Rain stopped play ! Dandy cover . .

We shifted from a campsite in the South West of Ireland to another 110 Km away. We folded and erected our Dandy Dart in torrential rain. We were very careful with folding if up, we did our very best and kept the inside pretty dry ( not too easy in a seaside wind and rain swept campsite )
I got the cover ( original cover ) on as quickly as possible and off with us to the next site. It lashed rain for the entire journey. When we opened it up the bedding was totally soaked. We couldn't use it. The edges of the trailer cover 'flaps' slightly when towing and the spray from the rear wheels of the car allowed water to drive up under the cover and wick through the bedding. I replaced the shock chord last year and it is good and tight. No hold down buttons missing.  Not a good design methinks? Or am I missing something. The edges of the cover don't exactly drape down sufficiently on the metal trailer sides possibly ? I am off to a cover manufacturer tomorrow for a longer cover ( draping down 70mm more ) and also I want "belt loops" on the bottom edge of it so that I can wrap and endless cargo lashing / ratchet strap completely around and try seal it ( the cover ) to the trailer body.
Anyone else experience this ? Solve it ?
Best Regards,
Chris

It's something I expected to be a problem when I first had a Dandy, but I never experienced it or heard of anyone else having a problem. I recall the first Designer I had having seemingly little overlap with the body but it was never an issue. The 4/5 I have now does have a much deeper after-market cover that its last owner had made to allow more gear to be stored under it.

Perhaps some additional velcro at the front would also give extra protection.

We had the dandy front gas box on ours and I think that stops the rain or road spray getting under the cover. The cover goes several inches down behind the box. Tricky to get the elastic on the buttons which are inside the box.

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For certain this is a problem and having made perhaps 20 trips to date it took until week end before last to discover it. So perhaps I have solved it. I had a cover manufacturer make a new cover, 75mm longer and it is strapped to the body of the trailer with a 25mm cargo lashing. It looks as though it will do the job and seal the water out but one will only know by trying. It was somewhat expensive ( €200) so I hope it is worth it. Attempting to attach a photo. . .
Chris B

That looks good. One thing to remember is that if you carry stuff on top it raises the cover up. An extra deep cover will give you more ability to carry more.

Yours looks very high at the front Chris.

The dart beds do sit right on top of each other. If you have stuff inside which raises the walls or bottom bed up, it will increase the overall height considerably. The top bed needs to be lying flat not tilted up.

Hi Navver,
There is nothing additional stored on top of the folded roof inside, nor was there when it got soaked on the inside. It may look high at the front in the photo, it is tilted on the jockey wheel to allow water run off. Looking at the original cover held with shock cord, I cannot see how it could actually hold out driving water at say 100 KPH being towed. Perhaps the cover stretched somewhat..it was manufactured in 1997 so maybe when it was new it sealed better to the body of the trailer. I hope the additional 75mm depth and the cargo strap around the bottom will do the trick. We cut short a few days away because of it.
Chris B

That looks a well-made cover chris, and a neat solution to getting a more secure fit.

Works perfectly. Towed it approx 120 Km last week end and it rained for a lot of the way there. Everything was spot on when we opened it up. I honestly can't see how the original cover could possibly have prevented rain from driving up under the sides unless it was far tighter when new. Anyway, problem solved, the ratchet strap and additional length on the cover solved it.
Chris B

I wonder...

I am a legs in man and notice you are legs out. Legs in does tighten the cover a lot and stops the legs from potentially sliding out on a corner.

Hi Navver,
I had the legs inside the original cover but I figure this was only adding to to lack of weather seal on the original cover, so I opted for putting them outside of the new one. I simply joined them as you can see with a small piece of shock cord to prevent them appearing in the rear view mirror
Now that it is totally sorted I am most likely starting out on our last few days in it, my better half was talking to nice folk last week end in their "Eriba "
Caravan and having seen their set up we will probably opt that way for next year.
Chris

Had the same problem a few weeks ago for the first time. I think our problem was caused by driving through a couple of vey deep puddles as only the one side was affected.