Driving an 18-wheeler in today’s world is a difficult task, even in the best conditions. And when you add in traffic, weather, bad road conditions, and a hot, noisy cab, it only makes the job more stressful. Trucks are running more hours per day and spending more years on the road, and drivers are exposed to every climate on earth. Unfortunately, the cabs and sleepers of today’s trucks are poorly treated for driver comfort. This is where HushMat, a sound and thermal insulation product now being offered to the truck market, comes into play and offers a solution.
Truck cabs have come a long way in terms of look and feel with seating, trim and flooring, but an unseen and often overlooked issue is noise and heat, which can make these beautiful cabs unbearable. HushMat is designed to reduce surface temperatures and noise levels of firewalls, floors, doors, roofs and sleepers, and helps to keep the driver comfortable, whether he’s traveling along on I-70 or pulled over at the noisy rest stop trying to get some shut-eye. After adding a layer of this specialized insulation, HushMat helps protect the cab from engine noise, exhaust noise, road noise, engine/exhaust heat and radiant heat from the sun.
Made of a compounded blend of butyl rubber that is laminated with a metal foil layer, HushMat has been designed to effectively insulate metal or fiberglass. HushMat reduces the thermal transfer in the cab by over 40% and was recently rated the #1 insulator out of six products in an independent study done by Restorer Magazine, the official magazine of the National Corvette Restoration Society. In their study, HushMat lowered the untreated firewall temperature from 174 degrees down to 100 degrees after installation. HushMat also reduces the interior noise level of cabs by a minimum of 4dB and in excess of 10dB, depending on application. “A 10dB reduction reduces the sound level inside a truck by over a factor of 10 times,” stated Tim McCarthy, HushMat’s founder and president.
HushMat also makes the sleeper much quieter by reducing outside noise, as well as vibrations and noises caused by refrigeration and A/C units. A recent project with the Clarion County Career Center in Shippenville, PA demonstrated this fact when one student slept the entire way from Columbus to Louisville and couldn’t believe how quiet the sleeper, insulated with HushMat, was. Another key feature of HushMat is that it requires no adhesives or glues to install. Utilizing simple peel-and-stick technology, each 12-inch by 12-inch sheet of HushMat product easily and effectively bonds to sheet metal, fiberglass, and plastic – even on inverted surfaces.
Rod Pickett of Pickett Custom Trucks in Marysville, Washington, and also a key member of the “Trick My Truck” television show crew, recently installed HushMat in the 10-4 Magazine cover truck owned by Barry Skavlem of Rochester, WA (December 2010). After doing the install on Barry’s green 2005 Pete 379, Pickett said, “HushMat is a fantastic product, compared to any of the others, and I have installed them all. The HushMat was so flexible and easy to work with – it worked great.” He went on to say, “The flexibility and adhesion of HushMat is phenomenal, and they even offer a heavy-duty roller to make the install smooth and professional-looking.” And even though Rod is a professional truck builder, HushMat is a product that can be installed by almost anyone in less than a day and, if you work fast and get the hang of it quickly, in less than two hours!
HushMat may be a new product for the trucking industry, but they are not a new company by any means. With over 20 years of design, development and manufacturing experience, HushMat, based out of Olathe, Kansas, is the only sound/thermal insulation material manufactured in the USA. HushMat material technology was introduced to the North American automobile manufacturers in 1988. HushMat’s foil-constrained layer dampening technology was the first to be approved by General Motors Corporation and began in vehicle production the next year. HushMat materials are now specified and used by every automobile manufacturer in the United States, Canada and Mexico. These same materials are now available to you.
HushMat is now available to the heavy truck market and being distributed exclusively through Rockwood Products. “We are very pleased to offer the latest technology in sound and thermal insulation and are proud to carry only the best in the market – HushMat,” stated Carl Carstens of Rockwood Products. To learn more about this useful new product, visit www.hushmat.com or follow them on Facebook and Twitter. You can also contact HushMat directly at (913) 599-2600.