We've just purchased an ABI St. David 3 bed caravan and chose a semi-shaded pitch under some good sized lime trees at a site in North Wales. We stayed there for the first time at the weekend and all was great apart from the excessively loud dripping noise on the roof during the night, we hardly slept! It rained during the day and was windy at night which then blew droplets from the trees into to the van and it sounded like a bunch of kids were shooting air rifles at the van all night, it was so loud. In fact it also woke our kids up every night this happened and they can normally sleep through anything at all.
Just to be clear though both myself and my wife absolutely love the sound of the wind and rain, it's extremely soothing and relaxing and is why we love camping and caravaning but this was WAY louder than anything we had ever experienced before staying in plenty of statics over the years in similar weather conditions and semi-shaded pitches. It also wasn't just us, my sister and her family stayed in the van the weekend before and they had exactly the same issue, they just couldn't sleep either.
We both have young children so can't wear earplugs as we need to hear if they need us in the night but I don't see why I should resort to this when we paid mid 30's for a brand new van and which was also equipped with the 'winter pack' which includes extra roof insulation throughout, or at least I think it’s throughout because the ‘rifle-effect’ was not at all noticeable when we moved into the fold out bed in the lounge during the night which is very strange. It feels as though the extra roof insulation was only added to the daytime living area and not the bedrooms.....anybody know if this is standard practise? It certainly sounds like there’s a void between the outer and inner roof layers in the bedrooms. The style of the roof is a lodge-esque mock-pan tile design so we couldn't reasonably add an additional layer on top to dampen the sound without it looking terrible.
We're at a loss as to what to do because our new van is pretty much useless when the weather is anything but perfect and totally defeats the purpose of spending all that money so would really appreciate any help or feedback...Thanks.
Obviously the rain droplets from trees are much heavier than raindrops themselves. Cut down the trees with an axe. They will turn your caravan mouldy green anyway. Take no notice what the parkowner says about the damage you do. Claim self defence. Tell him that every time it rained the trees laughed at you and threatened to 'fall on you all'. You may find your caravan will be moved for free then... To the gate.
------------- Those that danced were thought to be quite insane to those who could not hear the music. Angela Monet
You missed camping rule number 1...never pitch under trees
Not too bad in summer when the weather is calm but in Autumn not only do raindrops and dew hammer down all night long but leaves, sticky sap and twigs will be falling...not to mention the earwigs
We are also partially under trees (we like a shady pitch and a pressure washer takes care of any sap etc) we get loud dripping during rain too but we love it, most soothing sound and sends us off to sleep nicely. So no help I'm afraid.
i think the answer is to ask the owners to cut down the overhanging branches, if not then having the van resited might be the best option (but you might not want the pitch they offer you?) - i doubt that additional insulation would help (insulation is normally for heat loss, not sound proofing)
if the water droplets are falling in one specific spot, then some sort of additional 'diverter (like a secondary roof) might help, but would probably look very odd!
just to let you know youre not alone, we have problems with birds dancing on our roof at dawn!!!
Quote: Originally posted by Julie + Steven on 09/11/2011
Ah yes birds wearing jack boots and tap dancing at 5am - know that sound very well
I have that problem with my tent. When erected the roof is as tight as a drum and sounds like one, and the two poles going over the top make perfect perches. In fact one bird, probably a crow, managed to stick a claw right through the material causing a neat round hole.