Roof conversion hydraulic >> manual

[Jaka Rovan]

Hi everyone!

I finished my conversion this weekend and wanted to share some thoughts with you.

Long story short, just follow Dumé's instructions (with a pinch of salt of course) and you'll be fine!

A few figures:

• Cost of material approximately 1500€ for all of the original VW parts bought with the help of my neighbour's garage, stainless steel bolts, washers and nuts, sealant/glue, etc.
• It took me around 12 hours of work including building the support structures to hold my roof up, removing a broken rusty bolt, degreasing the roof channels because of the oil leak (thankfully the canvas was not affected), electrical works, sealing/glueing everything, etc.
• I'm sure it can be done faster, but I was working in the afternoons after work in front of my garage, so could only work somewhere between 17.30-20.00.

Some notes to consider:

• Build two strong support structures, one around 400mm high, and the other around 1000mm high to hold your roof while you work on it. It is best to have both of them ready and swap them as needed.
• I had to lower the roof every day after I finished to be able to drive to work the next day (my wife needed the other car the whole week which rarely happens - #murphy) so the first day had to include the removal of the hydraulics+installation of the locking mechanism.
• My wife was the positioning engineer for the support structures while I held the roof up
• Before the conversion, one of the cylinders on our Cali failed completely. To be able to lift the roof and start with the work, I had to depresurise the system, by turning the emergency screw on the hydraulic pump. Works without issues, just browse this forum for instructions if you do not know where it is.

Electrical works:

• The latest update of the Dumé's manual suggests disabling the roof function on the control unit and bypassing the sensors for the roof position this way. Our Cali is 2005 and does not support this option. I had to bypass the sensors to let my van believe that the roof was closed.
• If I am not mistaken, the sensors installed are Hall sensors. The control unit receives analogue signal, according to my measurements 2-3mA when a metal item is close to the sensor and 13mA when it is not. This is quite a nicely engineered concept since there are no false positive or negative inputs. The values that the control unit »reads« need to be inside a certain threshold for the unit to read it as open or closed. Anything else is a broken sensor and a returned error.
• (Thereis a nice thread about the sensor here: https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/roof-code-1000.34527/post-553895)
• I plan to replace the sensors with suitable resistors to tidy the whole thing, but we are off to Corsica on Friday, so the temporary solution will have to do for now.
• If anyone is interested, I can post how that went as well

So, first, Dumé, if you ever read this, thank you once again for putting the instructions together! Without you, I would be bugging innocent people in the nearest campsite, asking them if I could measure the positions of their roof mechanism.

Second, go for the conversion guys if you are not comfortable about your roof hydraulics. If anyone can use my experience gained through my conversion, I will be happy to help!

Best, Jaka

 

[jpgo1]

Bonjour à tous,

J’ai découvert ce site par le site collectif calif (T5 calif) et j’ai besoin de votre aide.

Je suis face à un problème avec mon toit électrique qui détecte un toit ouvert alors qu’il est fermé et qui ne veut plus s’ouvrir donc... Depuis le début, je ne suis pas serein avec ce toit électrique et je souhaiterais donc le passer en toit manuel.

Je sollicite donc votre aide pour avoir le tuto que Dumè a réalisé permettant cette manipe et éventuellement des photos du résultat après (intérieur, notamment les points de fixation)

Mon Véhicule est un T6 coast 150ch de 2017

Merci beaucoup par avance de l’aide que vous pourriez m’apporter

Bien cordialement.
Jean-Philippe

 

[Willem2002]

If anyone can help me on this subject, that would be highly appreciated. Our hydraulic system is no longer raising the roof, and the most long-term reliable system is the manual one. Many thanks for any help provided! Willem

 

[SauliusP]

If anybody want to repair his hydraulic roof I can offer you these parts I don’t wanna use anymore ...
All parts are in good condition, available in Belgium.

View attachment 27502

View attachment 27503

View attachment 27504

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View attachment 27506

Hi, I am interested for those parts. how much do you want for those?

 

[judgen1993]

Hi All,

Sorry to pick up an old thread.

Our hydraulic ram on the left hand side of the vehicle unfortunately exploded whilst on our European trip, not ideal, but a couple of ratchet straps and we managed to make the second half of the trip. It’s a 2007 California so would rather not spend the money on new rams and sensors and go manual if possible.

I’ve emailed Dume but the emails come back to say the inbox is no longer monitored.

I can see Dume hasn’t been on the forum since October 2023. Has any of the above people had any contact with Dume since he shared them the documents (noting his request for the copyright etc) so I can get the pdf document from him at all?

 

[yanathem]

Hi All,

Sorry to pick up an old thread.

Our hydraulic ram on the left hand side of the vehicle unfortunately exploded whilst on our European trip, not ideal, but a couple of ratchet straps and we managed to make the second half of the trip. It’s a 2007 California so would rather not spend the money on new rams and sensors and go manual if possible.

I’ve emailed Dume but the emails come back to say the inbox is no longer monitored.

I can see Dume hasn’t been on the forum since October 2023. Has any of the above people had any contact with Dume since he shared them the documents (noting his request for the copyright etc) so I can get the pdf document from him at all?

I wouldn’t worry about swapping the damaged ram to a new one. It’s not a difficult job to do on your own at home. A revised ram was made from 2008 and have been modified to stop the end caps from failing under excessive heat. VW’s fix back then before the new rams were available was to cover the black plastic ram housing with heat reflecting tape and drill a couple of holes in the cap as well. There is no need to swap the sensors either unless that’s another issue you have with your roof. Just order a new ram and the correct hydraulic fluid from VW or TPS if you are in the uk.

 

[yanathem]

Thread with instructions and photos of how to change the ram and refill the pump.
Post in thread 'How to fill hydraulic reservoir for roof pump?'
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/how-to-fill-hydraulic-reservoir-for-roof-pump.41813/post-538668

 

[fiormaxi]

Hi, is it possible to get a copy of the conversion tutorial ?
Thank you !

Max

 

[MANOLO]

Hi anyone have the pdf document or the steps to do that, i send email but give me not enymorte.....could be nice, my roof is ok but i really want change to manual like california beach.