Marine Hatches

[GoingMobile]

Have any of you installed a marine hatch as a vent, skylight in the roof of your van?

I want a skylight over my [font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]work [/font]table area in my Transit van, and to add ventilation, I'm thinking I don't need it big enough to be used as an escape hatch. On the Transit roof there is a center area that is flat that is approximately 14"wide x 18" lengthwise. Fitting a Maxxfan towards the rear I bought a roof adapter that levels out the transition area between elevations. The cutout on that is 14" x 14". So it would hang off either side of the width a couple of inches on top, which the adapter fills in to make level.  Found a hatch that has a cutout of 10 1/2" x 10 1/2" and would fit widthwise within the 14" x 14" sweetspot (or flatspot) on top of the roof, so no transitioning of elevations. Found another that has a  cutout size of 14" x14" was thinking about using the same adapter I used for the MaxxFan. Then realized the curved corners of the hatch are unlikely to match up well enough with that adapter.

I imagine the butyl tape works well in solving elevation differences, have seen a lot of people use it, but I'm thinking having something rigid such as the adapter or avoiding elevation changes altogether might be a better situation.

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[GoingMobile]

Would posting this in another category be more likely to get a response?

 

[bullfrog]

There are not many that have used them as marine fixtures are generally expensive. I would think they would work well if installed the same as they would be on a boat. If you just want some light I have used some of the large “peep holes” like in motel doors as they are maybe 1 1/2” in diameter. When vans first became popular port hole windows were all the rage. Tickleberry who is a member on here I believe used some in his camper you might try to PM him. I believe they were mainly for ventilation. Nice thing about trying it first if it doesn’t work you could always cut the hole bigger and install a standard RV vent. Sealer isn’t really meant to fill large gaps it is more of a gasket so yes an adapter is necessary in some cases.