantly open up your unit at least once a week to "air out" the peppermint smell otherwise it will build up. Do not use mothballs/it's illegal in many places to place them around outside and we have heard once a mouse eats them they can, well, leave a bad mess to clean up. Best of Luck!
I had a 86 Z24 that I only drove occasionally every 3 weeks or so and left parked in my driveway in Westland. One day I took it to a quickie lube for an oil change, they popped the hood and the entire engine bay was stuffed with straw and said "nope ain't doing your oil change".. you couldn't even see the engine or any components , just tons of straw and sticks and leaves and pine needles in every nook and cranny. . I got it home , bagged two 30gal garbage bags full of stuff but luckily there wasn't any damage to the car.
I had the same thing happen to my Toyota.
Keeping a stream of lights on under the RV, mothballs, keeping the hood open, or investing in a feral cat.
Mice are even worse inside your rv living space when you're trying to sleep! Had to check into a motel while we set traps on one trip to the Badlands SD.
Go to a local feed store and ask for a bottle of Fox urine. Take a few drops and put it on a rag underneath the hood away from anything that gets hot. Then every month, just put a few drops on the rag. Works on Texas mice so hopefully yours also.
You are correct sir.
I've had it happen twice. Never slowed it down like that. I always got a dirty air filter warning on the dash, which prompted me to open up the air filter. Evidently you didn't a similar message? Took a piece of wire mesh and fit it into the opening to the air filter housing. Got through this winter with no mouse issues.
What about an electronic vibration device? I also know that might do not like steel wool and you could add that or hardware cloth over that area.
Yep, pretty much the exact same thing happened to me in my Roadtrek Sprinter (I wonder, are Sprinters for some reason especially vulnerable to this?) In my case the van seemed to be running fine at first, I’d packed it up and just started out on a major road trip when about 20 miles from my house the check engine light went on & I couldn’t to go above 15, maybe 20mph at most (the service people later told me this was actually the van automatically going into “safe mode”). Spent pretty much the rest of the day getting it back to my house going at the pace of a leisurely bicyclist, then the next day getting it to my local Sprinter service place (thank God I happen to have one pretty close by!) where I eventually learned that it was squirrels that had made a home out of my air filter.
Hello, thanks for the video! You likely have answered this question already. Do you plan to keep your 5th wheel? Nice van.
The fifth wheel stays parked on their property in TN.
@@ceciliapetrowsky2572 Ok. Thanks.
Packets of "Fresh Cab" under the hood, in the water heater & sitting on the tires when in my barn. Trays of D-con all around the perimeter inside the barn. Had mice once and luckily caught it early, They were building a nest on top of the cabin air filter (Airstream Interstate)
Had an electrical issue with our brand new Volkswagen Jetta. Turns out the wire coatings on vehicles are made with a vegetable based coverings that rodents love to eat. Technician told us a very easy cheap fix was to tie smelly fabric softeners to various areas of the engine compartment onto the wires. 3 years later no problems, and you don't have any of the smell come into the car.
When our travel trailer is being stored for winter we use a multi-catch mouse trap. Inside the trap we put peanut butter and a mouse bate block. Duct tape the hinge side so none of the mice escape. They will die inside the trap & not in the walls/floor. I honestly hate to kill them but I have tried everything. Nothing else has worked. I first tried Irish Spring soap. They ate it and left behind green soap poop 🤪
Yep, this happened to me an older solo female rver.
My gas pedal had no power. I could find no mechanic to see me without days of wait time. So because I needed to be somewhere, I drove from Quartzsite Az to Amarillo, Texas. In Amarillo, I found a mechanic who found a rats nest. The rat had chewed some wires. Thankfully, the rat had not chewed major wires. The mechanic chewed into my savings for over 1000$.
Peppermint oil is helpful but needs to be refreshed. In my business I sell lots of huge bottles of peppermint essential oil to farmers, rv people, antique car folks. I personally have used it to keep mice away from my electric lawn mower..they chewed through the copper wires. I have seen people using flashing lights under the rig or in engine compartment. Could you put metal screening around they opening where they put their nest?? Good Luck. They are soo creepy
Last year we had to have the elbow replaced that goes from the gas tank to the generator in our class C Motorhome. The cost was $700. They had to drop the gas tank to get to the elbow. It took 5 hours to do it.
fine metal screen wrapped around the end of the air cleaner entrance. also one on the exhaust would hurt if it sit"s .good luck
Irish spring and dryer sheet’s don’t work. Moth Balls, Several bowls of them throughout the rv during the winter including hanging two bags of them in the engine compartment. That has solved the problem for me for three years. Before that the mice ate the Irish Spring and made a nest on the dryer sheets in ours.
I don't remember your LTV Ford chassis giving you this problem. Same storage parameters as your previous rig?
Had $2000 of damage done to my truck when mice gnawed some wires. It had been sitting for 3 days. Ouch.
We have lot of squirrels and they ate through the wiring in the truck. No more feeding the squirrels - they have to fend for themselves,
I have some battery operated led puck motion lights to place on the frame of my travel trailer that seems to scare mice and squirrels away. The batteries last a long time and it seems to work.
Was that the same problem with Jen’s car?
I hang a couple net bags of moth balls inside the engine compartment. I guess it works as I haven't had any problems yet. I guess anything strong-smelling scent might scare off rodents. I also in the past took a bunch of old plastic insulated wiring scraps and rolled them into a mass. Hung that at the bottom in case they want to chew on something other than my engine wiring.
Ouch, good information, I think lesson is also related to tow’ability, tall rigs are common…
My uncle was a Quality Control engineer for a national auto electronics manufacturer. Their biggest contract was General Motors. He was in the business for almost 50 years. The stories he told about the Big 3 US automakers were the biggest reason I switched from the domestic to import vehicles almost 40 years ago. I remember specifically one story that is appropriate to this video. As I recall this goes back to the early 70s. A similar Japanese company was trying to get their foot in the US market. It was right around the time that "buy American" became a big deal. As I recall the Japanese products wiring jacket had an additive that would repel squirrels,rats and mice from chewing on the wires. The Japanese company after being rebuffed from entering the US market wanted to sell the proprietary rights for this product to the manufacturer that my uncle worked for. When GM was introduced to it they squashed the idea entirely. Their reason was cost, which at that time was less than a dollar per vehicle. The Japanese shopped it to the other 2 US automakers and it was squelched by them also.. Had nothing to do with the extra dollar that you and I would have absorbed it was about the parts and labor revenue that they would lose over time. This was one of many similar stories he told after he retired that proved to him the Big 3 could care less about the consumer vs their profits. He had a lifetime employee discount from the big 3 US automakers but once he retired in the 90s only drove Toyotas.
John, did your uncle work for Packard Electric by chance? I was there 23 years, mostly in engineering. Packard manufactured GM, and others, wiring harnesses.
Comment: Irish Soring does not work. How do I know ? Well they are the soap in our camper and liked it and yes did a lot of damage. I even tried those sachets they sell at dealers and that worked better
I put original bouce sheets in 5 or 6 places under the hood . Seems to work no signs since .
Good luck ❤❤❤
Imagine how many trips it took those little guys!
If they're in your engine compartment, they're in your RV too. I had one die in an AC duct. It was difficult to find. I use peppermint oil soaked cotton balls in my car and RV now. It worked great for me.
WHERE do you put the cotton balls? How do you get the cotton balls to stay in-place?
@@tommyg.9069 in the engine compartment I wedge them in wherever there's a nook or crannie that will hold them. I avoid putting them anywhere near an air intake. Inside the RV I distribute them all over the place, in/under cabinets and drawers, under the beds, etc. If you buy a large container of peppermint oil this ends up being incredibly cheap so you don't have to worry about the cost.
We haven’t found any good solution to field mice infestation. We’ve tried just about everything on the market and homemade and none of them have worked during winter months when our RV has been left unattended.
Well.... mine cost a lot more. 6000.00 to replace a motor in a Miata. They got in the fliter with nuts. When I drove the motor ot over heated because the cooler couldn't work.
Put solar lights on the ground under the front end and open the hood. Critters don't like the light. I have learned this from other full time RVers
Get a small roll of fine hole wire like chicken wire with smaller holes that you can bend with your hands and use wire cutters to form it to the size you need to cover the front of the air intake find a way to cover it if only while it’s parked also cover your muffler pipe only while it’s parked your heater exhaust hole and any other hole if need be find a broom stick or the size you need wrap the wire around it and side it into the hole with a wire at the end larger than the hole so you can pull it back out when you are ready to use it again and the muffler pipe wrap it on outside of the pipe and wire or a hose clap to hold in place only wile parked Remember: Make a note on front dashboard Look remove all wire mesh before starting up motorhome I’m Sure TH-cam will have other options good luck to both of you eh!
I recently discovered that my windshield washers were not squirting. I opened up my Subaru engine compartment and saw little prints… but, I went to my dealership and they saw that I had rodent damage. They cut the tubes and put them back on. Actually, they did not charge me. I was ready to have to pay something but they did it as “express service” and even washed the car!
I cleaned it all up and squirted peppermint oil in water all inside the engine compartment.
I hope this works. The internet tells me that many things don’t work, but peppermint might.
Yikes.
Just this week, had a bird’s nest with eggs, in the vents behind our AC unit.
Not sure, but I think a heavy gauge steel mesh over the intake would at least solve that problem. As to them playing around in the engine compartment, perhaps spraying everything down with something like WD-40 might keep them away? I'm thinking that at the minimum, you should be able to coat all of the lower, entry level portions of the engine compartment with some type of grease that they would find unpleasant to walk on. I've also heard that people have had success with small, ultrasonic sound emitting devices in their homes, so I don't see why something like that wouldn't work under the hood too.
Last resort ... get a gopher snake or a corn snake. 🤔
I put twinkle Christmas lights under my van at night. It works.
We had to buy a special tape from Honda to have the wires wrapped on our RAM.
When we use our motorhome, we travel with two housecats and a litter box. Rodents have a much better sense of smell compared to humans and those pesky critters can smell our cats. They can certainly smell the litter box even though we empty it daily when traveling and put deodorant powder in the box. To us, the RV smells nice and fresh, but not to the rodents. We have never had a rodent problem inside our motorhome or its engine compartment because no matter how cold or wet it is outdoors, rodents can sense that getting inside the RV means becoming a meal for our cats. We are also careful to always dispose of the kitchen trash after dinner time, to store all our food (and the cats' food) in the refrigerator or sealed in air-tight, food safe containers and to open windows and turn on the vent fans when preparing smelly foods so there are no lingering, strong food odors to lure rodents or other wild creatures to our RV. So far, this has worked for us for seven years -- even when our RV was continuously parked in the same spot during the first year of the pandemic.
Whenever stored, use traps. Lots of them. On the barn floor. On top of the tires! Inside the LTV. Not poison. They'll just walk off somewhere and die and possibly be eaten by other animals. Haven't found anything other than traps that really works.
Mouse traps in the engine compartment... I set 2 in there and 4 inside the rig... No issue... kills them DEAD!
Try magnetic motion lights under the hood.
Oh my.....your face...so painful going that slow! Glad you solved it. Possibly your comp on rv policy would pick up under inherant vice damage (crittiers) minus ded. 😊
Keep the area around the van well lit…. could help…
I know the boondockers use undercarriage lights...Evidently mice like cool dark places so the lights are a turn off to them...
Our mice issue cost us over a $1000 on our class c.
I had chipmunks chew up the wiring harness in my car. Check engine light came on.. $1200+.. new wiring hsrness
COMMENT I had squirrels get in my car and chewed through the fuel injection wiring harness.
$3286.00 to repair
Steel wool at the access points to the harness is keeping them at bay for my particular situation.
Rick.B
A rat got in our under belly over the winter of our 5th wheel the winter. Chewed up water lines, propane lines and jack wiring. Over $5,600 in damage. Thank God for insurance.
We had friends that had to have their RV completely rewired from mice Thousands of dollars, insurance covered all but deductible
Mice getting into the air intake filter, that's a new one for me...MEOW!
On the road, or at home...critters seem to think that your motorhome is also theirs!
That's why I'm obsessive about checking/cleaning my LTV before and after every road trip.
Good Luck guys!
Read Chipper 77 idea!
Your vehicle is in limp mode till themechanic
One time mice got in the engine of my brand new Toyota Tacoma and ate through some wires and it cost me over $1000 to get it fixed 😰
Oh Wow! What a dilemma.
When I first saw this video's title, I thought it said "Mike broke our motorhome." I was expecting something much worse....
And that drive from Quartzsite to Amarillo took me 12 hours. You guys had it easy driving for 1 hour.
Yep, a cat or 2 😁
Why didn’t you call a mobile tech? I’m guessing there were none around
"I hate meeses to pieces!"
😮😮
Perhaps Bo 🐶 would like 🦮 becoming a 🐕 Big Brother to a 🐈 few kitty 😺 cats 🐱