It had to happen to me - lid off - height barrier

[viv]

Yes, I did it. I went under a height barrier in a car park in Eastbourne and took off the vent.

What a pain. I was duped totally by the tourist information which told me

'Welcome to the Sovereign Harbour - come on in - free parking- tourists welcome - visit out our shops, restaurants, browse the harbour and look at the boats - have a relaxing day just sitting and sampling the local food'

Well all fine, but just beware when you see the FREE PARKING sign!!!

We immediately contacted Freeborne motor Homes who directed us to a local dealer who was most helpful and sold us a new vent and advised us how to fit it - no one could fit it until end of June. Rain looked imminent so we drove home and the new vent is in the conservatory waiting for it to go up on the roof. Terry is looking at suitable methods to waterproof it and we may have to contact Island Plastics for advice.

Never mind!!!!! We weren't hurt except we had to come home early.

[stevef]

I did a similar thing a couple of years back with the VW I had at the time. I got in to the car-park in Bury St Edmunds OK, but when I came to leave there was a speed hump in front of the exit. This lifted the back end up so that my vent hit the height barrier.
I wrote to the local council who paid for the replacement vent. You do after all expect that if you get in to a car park you will be able to get out again.

Steve

[wendy]

Hard luck, Viv, that is a really bad thing to happen. At least it didn't rain before you got home. Hope that it is not too much trouble to fit the new one.

Sikaflex sealant is the one that I think is generally used for a waterproof seal on roof vents. At least they used that on ours when it needed re-doing.

[viv]

thanks Wendy but I don't think we will find that in Homebase so just hope a standard silicone one will do, keep your fingers crossed.

[viv]

Terry has removed the old outer roof vent frame and it was just attached by a tiny amount of silicone and there was a thin strip of tape stuck on the roof that fitted into a groove on the underside of the frame where it sits on the roof.

Interestingly it appears that there is wood between the outer and inner plastic shell of van. Interesting to see just how it is all constructed.

Anhyway hopefully the new roof light fits well and will keep out the rain.

[wendy]

I think that Romahome must economise on the sealant for roof vents, as ours (the large one) only had minimal amounts, which accounted for the leak! It was fixed by a local garage with copious amounts of Sikaflex. Fortunately we didn't have to pay as it was under the dealer's guarantee.

[Pauline]

What a shame Viv

I really think that car park signs should be in different colours depending in whether they have height barriers or not. I'm fed up of the times we've followed parking signs only to find that they had a barrier.

[sid b]

admin said:

What a shame Viv

I really think that car park signs should be in different colours depending in whether they have height barriers or not. I'm fed up of the times we've followed parking signs only to find that they had a barrier.

This is a useful site for checking out council parking (and some others) before you go somewhere new:
www.motorhomeparking.co.uk/

esbee

[djsooz]

Hi Esbee,

Thanks for the link. I didn't know this website existed. Should find it useful.

Sooz.