Champion Caravans

To Geoff of SA, you have our sympathies. It is extremely frustrating when you think you have done your homework and then end up with nothing like you expected. I hope you get your van fixed, sounds like you have been let down too. We just want our money back, and to save some other prospective buyers from suffering from unscrupulous manufacturers.

Interesting that your van was built by Condor. We were having ours built by another manufacturer in Campbellfield, and we have since been told that company wont build caravans for Champion any longer. It is obvious that he is having difficulty finding companies to build vans for him. From our experience we know why!!

Did read your issue via link, however could not find your PM address. It is a shame you were unable to name the company concerned. F Y I we believe there may be a link betweeen Dreamseeker and Champion. Beware.

Hello all
I think the link between Champion and Dreamseeker is that Dreemseeker may be the manufacturer ?
I don't know what is going on at Champion as we got one very early and as stated we did have some problems with the weights but they were adjusted on a new vin plate which was accepted by Vicroads with no worries and other probs were also fixed by condor

Ken

You must be one of the rare lucky ones. From our experience and from what we have read recently in the various Online Forums Champion has a very poor reputation and seems as though he continually changes manufacturers, and we know that some have already refused to have further dealings with him.

Krakatinny, you have no idea of any hard facts. Surely enough you will be up for slander.
Bob, why dont you tell the truth about the weight and tell all that it was you that wanted the extra weight.
There are guidlines and specifications that need to be enforced when building caravans just like house.

Sandra A1, I don't know where you are coming from. I don't know whether you are saying that I need to tell this forum readers all the weights or that you are suggesting I am not telling the truth.

You are correct when you say that there are guidelines and specifications that need to be enforced and that is the basis for what I asked for. When the maker says that the tare of the van is 1720kgs and the real tare, as handed over by him, is 240kgs heavier, then he has an offence under the Weights and Measurements act by falsifying the weights. I offered them, dealer and maker, an opportunity to rectify the issue by increasing the weights on the compliance plate. The van was designed to have the weights that have been mentioned in other forums.

Penguin and Sandra

There are many manufacturers that are unable for some reason (inability to have a van weighed correctly, or just don,t care) in relation to the weight of the van. The major issue with van manufacturers is they issue the compliance plate themselves AND NO ONE ELSE CHECKS.
The local compliance people do not check and as usual it is the owner that will cop the fine if it is deemed to be over weight.
Yes I agree there are rules and regulations to be followed but these are sometimes bent like a half shut pocket knife.
The manufacturer of the van I have stated this fact to me when I questioned him in relation to the excessive ball weight he managed to "engineer" to our van.
As he said 'I am the only honest manufacturer when it comes to weights etc" every one else tells fibs.
And yes he to has changed my compliance plate and didn't even have to take the van over a weigh bridge to confirm his assumptions the weight had not been altered after some serious suspension and weight distribution changes.

but he is very clever at guessing weights mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (Legal or not)??????
I would ask most van owners to check the compliance plate weights and they will find all are quite a bit on the skinny side.

As I said at the top of the followup, No one checks these van manufacturers compliance plates for accuracy.

And on another note this manufacturer kindly advised he doesn,t change the registration over to the purchaser for the first year. He in fact holds the legal ownership of the van for the 1st 12 months (Again LEGAL) ??????
while in his office he said he had to put another 3 months rego onto a van as the Owners (yes they had paid for the van 12 months earlier) could not re-register it in another state as they were not the registered owners

I had to very firmly tell him to put it in our names.

Sandra just like house builders there are some very strange practices being undertaken by caravan builders as well.

This forum is all about tell those on it and those interested all the GOOD and BAD points of Vans Travel, Vehicles etc.
If we can stop someone else from getting burnt by some incompetent manufacturer the that is good.
It is interesting to note there are more warnings about bad, poor, incompetent etc than praise on here.

Just remember and this is to all the van manufacturers:
You cannot buy good advertising But you can give away bad for nothing.

And that's what this site is all about.

Geoff

We have a Dazzling Caravan made by Champion Caravan's and we cannot fault the caravan or the service. Our van was built on time and the after care service with the company is excellent. We have recommended 2 of our friends to Champion Caravans and both are extremely happy with the caravans that they got custom built.