Cell caravans

Collo · Senior Member

Cell caravans

deverall11 · Guru

Hi Collo, had a look at one when we were at Port Lincoln C/P. They certainly look the business. Would look at one when shopping for a new van.
Larry

keiron · Senior Member

Hi. No experience with them, but just watched their promo video.

I get the impression that you need to extend the slide-out just to walk from one end to the other.

If that is so, would it not be annoying if you only wanted to stop road-side for lunch, but need to activate the slide??

Nice vans, with all the B & W's. Are they built here for our conditions or imported??

KB

neilnruth · Guru

Hi Collo. There are lots of other vans that also have slideouts. I've never seen an 18' with one though. Interesting.

GregTheComputerGuy · Veteran Member

Collo wrote:
Has anyone had experience with Cell vans?
I think they are an american import sold in Melb. Looking at their site...they seem to be a premium van, lots of bells and whistles....with a premium price. $65000 for a 18 foot.(new)
But they have a cool idea of having a slide out section, which gives much more room.
Any thoughts.
Collo.

A friend got a 28 footer Homestead. It had a heck of a lot of things included like auto landing gear levelling, tow hitch height adjustment for the front end that allowed front end to be lowered or raised to suit where it was dropped and then when hitching again, allowed it to raise to the hitch. Lots of things!

Anyway, he had some problems with it en route. He got back to where he used to live (full timer on the road) near Sydney to go through the things in storage that he wanted to put into the van and went to a local caravan park and found the pull out basin piping was not good and caused water to go through the back end of the van and he had a few other little problems as well. He rang the company in Melbourne and they asked which way he was heading. He was heading north so they advised him of someone near Gosford who would do the fixes he required then send the bill to them in Melbourne. From what I was told, the guy came to their caravan park where they decided to stay in order to get the jobs done, was there 4 hours and when he went, all was fixed at no cost to them.

Having said all that, I realise that those problems SHOULD have been A) noticed by the company and by the owner before towing it out and B) Fixed at no cost anyway. However, my point was that there was no squabbling from the company in Melbourne. They just told him the nearest place to go in the direction he was headed and it was fixed just like that.

While getting something new and having it work without a problem is what you want, the worth of a company, to me, is the after sales service. I have a pad (not Apple one) from a major brand company that I use. The original one I bought was a dud the day I bought it brand new. That company tried to give me a reconditioned one and then said I had no rights to anything new. I quoted Australian law in this regard to them and they STILL said that their company policies took precedence over our law. No kidding. It took THREE WHOLE MONTHS of me paying off the loan on this thing and not having it to use before finally, I got one and only then by directly emailing the Korean company HQ and threatening THEM with going to court through Fair Trading. Even THEN, the Aussie arm of that company STILL handed me a refurbished one with scratches all over it. I had a copy of the email with me and showed them that their own HQ said I could have a new one and that is finally how I won that battle that should never have been.

So, if I were to buy an expensive item like a Homestead is (not having a go at pricing of the van but saying how much ANY van of that length costs is a lot of money to me!) then I wouldnt want the sort of fight I had to go through for the pad device I have and as a friend has already had minor issues handled so well, I would say that if I were looking at Cell vans, at least I know the Melb based company are people worth dealing with.

Hope that helps in some way.

deverall11 · Guru

Greg, it sounds like you have not been around caravaners. ( No disrespect intented) The number of vans, new or otherwise, that encounter problems is so high, one would think it is the norm. After talking to all the van manufacturers that turn up at any given caravan and camping show, none of them put their vans under a sprinkler system to test for water leaks. We were in a C/P near Mildura and these two groups bought new vans from the local Jayco dealer. They parked next to one another. The following day there was a flury of activities. As it turned out, the fridge in one of the vans was O/S. The dealer removed one from a van that was in the yard and swapped it for the ailing item. Good service from the dealer, but, this van had travelled a whole 2kms. Did the ailing fridge go back into a van for some one to have a surprise or did it go back to the manufacturer for repairs. This but one of many encounters we have come across in almost 3 years.
If you buy a brand new van and have no trouble at all, you are one of the lucky few. Also, most dealers have not go a proper plan of action to deal with repairs for those of us who live permanently in our van.
Hope this helps.
Larry

ashpix · Member

I have a Cruiser RV Funfinder. 26 feet with two slides. Great van. It is known as The Estate in Cell's stable. I imported mine directly from USA. Although Cell do a massive number of changes, they are still built in the same place mine was.
I don't have any leaks in the van, from rain, but everything else on the van needed fixing.Cruiser RV must fire these things out in huge numbers. I had so many minor faults and I imagine Cell can't find all of them when they do their rebuild.
The shell is perfect and it tows well. Just the finish was poor and Cruiser RV certainly don't inspect or bother with Quality Assurance.
Cell do a much better job of finishing the vans. Their prices are probably more than double what I paid and for a few grand I am sure I could get mine to the same standard.
Cell import direct from Cruiser RV and have the sole rights to the Aus spec vans. They are the only company in Aus that sell a van with decent slides. Jayco,s pathetic slides are not as deep or wide as the CRV units.

ashpix · Member

Cruiserrv.com

PeterD · Guru

If you have a look at the forums from USA you will gain the impression that Cell caravans come in near the bottom of the pack over there.

ashpix · Member

They don't have Cell Caravans in US.

PeterD · Guru

ashpix wrote:
They don't have Cell Caravans in US.

They may not sell them under the Cell brand but they do sell those units in the USA

http://www.allseasonsrv.com/cf/shopmast/productdetailp.cfm?productid=2152

-- Edited by Webmaster on Saturday 4th of June 2016 12:19:11 PM

Gerty Dancer · Guru

Met somebody who was on their first trip with a Cell, and they were very pleased with it, mostly because of the price. It looked ok too, nice brown colour instead of the stupid white of most caravans in Oz.

ashpix · Member

PeterD wrote:
ashpix wrote:
They don't have Cell Caravans in US.
They may not sell them under the Cell brand but they do sell those units in the USA
http://www.allseasonsrv.com/cf/shopmast/productdetailp.cfm?productid=2152
You are just being pedantic.

You're being rude! Guru! Of course they are sold in US. That's where the are built. I have already displayed the link to the manufacturer. Thanks for your input.

-- Edited by ashpix on Saturday 13th of September 2014 11:19:01 PM

Oldfella · Newbie

My wife & I ordered & purchased a Cell Homestead - the largest one they sell. We have owned 4 brand new caravans over the last 20 years inluding Cub,Millard, Jayco & Cell. The Cell caravan like all the others has had some niggly bits that we have had to repair ourselves as its just not practicle for us to take back to VIC or to our closest caravan dealer some 200 + kms away. When we picked up we stayed an extra day on their lot in the Homestead as we noticed some things that needed to be done as some finishes needed some attention. Overall these Caravans are very good, tow well, we used our Toyota LandCruiser 100 Series for the trip back some 6000 kms but wanted some more grunt especially up steep hills & purchased the Toyota LandCruiser 200 Series - what a difference. We nearly purchased a Avida Longreach but were still going to tow a 4wd but when we found we could get a caravan with as much room if not more for under half the price it became an easy decision.

We hope this helps anyone who has questions regarding the Cell Homestead caravan.

SoloCraig · Member

Hi Oldfella, I'm looking at a cell now, so was wondering what your thoughts are after 12 months of ownership? I really like the look of "the Island', and I'm tossing up between this and the Jayco 21.65-4 OB, so any info you (or others) can share about your Cell experience would be very much appreciated! I notice they now come with a galvanized chassis too, which is good news

Bill B · Guru

You might be waiting awhile for a response Craig as Oldfella hasn't logged on since he posted the above message.

SoloCraig · Member

Ah ok, thanks for letting me know Bill. May have to take that good old leap of faith then with Cell

Andy B · Member

I bought a cell river -18ft - in 2015 and am slowly getting to know it.
Support is good from the Melbourne crew, but there are a few maintenance and construction problems that you need to be aware of.
As usual it is difficult to 'know' your van until you have played with it a bit.
Happy to impart what limited knowledge I have if anyone interested.
Generally, an extremely comfortable van.

JohnLG · Veteran Member

I believe that Cell Aust may be in administration as of a couple of months now...try Goggling them
Too bad, we liked them for there spaciousness and inclusions
John