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Carver One in the cold, hot, wind, rain, etc.
Here's another long-winded post about my experiences with the Carver:
Cold weather
The standard tires for the Carver One aren't considered legally acceptable for driving on winter roads in Austria. When I asked them about the tires, the Carver folks explained to me that they have devised a system for studding the tires if I'm interested (which I'm not!). Because of this and salting, I've avoided the roads whenever the temperature is close to freezing.
Whenever the temperature rose above 40, though, I couldn't resist the urge to ride. Especially if there had been a few days of rain to wash off the road salt.
During the cold months, I use the hard top exclusively which is fixed snug along rubbery rails affixed to the sides and front next to the windshield. The back of the hard top, at the bottom, isn't apparently meant to be air- or water-tight. There's about 0.4 inches of space along the 19 inches where the hard top is fixed to the chassis. I learned about this the first time I used the self-service spray gun at the car wash.
I'm not sure if it is meant to be so, but I've learned that there's two types of heating: passive and active. If I turn up the heat and leave off the fan, I get a little warmth for city driving and higher speeds. This is perfect in the 50 to 60 degrees range.
When it's colder, though, I turn on the fan as well, which can be a little noisy.
Both my wife and daughter claim that, after a few minutes with the fan during the colder days, they're comfortably warm in the back seat.
Around that time, though, I like to turn the fan off because it starts to get a little too toasty in front.
Hot weather
The jury is still out on this, because it's only been as high as 77 so far. I've been out two whole days in weather like this with the sun beating down on me and I was surprisingly comfortable. Naturally, on days like these, I've removed the hard top and put on the roll-down, soft top. It's almost always rolled down, but it's great insurance in case you're caught in some unexpected, mountainside rain.
With a black tee, black jeans and a black baseball cap (since there's no sun visor), I occasionally needed to roll down at least one side window about an inch or two for a breeze. When temperatures get up to 90, I suspect both windows will be down a few inches most of the time. That's the price I've expected to pay for our choice of black interior and exterior.
I need to point out that, if there's any sunny weather at all, regardless if it's cold or hot, I always need to have a hat with a visor. I've always got a baseball cap with me for day-time driving.
Rainy weather
Sitting in the front seat of the Carver One is a lot like sitting in a small car.
Its behavior in the rain is pretty much the same as well. There's a windshield wiper and a heater/defogger at your service.
At 60 and 70 mph, the cabin is water tight, but the windows start to fog up after any extended driving (at any speed) in the rain.
My limited experience in these conditions so far shows that the heater/defogger clears the windshield just fine. The side windows, though, are usually half-way clear starting from the front and becoming completely fogged up right about at the position of my head.
The problem with this is that, if you want to change lanes, your blind spot has increased significantly and turning your head to look doesn't help either.
Because of this, I keep a window-cleaning sponge (originally purchased for dust and dirt on the inside of the windows) nearby. If I remember right, one or two wipes gives me about 15 to 20 minutes of clear vision.
Windy weather
Here's where the Carver One is more like a motorcycle than a car. Long and short bursts of wind from the side causes the Carver to compensate by leaning in the direction of the oncoming wind until the wind dissipates.
Kind of like the chicken or the egg, I honestly can't say if this leaning comes first or if it's caused by my own attempts to remain in the middle of the lane. It could be that the force of the wind plays a role in causing the front wheel to turn slightly, which then brings about the DVC-induced lean. But bursts like these usually happen so quickly and randomly that I forget to observe "scientifically". In any case, the response is instant.
Sometimes winds in Austria get up to 60 mph.
On days like these, the Carver stays parked in the garage while I drum my fingers and wonder what to do next.
I've noticed that there's always a slight breeze inside the cabin, by the way, and this doesn't change significantly when the top is down.
Sound
Here, again, the Carver is like a motorcycle. Even with the hard top, I hear all kinds of sounds. Some sounds are pleasant and some sounds are really annoying.
When the top is down, it can even be confusing about the origin of the sound.
Once, while driving in the Fall, I heard a terrible grinding noise from the motor area and I worried that I had somehow damaged something. When I pulled over to investigate, I found that a large, brown leaf had gotten caught next to the right, rear wheel. When I removed the leaf, the sound went away.
I couldn't believe it!
When the top is up, I sometimes get a whistling noise at around 60 mph. It all depends, apparently, on whether I had fixed the top just right. When the top is down, it's not much louder at all (except when driving through a tunnel or long underpass: then it's uncomfortably loud).
Several times now, with the top down, I've worried about a strange new sound and discovered it was the car next to me or behind me. Once, I was passed by somebody who had covered something on their trailer with plastic that was flapping in the wind.
As they approached me on the highway, I was convinced that some kind of paper or plastic had caught onto my back window or something.
Every time that I've planned on a long highway ride, with the top down or up, I've always brought ear-plugs with me. I used to do this with the motorcycle as well, because the road noise at higher speeds is just annoying.
Originally Posted by John Luciano
Wait 'til I get a picture with that top down!
Want one!
