Returning home today from our weekend away we were flagged down because our roof had popped open at the front.
I thought this was strange as I definitely remember fastening it.
Luckily I managed to pull into a services almost immediately but when I went into the van to check, the front catches had snapped. As a temporary fix I thought if I turn the hooks round and attach it with the finger pull part it might hold at a slower speed. This failed almost immediately and the roof popped again. We managed to get off the dual carriageway and put the roof down again but now there was no way to hold the roof down!
We limped home at 20-30 mph but the roof still came up several times at this speed.
Has anyone else come across this before?
I'm wondering if the plastic has become brittle over the winter.
AL have quoted £65 each which seems extortionate for such a small part.
Jandi think they are about £35 each but will let me know an exact price when they contact Hymer.
Neither have ever heard of these breaking before.

We've had Eribas up to 11 years old and not seen a sign of the roof hooks being damaged or stressed.

Quote: eribaMotters wrote in post #3

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Daft question, but have you been putting the rear of the roof down before the front.
On collection of our new shape van Lowdhams drew my attention thst it had to be done in this order unlike the pre 2009/10 vans where the order was not important.
Failure to do so would mean the pop top would not sit correctly.

Colin

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I'm not sure how much would be aerodynamic lift that would create more lift the faster you went and how much is just the joggling of the road surface and upward spring pressure.

Parked up, the wind can push the roof up. You dont need to be moving. Our caravan is 21 this year with original catches . Yikes!

Thanks Pete. Interesting blog.
The catches shown were the rear catches. The front catches on vans after 2010 have a threaded insert and a lock nut on them so I guess this is why I was quoted more. The mark up on these spare parts must be huge.

http://www.automotiveleisure.co.uk/Service.html

Scroll down a tad.

SDA
Thanks but it's a different catch on the newer vans. They have a threaded insert and lock nut.

Yes it's a newish van but it was a rear catch in the blog that broke.

Quote: Pepé Le Pew wrote in post #14

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Quote: chezmart wrote in post #13

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Yes it's a newish van but it was a rear catch in the blog that broke.

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Ah.

Just forget anything I put.

I was in the middle of crocheting an egg cosy. Best I get back to it, I reckon.

.

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