Avondale 642

[Ian_5040577]

Hi,

Just put my Avondale 642 in for it's first service, I had a few little niggles that I needed sorting, shower doors no closing correctly, 12v side of fridge not working and a lamp out. Got the phone call off the dealer telling me I need a complete front panel as there is two one inch cracks next to the grab handles. I asked if I could have caused this, he told me he has replaced aprrox fifteen and has another twenty to do, he said there is a problem with the moulding and the way it has been fitted causing stress fractures. Just wondering if anyone has had similar experiance with an Avondale van.

Regards

Ian

 

[Ian_5040577]

Mmmmmmmmmmmm

Just been on another chat site and it seems I'm not alone, both rear and front panels are cracking, but all appear to be happy with the van once the panels have been replaced.

regards

Ian.

 

[Julie_5040500]

Hi

If you look back at previous postings you will see that Avondale have a problem with panels and according to my dealer this as been going on quite a few years. I have had the same problem my dealer had approx 10 other Avondales waitong to have panels replaced and had lost count of the ones he had done. It's great if your dealer will deal with this but not all people are having co-operation fron ther dealers and are refusing to change them after a year unless there is water ingress. My Avondale had to go to have the floor strengthened and it went back to the factory, this is another common problem, and the factory instead of replacing the panels plastic welded the cracks. Our dealer thinks that the problen will just occur again, we will wait for the inevitable. I had a look round my friends Avondale this weekend and found the same cracks as mine, front and top corners in the back, he hadn't noticed them and didn't get the warranty transfered when purchased. It's alright if you get the work done with no hassle but we use our van all year and we was without it fot nine weeks plus we used

 

[Pelyma1]

Stand in the queue!!! Your lucky if your dealer is helpful the nottingham based one my parents bought their Osprey from doesn't want to know. The have cracks round the roof and by the front lights. The latter are caused beacuse the light fittings have a peg on them that should locate into a hole/depression which isn't there thus stressing the area causing it to crack. The roof ones are by the awning rail fixings and would appear to be the result of slap dash workmanship when screwing into the grp.

My parents met a couple on a rally who had the same problem and were concerned about the effect on the floor. I believe it was the MD of Avondale who wrote to them to say there was nothing wrong, however an independent expert says the floor is delaminating.

Of course what Avondale seem to be wanting is for people to trade in their vans because of their concerns thus getting them out of the huge potential warranty liability they have. Although if you get a trade in price you might be shocked, my parents have been offered the same money as I was for my Abbey Expression (Micheal Jordan special based on Adventura) yet there van was about