The roof up or down during bad weather?

[KernowLad]

Recently had a rather nerve racking night in Scotland. By 1am the wind must have been a force 8-9 or more and we were very worried about the kids above. They stayed asleep but with the van shaking in the gusts, we decided to take the Pucer cover off (which is like a BIG sail!) and tentatively lowered the roof (after taking the kids down!). Once the tension left the bellows, the heart beat raised even more as it blew the sides all over the place and the roof came down at one hell of a sideways angle. On the first go, it didn't shut properly do I partially raised it and managed to lock it down.

The bellows are fine but I wonder if we were being paranoid or not?!

Four people in the lower bed is a wee bit tight but we managed it!

 

[DebsWhite]

Having just returned from a very windy night in the Lake District, I wondered if anybody knew what wind speeds the roof could take? I ended up getting too concerned last night, so moved downstairs and put all of us in the beach bed below - as the wind was so strong - gusting up to 70 mph. However, that caused me to wonder whether I was being unnecessarily worried. Does anyone know? :?:

 

[ChrisandPenney52]

I'm sure there are a few threads about this, but the only one I can find is this one:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1187&p=8379&hilit=wind#p8379

The roof seems to be pretty tough, and I don't think anyone has reported wind damage. But 70mph will uproot trees. We've chickened out a couple of times and lowered the roof at 3am, and felt that we made the right decision. Just take extreme care that the canvas isn't pushed into the mechanism by the wind.

Obviously it makes sense to park with the tail of the van to the wind, but increasing wind often comes with a change of wind direction, so what's right when you go to bed probably won't stay right.

I think someone quoted definitive VW guidance but I can't find the thread, and it would probably have been a pretty conservative conservative figure

 

[Stephen02]

We've had ours up in about 35 mph (but with some bigger gusts) on top of a cliff overnight in Cornwall last October in the pouring rain. It was noisy and the van moved around a bit, but no damage and no leaks. We parked with the wind pretty much behind us and didn't have our topper then.

To be honest, I would not have put it up if I'd known how windy it was going to get, but once the roof was up and the wind strengthened, I thought it might do more damage to lower it in the dark than leaving it where it was.

We've had quieter nights, but it was pretty exciting...

Steve

 

[sbmcd]

We have now had 56 nights in the van since we got it in March, in only two of these there has been an issue with high winds. First was a the Ben Lawers car park even with the van parked rear to the wind we had to lower the roof as the van was being tossed about so much and was so noisy we could not sleep upstairs. Second time was at Cairgorm ski centre car par (lower one) we had parked near the edge for a good view only to find the wind picked up so much during the night I had to move the van a short distance, roof still up, rear into the wind this time for more stability and went back to bed, still very noisy however. Never really been concerned about the roofs ability to cope with the wind, it is the noise and van movement that is the problem for us.

We were on the Isle of Skye last week, the one night high winds were forecast we found a sheltered spot surrounded by trees to park up for the night, this time it was the trees that were noisy!

 

[GrannyJen]

I had a dreadful night, my second only camping in Albert.

Winds gusting at over 70mph.

I wondered how I was going to get the roof down. I lay awake all night worrying about it. When daylight broke I was still worrying about it and the winds had got stronger.

So I lowered the roof. Absolutely no problem. None. 8 hours of lost sleep was all for nothing. Since then I have raised and lowered the roof in all weathers. The cali copes magnificently.

 

[KernowLad]

We got hit by unexpected storm force winds in Mull - the kids were "upstairs" and it got really rather worrying.
So we brought them down (at 2am) then had two dilemmas - how to get the roof cover (Pucer) off without flinging ourselves into the Irish Sea then how to get the roof down in a force 10-11 without ripping it off.

The cover removal involved very careful removal then both myself and the wife diving onto it before it caught the wind.

The roof lowering was particularly worrying as the tension in the canvas goes once it start to lower - I can't tell you how annoying that "check your window is open, blah blah" warning was as it was part way down! It really billowed around and went down; not straight at all. I thought I'd broken it but two more attempts and it was down fine.

We then had four of us (an 18 month old, a 3 year old) on the bed and due to our dog's "pup" tent being blown completely flat, she had to come in too - the van shook like crazy but at least the roof was okay.

At least six tents were destroyed that night.

 

[holliers]

Hi

We ave just returned from a great trip away in Wales. With the exception of one evening, the weather was fabulous. On that evening we had the roof up and exterior roof topper on in wind forecast at 30mph. We were on top of an exposed, sea facing cliff top, so I suspect they were slightly higher.

I spent a worried night as the van rocked and the roof bellows ... bellowed.

So I wondered, does anyone know of a published maximum limit for the roof being safely up or does anyone have recommendations for limits they have experienced.

Cheers
Mark

 

[bvirc]

There is no official speed limit announced - it is up on us how much risk we are ready to take.
However, if you can predict a wind direction, park the Cali with the nose away from the wind - it makes a huge change in protecting the canvas part of the roof.

 

[muttley]

Our first night in the van was during a storm with 60mph gusts. It wasn't much fun up in the roof, but it didn't do any damage, other then the rain being driven through the fabric and soaking the bedding!

I am not sure I would be too keen to repeat that experience.

 

[teeboy]

I think they can take very high winds when they are fully up - as long as you don't mind the rocking of the van.

Putting the roof up or down in high winds is probably where damage might occur.

 

[Neilgbj]

We spent a pretty windy weekend away last weekend (gusting Force 6/7) on the coast. The roof up, with a Topper....fair bit of 'rocking and flapping' but all stayed together ! We did have a few conversations about dropping the roof but didn't want to sleep with the dog Think the point around facing the rear into the wind is a good one otherwise it's a bit like the wind hitting a brick wall !

 

[GrannyJen]

I did hear someone, fresh from a distributor open day, say that the roof can stand up to a force 10. I think it was Wim who mentioned it.

Either way I had 60mph+ in Scotland and survived, with a bit of rocking and rolling.

In fact it's been a long time since I felt the earth move so much

 

[jts46]

"If the van is rocking, don't come knocking"
comes to mind.

John

 

[Ricotansky]

I put the roof to the test after a beany stew and many beers and the roof survived just fine.

My gf had reached her maximum wind limit though...

 

[Skylark2.0]

There is no official speed limit announced - it is up on us how much risk we are ready to take.
However, if you can predict a wind direction, park the Cali with the nose away from the wind - it makes a huge change in protecting the canvas part of the roof.

We had some very strong gusts winds (60 mph) in Holland and had the back towards the wind and parked behond a 2m hedge so only the top above. It was scary but we were fine. We put the roof down in a brief lull with a person on each side to push the belows in. We kept doors on either side open to avoid any billowing. Well impressed with the engineering

 

[holliers]

Thanks all.

I did check the forecast and parked with the rear facing the wind, which sounds like common practice from the comments.

Thanks again for the feedback,

Mark

 

[chrissmit]

Hi all,

We're expecting some bad weather the coming week, and we're on our first trip with our Cali.
Under what circumstances should we close the roof?
How much wind, rain can it handle?

Thanks

 

[GrannyJen]

Rain is not a problem providing you don't rub up against the inside, I've survived downpours.

Wind is a different matter, whilst the roof is quite robust it can flap around a bit giving sleep a problem and needing caution when lowering to avoid trapping the bellows in the scissor mechanism.

I've had my lid up in wind reported at 60mph, I was not comfortable. I lowered it as a precaution in Scotland last winter when there were a succession of storms forecast at gusts of over 70mph.

 

[chrissmit]

Thanks, that's very helpful.

I'll keep you posted on the weather in the south of France ;-)

 

[GrannyJen]

I have just left the South of France

37C... but getting cooler I think

 

[chrissmit]

I saw the weather predictions for this coming Thursday, and we'll be around the Mont Ventoux.
I've had very bad thunderstorms there some time back.

 

[GrannyJen]

Were you in the Languedoc area a couple of days ago? Stopped at a services, near Arles I think, and parked next to a belgian Cali

 

[chrissmit]

That wasn't us. We've been in the Provance only for the last two weeks.

 

[Skylark2.0]

For the first time we bailed from a campsite tonight. We were horribly exposed to the storm on the coast of Islay. It was horizontal rain and fierce winds of at least 40 mph and gusting way more. Forcast was that it would get worse up to 58 mph. Even though we were arse into the wind we were being shaken about like mad. We 3 left the great white whales to it and decamped to a B&B. We've survived storms before but this one was just too much. Lets hope the ferry is running tomorrow lunchtime when the winds should have dropped to less than 40 mph.