Poptop down camping

[homerorchid]

On a recent camping trip in our 2019 Ocean, due to periods of strong winds-gusting/rain, we decided to spend the day/night camping with the poptop down. We would be interested in people's experiences and useful tips for camping in this way. We experienced the following:

Positives;
Much quieter

Less sideways movement

Warmer

Negitives;
Stuffy over time (unsure how to obtain good airflow when windy/raining)

Clostrophobic

Very limited headroom

Challenging to cook in

More condensation

 

[GrannyJen]

Living in a Cali with the pop-top down is horrible. Might as well be in a builders van for after all, much of the Cali such as the stove becomes useless. Walking around like the hunch back of Hannover is pretty miserable as well.

The upside is that the pop top is far more robust than we imagine. After an horrendous introduction to Cali - living with my first, I looked around the campsite, which had experienced 50 mph winds, and noticed every awning attached to a caravan was untouched. Why did I lower my roof?

It's nerve wracking. You sit there, or in my experience at 1am lie there, listen to the wind tear into everything, and wait to find you have an open top Cali. It is in fact a lot more robust than what we imagine.

 

[homerorchid]

Thank you for the reasurance Granny Jen. We always use a topper for various reasons but with that in place the noise was very irritating so took it off which improved things but put the roof down as we were going home next day and didn't want to put the roof down with a wet canvas and risk wetting the mattress. Any advice/tips in high- gusty winds/driving rain would be much appreciated

 

[campandfly]

We camped on a couple of occasions with the Pop Top down to be stealthy.
Ventilation/stuffiness and condensation does become an issue.
If we were to do it more often I would invest in the side window vents see here https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/side-window-vents.10938/

 

[Bellcrew]

Living in a Cali with the pop-top down is horrible. Might as well be in a builders van for after all, much of the Cali such as the stove becomes useless. Walking around like the hunch back of Hannover is pretty miserable as well.

The upside is that the pop top is far more robust than we imagine. After an horrendous introduction to Cali - living with my first, I looked around the campsite, which had experienced 50 mph winds, and noticed every awning attached to a caravan was untouched. Why did I lower my roof?

It's nerve wracking. You sit there, or in my experience at 1am lie there, listen to the wind tear into everything, and wait to find you have an open top Cali. It is in fact a lot more robust than what we imagine.

One of the main advantages of the Cali layout over the alternatives is the ability to cook from the seated position, the sliding table aides preparation and the choice of window openings makes ventilation a breeze. IMHO the position of the roof does not compromise this ability.
This of course is the reality for anyone whose children go to sleep in the upper bed long before they retire to their bed, regardless of wind conditions.

 

[OGII]

We camped on a couple of occasions with the Pop Top down to be stealthy.
Ventilation/stuffiness and condensation does become an issue.
If we were to do it more often I would invest in the side window vents see here https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/side-window-vents.10938/

+1 on the window vents above. They are very good. We only have one, sufficient with front windows down a bit with wind deflectors.

 

[davidgmo]

On a recent camping trip in our 2019 Ocean, due to periods of strong winds-gusting/rain, we decided to spend the day/night camping with the poptop down. We would be interested in people's experiences and useful tips for camping in this way. We experienced the following:

Positives;
Much quieter

Less sideways movement

Warmer

Negitives;
Stuffy over time (unsure how to obtain good airflow when windy/raining)

Clostrophobic

Very limited headroom

Challenging to cook in

More condensation

Us too!

We decided to travel for an early October weekend to the Gower peninsular on a headland camp site overlooking Three Cliffs Bay to meet my sister who was staying in an AirBnB (wise!) As the weekend approached the weather forecast got worse and all-weekend rain was forecast.

Well they got it right and Friday night with the poptop up we got buffetted by rain and gusting winds . So much so, that I was concerned about the roof structure and canvas and mid-way through the night decided to clear the bed and lower the roof and shift the van around 180 degrees.

With the top down and us now sharing the lower bed, we had a much quieter night (and warmer)

It was more challenging for cooking, so we had a light breakfast and decided on a curry out later that day to warm us up!

So the lesson is - pitch (and position the camper) for the weather to come and you'll be fine - check out local eateries too as backup!

I must say that it is a beautiful campsite overlooking a lovely bay which is heavily booked up with outstanding washing and shower facilities (individual bathrooms with shower, loo and basin). Would definitely return maybe this time in summertime. https://threecliffsbay.com/

Lets face it the Cali is the swiss army knife of camping so be prepared to adapt to weather and local conditions and you will be fine!

 

[Cali Phillip]

I camp most of the time with roof down, often for stealth and bad weather, especially if its just me.
Too tips, front window wind deflectors and an air screen which will cover the sliding window to stop the weather geting in, even some really bad weather.
I made a one for half the Brandrup price.
The other thing not mentioned much is a window vac, brilliant for a quick getaway.

 

[GrannyJen]

Thank you for the reasurance Granny Jen. We always use a topper for various reasons but with that in place the noise was very irritating so took it off which improved things but put the roof down as we were going home next day and didn't want to put the roof down with a wet canvas and risk wetting the mattress. Any advice/tips in high- gusty winds/driving rain would be much appreciated

I did one trip, through the Northwest of Scotland, in a week that included 8 weather warnings, 5 of them for severe winds (I also had floods and snow!!). I had the pop top down on two nights, when winds were predicted to gust in excess of 70 mph, and had two miserable nights with the wind really rocking the van. It was the week that Stornaway recorded 97mph whilst I was camped on the coast directly opposite, north of Ullapool. I was seriously grateful that I had a full fuel tank and water tank adding 100kg to the low down weight.

Dropping the roof with the canvas wet does not trouble me, I know that when I get to the other end of my trip I can raise it again to breath and it's not going to be down long enough to allow the canvas to start to degrade. I've come home many times with a canvas stowed wet.

I think it's often a judgement call, Is the wind really going to be strong enough to damage the roof or is it me not wishing to lie there all night worrying about it. I'm sure I've had the roof down many times when I've not needed to, on some occasions not for weather conditions but to keep noise intrusion out.

 

[kurienp]

risk wetting the mattress

Get the ISOTOP - Brandrup Iso-Top V roof insulation for the T5/T6/T6.1 VW California Ocean/Coast/Beach/Comfortline - from the shop. Once installed, in addition to better insulation, lesser noise, it also prevents the mattress from getting wet.

 

[Anthony1]

On a recent camping trip in our 2019 Ocean, due to periods of strong winds-gusting/rain, we decided to spend the day/night camping with the poptop down. We would be interested in people's experiences and useful tips for camping in this way. We experienced the following:

Positives;
Much quieter

Less sideways movement

Warmer

Negitives;
Stuffy over time (unsure how to obtain good airflow when windy/raining)

Clostrophobic

Very limited headroom

Challenging to cook in

More condensation

A California roof will withstand winds upto 60mph. They are very sturdy.

 

[Wesel]

I camp most of the time with roof down, often for stealth and bad weather, especially if its just me.
Too tips, front window wind deflectors and an air screen which will cover the sliding window to stop the weather geting in, even some really bad weather.
I made a one for half the Brandrup price.
The other thing not mentioned much is a window vac, brilliant for a quick getaway.

Could we have pictures, or other details, of the air screen you built ?
I am thinking of making one as well.

 

[Dorset camper]

On a recent camping trip in our 2019 Ocean, due to periods of strong winds-gusting/rain, we decided to spend the day/night camping with the poptop down. We would be interested in people's experiences and useful tips for camping in this way. We experienced the following:

Positives;
Much quieter

Less sideways movement

Warmer

Negitives;
Stuffy over time (unsure how to obtain good airflow when windy/raining)

Clostrophobic

Very limited headroom

Challenging to cook in

More condensation

Having just bought a 2nd hand Ocean 2016, we chose this week to try it out. Our main problem was water leaking through the pop-top in very heavy rain and wind. Is this a common issue, or do we have a problem that we need to fix?