Rain and wet pop tops... advice needed

czmate1999

Senior Member
VIP Member
T6 Legend
Hi All,

So just got back from our Cornwall trip. Two questions.

1. Was raining when I put the pop top down this morning and is still raining at home. What’s best to do in terms of drying it out?

2. Noticed the roof is a fraction out of alignment - presume due to windy night by coast on Sunday. Has anyone else had trouble with this? (its a Reimo)
Note: should be a simple adjustment on a nice day, but wondering if there is anything I can do to prevent this in the future... apart from not having the pop top up in the wind - before anyone suggests that... :)

cheers

CZ.
 
Check your back bolts on the hinges for the pop top as I had to put mine right yesterday seen a lot fitted with speed screws theses aren’t good enough in my view much happier with rivnuts I had noticed my roof had moved around before this
 
Never had a pop top. Experience with tents and clothing. If struck down when wet always spread them out inside at home or in a barn as soon as possible. I geuss you can not do that with this. Do you have a car port or large shed or barn near by. Perhaps a local farmer might let you park up in one for a short time for a small donation. It might pay to proof the canvas with a modern water shedding chemical. Then in future most water will shed off.

Do some tops sip off? Could you do that and take it in doors?
 
Never had a pop top. Experience with tents and clothing. If struck down when wet always spread them out inside at home or in a barn as soon as possible. I geuss you can not do that with this. Do you have a car port or large shed or barn near by. Perhaps a local farmer might let you park up in one for a short time for a small donation. It might pay to proof the canvas with a modern water shedding chemical. Then in future most water will shed off.

Do some tops sip off? Could you do that and take it in doors?
Not able to get it undercover. And it’s still raining. trying to take it off will just cause more issues with rain getting everywhere. :(
 
If you have no where you could take it safely open it up. I would suggest the next best thing, is the first dry day open it up and let it breath. It would be even better if it was sunny. UV kills of spores etc. I am sure that it will be OK as long as it is not months. Even then its not the end of the World.
 
Get the top up, whack the heating up in the van and let it dry out that way. That's what our friends do with theirs throughout the wetter months (Jan - Dec). They say they've never had an issue with mould.
 
As soon as you have a short break in the rain, put the top up, give it a wipe over with microfibre towels and put the heater on (or stick another heater in the van if you can plug it into the mains). Once the worst of the moisture has gone, anything elsewill take no time to dry. Personally, I wouldn't want to leave it closed down and wet for any more that 4 days. After that, if the rain hasn't' topped, the van has probably floated away anyway!
 
Open the roof and dry it asap, if you have a mattress on the roof bed I would remove it until it is dry.

Regarding aligning a Reimo roof, from experience it’s not as easy as you might think. I have an Easi-fit and have made some adjustments with limited success.
I agree with the previous comment that the anchor fasteners for the rear hinge connection to the van do seem a bit too small for the job.
I have never found formal instructions on how to do this.

Unless you find a better method, this is what I did with a roof that was slightly twisted:
1. With the roof fully raised check the hinge fasteners are tight, I found some slightly loose and re-tightened.
2. Again with the roof fully raised check the location of the hinges front to back by taking an accurate measurement from a fixed point on the left and right hand sides. IE top edge of tailgate. Compare any differences in left and right hand and estimate if an inline hinge adjustment to equalise these measurements will correct the alignment.
3. If so the rear hinges are slotted at the attachment to the van roof, the fasteners can be slackened and the hinge / roof twisted accordingly. THATS THE THEORY!!!
I found that it was almost impossible to slide the hinge due to the weight of the roof and gas struts creating torque. What followed involved 2 people on step ladders juggling one corner of the roofs weight and a gas strut popping off unexpectedly, many minutes of F‘k this and F’k thats later it was back where I wanted it and fixed down!
Never doing it that way again:rolleyes:

I’ve since given this process a lot of thought and I suspect the easiest method is to:
1. Position the roof semi raised so that the rear hinges and gas struts are accessible, support it in this position with spacers between the bed board and the Reimo roof inner making sure it is even and secure
2. Disconnect both gas struts at one end, which ever is easier.
3. Slightly slacken both hinges after using masking tape to reference the original hinge points.
4. Align the rear hinges left and right to the same measurement on a fixed point left and right on the van roof.
5. Lower the roof carefully with or without the struts connected and check alignment.
6. Re-work if needed or if good raise on spacers as before and reconnect the struts if they were left disconnected.

What ever method you use the fasteners at the rear hinges need regular checks for torque.

If the whole roof has been pushed sideways I believe the only way to correct it is to apply sufficient force to move it back.
I wouldn’t attempt this in windy conditions and a few extra hands are useful, these roofs are very heavy.
 
Agree with Ayjay here. As soon as its stopped raining at all, pop the roof up and let it air.
 
Open the roof and dry it asap, if you have a mattress on the roof bed I would remove it until it is dry.

Regarding aligning a Reimo roof, from experience it’s not as easy as you might think. I have an Easi-fit and have made some adjustments with limited success.
I agree with the previous comment that the anchor fasteners for the rear hinge connection to the van do seem a bit too small for the job.
I have never found formal instructions on how to do this.

Unless you find a better method, this is what I did with a roof that was slightly twisted:
1. With the roof fully raised check the hinge fasteners are tight, I found some slightly loose and re-tightened.
2. Again with the roof fully raised check the location of the hinges front to back by taking an accurate measurement from a fixed point on the left and right hand sides. IE top edge of tailgate. Compare any differences in left and right hand and estimate if an inline hinge adjustment to equalise these measurements will correct the alignment.
3. If so the rear hinges are slotted at the attachment to the van roof, the fasteners can be slackened and the hinge / roof twisted accordingly. THATS THE THEORY!!!
I found that it was almost impossible to slide the hinge due to the weight of the roof and gas struts creating torque. What followed involved 2 people on step ladders juggling one corner of the roofs weight and a gas strut popping off unexpectedly, many minutes of F‘k this and F’k thats later it was back where I wanted it and fixed down!
Never doing it that way again:rolleyes:

I’ve since given this process a lot of thought and I suspect the easiest method is to:
1. Position the roof semi raised so that the rear hinges and gas struts are accessible, support it in this position with spacers between the bed board and the Reimo roof inner making sure it is even and secure
2. Disconnect both gas struts at one end, which ever is easier.
3. Slightly slacken both hinges after using masking tape to reference the original hinge points.
4. Align the rear hinges left and right to the same measurement on a fixed point left and right on the van roof.
5. Lower the roof carefully with or without the struts connected and check alignment.
6. Re-work if needed or if good raise on spacers as before and reconnect the struts if they were left disconnected.

What ever method you use the fasteners at the rear hinges need regular checks for torque.

If the whole roof has been pushed sideways I believe the only way to correct it is to apply sufficient force to move it back.
I wouldn’t attempt this in windy conditions and a few extra hands are useful, these roofs are very heavy.
Wow, thanks for detail!! Hmm, I am heading up to near the convertors next week, so given as more hands are needed i will ask them to do it and observe! I wonder if it’s worth replacing the bolts to try and prevent this happening again... NikNak mentioned perhaps using rivnuts...?
 
Open the roof and dry it asap, if you have a mattress on the roof bed I would remove it until it is dry.

Regarding aligning a Reimo roof, from experience it’s not as easy as you might think. I have an Easi-fit and have made some adjustments with limited success.
I agree with the previous comment that the anchor fasteners for the rear hinge connection to the van do seem a bit too small for the job.
I have never found formal instructions on how to do this.

Unless you find a better method, this is what I did with a roof that was slightly twisted:
1. With the roof fully raised check the hinge fasteners are tight, I found some slightly loose and re-tightened.
2. Again with the roof fully raised check the location of the hinges front to back by taking an accurate measurement from a fixed point on the left and right hand sides. IE top edge of tailgate. Compare any differences in left and right hand and estimate if an inline hinge adjustment to equalise these measurements will correct the alignment.
3. If so the rear hinges are slotted at the attachment to the van roof, the fasteners can be slackened and the hinge / roof twisted accordingly. THATS THE THEORY!!!
I found that it was almost impossible to slide the hinge due to the weight of the roof and gas struts creating torque. What followed involved 2 people on step ladders juggling one corner of the roofs weight and a gas strut popping off unexpectedly, many minutes of F‘k this and F’k thats later it was back where I wanted it and fixed down!
Never doing it that way again:rolleyes:

I’ve since given this process a lot of thought and I suspect the easiest method is to:
1. Position the roof semi raised so that the rear hinges and gas struts are accessible, support it in this position with spacers between the bed board and the Reimo roof inner making sure it is even and secure
2. Disconnect both gas struts at one end, which ever is easier.
3. Slightly slacken both hinges after using masking tape to reference the original hinge points.
4. Align the rear hinges left and right to the same measurement on a fixed point left and right on the van roof.
5. Lower the roof carefully with or without the struts connected and check alignment.
6. Re-work if needed or if good raise on spacers as before and reconnect the struts if they were left disconnected.

What ever method you use the fasteners at the rear hinges need regular checks for torque.

If the whole roof has been pushed sideways I believe the only way to correct it is to apply sufficient force to move it back.
I wouldn’t attempt this in windy conditions and a few extra hands are useful, these roofs are very heavy.

Have you got a pic of the rear hinge system? We’ve got an Reimo Easyfit too and it doesn’t seem to ever need realigning. It only looks skewed when we actually have to take it down in either strong winds or on a steep slope and then simply sticking it up and down again in decent conditions seems to sort it. I wonder if our rear mechanisms are different? Ours is 2016 vintage..
 
Have you got a pic of the rear hinge system? We’ve got an Reimo Easyfit too and it doesn’t seem to ever need realigning. It only looks skewed when we actually have to take it down in either strong winds or on a steep slope and then simply sticking it up and down again in decent conditions seems to sort it. I wonder if our rear mechanisms are different? Ours is 2016 vintage..
Hiya,

see photos below. What do you think?

46E54A30-9CB6-45B7-B164-307819388724.jpeg
D012E249-6737-438A-844A-2683635533F6.jpeg
C5B6E7B2-BF3F-4A3B-AB2F-DEC0BF648639.jpeg
 
it’s stopped raining now so bashed the canvas, wiped where I can and have the heater on. Will check it in about half hour. :).
 
Looks the same as mine, some star or spring washers under those bolt heads helps matters.
 
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