Ventilation

[Sunny43.5]

We use a Bosch electric shear it slices the steel no filings no clippings it is two hardened steel blades one fixed one tilted the tilted one moves at very fast stroke and only moves a couple of mls so the steel is sliced so to speak the finished edge is so smooth you could not cut your self on it plus it does not distort the finished edge . We still hear of DIY people who have either grinded jigsawed or used nibblers these went out with the dinosaurs in our book . Nibblers are only marginally better than jig saw as they spit out hundreds of what we call robots fingernails . The shear does not cause any filings at all .

[hoddy]

I was always keen to put one of these in the roof:
Jaycar Electronics: Solar Powered Ventilator
or Solar Powered Ventilator - Jaycar Electronics
They're solar, battery back up (48hrs), reversible air flow.
Have not been brave to cut hole in new(ish) T5 (good advice about the angle grinder)

[Sunny43.5]

Just remember if doing a T5 it has a ribbed roof from just behind the drivers door all the way back makes it a real bitch to fit any thing into , when I did fit a sunroof into mine it took six hours to profile cut the frame of the sunroof to fit the ribs then I had to fit packing pieces under each of the ribs on the out side .

[Gold Coaster]

Thanks for all the great tips and info. By the time I decide on which type of vent/hatch to install I’ll hopefully have enough courage to take the plunge! At the moment I’m tending towards one around the 350 x 350 mark mainly because I got the ladder out today and noticed that it looks like you can’t go much bigger than this without taking in the curve of the roof. As I worry about possible leaks, keeping it as flat as possible might help.

[Gold Coaster]

We use a Bosch electric shear it slices the steel no filings no clippings it is two hardened steel blades one fixed one tilted the tilted one moves at very fast stroke and only moves a couple of mls so the steel is sliced so to speak the finished edge is so smooth you could not cut your self on it plus it does not distort the finished edge . We still hear of DIY people who have either grinded jigsawed or used nibblers these went out with the dinosaurs in our book . Nibblers are only marginally better than jig saw as they spit out hundreds of what we call robots fingernails . The shear does not cause any filings at all .

Hi, do you usually mark and cut from the inside or the outside of the roof? Thanks

[Sunny43.5]

sorry about late reply always cut from outside we also use masking tape to stop any marks on paint work , we use an air chisel to cut a triangular hole first so we can then use the Shear both operations leave no filings

[Gold Coaster]

Thanks for all your advice Sunny. So does that mean that you can put your weight onto the ribbed sections to do this?