URGENT - When did you last check the moisture sealing on your caravan?

Thanks for the warning!

Winnebago recommend re sealing their motorhome roofs etc every twelve months during the annual servicing.......... I always thought it was overkill !!!

rr

Good Advice Laurie,..Sorry hear your problem, But unfortunatley in the last decade there's been some pretty shoddy work going on in the caravan industry.Ihad a 8yr old windsor that turned into a sieve, after plenty of attention!, Their been around for yrs, But will never have another while my bum points to the ground. If you Get on the Forums there's been some problems with many different makes, There's no regulation in regard to the construction of the things,Its open slather!!...Hope things work out.


Cheers Axle.

Sorry to read about your leak and the problems and cost it has cause. Sometimes you just can't win though. Our caravan has had the go over with sealer etc and we still had a leak, it has taken a long time to find it and we only found it by my husband being outside with a hose going spot to spot. It actually leaks through a join in the cladding where the seam is folded over to the next sheet it has a slight buckle. We went though a very long process of taking bits off and resealing and even removed a window and resealed before we found the final site. A leak can be so frustrating and cause so much damage and shouldn't happen on any new van but we did think that as ours was over $100K it might be better built.

Sue

Hi Laurie,

This is an interesting thread and I am trying to get my head around it all.
When you say "and the front section and some of the rear section of the van was rotten." are you referring to the inside lining or the frame (was it a timber frame?).
My point is I am not sure how effective an inspection would be if there was a subtle leak somewhere eg. on roof panels.
Moisture could be leaking somwhere and running down inside the lining and the damp spot may be nowehere near the actual leak. I guess to re-seal everything every year should cover it but in reality not too many probably would do that and even a re-seal may miss a difficult section somewhere.
Comments?
Cheers

Quote - "The repair bill is around $15,000, and because of a number of steps in their assessing procedure, it looks very much as though the insurance company is going to leave me to pick up the bill."

Laurie, Water leaks are considered to be a maintenance problem. Insurance only covers accidental damage.

You are far from being alone with this type of problem. There are some notable builders out there that do not take care of sealing their vans. Check these out.

I've just been reading the horror stories in the van forum blog by a repairer. What a shocking tale of no action by all our hordes of regulators who have no doubt had many complaints made to them.
The answer as to why no action is of course the same old story of the regulators being in the pockets of those being complained about.
We've got an 18 month old van and although we haven't noted any leaks as yet, we've had plenty of other problems.
When going away last July for a month tenting where no van dared go even if it was supposedly an off roader, we took it to the retalier complete with a list of things needing fixing.
Upon our return back we went to pick it up and were told several things weren't covered by the 12 month warranty but anything requiring a blob of silicone had been fixed:
Curtain lining material riddled with holes _ this was said to be insect infestation but no one could find an insect or say what type caused holes in straight lines through the material.
Nearside tyre scalloping badly - said to be wheel alignment so not covered. This is independent suspension and the camber etc is set at manufacture and I could see no visible way of adjusting it so off to an independent to be checked. Nothing wrong with alignment but nearside shock very weak so back to retailer who just ignored us.
I gave them 10 days to come up with new shocks and a replacement tyre. No answer and I contacted Consumer Protection WA who eventually after a bit of prodding wrote to the retailer.
This resulted in new shocks and a new tyre but all came from the manu in the east at their leisure. Bugger us and a van we couldn't use was their attitude.
New curtains were provided after the girls in the retailers service/warranty section pushed our case and they arrived bundled up tightly into a football sized package and were so creased they all had to be ironed before fitting. Shows just what they thought of people who dared make complaints about their product.
But our complaints don't stop there, new tyre fitted and the steel wheel was found to be badly buckled so I took the other 2 to be checked, another was also badly buckled and 1 was "just" within tolerances.
This time I didn't bother with Consumer Protection but wrote a letter stating we wanted 3 new wheels fitted, balanced etc or I'd take them to court. Again no answer except the old bloke whose name is on the company said "inappropriate use" as an explanation for the buckling.
Only gravel road used was the GCR and that at low speed with less pressure in the tyres.
No answer again to our claim so I took out a small claims action through the court and claimed all costs associated with the alignment checking, new wheels, fitting and balancing etc and the manu paid up in about 10 days.
Now we've got a problem with the nearside brake where a part off the handbrake has broken possibly caused by all the shaking and vibration from the original buckled wheel.
Thinking it would be quicker and less hassle to approach the brake manu in the USA I sent pics to them and they quickly agreed to replace the brake via their Melbourne distributor.
And that's where it's at at this moment, at least 3 weeks, a few phone calls and e-mails later (never relied to), many nice words from the distributor who assure us it's been sent (handbrake assembly only) and still nothing. Australia Post isn't that bad at getting things from East to West so it's obviously not been sent.
Methinks there's collusion going on between them and the maker who no doubt they contacted after I'd forwarded the e-mail from the US to them.
The van is not useable as we can't guarantee being able to set up on level ground and taking into consideration the fact that out of 18 months ownership we've only had about 6 months when we've been able to use the van, and all the other problems not listed above, I think court action is warranted to show the thing is not "fit for purpose".
Happy wanderings folks.
AlanH.