Moving built in basement vacuum

[RandDescape]

As part of a project to mount a grill on a basement slide out (https://www.irv2.com/forums/f103/any...ay-532160.html) I realized the stock mounting of the built in vacuum left something to be desired.

So I moved and reoriented the vacuum. Newmar hangs the intelivac vertically off a board mounted with 2 screws into the Star foundation. That left 17” between the vacuum and the floor.

The intake port comes into the back in a way that when turned horizontally the duct fits up above the frame rail and allows the vac to be moved farther back since you are removing that extra space for the bend down to the intake.

By running a board across the bay I was able to move the vac 3” toward the frame rail and gained 5” of clearance (now 22” to the floor).

Took about an hour including some better wire management.

First is stock
Second is to show the L shaped support I used to run horizontally
Third is the final install.

Bottom line you should be able to get yourself a little more basement space with an hour of work and $5 of material.

- Richard

[Dutch Star Don]

I did the same thing....I didn't go as high as yours, as my frame rails are different. Just rotating it, brought it up to the height of the bottom edge of the frame rail, making the frame rail the lowest point, instead of the vacuum. I don't know why they didn't do that at the factory. It hung down like a sore thumb before.

[Rev. Roy]

I suspect it was put in the way it was for easy emptying. Whether this is a good idea depends upon how much you use it compared to the benefit of gaining space. Anything stacked in front will need to be moved out of the way in order to empty it. We travel with dogs.

[RandDescape]

Originally Posted by Rev. Roy

I suspect it was put in the way it was for easy emptying. Whether this is a good idea depends upon how much you use it compared to the benefit of gaining space. Anything stacked in front will need to be moved out of the way in order to empty it. We travel with dogs.

That is a good point for folks contemplating this mod to look at their use case. I made sure the bag could easily be removed but it does require nothing be in front of it. When I mount the grill on sliders I will have to slide it out of the way to change the bag.

We also travel with 4 dogs (2 samoyeds) so we tend to use a broom / swiffer on the dog hair and use the vacuum on the seats/carpet/corners/cracks. Otherwise we’d fill the bag too quickly (would be the same for any stick vac too).

- Richard

[Sukutto]

Originally Posted by RandDescape

As part of a project to mount a grill on a basement slide out (https://www.irv2.com/forums/f103/any...ay-532160.html) I realized the stock mounting of the built in vacuum left something to be desired.

So I moved and reoriented the vacuum. Newmar hangs the intelivac vertically off a board mounted with 2 screws into the Star foundation. That left 17” between the vacuum and the floor.

The intake port comes into the back in a way that when turned horizontally the duct fits up above the frame rail and allows the vac to be moved farther back since you are removing that extra space for the bend down to the intake.

By running a board across the bay I was able to move the vac 3” toward the frame rail and gained 5” of clearance (now 22” to the floor).

Took about an hour including some better wire management.

First is stock
Second is to show the L shaped support I used to run horizontally
Third is the final install.

Bottom line you should be able to get yourself a little more basement space with an hour of work and $5 of material.

- Richard

A great improvement!!
Have looked at it on our Ventena and it's mounting is an even worse spot.

[Dutchstar411]

On my 2015 DSDP it was mounted in the pass-through bay. I moved mine to the last bay like in the newer coaches and finally removed it all together. We use our Dyson mounted in our back bath closet for interior and exterior jobs including the car. The attachments are also removed so no more hose, extensions and attachments. I needed the room for the new pull out tray for that bay.