How to Install a Campervan Fan

Installing a campervan fan is a daunting task. You’re cutting a massive hole in the roof of your van, so I suppose it’s normal to be nervous. But in the end, it’s really not that bad! We went with an 11-inch fan for many reasons, but mainly for the smaller size. You can read more about choosing the best campervan fan for you here. 

Trust us when we say you can do install your own campervan fan. You don’t have to have fancy tools or a lot of time. It just takes some patience, focus, and a bit of mental strength to get over the fact that you’re cutting a hole in your roof!

In this post, we’ll go over the different phases of installing a campervan fan, in a step-by step guide, and the tools you need for the job. We have a separate post on how to decide where to install your campervan fan, and one of all the reasons you need a roof fan for ventilation too.

Materials Needed For Installing A Campervan Fan 

We had a lot of tools going into this project. But still had to purchase a few. We bought from amazon when needed and bought other essentials from Harbour Feight and Home Depot when needed.

Hike Crew 11 inch Van Fan | grab one here

This is the campervan fan we decided to go with. We like the smaller size of the van fan, coming in at 11 inches vs. 12-14 inches for other fans. And the price point of just over $100 was a nice perk too.

This campervan fan can blow air in the van and suck the air out. And, it’s not too noisy. We went with the simple version of this fan, though there’s one that has LED lights on it too. If you’re looking for a larger van fan/vent, they make a 14-inch fan as well. With the ease of installation and our experience of using it thus far, we can easily recommend this to anyone looking to do a van build out on a budget.

Angle Grinder | check prices here

An angle grinder is a perfect tool for cutting metal. But they’re super pricey! If you can borrow one, and it’s not fire season, this is your best bet for cutting your campervan fan hole. Use caution with this tool though, as they are super dangerous, and the sparks will literally be flying!

Jigsaw | check prices here

We borrowed an angle grinder to cut the hole for our van fan into our roof, however, we ended up using this jigsaw instead. The angle grinder would have been a faster and cleaner cut, however, it produces a lot of sparks. And with it being summertime in Oregon when we cut this hole, the sparks were a no-go for fire season, so we stuck with this jigsaw instead. If you choose to cut your fan hole with a jigsaw, don’t forget to grab jigsaw blades too.

Drill | current prices here

A drill is needed when cutting a hole in your campervan roof, so the saw can “make the corners” of the cut. Drilling the inside corners of the outline for your fan allows you room to put the jigsaw blade into the roof and start your cutting.

I’m linking the set here, as this is the set we used for the entire van build.. and it’s a better bang for your buck to get the drill, driver and battery combo!

Metal Drill Bits | check prices here

To drill into the metal of your campervan roof, you’ll need metal drill bits. Don’t worry though, these drill bits are for metal, wood, and plastic. And again, you’ll be using them in other parts of your van build-out, so it’s a good, small investment!

Masking Tape | grab some here

Masking Tape is used for protecting the metal of your campervan roof. You don’t need much of it, so if you only have painter’s tape, that will do the trick too.

Waterproof Caulking | check prices here

You’ll certainly want to caulk all the way around the perimeter of your campervan fan, as well as over the tops of each screw you put in, just to be sure there’s no water leakage!

Construction Adhesive | check prices here

Construction Adhesive is used for gluing the wood frame for the van fan to the roof. You’ll need the frame to support your new hole as well as provide something to screw into.

Framing Square | check prices here

A Framing Square is used for making sure your lines are straight and your measurements are correct. This is something you do not want to mess up!

Metal File | current prices here

After cutting your hole for your van fan, you need to file down the rough edges, or spots that need to be trimmed a bit more. A metal file is great for this job, but you can also use a metal grinder drill bit.

Rustoleum Rust Treating Spray Paint | current prices here

When cutting metal, it’s important to then treat the newly exposed metal for rust. Rustoleum is made to treat metal!

Exacto Knife | check prices here

An Exacto knife is used when cutting the flange to fit properly. The flange is just the inside plastic cover of the van fan that makes it look nice and hides where your campervan ceiling touches the fan.

Phase 1 | Things to Consider Before Installing a Roof Vent

Prepping for installing a campervan fan takes the longest time. When deciding where your campervan roof vent is going to be installed, take into consideration not only the inside placement but the outside placement too.

1. Choose the general location for your roof vent from the inside

Consider questions like: Will I want it to be more above my bed to keep me cool at night during the summer months? Should I put it above my toilet? Does it need to be above the stove/cooker? Or can it be in a more centralized location where it helps a little in every situation? Should I install two or could one do the trick? Can I reach the fan controls?

• We chose to place it centrally, as our current van is quite small. We knew since the van is a minivan, the location of it really didn’t matter all that much and really just came down to how we could organize the layout outside on the roof. However, if we were in a big van we may have decided to put one closer to where the cooker or toilet would be and likely have another one above the bed.
• Keep in mind, you don’t want to place your fan where any roof supports are across the van frame, as cutting through these will ruin the structural integrity of your roof.

2. Check the fan location from the outside

After visualizing the fan with the interior layout of your campervan build, check how it works with the roof layout. Consider where your solar panels will lay. If you’re going to have a bike rack or not, and, be sure to check if the desired fan location is a flat space.

• We knew we would be installing two solar panels, four roof-mounted lights, a couple of bike mounts, and the roof vent. Then on top of all that, we needed to consider the wire cable entry points from the lights and solar panels as well. So there were many grid layouts to consider before we landed on the best option.
• Grab your solar panels, bike mounts and/or bikes, and anything else you think will be putting on the roof.
• Measure it out and configure it to your needs.
• Will everything still fit on the roof or will you need to sacrifice some items to get the vent where you want it or really need it to be?
• Now go back inside the van and make sure your desired spots aren’t interfering with each other
• For example, we decided on a general location from the inside–dead center of the van. We went outside and thought that spot matched well to our initial idea after adjusting for the solar panel length. However, when we went back inside, the metal crossbars were now interfering with the placement of the roof vent.
• We now needed to slide the solar panels forward on the roof about 2 inches in order to allow everything to be installed with no interference, overlap, or degradation of the structural integrity of the van’s roof.

Phase 2 | Prepping for the Campervan Fan Install

1. Open the box your roof vent fan is in and read the directions

The directions that came with ours gave little help and no insight into the major task at hand. If that’s the case for you too, you’ll definitely want to follow the steps below.

2. Drawing a cut line for your campervan fan

Once everything actually matched up, works well together, and you are certain this is where you want to place the roof vent for good: measure the piece of the fan vent that actually slides down into the van. You know this is the maximum footprint needed to get it inside and fitted snug.

1. Set fan flange on the roof where you want to install. Make points on each corner.
2. Remove the fan flange, and measure between each point, making sure it is equal to your original measurement.
3. Use a framing square to connect the points, guaranteeing the edges are square.
4. Measure, and measure 10k more times. 😉
5. Now, take the flange and make sure it sits perfectly on your newly traced out area. If it doesn’t, you know that you measured incorrectly, and need to start the process again.
6. Repeat until you’re 110% certain of the size. It’s ok if it is too small. You can always cut more later. Just can’t add more metal later. Haha.

3. Choose your method of cutting the roof vent hole

We were planning on using a jigsaw from the beginning, however, got our hands on an angle grinder instead to cut the square bit out of the roof. Unfortunately, fire season was in effect and we fell back onto using the jigsaw.

1. Make sure to use a saw blade designed for cutting metal and have the jigsaw set to the speed your jigsaw recommends for cutting metal.
2. Tape the perimeter of the square (fan outline) with masking tape.
   • We used the one-inch width. But we recommend using the widest tape you can get or placing multiple strips down making a wider runway for the jigsaw to slide on. The tape is there to protect the metal of your van roof from the jigsaw scraping it.. potentially causing rust problems down the road.
3. On the inside of the van, tape a box underneath or have a big plastic tote beneath the location of your roof vent install. This will catch most, if not all, of the metal shavings on the inside of the van.
   • Use a shop vac and magnet to collect rogue shavings the box didn’t collect.
     1.  
4. Drill holes in all four corners of the square you traced with a metal drill bit that has a diameter larger than the blade. Be sure to drill slightly inside the square outline, so the outer edge of the drill bit touches up against the traced-out outline.

• Pre-drilling the holes allows you to slide the jigsaw blade into the hole giving you a solid start on cutting your straight line.

Phase 3 | Cut A Huge A$$ Hole in the Roof

1. Cut the metal.

This can be scary, just make sure to use eye protection and a good pair of gloves. Pull the trigger back and let-er-rip. The metal will begin to cut like butter…at first.. However, as more and more metal is cut, the roof gets less and less stable. Resulting in the whole metal piece jiggling like crazy.

1. Insert the jigsaw blade into one of the holes you drilled.
2. Stay as straight as possible, following the line you’ve drawn on the roof.
3. Once you get to the next drill hole, reposition the jigsaw and yourself, and go again until you reach the next hole.
4. Repeat until you get back around to the first hole.

At this point, the metal square you just cut will fall into your box and you will have a gaping hole in your van roof. Congratulations!! (If you have a partner with you, it would be great for them to be inside the van, holding your cardboard box, so the weight of the metal square doesn’t make the box drop and spill all over.)

2. Test Fit and File Down Metal

Test fit the roof vent. If it doesn’t quite fit, shave down the spots that need it with the jigsaw, or if it’s super minor give it a good filing!

• Make sure it fits in the hole and add the flange to ensure it isn’t too tight to where you can’t get the flange in as well.

3. Address the fresh metal edges.

1. File down the sharp edges of the metal with a metal file, or if you have a metal grinder, use that.
   • Try to get it smooth so that when you do install the vent, there won’t be any lips or bumps that would allow water and moisture through.
2. Treat the metal with an anti-rust paint like Rustoleum.
   1. Tape some cardboard or newspaper down and spray about an inch width around the whole square hole.
      • The cardboard box that was collecting your metal shavings works great to have a partner hold up on the inside of the van to prevent spray paint from getting all over.
   2. Make sure to get the edges and the inside as well!
   3. Let dry.
3. Test fit once again.
   • It should fit perfectly at this point, as you’ve only added a little bit of spray paint!

Phase 4 | Actually Installing the Campervan Fan

1. Caulking the Fan

Remove the roof vent fan and apply caulking to the underside of the roof vent. Some campervan fans require certain caulking to hold up their warranty. Check your instructions to see if your fan does. Otherwise, DAP Dynaflex 230 works great.

1. Use a generous amount of caulking, allowing some to squeeze out on all edges when placing the campervan fan on the roof.
   1. You want to make sure you have more than enough because if there is any gap, recess, or lift; you’ll be risking the possibility of having water leak in.
   2. Scrape excess clean if you’d like, or just leave it like us.

2. Cut a wood square hoop for mounting and screwing the roof vent to.

We chose plywood because we had some leftover from a different project. Make sure that whatever wood you use is at least ¼”  or thicker so the screws have enough to grip onto but it remains thin enough for your ceiling to be installed without any interference.

1. We followed the same prep and measuring steps as earlier when it came to drawing out a line and cutting on the roof. In theory, it should be the exact same size and shape as the hole in your roof. Just this time, it is a square wood hoop and about a 2.5” width around the perimeter so that it receives the screws and is inset from the flange.
   • Check out the images below for a better idea of what we mean here.
   • We messed up on the first attempt. Made the width too narrow and it broke. So that’s why at least 2.5” is our recommendation.
2. Test fit on the ceiling since the roof vent is in place and already installed with the caulking.
   1. Slide flange in.
   2. Adjust the wood “hoop” as needed

3. Install wood square hoop

1. Apply construction adhesive to the wood hoop and push up into place.
   1. If you have another set of hands, have one person hold the wood from the inside while the other person uses the screws provided with the fan to screw from the outside of the plastic divots on the roof vent to pierce through the metal and be secured into the wood square hoop.
   2. Screw in all provided screws to properly secure the roof vent onto your van roof.
      • If the screws aren’t going in very easy, pre-drill the holes, with a small drill bit or use a small self-drilling screw to “pre-drill” the holes.

4. Add more caulking

1. Apply more caulking to the outside perimeter of the plastic on the roof vent where the plastic meets the metal roofing.
2. Then put a glob of caulking on top of and around each screw you just screwed into the roof.

5. Install Flange

1. Put the flange up to ensure it still fits properly.
2. Mark how much you need to trim off your flange.
3. Trim flange with Exacto knife.
4. Allow electric cables to hang outside the flange.
5. Screw in your flange with the provided screws.
6. Apply the plastic caps over screw holes.

6. You’re Done!

At this point, you’re finished installing your campervan fan. While you work on the rest of the build, we recommend taping the fan wires to the fan with painter’s tape. This way, they stay out of your way as you complete the next phases in your campervan buildout!

Helpful Hints and Advice

• Consider all things ahead of time going on your roof and placement requirements underneath.
• Measure 10k times, cut once.
• Tape a box beneath the hole and use a shop vac to suck up metal shavings from above.
  • Use a magnet to collect rogue metal shavings.
• Use a generous amount of tape on the roof to prevent scrapes and scratches.
• Do the job in a controlled environment free from fire hazards
• Use proper protective equipment
• Use more caulking than you think; you can always scrape it clean after the fact

More On Van Life

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Getting Insurance in the United States for Your DIY Campervan

How to Screw Into Your Campervan Walls

9 Things to Avoid When Doing Your Campervan Floor

How to Save Money for Life on the Road

The Best Campervan Coffee Makers

Things to Consider When Deciding on a Campervan Stove

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