Elddis rear panel cracks and caps

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May 20, 2019
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Hi
Last year I joined this chat seeking out other members who purchased an Elddis caravan and have had issues with cracks appearing on the rear panel. I got a lot of replies from anguished members who are caught out with these costly issues not being covered by warranties and of course Elddis not offering any solutions. I personally had cracks appear on the lower part of the panel soon after purchase and this was sorted with a new panel. Unfortunately new cracks appeared later on the top left and right and the only solution (the caravan was now over 3 years old) they offered was caps to cover over them. I reluctantly agreed to this with assurances that this was a good fix. However, I now find that with only traveling more than 50 miles and just storing for 4 months a crack has now appeared below one of the caps (see photo). Needless to say Elddis are saying it is not due to the caps. I am sending this just to warn others that caps may not be the solution. If any one wants to look into legal action with Elddis let me know.
Charles
 
Nov 11, 2009
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ChasNick said:
Hi
Last year I joined this chat seeking out other members who purchased an Elddis caravan and have had issues with cracks appearing on the rear panel. I got a lot of replies from anguished members who are caught out with these costly issues not being covered by warranties and of course Elddis not offering any solutions. I personally had cracks appear on the lower part of the panel soon after purchase and this was sorted with a new panel. Unfortunately new cracks appeared later on the top left and right and the only solution (the caravan was now over 3 years old) they offered was caps to cover over them. I reluctantly agreed to this with assurances that this was a good fix. However, I now find that with only traveling more than 50 miles and just storing for 4 months a crack has now appeared below one of the caps (see photo). Needless to say Elddis are saying it is not due to the caps. I am sending this just to warn others that caps may not be the solution. If any one wants to look into legal action with Elddis let me know.
Charles

Your photo hasn't come through.

I've had cracks on a new 2005 Bailey Series 5 Pageant with its front panel and rear panels being replaced in years 2 and 3. My current van (Sprite) had to have a rear panel replaced just before its five year warranty expired. So fortunately all my replacements were carried out under warranty. It's a sad reflection on an industry that seems geared to offering more and more widgets but without any commensurate improvement in fundamental quality.

Cannot recall any of my cars having to have panels replaced, after the early 1980s when car makers sorted out rusting to a large extent! :whistle:
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Hello Chas, o

I sense from your posting that you have already looked at whats involved with dealing with this sort of problem where clearly there is either a design, material or manufacturing fault. And whilst the failure you have experienced seems to point to fall at the feet of the manufacturer, legally your claim is against your seller as defined by the Consumer Right Act or Sale of Goods Act that preceded it.

The failing of the CRA is that it does not automatically mean a successful claim will have any impact on the manufacturer and force them to accept any responsibility or to consider changing anything.

What you are considering is a Class Action or Super Complaint , which is a much bigger undertaking. I really wish you luck but I'm not holding my breath.

May I suggest you raise the issue with the Consumers Association (Publishers of Which?)
 
May 20, 2019
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Unfortunatley my dealership closed one year after purchase so I have had to deal with manufacturer.
I would be interested to get a group together to challenge but once again not easy as most people just sell as soon as they can.
Charles
 
Mar 19, 2019
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My 2004 Elddis has the same problem, my workshop advised it's because they changed model and had two different sizes of rear panel, and they went through a spell of fitting the wrong panel to the wrong chassis, hence the stress that causes the crack. Mine just has the crack filled with mastic as a temporary repair. The workshop showed me the caps Elddis ask them to fit, but they don't look like a great repair to me, just covering the problem and making it waterproof as opposed to repairing it. I'd rather see another layer of plastic bonded directly over the crack itself to prevent it getting any bigger.
 
May 7, 2012
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Not sure how old your caravan is but if the repair was done under the warranty on behalf of Eldiss it looks to be faulty and you now need a new rear panel. The Prof has covered the usual route for legal action but it looks as though you may have to go direct against Eldiss if you bought new on the basis they provided the guarantee as a condition of purchase of their product. This is less secure the the two acts quoted by the Prof but should work.
In many ways a small claims action has an advantage over a class action as the cost of defending it is high and simply settling without publicity might be better from the point of view of Eldiss. Before you do this however you need to establish the costs involved and I would write to Eldiss indicating your intention to sue if they do not correct the situation. A class action would involve a of of potential compensation and might make the defendants more inclined to defend it.
They do give a water ingress warranty of I think ten years and a serious crack is likely to cause damp so you can also use this as a way of getting a claim paid. I do know it has been done before and worked although finding the evidence would need a lot of research now.
If you are looking at the legal route then I would look through the various caravan forums and you should find plenty of evidence to support your claim which can be produced in court.
The small claims procedure is straight forward and can be done on line You might however find your house insurance gives cover for both advice and legal representation so do check that out.
Hope this helps.
 
Nov 11, 2009
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Raywood said:
Not sure how old your caravan is but if the repair was done under the warranty on behalf of Eldiss it looks to be faulty and you now need a new rear panel. The Prof has covered the usual route for legal action but it looks as though you may have to go direct against Eldiss if you bought new on the basis they provided the guarantee as a condition of purchase of their product. This is less secure the the two acts quoted by the Prof but should work.
In many ways a small claims action has an advantage over a class action as the cost of defending it is high and simply settling without publicity might be better from the point of view of Eldiss. Before you do this however you need to establish the costs involved and I would write to Eldiss indicating your intention to sue if they do not correct the situation. A class action would involve a of of potential compensation and might make the defendants more inclined to defend it.
They do give a water ingress warranty of I think ten years and a serious crack is likely to cause damp so you can also use this as a way of getting a claim paid. I do know it has been done before and worked although finding the evidence would need a lot of research now.
If you are looking at the legal route then I would look through the various caravan forums and you should find plenty of evidence to support your claim which can be produced in court.
The small claims procedure is straight forward and can be done on line You might however find your house insurance gives cover for both advice and legal representation so do check that out.
Hope this helps.

Did you use a credit card for part or all of the transaction. If over £100 spent on card then Section 75 of the consumer credit act makes the card issuer take liability for the transaction even if you only spent just above the threshold.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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It is unfortunate that you dealer ceased trading, Otherclive's suggestion is a valid alternative route, but it only apply's if you used credit. See section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. Apart from that your purchase contract did not include the manufacturer so the have no liability to you as far as the purchase is concerned.

However you may well have taken up the manufactures guarantee. This is a separate contract, but if you used it for the initial repair, then you may have some rites, but it's almost certainly controlled by the manufacturer's terms and conditions,.

This will be one for professional legal advice.

I don't see any reason why others who have had the same problem shouldn't contact ChasNick, but I'm certain any attempt to bring a case against the manufacturer will be difficult and costly.

I do think that UK law should have a mechanism that allows end users to more easily bring manufacturers to book when multiple end users have suffered common failures.
 
Mar 1, 2015
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Sad to say :( got the van out of storage for a good clean and wax and noticed 2 stress fractures on the rear panel that were not their when it when in i have a Bailey ranger gt60 (2010) for nearly 6yrs and the second owner so it now 9yrs old i am going to do the repair my self. :unsure: just ordered the touch pain and gel coat fill any advice or tip welcome as i don't want them to get any bigger
 
Nov 11, 2009
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gravesyt said:
Sad to say :( got the van out of storage for a good clean and wax and noticed 2 stress fractures on the rear panel that were not their when it when in i have a Bailey ranger gt60 (2010) for nearly 6yrs and the second owner so it now 9yrs old i am going to do the repair my self. :unsure: just ordered the touch pain and gel coat fill any advice or tip welcome as i don't want them to get any bigger

Use a very fine drill to “stop” the end of each crack. That will help to stop it propagating further.
 
May 7, 2012
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gravesyt said:
Sad to say :( got the van out of storage for a good clean and wax and noticed 2 stress fractures on the rear panel that were not their when it when in i have a Bailey ranger gt60 (2010) for nearly 6yrs and the second owner so it now 9yrs old i am going to do the repair my self. :unsure: just ordered the touch pain and gel coat fill any advice or tip welcome as i don't want them to get any bigger

Sorry to hear of the problem.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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One tip for preventing cracks from spreading is to drill a small hole at the end of the crack. this releases some stress and usually prevents the crack from continuing. You need to use a sharp drill and slow speed and as little downward force as possible, or you may create more local stress. I would then fill with an epoxy type body filler which will bond to the edges and indeed did just this on my former and completely not missed Eldiss 540.
But just a suggestion - your decision.
 
Apr 3, 2010
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I have an Elddis xplore 530 - 2014. Loads of faults all of which were fixed under warranty - sometimes more than once. 3years in and the rear panel had stress cracks at the top n/s rear corner. Replaced rear panel under warranty. Less than 9 months later the replacement panel cracked top rear, both sides. Elddis offered caps which I refused. As the van was purchased using a CC as deposit I took action under section 75 of the CCA. I wrote to Elddis and informed them that if I lost my case I intended to take action against them as the repair - replacement rear panel, was carried out by THEIR sub contactors - the dealership. 3 weeks later I had a phone call from Elddis telling me that they had made a mistake - the corner caps they offered would not fit my van and so they would replace the rear panel again. I refused to use the same dealership - where I had bought the van and they agreed I could use a repair facility of my choice. After waiting for spares the van went in and the rear panel was replaced. Keeping my fingers crossed this time the repair was carried out properly but in any case the new panel has the same warranty - 1 year.
The CC company declined my claim and the FS Ombudsman agreed with them that the offer of repair - caps, or trade in was reasonable. This decision took over a year. One reason given was that the van was 4 years old when I made the claim- so much for the 6 year time limit. Looking back I should have rejected the van when it cracked the first time. I figure that Elddis have now spent in excess of £9k fixing this van since I bought it - for £14500!
 
Apr 3, 2010
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BTW the cracks in the rear panel at the top are caused by the underlying frame which has not been chamfered sufficiently and impinges the top corner of the panel. The repair scheme was devised by Elddis quite early on - most vans affected were 2013 - 2015. All dealerships were informed of the repair procedure but some are better than others. Mine had two or three goes at fixing all of the many defects that appeared on my (Friday) van which is why I refused to let them touch it any more.
 
Mar 1, 2015
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Evening all just an up date small hole drilled 2mm at end of crack then opened the crack up a little with a file then gel coat added i will sand it down tomorrow then touch up with the pain from bailey. ;)
 
Nov 16, 2015
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Ok it's not just Elldiss, on my 2013 coachman 560 /4 3 years old found the .crack below.. top left hand of the van, The dealer went bust, Coachman wanted the van back to repair, so took it to Hull , and three days later Van ready for collection, new back panel and all seams , roof and Panels resealed, but no extended warranty for Water ingress.
I think the crack was started by no pilot holes in the panel , (screws being put straight into the panel when fitting the awning rail), The Coachman rep said as much but would not confirm this.
Screenshot-2018-07-09-20-07-20.png
 
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Different type of crack. I would suspect that the crack shown is caused by stress set up by rail screw hole being incorrect size. I shall try to post pics of the cracks on the Elddis. Elddis rails glued on - no screws.
 
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EH52ARH they are identical as mine ? :angry: hopefully sorted just sanded down and touch up pain will sand down again tomorrow with 2500 wet'n'dry then repaint 'repeat' until it is as smooth as a baby's bottom and colour match :whistle:
The worst bit about it all is :( every time I go out in it all I will think about is the cracks :( :woohoo:
 
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Nov 11, 2009
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I hope the repair is successful and it would be good to hear how durable it is after a few long trips out. The reason for my interest is that a contact did the same and after a number of trips on our awful roads the cracks had reappeared. So he took it to a repair specialist who welded plastic staples into the area then smoothed down and repainted. The repair was cosmetically good and as far as I know successful.
 
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I also hope but - if it cracks again within the 1 year warranty period I shall be approaching Elddis with the view that they can replace it again ( for the 3rd time ). Hopefully ( if it does crack again) they will accept that it would be better to just take it away:) It costs just over £3k to replace the rear panel.
 
Nov 14, 2019
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Ok it's not just Elldiss, on my 2013 coachman 560 /4 3 years old found the .crack below.. top left hand of the van, The dealer went bust, Coachman wanted the van back to repair, so took it to Hull , and three days later Van ready for collection, new back panel and all seams , roof and Panels resealed, but no extended warranty for Water ingress.
I think the crack was started by no pilot holes in the panel , (screws being put straight into the panel when fitting the awning rail), The Coachman rep said as much but would not confirm this.
Screenshot-2018-07-09-20-07-20.png
My dad’s Elddis has the same problem, it has those stress cracks that look to be from not pilot drilling the rear panel during assembly. We have stop drilled them and taped over them and have dried it out but it also has some splits that are on the radii of the panel. Looking at how Elddis have been with others he won’t be buying another of their brand.
 
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