Hengs Vortex II RV Vent Upgrade

Hengs Vortex 2
Hey guys It's Barratt with the Gimpy Camper. We are going to be doing an upgrade to a vent today and adding a fan. I've always kind of regretted not adding a Maxxair fan to my bedroom when I added the other two. One in the living room and one in the bathroom. About the only downside to my RV Armor Roof is that I lost the ability to do so. The RV Armor has been doing great and we will inspect it this year. You can always add to it yourself, just like when we added our Insty Connect antenna, however, if you want to take something off you have to make a service call which can take weeks since they travel to you. So in order to get similar functionality of my maxxair deluxe fan I've decided to go with the Hengs Industries Vortex 2. These fans do come in two models but the original I believe just has an on/off switch and the model 2 comes with a variable speed control as well as the ability to reverse the fan and have it pull in air from outside.
Let's go over the install. As I said, this fan can be mounted totally from the inside of the camper. The first step is to remove the inner bezel by taking out the four screws in your factory fan bezel and it should just pull out. Take this time to inspect any taping around the vent. Since my unit is made to add a second unit with a "racetrack" a/c ducting there was a vent on both sides that was supposed to be taped but the tape was falling off, so I retaped it which will make the air conditioner work better. The second step is to remove the screw from the knob on the vent that you use to raise and lower the fan. Then it should just fall out of place. If you have an existing fan you will have to cut the power wires to it. If it was just a vent without a fan such as mine, you will need to run power to the fan. Luckily this is where my unit was prewired for a second AC so I knew there had to be 12 volt near it as well. If you don't know what you are doing with the electricity or which wire is 12 volt or 110 please don't do this yourself. After adding some quick connectors and additional wires I had to get the wires to the vent fan as they were in a box just behind it. I had to use a screwdriver to loosen some of the glue holding the ceiling panel up then I was able to pull one of the wires through, which I then taped the other wire to and was able to pull it through. After this, I trimmed the wires and tested the fan to make sure it was blowing the correct way, if it's backward the polarity is reversed on your power wires. Once I was sure the fan worked correctly I used quick splices on the wires to permanently connect them. The fan then simply lifts up into position... but as usual, it's never that simple. First, the fan has to mate up with the gear that opens and closes the vent. I did have to change the location of my vent adapter, and so did about everyone else I watched a video of. There are two screws that you just have to take out then you can move it to the alternate location. Then I still had a hard time getting the gears to mate together. It wasn't until I got aggravated at it and hit it upward that it worked. I did try spinning the gear on the fan to try to get it to line up better and everything but nothing besides forcing it worked. There is a screw on the front and back that go through the metal support beam to help hold the fan up. After these two screws are placed you can add the handle for the vent lid if you haven't done this yet, it's the single longer screw in the kit and just takes a second. Then replace the bezel with it's four screws. Then this project is done.
I will be adding a maxxair cover as there has been times when this vent decided to open a little by itself and it's always made me nervous. But we will be adding the cover in another video. The fan isn't as strong as my maxxair fans but according to the specifications, it is 188 CFM. My plan is that when we are boondocking to have my maxair fan blowing outward in the living room but have this one in the bedroom bringing in fresh air. The plan has always worked decent without a fan in the bedroom but I believe it will be better with a fan there. All in all, I'm happy with this product and we will report back to you guys how it works after we use it for a bit.
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Amazon Links - Bought with my own money
Hengs Vortex 2- amzn.to/3TEKiN1
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[@thetraveltrailerguy]

Awesome, that worked out great.

[@thewanderingshores]

We've got two of these vortex fans installed in our travel trailer. We've had them for about 4 plus years now and they continue to work great. We do spray them with a little silicone when they start making a little bit of noise- Kyle

[@marciacoker2968]

Hi there, Can I buy those fans at Home Depot and get a standard side for RV’s?

[@GimpyCamper]

No, they are not carried in stores. I bought on Amazon but I would go with a fantastic fan or a maxxair fan if you can get the roof work done, this is a decent fan but doesn’t have the output the others do

[@marciacoker2968]

@@GimpyCamper Your fan looked great! Thank you for the information 🙌