SimonB
Staff member
Top Poster
This problem doesn't seem to have manifest itself on the Forum recently, or else people are attributing it to something else. There are two long drainage channels down each side of the roof and two shorter ones at the front and back. There are 4 very small drainage holes, 1 in each corner. When the roof is up any rain water that comes off the bellows runs into these channels and goes in whichever direction the van is tilting. If the front of the vehicle is higher the water will flow to the back and vice versa. The holes are about the size of biro tube and apparently have a pipe pushed onto them at time of manufacture. Any leaves, seed or silt that falls in this channel can get washed down to the pipe and block the outlet. If you try and blast it out with a pressure washer you can blow the pipe off the outlet causing damp inside the vehicle as you can see from further up this thread.
Having just come back from Snowdonia where it rained a fair bit and I was parked underneath some trees I checked the channels for blockages. There was a small puddle in the front channel which had filled the channel and just got as far as the canvas on the bellows causing a bit of water on the inside.
I thought a solution might be to use pipe cleaners which are still available despite pipe smoking virtually stopping now but are still available in craft shops. They are very flexible and will fit down the pipe very easily but not risk pushing it off the outlet.
A syringe can be joined onto a piece of the yellow and green sleeving that you slip over the earth
wire in plugs, etc.
Gently empty the syringe and refill. After a couple of times the syringe will just empty under gravity and the water comes out around the outside of the front tyres.
Hope this helps anyone that might have this problem and not be aware of it.
The front drainage holes have a long piece of moulded plastic covering the wiring in the channel and stopping most of the larger items from becoming a problem.
Hopefully I've explained it, but if you need any further explanation just ask. I was very pleased to find that with about ½ an hours work I got both the front ones running again.
Simon
Having just come back from Snowdonia where it rained a fair bit and I was parked underneath some trees I checked the channels for blockages. There was a small puddle in the front channel which had filled the channel and just got as far as the canvas on the bellows causing a bit of water on the inside.
I thought a solution might be to use pipe cleaners which are still available despite pipe smoking virtually stopping now but are still available in craft shops. They are very flexible and will fit down the pipe very easily but not risk pushing it off the outlet.A syringe can be joined onto a piece of the yellow and green sleeving that you slip over the earth
wire in plugs, etc.
Gently empty the syringe and refill. After a couple of times the syringe will just empty under gravity and the water comes out around the outside of the front tyres.
Hope this helps anyone that might have this problem and not be aware of it.
The front drainage holes have a long piece of moulded plastic covering the wiring in the channel and stopping most of the larger items from becoming a problem.
Hopefully I've explained it, but if you need any further explanation just ask. I was very pleased to find that with about ½ an hours work I got both the front ones running again.
Simon
