Hi Everyone 2

[admiral1757]

I hope that this post gets through, I have/had been caravanning for 40 years and currently own a 2011 Coachman VIP 520/4 which I tow with a BMW 5 Series. I mention had as on the second day of our six week holiday the nearside wheel parted company with the caravan which we had to leave in France, the 'van was returned to the UK last week and as I write should be winging its way back to the Coachman Factory in Hull.The damage is over £12,000 for what can be seen, but my worry is what damage has been done to what can't been seen. It was deemed a write off in France but who knows what the Assessors in the UK think. I would recommend to everyone to take out Insurance, we had Red Pennant who were superb, and arranged Hotel and re booking a Ferry for us.I hope in the future I can contribute posts.
It's good to TORQUE

 

[Parksy]

Hi Admiral, welcome to the Practical Caravan forum and thanks for persevering after your first post wouldn't load. What a shame about the wheel coming off, there was a long discussion on this forum a while back about whether we ought to check the torque on alloys after the caravan has been serviced.
Let us know what the assessors decide to do with your caravan and good luck.

 

[admiral1757]

Thanks Parksy, The Tyres were checked and the Studs were checked using a Torque wrench to the correct settings, I am waiting now for the report as to WHY the wheel came off, about 20 years ago the caravan industry went through a similar problem with nearside wheels coming off, the manufacturers put it dowm to that the nearside wheel takes more of a pounding than the offside, not a suitable answer, as an ex Rallt Competitor, i am fully aware that pressures and wheel nuts should be checked regularly

 

[Parksy]

I hope that it's all sorted out very quickly for you.
We had a 3 month old caravan written off in the 2007 flooding, the insurance company (C&CC Club Care) didn't mess us around and the assessor had inspected the caravan, which had 4" of the River Avon inside it, and made his decision within a week. We obtained a couple of quotes from dealers and chose our replacement new caravan from the dealer who had supplied the previous one.

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Admiral
It's very interesting to note that Bailey have had a few loose wheels recently. See the article on the home page. I don't know the exact cause yet but I can say I had an alloy wheel fall off the n/s rear of the car two years ago, even though it had been properly torqued up etc. That was the first failure of that type in 41 years.
I hope your Insurers reach a swift satisfactory settlement for you. Good luck and don't let this put you off

 

[admiral1757]

Thanks Dustydog, In forty years we have not had any mishaps apart from one puncture whilst towing our van to a dealers to collect a new van about fifteen years ago. So, something had to happen at some time, it was fortunate that we were only doing about 20 mph at the time, a couple of minutes before and we were doing 55-60 mph, so we can count our lucky stars that we weren't injured.