Roof sag - Clamp thingy?

[growinglad]

I thought I'd write a quick review on the clamps having just come back from a trip. Others might find it useful in the future.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/3DUseablesDE

They aren't cheap, but once you have bought them, they should last forever and the day after and it saves a lot of hassle. The right side of my roof drops around 10 cm in a day during hot weather, drives me nuts. But compared to getting the system bled, or new rams fitted, they are a reasonable price. As I mentioned on another thread, accordiong to VW, my rams are just fine, so whatever work I have carried out, I'm paying. The roof itself rises and lowers without any issues....it just can't stay up!!

So I just came back from Ticino where I stayed for 4 nights, absolutely blistering temperature. I fit the clamps snug, but turn the wing nut back just a little bit so it's not super tight. These blocks are plastic and I have a feeling they expand a little bit in the heat, so making it difficult to undo.

I didn't adjust them, fitted them Wednesday evening, took them off again Saturday morning.

I had zero problems removing them, the roof didn't suddenly drop down, stayed in exactly the same position.

I have fitted a rubber band to the 'remove before flight tags', I just hang it off the little button on the camper control unit so I don't forget them before I drop the roof.

All in all, a qulity product, it's a shame I need them, but if you have a similar issue with your roof, it does stop the high blood preasure of seeing your Van all lopsided.

 

[SENNA94]

I thought I'd write a quick review on the clamps having just come back from a trip. Others might find it useful in the future.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/3DUseablesDE

They aren't cheap, but once you have bought them, they should last forever and the day after and it saves a lot of hassle. The right side of my roof drops around 10 cm in a day during hot weather, drives me nuts. But compared to getting the system bled, or new rams fitted, they are a reasonable price. As I mentioned on another thread, accordiong to VW, my rams are just fine, so whatever work I have carried out, I'm paying. The roof itself rises and lowers without any issues....it just can't stay up!!

So I just came back from Ticino where I stayed for 4 nights, absolutely blistering temperature. I fit the clamps snug, but turn the wing nut back just a little bit so it's not super tight. These blocks are plastic and I have a feeling they expand a little bit in the heat, so making it difficult to undo.

I didn't adjust them, fitted them Wednesday evening, took them off again Saturday morning.

I had zero problems removing them, the roof didn't suddenly drop down, stayed in exactly the same position.

I have fitted a rubber band to the 'remove before flight tags', I just hang it off the little button on the camper control unit so I don't forget them before I drop the roof.

All in all, a qulity product, it's a shame I need them, but if you have a similar issue with your roof, it does stop the high blood preasure of seeing your Van all lopsided.

Did you put a washer between the plastic and the nut?

 

[Ghostbuster]

I have been having a rant on Facebook regarding the roof sag but then stumbled across this post. I raised the roof on our driveway one evening this week and the sag start within the hour. Inside the van the temperature was in the 30s.
This morning however the outside temperature was around 14 degrees so I popped the roof up at 9am and at 1pm there was still no signs of sag.
Lo and behold the sun came out hitting the front of the van and as soon as the van temperature hit 30 degrees the roof started to sag.
By 7pm it had re tensioned, exactly 10 hours after first raising.
I have only got a few months warranty left but it doesn’t sound like I am going to get anywhere with it having read through these pages?

 

[jaydisc]

I live in northern Australia, so hot and saggy is the norm here. The dealer insisted the sag had to pass a threshold (20cm? I can't exactly recall) over 3 days. Thankfully, it did, and the solution was to "bleed" it. They repeated the "bleed" and watch for 3 days 3 times. They said it worked the first time, but thought they'd do the full set of three tries. It improved it for a bit, but it's back to sagging in the hot weather six months later.

When it was seemingly fixed, I installed Califaktur solar panels, and if I have to go back and fight the dealer again, I'm sure I'd have to go through the absolute nightmare of removing the panels to do so. I've looked around for a third party to replace the pump and/or inspect the fluid, etc., expecting to pay for this, but then going after VW to reimburse me, but I can't find any qualified locals. You folks in the UK and Europe have a much better chance of that. There seems to be at least two California roof specialists based on my observations in the Facebook group.

A potentially useful tip to those fighting for warranty coverage. When the dealer said it had to pass a sagging threshold, I told them I didn't care about the threshold and/or the sagging anywhere near as much that I cared about the lights in the pop top NOT WORKING for obvious safety reasons. If they had come back and said, "threshold not passed" I would have simply retorted, "Cool story, bro, then just fix the lights."

I'll likely just buy the stoppers above and live with it.

 

[sidepod]

There is another even simpler workaround for this - just cut a couple of lengths of broom handle and use them to prop the roof up on each fwd inside corner. Store them under the mattress when not in use.

Again, it doesn’t fix it but it’s super efficient.

 

[jamesC]

I had a brain wave earlier and wondered about short load savers like this.

Ukratchetstraps Cargo Stay: Custom Fit, Quick UK Delivery

Bespoke Cargo Stay for vehicles without anchor tracks. Features rubber feet, forged tension system, and 300mm adjustment. Custom sizes available. Fast UK delivery from UK Ratchet Straps.

www.ukratchetstraps.com

annoying, but cheap, reliable and meant for a similar job.

 

[sidepod]

I had a brain wave earlier and wondered about short load savers like this.

Ukratchetstraps Cargo Stay: Custom Fit, Quick UK Delivery

Bespoke Cargo Stay for vehicles without anchor tracks. Features rubber feet, forged tension system, and 300mm adjustment. Custom sizes available. Fast UK delivery from UK Ratchet Straps.

www.ukratchetstraps.com

annoying, but cheap, reliable and meant for a similar job.

Nice. Like it.

 

[growinglad]

Did you put a washer between the plastic and the nut?

Not yet...still a job to do.

To be fair, I didn't have any issues unscrewing everthing, so the washer may just end up being something else that I drop in the guttering, so may give it a miss for now

 

[CaliforniaCylus]

This is the rear section. I’ll find the front tomorrow.

Did you post the front one too? I guess I'd need two front and two back parts. Do they fit well?

 

[sidepod]

Did you post the front one too? I guess I'd need two front and two back parts. Do they fit well?

 

[sidepod]

Sorry for the delay. I think this is the other half