Our van goes in for its second service tomorrow and will be staying with the dealer for a week. This will be our first service as the previous owner took its for its first service prior to us purchasing it. We have emptied the caravan - which I'm glad we have done as how much stuff!!!! Isn't it amazing how much 'stuff' goes in but never comes out again, I removed 7 kilos of 'odds and ends' from the front chest alone!!! It gives us an opportunity to slim down our kit a bit!!
Is there anything else I need to know, we have removed the gas bottles and I believe we don't bother with wheel locks or hitch locks whilst its in the service compound. I've also emailed in advance a list of snags which we want checking out which they are going to go through with us when we get there, mainly just things like the odd spring fell out of a locker and stuff like that.
dropped ours off on the way home from a trip the other week...the only thing i emptied was the fridge of food and any perishables and take the bikes out!
I had already tidied the front locker, and we tend to keep the van tidy anyway so easy to get in anywhere inside.
i would leave the gas in as they will do tests on the lines anyway, and should hook it all back up for you.
make sure you leave in your EHU cable as they are supposed to test that too.
Our dealer requires the van to be completely emptied, so that's what we do. It's not just a matter of access though, they say they dont want the hassle of personal items "being damaged or going missing" Not that they dont trust their staff, but they've had a few customers "try it on for insurance scams". If it's not in the van, they can't be accused by some nice person of damaging or even stealing some expensive or worn out item of equipment . I guess it varies from one dealership to another.
It does make you go through your kit though which is no bad thing!
Its important to have it completely emptied if a damp test is to be done as part of a service. When they are charging around £50 an hours for labour, the last thing they want to be spending time on is shifting someones belongings around in order to get to the area thats to be tested, thus hiking up the bill.
Also dont forget to leave the waterpump in so that they can test that system too.
Julia
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We were told to leave the hitch lock with them and they clamped it as the insurance states hitchlock and clamp must be fitted.
One thing to remember it the water pump that goes on the outside to the Aquaroll as they normally want to test this and each van is different so it's better if they use the one supplied with the van.
Cheers
Richard
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We had to empty everything except gas bottles was a pain but I actually only put half the stuff back as we had stuff from old van which didn't have as much storage space, so we no longer need it. The old dealer we had only required you to have the floor space clear though was much easier, I was driving around with a car load for a few days as we had no space to put everything.
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Oh looks like it differs from dealer to dealer. Our dealer wanted it completely empty, remove gas bottles and don't bother with the locks. Its the locks thing that bothers me actually, as our insurance states that the wheel lock must go on if the van is left unattended for 2 hours. So I was presuming that if the van did go missing whilst in the dealers care then the van must be covered by the dealers insurance. The alko lock would be a bit of a fiddle for the dealer to put on and remove but I may send OH with the milenco in his boot and see what they have to say about it when he gets there.
Thanks for the tip about the ehu and the water pump will remember to leave those in.
It sounds as if it differes a lot from dealer to dealer. We leave everything in the van. In fact the way we did it last year (and it will be the same this year) is that we set off from home early in order to arrive at the dealers at 9am (that's almost a 200 mile journey for us). We leave the van with them and collect it at about 4pm. We then go on to a camp site for 4 days, then another one for three weeks, then another one for one week. If during this time we spot any other problem, we will pop back on the way home for them to fix/have a look at it.
So when we take in the van, absolutely everything is in, clothes and all, with the bed made up. Unless it is booked in for a more major repair, I don't understand why a dealer has to keep a van for a week. It may, of course, be because it is easier for the customer to drop the van off on a Saturday and pick it up the following Saturday, but the service itself can be done well within a day.
P.S. When the van is in at the dealers for servicing, I always let my insurance company know, to be on the safe side. I inform them that I can ask the dealers to keep a hitchlock on the van, but if they do not do it, then it's out of my control. They are always happy with that.
We use a mobile service engineer and find it MUCH easier than taking the 'van to a dealers' workshop. Apart from ensuring that there is clear access to all the parts of the 'van that the engineer needs to reach we don't remove anything from the 'van.
This year, last week in fact, we used John of Caravancare Cheshire from Warrington for the first time. He serviced the 'van on our drive so need to tow it to and from the dealers with the time and inconvenience involved.
He was pleasant and helpful and did a very thorough service. He, also, carried out some additional work and only charged for part of it. It was great to have the opportunity of discussing a number of issues with him. He is registered with the NCC and so was able to stamp our van's service book and ensure continuity of its warranty. John charged £160 for the service (single axle) itself.
Unless it is booked in for a more major repair, I don't understand why a dealer has to keep a van for a week. It may, of course, be because it is easier for the customer to drop the van off on a Saturday and pick it up the following Saturday, but the service itself can be done well within a day.
This is our biggest bugbear with our dealer, we have to leave the van with them for a week BUT we cannot drop the van off or collect it over the weekend. This has to be arranged for a specific time during the week. As it's a 90 minute drive to the dealer, (3 hour round trip) OH has to take a half day holiday to deliver and then pick up. He only gets 3 weeks paid annual holiday as it is so this is precious time wasted for us. The van is still in warranty until next year so we're stuck with this, and having had a damp repair under warranty earlier this year, we're loathe to invalidate the warranty.
We have a dealer much closer who has said they would be willing to service the van, but any warranty work that needed doing would have to be done by the original dealer. As it took seven months and alot of emails and phone calls both to dealer and swift to get the last lot done, we darent put a spanner in the works until the warranty is out of date!
I've got another year after this one where the van has to be serviced by the dealer for the warranty but I will certainly make a note of the Mobile engineer you used for the future as I can see us going that way in time.
Quote: Originally posted by Anniemacxx on 17/6/2011
This is our biggest bugbear with our dealer, we have to leave the van with them for a week BUT we cannot drop the van off or collect it over the weekend. This has to be arranged for a specific time during the week. As it's a 90 minute drive to the dealer, (3 hour round trip) OH has to take a half day holiday to deliver and then pick up. He only gets 3 weeks paid annual holiday as it is so this is precious time wasted for us. The van is still in warranty until next year so we're stuck with this, and having had a damp repair under warranty earlier this year, we're loathe to invalidate the warranty.
We have a dealer much closer who has said they would be willing to service the van, but any warranty work that needed doing would have to be done by the original dealer. As it took seven months and alot of emails and phone calls both to dealer and swift to get the last lot done, we darent put a spanner in the works until the warranty is out of date!
What an absolute pain, Annie. In some respects I bet you'll be glad to be out of warranty. If ever we are in the position to get a new van again, I think I will ask them about servicing before buying the van - a week seems OTT to me. Although you can take a Bailey van to any authorised dealer for service and warranty work, you are very much as the mercy of the dealers. Any other dealer can refuse to do warranty work. We had an issue with our front window (a common issue with many 2009 van af different makes) which meant that the front window had to be replaced. One 'approved Bailey agent' within a 20 mile radius of where we lived refused to do it because of the cost to them up front and the time they would have to wait before they got the money back. In the end we dealt with the original dealer - but it's 200 miles for us. After saying that, our original dealers have been good for servicing - in at 9am, van back at 4pm, job done.
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Topic: Preparing Caravan for Service
