Ideas for adding ventilation to our truck cap coop?

Beekissed said:

Even with ventilation and insulation, this summer your birds are going to COOK in that thing!   It's like a huge broiler pan for chickens.   I know this all may sound a little harsh but a truck topper just isn't ideal material for making a chicken coop.....too low a roof for any ventilation to really work, condensation like crazy(even with insulation), no light, no place for good roosting, etc.  Cold, dark and wet in the winter and hot, hot, hot and airless in the summer. 

Short of opening up a side and then draping a windblock so they don't have wind whistling up their skirts, I don't see any real good solutions to ventilation in this sort of setup. 

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Darn, not what we wanted to hear but I appreciate your honesty and objectiveness. We've had the cap sitting in our yard for years and thought we could repurpose it. We underestimated the amount of humidity and heat it would hold in. We may just have to take it off and built a new coop out of wood on top or on the side.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond.

TalkALittle said:

What you've basically got there is a hot box. I agree that your birds will cook in summer. I've known of dogs who've died in the back of capped trucks in summer.

The problems I see for winter are that there is no way to vent warm moist air from the cap without seriously opening up some holes in it. Because there isn't much head room, that will mean all airflow will be blasting in directly at bird level. It just doesn't allow for fresh air to be drawn in low and warm air to be pushed out high above the birds heads.

I think it could make an awesome roof for a full height, walk in coop though. How many birds are you currently housing in it?

If you have no options other than to use it this winter then, yes, cut into the second toolbox and open it up like you did the other. Install a hardware cloth screen to keep out predators so you can prop the lid open and get some air in. (Propped wide open might make this coop usable in summer too.) Lower the roost. Remove the the windows in the back and line the opening with hardware cloth. Rig something so you can block off the lower half of the windows but leave the top 5-6 inches open for the whole width. This will help put airflow as high up over their heads as possible. Consider cutting some holes into the top of your big access doors up near the roofline and installing some adjustable vents there too.

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Thank you for your help! I guess we'll have to really think this through and decide if attempting all those modifications would be worth it without knowing how effective they will be, or if taking the cap off and building a new wood coop from scratch would be better.

For now, we moved them back into their original coop, which is supposed to accommodate 3 chickens (we have 3) but seems to small. At least they are safer in there for the winter until we can fix the big one. Last night, the old coop was 8 degrees with 73% humidity. Not ideal but better than the night before in the truck cap coop. Here's a pic of the coop we moved them back into.

5crazies said:

Darn, not what we wanted to hear but I appreciate your honesty and objectiveness. We've had the cap sitting in our yard for years and thought we could repurpose it. We underestimated the amount of humidity and heat it would hold in. We may just have to take it off and built a new coop out of wood on top or on the side.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond.

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And thank you for not getting mad about my response! You'd be surprised how many folks ask for an opinion on this forum but who really don't want an opinion, only validation for their efforts. It's hard to help those folks and most folks here really just want to help those who ask. It's a neat looking build, but just not practical for chickens is all.

How about cut a hole in the top and put a vent in, like on a motorhome? They even come with fans or can be passive.

http://www.etrailer.com/RV-Vents-an...3pRytjqBkCeFdvLH6G5fz4M9e0kFtcdubzRoC5Cbw_wcB

I have two of these on my Airstream trailer and they move a lot of air


Gary from Idyllwild Ca here

5crazies said:

Thank you for your help! I guess we'll have to really think this through and decide if attempting all those modifications would be worth it without knowing how effective they will be, or if taking the cap off and building a new wood coop from scratch would be better.

For now, we moved them back into their original coop, which is supposed to accommodate 3 chickens (we have 3) but seems to small. At least they are safer in there for the winter until we can fix the big one. Last night, the old coop was 8 degrees with 73% humidity. Not ideal but better than the night before in the truck cap coop. Here's a pic of the coop we moved them back into.

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that is the exact coop we have and it has three in ti and yes its way too small..... but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes. right now I'm in the process of building a run and coop so they are kind in transition.

ventilation for the truck cap:
cut the front off completely and make into an insert and fasten 1/2' HW cloth on a wooden premeasured insert and add a slight roof run off to prevent leaking. that way depending on the season you can do a quick switch for added protection or added airflow. During the summer you should open the back and have an insert you can place in there with 1/2" HW cloth which will then provide a blow through breeze, for added cooling you can run a small or large fan and place on one end and that should cut down on the issue... OR you can just run a shade cloth free standing structure over the truck cap or roof and that will stop direct sun from heating it up.

Beekissed said:

And thank you for not getting mad about my response!      You'd be surprised how many folks ask for an opinion on this forum but who really don't want an opinion, only validation for their efforts. It's hard to help those folks and most folks here really just want to help those who ask.    It's a neat looking build, but just not practical for chickens is all. 

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Not mad at all! Your advice, along with everyone else's is exactly what we're looking for. We are new to this so help from people with experience is just what we need, even if we're told we're doing something wrong. I'd rather be told I'm wrong and be offered helpful solutions than lose or hurt my chickens. I'm glad we kept the old coop. It is a little too small but at least we have an alternative until we can fix the big coop. We are supposed to get another 6-8 inches of snow and subzero tempuratures over the weekend so we won't be able to do any construction real soon.
Thanks again!

IdyllwildAcres said:

How about cut a hole in the top and put a vent in, like on a motorhome?   They even come with fans or can be passive.

http://www.etrailer.com/RV-Vents-an...3pRytjqBkCeFdvLH6G5fz4M9e0kFtcdubzRoC5Cbw_wcB

I have two of these on my Airstream trailer and they move a lot of air


Gary from Idyllwild Ca here

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Oh wow! That's a cool idea! My husband mentioned some kind of vent with a fan used in residential homes that senses humidity and kicks on autmoatically. Similar idea. We haven't looked into it too much yet though. Our main priority the last couple days was to get the chickens situated in their old coop and monitoring the frostbite to make sure it doesn't get worse. It looks the same today as yesterday so at least it didn't get worse last night.

Daox13 said:

that is the exact coop we have and it has three in ti and yes its way too small..... but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.  right now I'm in the process of building a run and coop so they are kind in transition.

ventilation for the truck cap: 
cut the front off completely and make into an insert and fasten 1/2' HW cloth on a wooden premeasured insert  and add a slight roof run off to prevent leaking. that way depending on the season you can do a quick switch for added protection or added airflow. During the summer you should open the back and have an insert you can place in there with 1/2" HW cloth which will then provide a blow through breeze, for added cooling you can run a small or large fan and place on one end and that should cut down on the issue... OR you can just run a shade cloth free standing structure over the truck cap or roof and that will stop direct sun from heating it up.

Click to expand...

Thank you! Lots of good ideas here. I'll show this to my husband. He does all the construction and building. Not sure if he'd rather attempt modifying it or just start over from scratch. He's already put in so many hours over the last 3-4 months to get it to where it is now. It's a tough pill to swallow to know that it is not working.

5crazies said:

Thank you! Lots of good ideas here. I'll show this to my husband. He does all the construction and building. Not sure if he'd rather attempt modifying it or just start over from scratch. He's already put in so many hours over the last 3-4 months to get it to where it is now. It's a tough pill to swallow to know that it is not working.

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well I think it will work and I honestly think with enough tweaking you can basically make anything work... all you are really lacking is a roof. if I was you I would go to the hardware store and buy a few panels of the 12' corrugated roof for about $13 a piece. take some lumber and attach to your run and go about 2' above the topper and build your roof and this will give you the shield from the sun you need as long as you overhang the roof about a foot or so on all sides. you could even take the shade cloth idea and cut strips and hang them on all four side of the roof and let them hang down to prevent the sun from even touch the topper. ALSO you could paint the roof white to reflect the sun verse absorb. the fun part about a roof too is you now have a nifty rain catch you can throw a cheap gutter on it and a cheap rain barrel and you have never ending water for your chickens.

Ventilation is easy go get a few of the vents from the hardware store probably around 3-4 of the 9.5" outdoor vents and cut a hole or two in the topper once you have the roof on and place those, and if you are smart you will get the closable kind so you can adjusts the vents.

during the heat of the summer you can adjuster the air flow by using the sliding window you have and back insert you can place with the back doors open and open all vents up top. OR you can cut 6" x 10" sections of the topper itself attach your 1/2 HW cloth to the hole and hinge the sections and you have adjustable airflow that way just like most standard built coops.

its true that a topper probably wasn't the easiest thing to make work, but hell I love a good challenge and I think your husband has done a great job so far!

However, if you wish to start over again you could easily keep the run intact and do exactly what I have stated about the roof and just make the extra space on top of the run a coop with boards as I would imagine the topper is about 2-3' tall and an extra 2' added to that would give you a on average 6' wide and 4 ' tall coop. but either way I think you will be good.