What's an acceptable time for a caravan to be made?

Ordered one five years ago in Sept and was advised at time of ordering that it wouldn't be ready until Apr/May of the following year as I had to take my turn in the manufacturing queue.

Delivered in May of following year as forecast. No problems at all as I was advised at time of signing the dotted line that there was a 'wait'.

So, were the in laws given an anticipated time for delivery and it has expired, or were the told an anticipated time of delivery and it didn't register in their memory banks, or were they given no estimated completion and delivery date at all.

DD

Hi. We ordered our non standard 21 foot Jayco Sterling van 5th Oct last year at the leisurefest show at Sandown racecourse and the deposit paid. We were advised at the time it would be finished early March this year. It was ready early March as we were told and we collected it on the 21st. We are happy with our purchase and have done just over 2000 kms so far and have a couple of small problems but we have been advised that it will be fixed under warranty as soon as the Jayco warranty agent gets back from a trip overseas.

Why not ask to inspect it, now that it is supposed to be only a few weeks to complete? I have ordered a 23' van, placed an order in December2012 and have been promised it will be ready in 1st week of June, they are a reputable manufacturer in Melbourne, I have no doubt at this stage that they won't deliver, but time will tell.

Why not ask to inspect it, now that it is supposed to be only a few weeks to complete? I have ordered a 23' van, placed an order in December2012 and have been promised it will be ready in 1st week of June, they are a reputable manufacturer in Melbourne, I have no doubt at this stage that they won't deliver, but time will tell.

Hi Fab
How long is a piece of string?
We ordered our van from a reputable manufacturer on the Gold coast. The manufacturer does not take vans to shows and does rarely advertise as word of mouth from satisfied customers is providing them with all the work they can handle.
As each van is fully personalised to achieve the van that the customer wants, then the customer has to accept that he will be in a queue. In our case we were told to expect 12 months from deposit to delivery and this extended to 15 months. So for us the usual wait for this manufacturer was acceptable and the waiting list is getting longer.
We were welcome to the factory to see our "baby" at any time from conception to delivery.
We are happy with the product they made so for us the wait time was not an issue.
Cheers Stretchlizard

Hi Fab,

We got ours (from a well known manufacturer) in 3 months. Ordered 17 of Dec last year, Picked up on the 18th of March. If we missed the van we got, it woulda been another 2 month wait.

Cheers Wilko

We ordered a van here in WA from a manufacturer we'd had a wind up camper from some years ago.
We wanted to pick it up in Melbourne after I'd had a knee op. but it got delivered here a couple of months before the due date. I think it came out of stock and they altered it to suit our specs.
Since then we've been at logger heads with the retailer and maker (well actually the maker won't even talk to us about anything!) ever since as the wheels are buckled and things are falling off inside the van like pelmets, head bash protector over door, drawers opening.
I reckon the vibrations set up by the buckled wheels could well be damaging the frame as well so it's off to court we go.
Anyone with steel wheels should get them checked as the van makers don't bother.
AlanH.

hi fab 72
irrespective of what brand your van is
you have to take into acct that there has just been caravans shows across the nation and there is bound to be a huge back-log of orders
some companies more than others and also those companies that customize a van for a clients individual tastes will take even longer per order
like said how long is a piece of string
I think if the company the order is placed with is open and honest by allowing the client to view the product at any stage of the build then to me that says a lot about their integrity and to me that would be a big plus
cheers

We ordered a Sunland Longreach last March/April with a delivery date at end of September. We could have had it in July as they were a bit quiet at the time, but September suited us better.
As it was, the extra time was better to choose colours, benchtops etc. In the end we brought delivery forward a couple of weeks to co-incide with a last minute planned holiday. Sunland were happy to do this for us, even though their books were full by that stage. They shuffled a couple of other jobs around to suit. I think the actual build probably took about a month, from ordering the chassis, upholstery and laminate etc to licencing.

hi fab72, is this van being built in adelaide in the northern suberbs. cheers mm

Hello all,
Blanket reply after reading all the good replies, thank you too.
The van is being built in Melbourne and they live on the Yorke Pen, so an inspection is not that easy. I did pass on the feedback so they are going to request some photos.

Another week has passed and still no van. The retailer says they can't contact the factory by phone????...strange. And that they only correspond by email. I told my in laws to ask for the emails to be forwarded on.

The father in law is worried his "nagging" (his words not mine) might annoy them to the point that they rush the job and he ends up with a Lemon rather than A Van.

Fab.