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Old 03-31-2004, 11:09 AM   #1
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Bus Engine Noise

A diesel bus is loud to drive. Having normal audible conversation near the driver is difficult. How is everybody filtering noise from the engine? Thanks for your response.

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Old 03-31-2004, 12:52 PM   #2
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My major problem is the noise from everything (especially the oven/stove) vibrating from the bumps in the road. I'm going to use Dynamat on everything made of sheetmetal and hope carpet will do the rest for engine/road noise.
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Old 03-31-2004, 01:12 PM   #3
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my diesel bus wasn't that loud to begin with, but i made it even quieter by putting pad and carpet on the floor, and the doghouse. The carpet helped to make the entire bus quieter while driving down the road.

the more insulation that gets put between you and the engine compartment, the quieter things will be.
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Old 04-13-2004, 04:12 AM   #4
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Dynamat looks very interesting. That looks like a product that should be installed everywhere, in the walls and under carpet. Steve have you heard the effectiveness of this product in another vehicle? It does not read at the web site how well it reduces outside noise, but any reduction will be a welcome change. Thank you both for responding.
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Old 04-13-2004, 06:55 AM   #5
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Greetings,
OK, I have a gas bus and can barely hear it running - which is disturbing to a mechanic like me - I WANNA HEAR THE MOTOR, but have a few friends who tow travel trailers with turbo diesel trucks and dynamat works wonders for them. In a friends Banks turboed Ford, it went from barely able to talk over the motor under acceleration to nice and liveable. Another with a Cummins turbo Dodge had even better results - it got down right quiet inside the cab after the dynamat was installed.

Another thing you may look at is harmonics.
You have lots of big panels of sheet metal that vibrate and start to act like the cone in a speaker - the more it vibrates, the louder it gets and they "feedback" from each other.
One thing I have found helpful on "thumper cars" and my bus was to run a bead of good flexible butyl caulk along the seams where the sheet metal meets the framework or is near it. A little bead ran across the middle of a large panel with a piece of dynamat or even sheet foam insulation will also stop a ton of vibration and noise is only a vibration.

Everything you can do to stop or "limit the travel" of these "speaker cones" will help.

The single biggest noise maker in a skoolie (or mine anyway) is usually the windows rattleing, so all of mine got the axe.

Hope this helps.
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Old 04-13-2004, 11:11 AM   #6
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My windows rattled a lot when my skoolie first came home. I only use three windows, the rest are coverd by insulation and wal-board. I calked all of these windows in place. That made a huge difference. Carpet and the couch really helped to quiet things down even more.
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Old 06-28-2004, 04:42 PM   #7
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Patching all those holes in your exhaust will help also, but most of us neglect it because we don't want to get under there. I suppose making sure your tailpipe ends in the rear of your bus will help too, mine does not right now.

I am thinking about putting some 1" thick foam insulation on my firewall underneath the hood, I hope that quiets things down a little.
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Old 06-29-2004, 11:58 AM   #8
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I had to remove the carpet,pad, and insulation from the doghouse when i replaced the starter the other day and have yet to put it back into place. I didn't realize how much noise got filtered out by the pad, carpet and insulation.

The majority of the noise reduction in my bus comes from the fuel source. Veggie is so much quieter than diesel! I wish i had a meter to mesure decibles so i could let other people "see" the difference.
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Old 07-29-2004, 03:09 PM   #9
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I have some stuff similar to dynamat (called Brown Bread - http://www.b-quiet.com/brownbread.html) that I plan on using near and on the firewall on my bus. Also in the areas such as the transmission tunnel, under the passenger side dash I may install some sort of false floor/wall where I can add additional insulation to absorb sound. I would also sandwich some rubber between that and the bus to help reduce the transmission of vibration. This all depends on how much the Brown Bread matting reduces the sound in addition to some carpeting. Fiberglass batting or foam seems to do real well at reducing airborne sound that still may come through the floor and firewall. Right now the 8.2L is pretty loud on the road.

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