Roof Up or Down When Sleeping ?

[gatvol]

Might I canvass views on the above question. It is only my wife and I in the Cali and we are experimenting with various ventilation options:

Front windows open a bit
Use of rear ventilation hook from Brandrup (I like this cheap accessory)
Roof up or down
Side windows open a bit (i am nervous about damaging the blinds, so we leave these up)

The biggest hassle for me with leaving the roof up is the extra noise that comes in the van when parked at sites anywhere near a road. The tradeoff of course is that the van can get hot in summer when the roof is down !

 

[MKRW]

This summer in France i had both side windows open with the mozzie guards in and both blinds down, and did not see any issue with the blinds.

Also roof was up (but then i was sleeping there), first 3 nights without any surround and looking at the stars; then with the pucer cover as it got a little cold and rained on a couple of nights.

 

[Bjohnson]

When we hired back in may the evenings were quite cold, so we slept downstairs. Had the roof up and stored all our stuff up top, closed the hatch above the front seats to stop the cold down drafts and had the sliding door side window open for ventilation with the blind closed. Had the heating on for 10 minutes before bed to get cosy and all seemed to work fine, not cold at all at night.

When our new Cali arrives I'll be investing in a pucker cover though I think and well be sleeping upstairs more often.

 

[brother10]

My personal choices:-

1) Warm weather, roof up, three vents all open several inches, front windows dropped a few inches (have wind deflectors on mine). Very warm, mozzie inserts in sliding windows also.

2) Cold weather, still have roof up but drop the upper bed down and then almost close the slider, allowing a few inches for fresh air and keeping the condensation minimised.

3) Very cold weather, stay at home, heating cranked up to max,constant supply of coffee with whiskey chasers.

Camping is great and so is a centrally heated home with a deep bath and a never ending supply of hot water. One gets to be a bit of a wimp on the under side of entering the seventh decade.

Bob

 

[m4rky]

We will sleep upstairs what ever the weather we just find it so much more comfortable

I reckon our vanorak will keep out the worst of the british winter

 

[Hubert]

The biggest hassle for me with leaving the roof up is the extra noise that comes in the van when parked at sites anywhere near a road. The tradeoff of course is that the van can get hot in summer when the roof is down !

Agreed, almost decided to replace my first Cali with a high top.

We always sleep downstairs with the roof up , normally with the upper bed raised, but when the sites are noisy we leave the roof up but lower the upper bed and if it's really noisy, close off most of the roof space with the blind, allowing just a little ventilation from the roof space.

We have found on some sites that the roof can act like an ear trumpet if it's facing in the direction of the noise source. Parking with the rear of the vehicle facing the noise source can improve matters.

Hubert

 

[ChrisandPenney52]

Always upstairs with a down duvet, except:
- consistently cold weather with no sun during the day to warm up the cab and roof, in which case downstairs with the roof down and a top up with the heater, or
- so windy that we don't feel safe with the roof up.

Otherwise we've never slept downstairs. Mutze keeps the wind, rain and quite a lot of cold out.

For us this saves loads of shuffling of bags and bits around to make the bed each night, and we just get instant conversion to day mode by pushing the roof up.

We've also never left downstairs windows open to sleep - we just rely on roof ventilation.

For us this is part of the 'almost camping' feel (well, that maybe exaggerating a bit given all the technology to hand!)

 

[Hubert]

Has to be downstairs, otherwise can't make the morning cup of tea in bed :lol:

Hubert

 

[GrahamBland]

We always sleep upstairs so it is a bit of a 'no brainer'

 

[calikev]

I will be sleeping upstairs next week at the smg meet as the van will be full of wheels :rofl :rofl
Only the second time in a year

 

[BerndRos]

Never down below unless I really have to. In fact only one night and that was in a Waitrose car park.
Think it's likely I must have slept in the van for about 650 nights in the last 29 months.......

 

[Iain&Shani]

We discovered the benefits of upstairs sleeping whilst in France this summer. It was a bit of a "Doh" moment!! Added a collapsable ladder to the kit list for my short ar....... legged wife.

Only time we would consider roof down would be if it were a not so "wild" overnighter. If the weather is so bad that upstairs is out we'd be at home also!

 

[KernowLad]

Kids upstairs, us down below. Unless the wind suddenly picks up to around force 10; hasty lowering of roof, four of us and a dog on the lower bit. Cosy to say the least!!

 

[Linda]

Almost always upstairs in the treehouse/ bird hide! Great morning views downstairs when stealth urban camping or severe gales.

 

[choplee]

Roof up ... Need the space to breathe and feels more airy and if cold cuddle the cali-pugs or get the heater on or pop that duvet over
Worse case cuddle the wife .. Lol

 

[Freeley]

We tried the downstairs bed a few times early on in our cali life but the extra width of the roof bed and not having to move loads of stuff about every night meant that we always sleep up top now, except when the wind picks up in the night when we beat a hasty retreat back downstairs.

More room for the potti as well! Not that i use it.