Thats brill thanks jayc001.
We have taken half the awning rail off to clean ready to start building the inside frame. As you can see from the pictures the van has been extremely badly made at the manufacturers. The aluminum side has been cut wrong so in places it doesn't even screw to the back plastic panel!
Also the very last picture is of the top of the side of the van where the roof meets the side. We're no experts but isn't the roof supposed to overlap the side of the van. It does on about 2 inches of the side but the rest is as above. In between the red arrows is mastc that the awning rail was glued too. We know we have to clean all the old mastic off the side of the van before the rail goes back on but what do we do with this mastic you can see on the picture? Do we leave it or scrape it out? If we scrape it out will the gap that will be left need repairing?
Joined tonight and surprised to see an Elddis with exactly the same issues as ours. It's a 2003 model and has damp in all the same areas. I have heard since of Elddis poor quality control and, looking at the panel gaps exposed with the trim removed, I can believe it. Will be starting repairs in next few weeks.(new territory for me, although I am a retired engineer), All the damp issues are in the bathroom as in yours, particularly in the wardrobe and around the wash mirror area.There is also a soft spot low down at the side of the toilet and the floor under the wash basin unit is soft - expecting to find extensive problems.Your posts so far have been pretty helpful - thank you
Hi Sorry to hear you are having the same problems. Although your's sounds a bit worse with damp the other side too. We think ours is ok that side it's just the wardrobe side. I am amazed at the quality of the construction especially the roof as it doesnt overlap hardly at all!
My husband although good at diy has never attempted anything like this before and has not come across any problems yet he hasn't been able to solve. I don't think you'll have any problem with your engineer experience. Very daunting pulling the van apart and seeing all the rot but when it was cleaned out it didn't look so bad. We have some more pics on photobucket but i'm not sure how you would view them. Maybe click one of the links i've posted on here previous (as a very helpful jayc001 has been there to post the photos for me as i can't seem to do it) and i'm guessing he clicked my link. Good luck and just ask if there's anything you want to know and we'll try and help. This is a brilliant site with lots of helpful people with lots of knowledge.
Hi, well I started the damp repairs two weeks ago after I had to reseal the bathroom roof light.
I expected a mess and I am not disappointed(!)
Both sides of the bathroom very wet, lots of rotten board, right hand side of the rear wall rotted away, window surround rotten, area all around toilet rotten (seems to have come from leaking main door frame) and floor to left of toilet soft and so wet it has standing water!
Rear nearside corner of floor is soft.
Removed the awning rail and absolutely amazed at the poor design (I believe the MD was sacked in 2004 for poor quality control)
The main roof is bent over the sides (shoebox design as one put it)so should be waterproof although the screws are rotten (expected stainless steel)but at the rear where the alloy curves and the rear plastic moulded panel meets it, the plastic goes inside the outer skin so that there is a gap facing upwards, perfect for water to get in!
Would have made much more sense for the plastic to wrap over the skin.
Having removed the awning rails both sides, I have gaffer taped the exposed areas as a temporary measure.
I have an oil filled electric radiator in the bathroom and the boards are slowly drying out (and crumbling away from the foam)
There is still a leak over the rear window however to find (I sealed the joining strip on the roof last year). Could be the high level brake light, the rear marker lights or even the residual water from the leaking bathroom roof light?
Need to remove both rear jacking legs and use thick external grade plywood both underneath and on top of the floor. On top, it will be hidden behind the "cupboard unit" and a full width piece of plywood underneath will not be an obvious repair compared to a patch in the corner.
All of the bathroom will be lined with 3.6 mm plywood and wallpapered (as originally)
Will be bone dry when finished (and a bit heavier I guess!)
Will try to upload photos and make notes as I go.
All in all, I cannot believe the poor quality of construction.
Have to smile when I see posts were people have decided to buy a newer van because there's is damp in their old one - this one cost £9,500 seven years ago - still looks gorgeous but a real mess.
I have the same sort of problem the damp in our 524 is over main the door. it is spread from the kitchen cabinet over the door and into the bathroom. I noticed the problem a year ago but have not been able to tackle the problem.due to health problems but did manage to get up to the roof and covered the whole of the from the heater chimney right to the back of the caravan with the old faithful gaffer tape over lapping the awning rail onto the roof hoping it will slow the damp down. So any advice would be gratful.
I did find another problem with the ventfan over the kitchen which started dripping water and traced the problem the the TV aerial so after refitting the fan and resealing the tv aerial it stopped leaking.
Hi may I introduce myself I'm from the Netherlands and very happy to find this site witch help me to solve my damp issues on my Elddis Crusader whit continental layout but unfortunately the UK damp problems. It seems to see the same problems that I see here. I already repair the front site completely and start to fix the leaking awning g rail.
I can upload some pictures from my repairs so farif some one is interested. I hope to find a lot of information of my van. I buy this van recently and know all the damp problems before. That was for me a change to buy cheap a Elddis because the are very expensive normally in Holland.
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Topic: Elddis odyssey 524. Damp repairs
