ROOF TESTING
TUV Fully Approved...what is it?
Now Skyline Roofs have this status, a lot of their customers are asking what this actually is, so I thought a little post about what it took to get this approval and the basic's around the testing!
So to start off with Skyline will point out that the UK do not require this test to fit pop tops roof's, in fact the UK do not require any testing of these Poptop roofs to fit to van's, the rest of Europe does require TUV or similar, depending which country.
Skyline feel strongly about the safety and ensuring that this is 100%, at the end of the day you are cutting out a huge hole and a huge amount of structural support from the van which Volkswagen designed into the vehicle which had to pass safety testing to be able to produce and sell them.
A large part of the testing for TUV Approval is around this structure and comes in the form of two tests, a Pull test ( referred to as a M1 test in the UK ) this is a test which pull's the seat belt points from the front seats in a forward motion and it measures how far the front of the roof with the poptop structure installed forward.
This test is a valid test but only testing the forward pull which is only one movement as such.
The next test is the Torsion test, this is done in Germany, we had to supply the TUV test centre with a donor van, they install 10s of sensors from the underside up to the roof section and then drive it around a set course, this now measures how much the body of the van moves, how stiff or flexible it is ie torsion testing.
Skyline then had the van back and we installed a roof frame system and the poptop roof.
This van was then driven around the exact set course and the results will give us if we have a frame/roof strong enough for it to be the same as Volkswagen produced it, i.e putting the strength back into the vehicle body that you have cut/removed and on the other hand not putting too much back in to make the body too stiff!
The end result will show that Skyline have not taken the strength out of the body when our frame is installed again, therefore as safe as it was when Volkswagen designed it.
Another couple of test's where to check that the fibre glass we use is burn resistant to a point and that it won't splinter over a point, these are two areas we had to design into our roof's to pass, so again safety at the heart of the design.
To achieve TUV Fully Approved the company is also required to achieve ISO9001 this is basically quality control and also focuses on customers and service. It ensures the product will be the same as the tested product and to the same quality.
So if you are planning to have a poptop fitted I would ask yourself the question is it worth putting on a Skyline with this extensive testing!
There are cheaper roofs in the UK with no testing at all and some with M1 testing at around the same price mark, the average campervan costs between £30k - £50k, for a few hundred pounds extra is it not worth it?
Then don't forget this is not all you are getting, Skyline caps are not hand layered fibre glass which will not give the strength, we vacuum mould into a honey comb structure, this gives us our extra strength, stainless steal high lift hinges, 3D CNC moulded the list goes on.