We have just returned from our first service on our Avante, and a few niggles and adjustments were on our 'to do' list for the service team before our first year warantee runs out. Imagine our suprise then when it was handed back with a couple of GRP caps fixed to the back rear corners just above the steadies, and to be told that they had also ordered us a new front locker lid as ours was cracked and it was a fault that had appeared on a few of the range over the time since they were launched.
The rear caps had been fitted as a 'belt and bracers' fix, as they found one tiny crack less than 1cm long on one corner, but the other one was ok, so they fixed the caps with bonding adhesive supplied by Elddis for the purpose to both sides of the rear pannel. The new locker lid is due to arrive in September as Elddis have now closed down for their summer annual holidays, and wont be open again until after the August bank holiday break.
Full marks to Raymond James Caravans for spotting these faults and recifying them without any quibble. To date we have received a first class service from them , and found them very helpful indeed.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
------------- its easy enough to be pleasant when the world rolls along like a song.but a man is worth while if he can smile when every thing goes f------ wrong.
Hi Julia ,welcome to the wonderful world of Elldis vans. Sadly you one of many many people with the cracked rear panel( myself included ) the fix that you have stated is far as I'm concerned a bog it and scarper approach by Elddis to save money. Ask your husband to get a set of ladders out and check the top two rear sides of the rear panel as well. Again many many of us have had the cracks there as well. What your dealer hasn't told you is there is a fault with the rear panel, they are to small and were stretched while fitting. On another well known forum they have had to be replaced,during the process the rear wooden batons / frame have to be shaved at a particular angle so the new panel fits easier and doesn't stretch.
Regarding the front panel,gas locker , again many many people have had this problem. It has been discovered that the locker seems to be a window ( if you look at it closely you will see the shape of the moulding) that have been sprayed. Apparently it's down to them being of flimsy quality and the pneumatic arms being to strong,so when you pull the locker up you get the stress cracks.
Another thing to look out for( and please I'm only telling you as so many have had trouble trying to get them fixed due to the rubbish 12 month warranty on plastics) is the shower enclosures cracking. Some on the right hand side half way down and some were the hinges are fixed to the shower door. Loads of us have had our fly screens changed,the sink waste coming disconnected above the fridge and flooding the van.
I could give you more ,but alls I will say is please keep checking the van constantly ( I know it's sad isn't it having to do this ) for things going wrong,as I have just found out that Elddis do not have a quality checking section,they pay the dealers to do it while doing the PDI check. Appalling . Scoobz
Thanks guys for the heads up, its very much apprieciated.
I have checked our shower and it appears ok. Being a 462, we have the circular left hand shower fitted in our rear washroom and not the square right hand ones that most people are having the problems with.
After we spotted the panel fixtures l did ask what would happen if these were to fail, or indeed the panel was found to have cracked at a later date, and was assured by the warantee manager that it would still be covered as the initial problem had been reported within the first 12 months of the warantee.
So far so good fingers crossed with the flyscreen, although we do tend to treat it gentilly and it only gets used on hot days, and probably had less wear and tear than usual. Likewise our sink drain is over a cupboard and not the fridge, being a two berth we do enjoy a bit more spacious layout in the lounge than some models in the range, but having a wander dow the latest 462 in the dealers yard yesterday, we found that quite a few cutbacks had occured since we had bought ours, and a base cupboard in the lounge had been replaced by open shelving, and the sink and hob had been changed for cheap and nasty enamel, which had managed to chip already on the showvan.
I agree that none of these faults should be present on a new caravan, and its bloomin annoying having to do the long trek down to Atherstone in Warwickshire to get warantee work done, but the alternative was to have bought from a certain dealership with a very poor reputation up in Glossop, which just doesnt bear thinking about. Due to us advancing in years and my poor level of mobility, we have decided that this will be our last new caravan before we retire from the hobby in a few years time, so buying a replacement new caravan is simply not an option for us, and who knows, even if we did, theres no gaurantee that the new one would be any better quality than the one we have got. We also looked inside a 2014 Coachman yesterday but the design and build quality was total rubbish compaired to the Coachman we owned from new in 1996.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Elddis SoLiD cracked locker lid
