Roof damage - Am I being unreasonable?

[SusiBus]

I'm finding our O6S bellows fold in much more effectively than any previous ones, but they still leaked in heavy rain!

 

[Blanco]

Don't rely on bellows bungee to stop the sides inflating outward in a breeze - the elastic along the centre of its its length is way too weak to exerpt any meaningful restraining power.

When the same thing happened after I hadn't been paying enough attention thinking the bungee was going to do what it claimed, what I did was sew a loop of thread to the inside of the fabric at the point where the two reinforcing strips kink and just before lowering the roof I connect the two using an offcut from the end of bellows bungee with a plastic hook on each end.

Stretched between the two loops the elastic has just sufficient tension to ensure the strips always start folding inwards, and by the time the roof is half way down its done its job and has gone slack.

All that's needed next time I put the roof up is remember to check if one or other hook already freed itself - sometimes one end will unhook itself once the roof is fully down - and if not just hop up and disconnect it.

 

[brabrady]

Don't rely on bellows bungee to stop the sides inflating outward in a breeze - the elastic along the centre of its its length is way too weak to exerpt any meaningful restraining power.

When the same thing happened after I hadn't been paying enough attention thinking the bungee was going to do what it claimed, what I did was sew a loop of thread to the inside of the fabric at the point where the two reinforcing strips kink and just before lowering the roof I connect the two using an offcut from the end of bellows bungee with a plastic hook on each end.

Stretched between the two loops the elastic has just sufficient tension to ensure the strips always start folding inwards, and by the time the roof is half way down its done its job and has gone slack.

All that's needed next time I put the roof up is remember to check if one or other hook already freed itself - sometimes one end will unhook itself once the roof is fully down - and if not just hop up and disconnect it.

View attachment 148709

Calis should ship from the factory this way. This is exactly how my Maggiolina rooftop tent addressed the issue. I intend to perform exactly this mod, but have not yet as I couldn't devise a satisfying way to sew the loops to the tent interior. If you're willing to share a close-up of your attachment method, it would be appreciated by many, I'm sure.

In the meantime, having a manual roof, I lower the roof a good bit, then use the semi-vacuum to my advantage by giving the roof a quick pop up (pun intended I suppose) of a few cm. Done quickly enough this will suck the edges inward the way the straps are supposed to but often don't... especially if they've bent the wrong way at least once.

My particular crime was pretty gruesome. Probably the 5th or 6th time I had operated the roof, I neglected to lower the bedframe before closing the roof. Highly un-recommended. Short of a contact-based buzzer system, I don't know how to guard against that kind of mental lapse. The problem is that the left bellows strip is pretty passive now.

As to VW warranty service: some of you will recall that back in the day of the VW Phaeton, Audi's Axel Mees was sacked for saying the quiet part out loud, saying among other things that he wouldn't buy the Phaeton himself, because he'd have to buy it from a VW dealership. I've loved many VWs and I love my Cali so far... but it does appear that VW's warranty folks are poached from U.S. health insurance companies.

-Brady

 

[Blanco]

No prob ..

Loop the cord through the inner fabric layer and tie with a figure of 8 knot. This is taken looking from below, me holding the hook out of the way from above. Looping across the weave spreads the strain and should hopefully prevent fraying - seems to work.



You'll need these. Curved needle and needle threader, from Dunelm or the missus . Woven cord may be more difficult .. the one I used is about 1mm or slightly less diameter. Sorry, can't remember where had it from. Whipping cord is possibly thin enough and would do the trick if you can find a chandlery selling it by the metre, otherwise even buying a roll might work out cheaper than a snagged roof.

 

[Lambeth Cali]

Don't rely on bellows bungee to stop the sides inflating outward in a breeze - the elastic along the centre of its its length is way too weak to exerpt any meaningful restraining power.

When the same thing happened after I hadn't been paying enough attention thinking the bungee was going to do what it claimed, what I did was sew a loop of thread to the inside of the fabric at the point where the two reinforcing strips kink and just before lowering the roof I connect the two using an offcut from the end of bellows bungee with a plastic hook on each end.

Stretched between the two loops the elastic has just sufficient tension to ensure the strips always start folding inwards, and by the time the roof is half way down its done its job and has gone slack.

All that's needed next time I put the roof up is remember to check if one or other hook already freed itself - sometimes one end will unhook itself once the roof is fully down - and if not just hop up and disconnect it.

View attachment 148709

One great way to nacker your roof is storing stuff up there.

You say “I hadn't been paying enough attention thinking the bungee was going to do what it claimed.” What happens next time you’re not paying attention and forget to attach the silly bit of elastic? This is one of the daftest ideas I’ve read on this forum ever. You half lower the roof and then clamber inside? Or do you use a Victorian child chimney sweep?

Paying attention has meant in 17 years this has never happened to me. No elastic required.

 

[Glenn Blundell]

Hi Glenn, sorry to hear of your roof problems. My 2 year old T6.1 has had similar issues with the roof not seating fully following repeated lopsided events with the hydraulics. Bristol were not interested and claimed it was operator error despite me providing photo and video evidence of the roof trying to close at alarming angles. VW customer care suggested a second opinion and Breeze in Poole eventually sorted the problem for us but only after they had replaced front and rear scissors. This was completed under warranty but involved a lot of visits and hassle we could have done without. I’m not sure how bad yours is and whether you have learned to live with it, but replacement scissors maybe the answer

View attachment 148708

Thanks for the information, it's very useful to know about a solution. I have reluctantly learned to live with it but will never be happy. Thanks again.

 

[Blanco]

One great way to nacker your roof is storing stuff up there.

You say “I hadn't been paying enough attention thinking the bungee was going to do what it claimed.” What happens next time you’re not paying attention and forget to attach the silly bit of elastic? This is one of the daftest ideas I’ve read on this forum ever. You half lower the roof and then clamber inside? Or do you use a Victorian child chimney sweep?

Paying attention has meant in 17 years this has never happened to me. No elastic required.

If snagging the roof buckled the plastic strip and can't be straightened, without a some method of encouragement it has in my unexpert experience a tendency thereafter to fold outwards.

I can indeed watch carefully and if I see it folding the wrong way go outside, push it back with a stick or something in one hand while lowering the roof with the other, but as my anatomy doesn't lend itself to such feats I devised something else, and clambering up with the roof half down wasn't part of it.

Personally I thought it an easy alternative to replacing the roof fabric.

The observation about storing stuff I do agree with. The photo is from last year and although I judged if arranged carefully there was sufficient gap above the matress for the net and blinds we dispensed with them and only put the fly screens there now.