Quality Built Motorhomes??

[martinmartin]

Brand new motorhomes or even houses should be virtually without fault especially houses. They aren't experiments ,mass production sometimes doesn't work,especially when tied into profit.

 

[Sharpie]

Dream on, back in the real world reality strikes.

 

[Okta]

I think house building quality went down the pan when Building Regulations for large residential developments stopped being overseen by local authorities and was taken over by the NHBC as an insurance product.

 

[Fisherman]

Brand new motorhomes or even houses should be virtually without fault especially houses. They aren't experiments ,mass production sometimes doesn't work,especially when tied into profit.

Motorhomes are not mass produced like cars.
In the uk last year there were only 14,000 sold including campers and panel conversions. But when you consider there are hundreds to choose from many will only amount to a few each year. As Channa stated there are around 20,000 components within a new camper expect some hopefully minor problems that won’t stop you from using your van. But you may be unlucky and have an issue that will force you of the road for a while. But most faults are minor, meaning they don’t prevent use.

 

[trevskoda]

I think house building quality went down the pan when Building Regulations for large residential developments stopped being overseen by local authorities and was taken over by the NHBC as an insurance product.

Council dep do it here,you must get a cert when all work complete, im going for mine this year for extension.

 

[Fisherman]

Council dep do it here,you must get a cert when all work complete, im going for mine this year for extension.

And in Scotland, building warrants/ control, and planning are local authority controlled.
But don’t believe that older properties were built without issues. I remember my grandfather telling me about problems they had in the 1920s when moving into a new council house. Problems with house construction are not new, there has always been issues.

 

[Sharpie]

British motorhome manufacturing, for the UK market is almost a cottage industry. Some still using construction methods and components more suited to a caravan than something likely to be driven for 10.000 miles a year, in our climate. Even the fundamentals, such as having a floor that is waterproof underneath haven't been addressed, a neighbour took a big loss on a Bailey for example, after 18 months and traded it for something better for just this reason, and many other problems, the flaw was fundamental, was only going to rapidly get far worse, and neither the dealer nor Bailey were prepared to do anything about it. Probably they simply couldn't. Somebody else will be having to live with this problem now, as will anyone else with that particular model. They still seem to be making them the same way.

Whereas the foreign manufacturers operate on a far bigger scale, huge and expanding market, some economies still buoyant, big industry groups, efficient mass manufacturing often done in relatively low cost labour regions, motorhome use far more popular, and can develop their vehicles far more thoroughly, having been doing so for decades, constantly improving.

We are lucky that some of them are prepared to put the steering wheel on the "wrong" side to cater for the unique UK market. Personally I'd be quite happy with an LHD import.

AFAIK nobody abroad buys British made motorhomes or caravans, they are quite a demanding market and poor quality of design and manufacture at high prices isn't good enough.

Even some of our dealers just don't understand customer service, e.g. I've only had two minor problems in nine years with my Dethleffs made Globecar. A good van. An AGM battery and a water pump that failed in the first 18 months, sometimes these things happen, nothing is perfect. Obviously I replaced them myself since it would be over 300 mile round trip to the dealer in Newark, who was utterly incompetent in everything that they added to the van. TV aerial, reversing sensors, radio, all a botch job that took them three goes to sort of get working and I've subsequently re done myself, to a decent standard. They booked me onto a local site for the weekend to shake down and familiarise with the new van, which was nice, but I was still there after three more days taken from my annual holiday allowance, and now know Newark very well, having had to spend those days wandering around it whilst the van was back in the workshop. It has its attractions, but after three days I'd seen enough. As for paying for, or just making a contribution, to the cost of the battery and water pump, fat chance. They'd had my money for the purchase and weren't interested in me. So I'm not interested in them either, actually it would be a cold day in hell before I went back there.

 

[Fisherman]

I saw a British built van summer 2018 and it was poorly built. I won’t name it because I try not to upset folk, and I am sure there will be owners on here. The chap was happy with his purchase and gave me a tour outside and inside. I have never seen more mastic over poor joints, door handles that were not straight, gaps around doors, and screws without covers that will rust. I have never seen such an over hang on a van. It had the standard fiat chassis (not the camper chassis with lowered chassis and wider rear axle) on a 7.5 m van. Inside well when you walked about all you heard were squeaks and other noises, god knows what it was like when driven. The cupboards looked cheap, the kitchen was poorly laid out, and the oven was poorly positioned, I could go on. When at the NEC last February I made a point of going to their section to look at their vans, and the standards of workmanship was no better. Yes they were cheap the 7.5 m coach built was around £45,000, but they were cheap for a reason.
I would have liked a German van, but none of them build what we have, I looked at a 6m hymer but the layout was not to our liking. But our Italian van is definitely better put together than our chausson, and way better than the British make I have been posting about.

 

[runnach]

The two major players are trigano who trade from ci roller team Carthago and have Italian roots the other major player the hymer group ...in the case of the latter , they have deliberately headhunted ex senior management of the Volkswagen group to emulate their set of seat Skoda vw and Audi which has served well last few years.
Common components and has sharpie suggests low cost manufacturing bases so they can really get the benefits of economies of scale.whether this remains to exclusive benefit of the profit and loss account remains to be seen

Bailey in Bristol invested heavily a few years ag in the alu tech body systems and the problems besieged them, whilst toady are actually ok the legacy continues to haunt them .

The last company I was involved with was predominantly an engineering company specialist amongst other things large liquid starter motors to start generators in power stations,mines and battleships the mod being one of our customers.

The point was a lot of the big customers expected us to be accredited with iso9002, which we were...but in my totally honest opinion it purely demonstrated a system , in other words we could produce crap but it was consistent crap we didn’t but you get my point ..mechanisms to react via improvement painfully slow and depressing.

There are good manufacturers IH at knottingley a good example . So the brits can do it , people often don’t want to pay the premium.f
It breaks my heart it truly does, all the innovation land sea and air this country has bestowed on the world to us rapidly becoming also rand ,,,Great Britain and our pride should be worth more than that

 

[john77]

Give us a clue . Fisherman what is it???

 

[Toffeecat]

I dont know if its a modern thing. MyElddis 120 from 2007 was a great motorhome. Nothing other than the odd catch ever went wrong. It was pretty well made and I never wanted to sell it. I see lots of folk with older motorhomes which they tell me are great and just chug along. Fella two doors along has a Burstner I think and its done 150,000 plus and runs great and its from the mid 1990's. Loads of old Hymers I see out and about. They look great. Wonder if modern ones will look as good at that age.

 

[Fisherman]

I dont know if its a modern thing. MyElddis 120 from 2007 was a great motorhome. Nothing other than the odd catch ever went wrong. It was pretty well made and I never wanted to sell it. I see lots of folk with older motorhomes which they tell me are great and just chug along. Fella two doors along has a Burstner I think and its done 150,000 plus and runs great and its from the mid 1990's. Loads of old Hymers I see out and about. They look great. Wonder if modern ones will look as good at that age.

Hi Toffecat, with GRP cladding its reckoned they will look almost as new for decades. But then looks are only superficial.

 

[Fisherman]

I remember a few years ago when I was parked next to an owner of what has been described a few posts ago, as a good UK example. This northern panel van manufacturer started to make premium priced coachbuilts and I expect they still do.
The guy next to me pointed out that he had just found his gas locker floor was broken and the bottles were in danger of falling out. He telephoned a mate with the same van, telling him to check his. Guess what? Same problem was reported !
Moving on, I don't think any brands are as strong as earlier generations, mainly due to weight limits and owners wanting more and more gadgets and comforts
I do know my first of 5 Hymers was the best built!
My present 7 metre van is built to be light weight and give a good payload of around 680kg before extras.
Something has to give to return this. Light weight materials instead of solid brick built!

And as anyone who passed their driving test after 1997 won't have a C1 license, this is becoming even more critical for manufacturers.
Most of the problems I read on here and in MMM involve the engine, and modern engines are more reliable, if more complicated than before.
As I have said before there should be a standardisation of how payload is calculated, and vans should be sold with a certified read out of each van.
I think that dealers should be made to explain payload to first time buyers, to many big vans with tiny payloads out there.

 

[martinmartin]

Motorhomes are not mass produced like cars.
In the uk last year there were only 14,000 sold including campers and panel conversions. But when you consider there are hundreds to choose from many will only amount to a few each year. As Channa stated there are around 20,000 components within a new camper expect some hopefully minor problems that won’t stop you from using your van. But you may be unlucky and have an issue that will force you of the road for a while. But most faults are minor, meaning they don’t prevent use.

Percentages are used by the positive thinking brigade and political folk when it comes to excuse for blunders.

 

[martinmartin]

Thanks everyone for sharing your personal experiences. I visited Event City motorhome show today and sadly almost 50% of the vehicles on show were Swift, which are not on my list. However, both Burstner and Adria motorhomes were represented and look far superior to the British built vans. I'm still looking though and definitely favouring the European manufacturers.

Picked a guy up about 2 months ago from swift (no I'm not gay) and he said don't buy one, he was off the production line, l will keep what he said to myself, buy one by all means if that's what you want.

 

[trevskoda]

When you buy a swift here they give you a free umberdoddle with it,wonder why.

 

[Fisherman]

Percentages are used by the positive thinking brigade and political folk when it comes to excuse for blunders.

What has that got to do with my post.
You stated that Motorhomes are mass produced, I stated they’re not.
That has nothing to do with statistics, positive thinking brigades, political folks, or anyone else. As for percentages, they were never mentioned.
It took roller team 7 days to build my Motorhome, and Fiat a day to assemble the engine and chassis. Toyota can assemble a car in hours.

 

[Nabsim]

What has that got to do with my post.
You stated that Motorhomes are mass produced, I stated they’re not.
That has nothing to do with statistics, positive thinking brigades, political folks, or anyone else. As for percentages, they were never mentioned.
It took roller team 7 days to build my Motorhome, and Fiat a day to assemble the engine and chassis. Toyota can assemble a car in hours.

The vast majority of motorhomes are mass produced on production lines. You don’t need to turn out one every few seconds or even one a day for them to qualify as mass produced.
There are pictures or videos on the net of most if not all the better known marques being built. Hymer as an example is very impressive to see, you wouldn’t think so many were being made.
Swift were turning out 15,000 units a year a good way back. Motorhomes and caravans are made in the same factory in a lot of places.
We may like to think we are buying a high quality hand built show piece but the reality for quite a few folks is very different. What is being sold is very often the best compromise the manufacturer can provide and maintain their profit margin at that time. They are designed with a life unlikely to equal one years full timing and having an easy life (obviously not counting adventure/expedition/overland in that).
Car production lines and mass production is better because they have better or more consistent quality control in my opinion.

 

[Drover]

I work as a civil engineer (albeit with bridges), so I know a lot of civil and structural engineers, and none of them would go anywhere near a modern house unless they had personally supervised construction.

This is exactly what we are doing..... a very small 9mt x 9mt single story dwelling , I would say bungalow, but it isn't one as it is a bit eco . All at a cost though.

 

[trevskoda]

Kit homes are the way to go,factory built,look up german hoof house,fact is vans a mainly bling built for those with rose tinted glasses and not ment to be practical or long lasting,fact that many do is because they sit outside folks homes and only venture out for 2 weeks a year to a camp site.