Have maufactureres gone too far with weight saving?

[raywell]

Posted Today, 01:33 PM

We had a localised freak hail storm last Friday evening, Having read and heard of cases where vans have been damaged by such storms I immediately said to my wife that we'd have damage. We went to our storage location the next morning and sure enough the roof looks like it's been attacked by someone with a pin hammer.

Surely if the roof of a caravan is made to protect from the elements and form the body of the caravan it should be of suitable density to withstand the normal hail stone. I accept that when they come down the size of golf balls then that is another issue all together, but just a heavy storm? The roof should in my opinion be able to withstand that without suffering serious damage. Not one car in the area has suffered and damage other than one or two alarms activated. The material being used in the making of the roof is in my opinion not fit for purpose if it dents from hail stones. My car roof doesn't!

Yes we are in loop of cars getting lighter so the caravans have to get lighter too in order to stay popular but the roof of your van should withstand all but the most severe weather in my opinion.

Oh well.... is that the insurance company please? I have a claim:-(

Bye 4 now

Ray

 

[Damian]

A caravan roof is Aluminium, a car roof is Steel.

Big difference in how the two will deal with hailstones.

 

[Gagakev]

A caravan roof is Aluminium, a car roof is Steel.

Big difference in how the two will deal with hailstones.

Ah but my roof is Polyester (and the sides) walk on mine to clean it

 

[Raywood]

It seems to me that a cavan roof should be able to withstand weather conditions that can be reasonably forseen and therefore it may not be of merchantable quality asuming the hailstones were of ordinary size..

 

[Sedo]

Would have thought fit for purpose comes into play here.
If the caravan fails to take weather that's not freak after all they're supposed to be built to stand in the 'elements'
Unless it's a two season caravan, perhaps they're going to have to give a caravan a season rating for weather.
My Honda has alloy panels on it they don't seem to suffer in hail, not yet anyway (fingers crossed).

 

[otherclive]

I suspect that the panels on a Honda are a lot thicker than a caravan roof/ walls. Some years ago a load of Hondas in Belgium destined for UK were badly damaged by hail and they were all re- worked before being placed back on the market as brand new cars. But the quality was such that no one had any paintwork issues with them.

 

[JonnyG]

last summer there was an almighty hailstone storm in leicestershire....8 cars were damaged on our small industrial area,varying from a vauhall to a bmw and even a merc van.....the vauxhall and bmw looked like they had been machine gunned...including roof damage to the vauxhall...not to sure how easy it is to protect panels from adverse weather conditions,without going to extreme weight penalties

 

[Dustydog]

Posted Today, 01:33 PM

We had a localised freak hail storm last Friday evening, Having read and heard of cases where vans have been damaged by such storms I immediately said to my wife that we'd have damage. We went to our storage location the next morning and sure enough the roof looks like it's been attacked by someone with a pin hammer.

Surely if the roof of a caravan is made to protect from the elements and form the body of the caravan it should be of suitable density to withstand the normal hail stone. I accept that when they come down the size of golf balls then that is another issue all together, but just a heavy storm? The roof should in my opinion be able to withstand that without suffering serious damage. Not one car in the area has suffered and damage other than one or two alarms activated. The material being used in the making of the roof is in my opinion not fit for purpose if it dents from hail stones. My car roof doesn't!

Yes we are in loop of cars getting lighter so the caravans have to get lighter too in order to stay popular but the roof of your van should withstand all but the most severe weather in my opinion.

Oh well.... is that the insurance company please? I have a claim:-(

Bye 4 now

Ray

Hi Ray,,

What make and model?

Our last two Baileys have been out in all weathers with no I'll effects.

 

[Sedo]

Hi
We were talking to an AA man (who rescued us, big thanks) and he was telling us that he had first hand experience of the hail in Leicestershire. Completely wrote a BMW off that he saw.
When you're dealing with a hail storm that is so intense and powerful that it blows car windows out and basically writes off a car of that calibre then the aluminium on the caravan isn't going to offer much resistance.
When the roof is basically a flat sheet and there's no shape to deflect the hail it's going to present a perfect surface to hit and dent.
One of alumium's best properties is its malleability after all, so the move to protect with a GRP shield seems the right way to go.
Bar going to Titanium or Kevlar, Bailey seem to be looking in the right direction.