Self adjustment of the electrohydraulic roof

[TripleBee]

As the title says: I want to know what California's have the self adjustment of the electrohydraulic roof as I never experienced it with mine.
This only concerns the T5, T5.1 and T6 in Ocean mode. So no Beaches or Coasts, unless they have the electrohydraulic roof as option.

Let's start with mine:
T5.1 Comfortline (Ocean) from 2009, modelyear 2010.
My roof sags on the left side, and I have never experienced the self adjustment, although the roof has been up for over 10 hours on several times.

How about yours, and what year and type?

 

[WelshGas]

2014 T5.1. No visible sagging. Hydraulics have automatically worked x2 that I’m aware of.

 

[ArunAlec]

Mine drops very slightly on right, barely noticeable but retensions automatically at 15 or 20 hours. Not enough to register at 10hours.

 

[Monty-Wilf bus]

2015 5.1 SE.....Mine sags a little on the right, 10mm, not all the time. We have been in it for the last two nights, night one = sag, manually closed a little and then opened in the morning, night two = no sag. I have witnessed the auto tension once, woke me up, that was over 12 mths ago. I have never heard it since. I checked the panel for any faults, nothing came up. I was tempted to ask a similar question to the group so thanks for posting

 

[BerndRos]

Never experienced it on my 5.1

 

[Meoncoast]

never experienced it on our T5.1 (2012)or our T6(2016)

 

[EddieEagle]

Mine activated after 3 nights but having noticed it sagging on one side resisted the urge to bark up the pump manually and hey Ho! That night it went up but as I was half expecting it was disappointed that it didn’t scare the **** out of me ......

 

[bigmac77]

T5.1, longest I’ve had roof up is 10 days and roof has retentioned twice that I know off both times in the middle of the night.

 

[18hunts]

Never had this problem on a 2013 plate Cali, been up for several days.
Maybe ours is considerate and waits till we go out cycling before it adjusts so that it doesn't disturb us!

 

[Ting Tong]

Ours went down twice in one evening, within 3 hours of arriving. I then raised and lowered the roof 3 or 4 times and haven’t had the issue since. I’ve but it down to a hydraulic valve not seating properly.

 

[TripleBee]

Never had this problem on a 2013 plate Cali, been up for several days.
Maybe ours is considerate and waits till we go out cycling before it adjusts so that it doesn't disturb us!

Then you have a very courteous van. I thinke mine is too courteous, and never adjusts.

 

[westfalia]

As the title says: I want to know what California's have the self adjustment of the electrohydraulic roof as I never experienced it with mine.
This only concerns the T5, T5.1 and T6 in Ocean mode. So no Beaches or Coasts, unless they have the electrohydraulic roof as option.

Let's start with mine:
T5.1 Comfortline (Ocean) from 2009, modelyear 2010.
My roof sags on the left side, and I have never experienced the self adjustment, although the roof has been up for over 10 hours on several times.

How about yours, and what year and type?

Mine is the same as yours, left side although after about 3 days in
hot temperatures the right side starts to drop and there is no auto adjust.
I use either a piece of wood or one of these so that i only have to re-charge
the roof every 3 days.

 

[Ting Tong]

I had the misfortune of visiting our local dealer in Cardiff today and this nice Cali Ocean was on display with a roof sagging on the left side, a broken tambour door, the sliding seat stop from the rail lying on the floor, and 2 of those rubber buffers from the bed frame on the floor. Only cosmetic I know but I would have walked away as a new customer.

 

[TripleBee]

Hello, welcome. This is our new T6 Ocean.
If you don't look after the van very well, it will eventually start looking like this: ....

The thing is that everything in the California is well thought over, but it certainly can't withstand abuse.
If you buy this van, you will be gentle, trying to find everything out. But if you are just looking for a Polo or a Golf, and you say, hey this is a funny looking Transporter, and start fiddling around, breaking stuff, you end up saying, what a rubbish, let's get out of here.
And if the owner, or salesmen just let you do your thing, this is the result.

I was in a showroom once, looking at the differences between my T5.1 and the T6 California, a salesman came running to the van, thinking I was going to molest the showroom model, until he heard I had one myself. That reassured him a bit that I wouldn't break anything.

 

[WelshGas]

I had the misfortune of visiting our local dealer in Cardiff today and this nice Cali Ocean was on display with a roof sagging on the left side, a broken tambour door, the sliding seat stop from the rail lying on the floor, and 2 of those rubber buffers from the bed frame on the floor. Only cosmetic I know but I would have walked away as a new customer.

View attachment 49513

Another reason to avoid them like the plague.

 

[Ting Tong]

Another reason to avoid them like the plague.

For once I totally agree with you about that!

They’ve always filled me with trepidation but I just had my first oil service done there as it was competitive but they screwed up on a warranty part (missing end off awning rail) and I had to go back today for it and seemingly was expected to fit it myself. Numptys.

 

[WelshGas]

For once I totally agree with you about that!

They’ve always filled me with trepidation but I just had my first oil service done there as it was competitive but they screwed up on a warranty part (missing end off awning rail) and I had to go back today for it and seemingly was expected to fit it myself. Numptys.

That’s why I go to South Hereford. A day out in Hereford and everything is sorted in one visit.

 

[Jason wallace]

Always worth making sure that all parties are aware of this functions.

Parked up at Camper Calling since Thursday and ours decided to activate on Sunday night. Lets just say Mrs W was slightly panicked when the roof activated at 3 am ish with our girls in the top bunk.

 

[RichardH]

As the title says: I want to know what California's have the self adjustment of the electrohydraulic roof as I never experienced it with mine.
This only concerns the T5, T5.1 and T6 in Ocean mode. So no Beaches or Coasts, unless they have the electrohydraulic roof as option.

Let's start with mine:
T5.1 Comfortline (Ocean) from 2009, modelyear 2010.
My roof sags on the left side, and I have never experienced the self adjustment, although the roof has been up for over 10 hours on several times.

How about yours, and what year and type?

I think we must be lucky - sagging roof not much of a problem in our T5 2014 SE 140 manual. Just moved on from 3w parked up on a site in France, where presumably the retensioning cycle operated a few times when we were out and about, but only once at night as far as we noticed. The noise surprised us when the van was new but, now that we know what it is, it doesn’t disturb us any more than the ticking heater.

 

[campandfly]

Our sags occasionally. I simply lower it a bit more then re-tension.
The auto 10 hour re-tension has operated on its own accord I think twice in over three years.
I wonder if there is a setting somewhere that we could adjust ourselves.

 

[gvick]

A very windy night in southwold last night and suddenly at 3am the roof hydraulically adjusted it self - scared daylights out of Mrs Vick- but having been a student of forum I knew what had happened and went back to sleep

 

[Her Outdoors]

Our roof re-tensioned in the middle of the night for the first time in four years on our last trip. A word of warning, it does sound remarkably similar to someone opening the sliding door (especially at 3am when you're not at your smartest!).

 

[sapto]

California SE 2005, sagging/lowers itself (after 1-2days) and stays like this. Our solution: Keep on moving after 3-4 nights.

 

[PaulBastowski]

California SE 2013, auto re-tension of the roof scared the hell out of me this morning. It’s the first time I heard it do that and I thought it was going to tear the roof off … and then it stopped

 

[WelshGas]

California SE 2013, auto re-tension of the roof scared the hell out of me this morning. It’s the first time I heard it do that and I thought it was going to tear the roof off … and then it stopped

Normally seems to happen at 3am on a quiet night.