Ideas to sound deaden Sprinter cargo van...

Roaring tin can at high speeds....needs walls at least...but insulation behind the walls too ? And would a partition between cab and cargo area (with sliding door) make a huge difference in noise or just help a little ?

Start with 'mass loading'
Get some of that dynamat or whatever.

Try a square foot in the middle of big panels and see what it does

Sonex foam panels on ceiling.

Milacron said:

Roaring tin can at high speeds....needs walls at least...but insulation behind the walls too ? And would a partition between cab and cargo area (with sliding door) make a huge difference in noise or just help a little ?

Click to expand...

High speed?
Drive slower.
Or just park it and drive the Benz?



Trick one is assymetry. Breaks up resonances of large panels by IRREGULAR placement of rather modest solutions, not by big BFBI slabs of material.

Trick two is conversion of movement into heat. "Green glue" is a polymer that when sandwiched between two hard surfaces, even thin ones, resists sound wave transmission and instead warms up from the acoustical energy that tries to pass.

Trick three is breaking up the coherence of airborne sound. Note that a "Tactically Quiet" MEP-803a gen set places rather small sections of perforated metal - hard, not soft - on short stand-offs with space back of ihe perfed panel to the also hard metal outer shell. As a sound wave impinges on the perfed metal, the holes alter its path. Much of it then cancels itself out.
Not a lot of mass required. Not a lot of space lost.

Not a lot of "futon bed" batting to soak up moisture, stink, be easily damaged, grow mildew, "etc".

See also a coating called Lizard skin:

LizardSkin - Spray-on Noise & Heat Insulation for Cars

Go for more smarts invested than money.

Most of those high space-efficiency vans simply suffer from too large an area of too FLAT sheetmetal, where the older, curvier body shells with more ribs and diagonals didn't have the problem.

Add dampening diagonals or ribs, "Green Glued"?

Problem should drop waaay off. No moldy futon required.

Somebody probably sells a kit, already.


Disclaimer: Relying a powerful heap on my memory.

Deaf as I am? I don't really have to give a damn!

Thankfully, "SPL" meters are cheap these days.

pretty sure they sell kits. Noico is one well known brand for sound deadener, they sell it on Amazon. With all the conversions of sprinters, there are also shops which will do this turnkey.

Ries said:

pretty sure they sell kits. Noico is one well known brand for sound deadener, they sell it on Amazon. With all the conversions of sprinters, there are also shops which will do this turnkey.

Click to expand...

Kilmat vs Noico: Differences Reviewed (What's Better)

"It's an industry."

I'd still want stiffener/dampers, even if just wide, flat strips of elastomer glued on at odd diagonals & such.

Damping movement to generate less sound is better than trying to absorb it after it is already there.

In my van I installed sound deadening foam behind 1/4" plywood on the walls and the ceiling, made a big difference.

I think a good, extra deep pile SHAG carpeting would be good.
Walls, ceiling, and the floor....
Channeling qty (1) Austin Powers....

Lizard skin, vans are such a PITA with all the stiffening bars to sound deaden.

Extruded polystyrene Styrofoam works well - use can foam to adhere it. Crude, but really cheap, and it'll insulate the van, too.

Buy some of the elastomeric sound deadener mat from McMaster. Cheaper than Dynamat and just as effective.

What you are trying to do is de-tune the "drum". Often a rectangle at center with strips that make an "X" will do the trick. I once had an aftermarket exhaust that was unbearable until I added mat to the trunk floor. I used McMaster P/N 9709T39.

Rubberized undercoat can help with the areas not covered by mat.

simple homosote is a great sound deadening material.

rockwoold is excellent too and adds fire proofing (useless in a vehicle) and insulation from heat and cold.

It's a work van so how much money do you really want to spend? A divider separating the cab from the back end will also help make the AC work better so I would put one of those in even if didn't help with sound but I live where it gets hot!

Take a look at peel and seal. If you notice half the reviews are from people trying to deaden sound on vehicles. You don't need to cover the whole panel!
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Peel-Seal-Instant-Waterproof-Repairs-6-in-x-25-ft-Aluminum-Roll-Flashing/1018733

Also pay attention to tire reviews if you need to replace your tires as that is where a lot of the road noise originates.