Collapsed roof of new Jayco Penguin

I would dearly love to sell it, but my conscience just would not let me sell, knowing how dangerous it is. This van was purchased new in November 2009, and collapsed in march 2010. Yes, certainly very scary, especially when I was in the throws of moving on so I was standing at the door, with the door ready to be folded back up into its locked position. The next I knew, I was on the floor, still holding the door, and pushed back against the fridge. A less agile or fit traveller ( I am 58 yrs and 160cm tall) would be in a very serious way after experiencing this..thanks for your comment

G'day Diane

Three questions:

1. Was there any warning at all?
2. Is it still not repaired after six months?
3. Are Jayco doing the repairs under warranty?

Cheers
John

So, I now have a fully re-furbished (still under warranty) Pengiun 13. New curtain all round, new mattress (?, I had only slept on the original one five or six times), new roof, new struts, new cable, new doors top and bottom, new annexe (but just the roof part, not all walls). Even smells new with the new curtain/plastic. It is under warranty until mid November so if anyone wants to pick up a bargain, it's on the market. It is now located in Trentham, Victoria.

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I have no problem withthe service divisions of Watsons at Coffs Harbour, or with Ballina, and even Ballarat where I purchased it and collected it from today. My beef is with Jayco, Dandenong and their lack of pride in their product and lack of attention to after sales support.

Hi Diane,
Jayco, Dandenong, are the ones that have done wrong by you, Jayco Australia need to know this. Contact them, and let them know your concerns.
I agree, after sales service, even though the camper wasn't purchased through them, is pretty poor. You would think, no matter where you were the closest dealer would treat you as if you had purchased the camper from them.
Hope it is all sort now.
Cheers.

Fran & Col, obviously if you have never heard a good thing about Jayco, you either don't speak to a lot of people, or you font hear the goof things. We had a Jayco Swan for a lot of years, and never had one ounce of problem with it. Friends have a Penguin and have never had an ounce of trouble with it either. You need to remember Jayco have 50% of the market out there. You tell me another brand of vans or campers who have as many models on the road as Jayco.
Yes they are not top of the range but I think they are well worth the money for what you pay.
You get lemon's in everything..............even humans!

I have heard bad things about Coromal too, but once again not every Coromal is going to be a lemon.
If Coromal supplied you with safety, is that not telling you they know they have a problem with their product, or know the product is not safe. Supplying safety poles is them saying yes we know our roof's are not safe, so here, we will give you some poles as well!

Think about it!

"Supplying safety poles is them saying yes we know our roof's are not safe, so here, we will give you some poles as well! "
I was thinking the same thing LOL.

I guess it's like most things, we all have our favorites, we don't want to know about the bad things about our team or product, yet we hear every little complaint that goes wrong with the 'Other Brands"

"I would never buy a JAYCO, I have not heard a good thing about them"
Obviously you just skipped over what I had said up higher, I have never had a problem with Watsons in Coffs, A Jayco dealer,There You go, you have heard of something good about them, But lets just ignore that, hey!

Going by that statement, Can I say something like this?
A 2009 coromal pioneer silhouette 421 van would have to be the most over priced piece of crap on the road, one of the most over rated van there is.

No I can't

Enjoy your weekend guys ;)

Thank you Me Me for stating that I dont speak to alot of people, I have been involved in the caravan industry for over 23 years, NO I DONT WORK FOR COROMAL!!! , there is no denying that Jayco have a huge chunk of the market, that is a well known fact, I know of at least 30 people who this has happened to, Diane is very lucky that she wasnt seriously injured, Coromal supply the poles simply as a safety issue, we have had our van for over 12 months, and use it quite a bit and have never had any problems with it, I understand that yes there are some lemons out there, I WILL NEVER BUY A JAYCO AGAIN!!!, that is my opinion which I am entitled to, as you are entitled to your opinion, I was only giving advice it is an unfortunate situation that Diane is in, one that no one should be in, Hairs & Fysh, I bet you have a dodgy JAYCO, how many times has your roof collapsed, many I would say going by your comments, have you ever owned a COROMAL, my first van was a JAYCO SWAN, then moved on to an EXPANDA they both fell apart, NEVER GAIN, I am speaking from experience, your comments HAIRS are purely based on fact, so I suggest unless you have owned a so called 'over priced piece of crap' keep your comments to yourself.

Lets get back to the real problem here this situation should not have happened the roof collapsed in March, and Diane is still waiting for her van back, come on is that acceptable I THINK NOT!!!

You enjoy your weekend too HAIRS,

Happy DAYS JAYCO!!!!

Well you fired up well. There is 1 Coromal to every 50 jayco's on the road. What does that tell you. All I can say is if you have had two jayco's and they have both fallen apart, the first thing I think of is geeze you must be rough on your gear, or be awafully rich and not have to look after things. I know of alot of people who own Jayco wind up campers, and I have never heard of this happening before.............ever. And I too have had alot to do with caravans etc. over a lot of years. I think 30 maybe a little over the top! but anyway if you know that many people, maybe you are not as blunt as you seem on here!
All the best with your much loved Coromal, because they are the "best" on the market, mainly becasue they hand out safety sticks, because they know they have a dodgey product!

Best wishes.
God bless.
Warm Regards.
Peter

Whew

In and amongst all of that, the safety poles sound like a good idea. How are they constructed, are they able to be varied in length, is it just a matter of putting them in place and lowering the roof, and do you reckon they would adapt to a 2005 Jayco Eagle Outback?

Cheers
John

Fran & Col,
Let me get this right, 23 years involved in the caravan industry, and you have owned a Jayco, yet you have never heard a good word about Jayco's. Hmmm,
Your Bias is commendable.
And yes I have a Jayco, It's a dodgy 87 model Swan and yes I have had problems with the lifting mechanism, but I have learnt to fix it myself., but being 23 years old, I'm pretty sure is out of warranty ;) So no come back on Jayco I guess.
"I am speaking from experience, your comments HAIRS are purely based on fact"
Please read my post again, I asked if I could, Than Said No I can't.
But than again it doesn't matter what I say.

Thanks for all your comments Peter & Jon, I appreciate your concerns, at the end of the day if you are happy with your van so be it.

I didnt have any intention to upset or offend anyone, and apologise if I have, I just wanted to get my point across and being a woman, ( say no more), sometimes come across the wrong way, I just feel sorry for Diane and her situation, and wanted to point out that it does in fact happen far to often, and also wanted to put across that I am very happy with my Coromal.

And no Jon I am not rich nor am I hard on my gear, my husband and I have worked hard all our lives for what we have, I have just had a bad experience and wanted to share that with you all.

Sorry if I offended anyone, no offence intended.

John G, glad to see you drive a toyota mate lol.

I cant see a problem, if you go to your local caravan dealer and ask for safety poles they should be able to supply them, I was only trying to point out that maybe Jayco should supply these poles when new vans are sold, as it would stop people getting seriously injured or killed, I was also trying to point out that I have never heard of this problem with a coromal, but have seen it happen to too many JAYCOS.

Have a great weekend John, if you need any further info please let me know.

Kind regards

Fran

i'm just feeling the love here on a friday arvo,cheers :-)))

Thanks Fran

I agree re the idea of safety poles, and was thinking if Coromal already have them then I'd simply use their poles. I know that similar poles are frequently used with pop top caravans, and they have a much shorter distance from the top of the caravan body to the pop top roof.

Have to 'fess up that I had to rely on a Nissan to extract me from an unscheduled stop in the Pascoe River in July. Not LOL!! At least the engine kept going and there was no damage - well, none that is yet evident.

Cheers
John

Quite a bit of emotion (and product bias) here folks.

I had a Coromal camper, which came with the safety poles. Personally, I thought it was a good idea (not just from Coromal) because any wind-up camper (regardless of who built it) can have a failure of the wind-up system leading to exactly what happened to Diane.

I'd hate to have a roof come crashing down on me or my family.

The other advantage of using this (or a similar setup) is that it unloads the lifting system, so reducing stress on the pulleys and reducing cable stretch (who wants to adjust the cables any more than you need to?)

Jarse,
Providing safety poles would be a sound idea. BUT, Jayco Ballarat, where I purchased the camper in November last year, still this very week, deny that the roof can collapse!! I asked the salesman again, just on Friday, if he would advise anyone buying a similar van, that it has the potential to collapse. He said, "If I am directed to say that, by my boss (owners) then I will have to say it." I then spoke with one of the owners, and handed him some photographs of the van in its collapsed state. I asked him, "Will you now advise buyers that this van can collapse?" He took me to one side, away from a client, and said, "Look, Di. Nobody has said the roof didn't collapse. We do believe you." (LOL). Why then, I asked are you not going to warn people of this, or at least, like Coromal, take some precautions? Also, as I spoke with the Victorian Jayco Member's Club rep (it was a show-type day at Jayco Ballarat), she asked what had happened when I showed the photos to her. The service manager came by; I asked him to explain to the woman what had happened to my van. His reply? "Oh, I don't really know". Could you trust any of these people?
Yes, the emotion has run high. And so it should. It could have been anyone of us that this happened to, and only to have heads hidden under the sand in response.