Roof (anti-) sag. Another thread!

[sidepod]

My interpretation of this is that it explicitly points the finger at the valves as being the main cause if sags in pre-New California models (I can’t bear to call them T7s).
I would dearly like to challenge my dealer on this point were it not for the fact they could never replicate a sag when they had my van in their workshop.

Indeed.Maybe I’m giving VeeDub more credit than is required but, the wording doesn’t suggest the “roof moving downwards” is/was an issue?
Cleverly worded?

 

[vbk1975]

Hmmm. We spent 10 days over Christmas last year with the roof up in Austria. Temp range from -5 during the day to -13 at night.
We suffered sag.
I’m not convinced it’s temp related unless it’s internal temperature from the heater.

On our T6 We definitely have suffered from sagging due to high temp and I made shields that resolve it, but that is only one of the ways it sags.

Post in thread 'Potential roof problem'
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/potential-roof-problem.50357/post-661876

We also suffer from a gradual sagging over 5-6 days, just enough to take the tension out the front corners but nothing more.

We did have a complete failure and the roof would only stay up on one side (the van was 3 years and a few days old… so no warranty) . I was told that debris from when the pipes get cut to length is what can end up in the valve seats and causes the failure.

There is definitely something in the way T6.1 has been changed that appears to make it a lot worse, both occurrence and severity.

 

[sidepod]

An update on post #1. I’ve just released the straps. Zero roof movement.

I’m not saying it’s definitive. Needs more testing.

Early indications look promising.

I know it was suggested to simply re-raise the roof daily but that’s just annoying when it shouldn’t be necessary.

The slightest amount of “downward movement “ allows the canvas to become floppy and just look crappy.
My experience is, having raised the roof fully you can’t re-tension it without first lowering it slightly.

Anyway all of this has been covered. The point of this thread was to find a cheap simple easy workaround.

There really isn’t much we can do if VW’s version of acceptable droop is way in excess of what’s actually acceptable, meaning getting it fixed ain’t gonna happen unless you end up being half squashed by the roof.

If we keep the van and the roof becomes an issue I’ll have the pump out and get it machined to take better valves.

 

[KevH]

An update on post #1. I’ve just released the straps. Zero roof movement.

I’m not saying it’s definitive. Needs more testing.

Early indications look promising.

I know it was suggested to simply re-raise the roof daily but that’s just annoying when it shouldn’t be necessary.

The slightest amount of “downward movement “ allows the canvas to become floppy and just look crappy.
My experience is, having raised the roof fully you can’t re-tension it without first lowering it slightly.

Anyway all of this has been covered. The point of this thread was to find a cheap simple easy workaround.

There really isn’t much we can do if VW’s version of acceptable droop is way in excess of what’s actually acceptable, meaning getting it fixed ain’t gonna happen unless you end up being half squashed by the roof.

If we keep the van and the roof becomes an issue I’ll have the pump out and get it machined to take better valves.

Reading between the lines, your strap appears to have minimised the pressure on the valve, hence no loss once the strap was released. Very promising indeed, thanks for doing this.

I am looking forward to seeing how the strap can be refined to enable a quick on / off action.