So I've been playing around with the roll over jig to get it to balance properly and am struggling to understand where the centre of gravity is for a bay. I originally thought the bay was top heavy and as I've left the pop-top on moved the balance point up (position 3 on the jig). Once I'd set it all up the van lent towards the drivers side, presumably because the sliding door on the other side was off so the drivers side was slightly heavier. In this setup I could rotate the shell but with a bit of effort. I then moved the balance point further up (position 2) but found I couldn't move the shell at all really. So I now think a bay shell is bottom heavy. I've moved the jig back to where I started (position 3) but may move the balance point closer to the floor if the shell is bottom heavy. So the questions are: Is a bay bottom heavy? Am I right in assuming it wants to lean towards the drivers side as the passenger side is lighter without the sliding door. Apologies if these seem like stupid questions!
lots more metal on the lower half of the van so it's bound to be heavier without the sliding door it leaves a hole where as the outher side has metal so that side will be heavy
All vehicles centre of gravity is below half height, the consequences of it not being so are either hilarious or dangerous depending on your point of view.
Having done the same on mine a couple of years ago, yes its bottom heavy (most of the metal is at the bottom) and they do lean towards the heavy side which should be the drivers side if as you say the door has been removed however, mine was just a shell and didn't have a poptop.
Cheers guys. I'll raise it up to position 4 to see it that makes it easier. Makes sense that most of the weight is down low too!
There was a story about a double decker bus that fell over on a school run as all the lads went upstairs and ran to one side when it was cornering. So the lesson is no one should be in the van poptop when driving - especially on corners.
Braking hard into a tight corner while generally going too fast did for us when I was a lad in a mate's mum's tintop. They are def bottom heavy though it wasn't too hard to get it back on it's wheels with 6 of us.
Nicely done! Guy at work has one of the new electric BMW jobbies and nearly wrote it off when he ripped one of the arches off getting out of our car park. Was nearly major structural damage. Doubt you could roll that and just drive off!
Whilst racing from the pub back to the circuit at Cadwell Park, we rolled a Transit through someone's front garden. Righted it and got back thinking we'd got away with it. Police turned up next day and nicked us as they had recovered the front bumper, complete with number plate. Had to pay for a new hedge and front gate.
I was in a mini van that rolled on a straight road due to being overloaded with people on the way home from the pub. We wiped out a few m of hedge and a field gate - that stopped us! We also had to fork out for the hedge and gate and we bought the van owner another mini van.
