Design of dormobile roofs

[MrMatt]

I am still on my search for the right dormobile, and being in the US, I have found I am able to get some parts locally, so that helps.
My question is, from the pictures it appears the roof has depressions in which rainwater can collect...




and would be around the .. well, what I call the hatch covers. Once these are open I do not know if there is a upward lip of the roof top to stop water egress... but I imagine so.
How does water not get in through here?

I know in my luggage tray of my bus, water does sit even tho there are drain holes, and things get dirty because of that... mold growth.

Any comments?

Thanks to all!
Matt

 

[Velgreeno]

I am still on my search for the right dormobile, and being in the US, I have found I am able to get some parts locally, so that helps.
My question is, from the pictures it appears the roof has depressions in which rainwater can collect...

View attachment 10761


and would be around the .. well, what I call the hatch covers. Once these are open I do not know if there is a upward lip of the roof top to stop water egress... but I imagine so.
How does water not get in through here?

I know in my luggage tray of my bus, water does sit even tho there are drain holes, and things get dirty because of that... mold growth.

Any comments?

Thanks to all!
Matt

Hey Matt. There is or should be an upward lip all around that stops the water coming in the hatches so there is no need to worry about that and there should be a seal all round too on them which you can still get from Dormobile .

 

[YellowBay69]

As above. Rebuilt mine a few years ago and all good.

 

[MrMatt]

Thanks for the replies! At times we can get rainy spells, where it rains for days if not for a whole week.. so was not sure if the depressions would fill up with water.

Yellow B and Velgreeno,.... beautiful busses you have there with the dorm tops! ... very very nice.

Just curious, if you ever go camping, do you ever partially pull out a cot and use that for storage ( sheets, clothes, etc?) as almost like a shelf? or is that not possible.
May be dumb questions, but I do not ever think I have seen a dorm bus in real life, and have gone to plenty of very large bus shows around here.
I do a fair amount of camping so far in the bus I do have, and have a good layout plan where clothes, sheets, pillows, blankets go for the best fit and be easily accessible..

 

[Velgreeno]

Thanks for the replies! At times we can get rainy spells, where it rains for days if not for a whole week.. so was not sure if the depressions would fill up with water.

Yellow B and Velgreeno,.... beautiful busses you have there with the dorm tops! ... very very nice.

Just curious, if you ever go camping, do you ever partially pull out a cot and use that for storage ( sheets, clothes, etc?) as almost like a shelf? or is that not possible.
May be dumb questions, but I do not ever think I have seen a dorm bus in real life, and have gone to plenty of very large bus shows around here.
I do a fair amount of camping so far in the bus I do have, and have a good layout plan where clothes, sheets, pillows, blankets go for the best fit and be easily accessible..

No probs at all. It will be fine. What I would do though is make sure the lip isn't cracked or broken. What i will say is check the roof window seals on the otherside as these can leak if perished ( can get them from Dormobile too) and also the water can collect on the glass a bit but its fine if driving. Just make sure your window is closed starting off or you will have a wet side ha.

Aw cheers Matt. My bus has been a labour of love for 24 years now and she is my pride and joy, extra limb etc ha. Couldn't imagine life without my Indie ( my buses name ha). As for the original interior like the cot etc , sadly that went years ago as it sadly fell apart and was rotten so I made the new interior. Its in one of the threads. That is the mk3 version ha.

If you're in the USA I think Dormies are quite rare over there as it was predominantly a British conversion started by Martin Walter so its totally ok.. No no question on here is dumb dude. We are always happy to help our fellow bus owners and ask as many as you need to.

That sounds good about the layout plan. It will take a while to know what you want out of your bus. I'm always looking to improve things but i think my bus is ok at the moment ish ha. .

 

[ozziedog]

I’m exactly the opposite to Gaz ^^^ above in that I’ve got myself into an improvement cycle that just doesn’t seem to stop or finish. As soon as I get an idea, I gotta make it work and obsess about it until it’s actually happening. My icing on the cake for me is if I can make one thing do two or more jobs , then I’m cockahoop about it. My van is out of action at the moment because of the stupidest thing ever. I’ve blown a fuse in my main fuse box for the sidelights, I can’t get to my fuse box without unbolting one of my tri axial speakers, No biggy until I find I haven’t got any spare fuses so there a mess of wiring , nuts and bolts, a couple of cables and a lonely fuse box cus he’s missing a fuse. So I’m waiting on a pack of fuses to turn up to pop it all back together. In the meantime, I’m head wrestling a simpler and easier way to fix these speakers instead of this regular combo of Greek wrestling and the game of Twister to get to hold the bolt heads up under the dash. Thinking I might riv nut the brackets and screw in from underneath, that should sort it, as my joints really don’t wanna play the Chinese Burns game.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,First time I’ve ever blown a fuse on the van

 

[ozziedog]

I’m exactly the opposite to Gaz ^^^ above in that I’ve got myself into an improvement cycle that just doesn’t seem to stop or finish. As soon as I get an idea, I gotta make it work and obsess about it until it’s actually happening. My icing on the cake for me is if I can make one thing do two or more jobs , then I’m cockahoop about it. My van is out of action at the moment because of the stupidest thing ever. I’ve blown a fuse in my main fuse box for the sidelights, I can’t get to my fuse box without unbolting one of my tri axial speakers, No biggy until I find I haven’t got any spare fuses so there a mess of wiring , nuts and bolts, a couple of cables and a lonely fuse box cus he’s missing a fuse. So I’m waiting on a pack of fuses to turn up to pop it all back together. In the meantime, I’m head wrestling a simpler and easier way to fix these speakers instead of this regular combo of Greek wrestling and the game of Twister to get to hold the bolt heads up under the dash. Thinking I might riv nut the brackets and screw in from underneath, that should sort it, as my joints really don’t wanna play the Chinese Burns game.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,First time I’ve ever blown a fuse on the van

Just to add to that, it’s also the first time I’ve done much more than wire up a speaker, so this may become a more regular occurrence!

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,but hopefully not

 

[MrMatt]

Thanks for the replies...!! And Ozziedog, I know how it is.. the small things can really stop you..
One of the things that stumped me for a bit, was when my faithful bug would sometimes start, sometimes not, sometimes would run great one second and then not great the next... back and forth like that. I somehow reasoned and checked.. yup, the little grounding wire in the distrib was barely grounding by a thread... maybe it was a lucky guess. But at that time I could not go anywhere really with it running like that.

 

[ozziedog]

Thanks for the replies...!! And Ozziedog, I know how it is.. the small things can really stop you..
One of the things that stumped me for a bit, was when my faithful bug would sometimes start, sometimes not, sometimes would run great one second and then not great the next... back and forth like that. I somehow reasoned and checked.. yup, the little grounding wire in the distrib was barely grounding by a thread... maybe it was a lucky guess. But at that time I could not go anywhere really with it running like that.

Wow, I’ve thrown that into the mix several times with peeps chatting about intermittent faults. So glad you’ve verified my thoughts. I had it just once though.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,just like em drivable dontus