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I work & camp on weekends at an off-grid cabin in Ontario.

I wear insulated rubber boots in spring, winter, and fall for a few reasons:

  1. Waterproof
  2. Liners are removable/washable and replaceable
  3. Tall boots provide extra protection in general, such as sharp rocks when walking.
  4. Inexpensive compared to other kinds of boots

The downside is that the boots don't breathe, and so the liners get stinky. Although, most boots end up stinking pretty bad anyway if you're sweating in them all day.

Question:

After a day's work (on-site) or when driving home, I want to dry out the sweaty liners in my truck to reduce odors. Is there a way to dry boot liners in a vehicle?

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  • Remove from boots, place on cab floor under an air vent, and direct air to the floor to blow over them.
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Nov 4 at 17:21
  • 1
    @JonCuster, please post as an answer, not as a comment.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Nov 4 at 19:51

2 Answers 2

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You have a "truck" which presumes a load bed - toss the liners in the bed, and slip on some lightweight shoes you left in the vehicle just for driving.

The passing breeze will force-deodorise the liners, and if its raining they get a wash at the same time.

Some people like to drive in their bare feet or socks, they claim it gives more "feedback" but I prefer shoes in case I need to get out and do something.

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6

If what you want is to get them to dry out and you don’t care overly much about the fact that it’ll stink up the car a bit, one option is to get some USB-powered fans and put them in the boots. If you’re feeling fancy you can make a sort of cage/etc around to stop the fan blades from getting stuck on anything.

Or, just stick them with the openings at the floor vents and crank up the fan like Jon suggests.

Related: years ago, I actually made an enclosed box w/ USB-powered fans to help dry my climbing shoes, which worked pretty well. A second iteration would probably include some sort of odor filter. Such a type of thing would actually also work in a car, as it’s still powered by a USB, which is easy to get car adaptors for.

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  • 2
    If you're going to run fans off a car, don't bother with USB, just buy 12V fans. They'll be fine on the generous "12V" in cars. I have couple of old radial PC fans to which I've taped wide tubes that I can insert in my shoes, either run off a 12V power supply or a vehicle
    – Chris H
    Commented Nov 5 at 11:10
  • @ChrisH good to know - I hadn’t looked too much into the options. Do those plug directly into the car socket?
    – fyrepenguin
    Commented Nov 5 at 13:08
  • if you wire a car lighter plug onto them, yes. There are fans with the right plug already, but I the fans themselves aren't great for this, more like mini desk fans
    – Chris H
    Commented Nov 5 at 13:14
  • @ChrisH Unlike my previous car with 4 12 V outlets, my new truck has exactly one 12 V cigarette port, two 120 V outlets (including 1 in the bed), and six USB ports (half USB-C). Manufacturers have steered away from 12 V in modern cars due to the high current draw and the need for safety-related load management. At some point, they will disappear to be replaced by USB PD.
    – user71659
    Commented Nov 5 at 22:15
  • @user71659 if you say so. My van is too old to know about that. But my parents' much newer (2022) electric car has two or three 12V sockets well spread out, and a pair of almost useless 1A USB sockets in the console. Overloading of mains voltage sockets is also likely to be an issue, easily enough to overcome, but breakers etc. cost money and margins are tight on many models
    – Chris H
    Commented Nov 6 at 8:39

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