Dilemma

Sailor Hobart · Member

Dilemma

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Welcome to the gang Sailor Hobart, enjoy here and out in the playground.

I took delivery of a new CV in late October 2014 and as most people had teething problems, 2 major but I must say the after sales service has been faultless to date. Not sure how long that will last but so far so good. The 2 major problems look as though they have been fixed. One problem was the manufacturer of the fridge and their responce was very possitive indeed. I had heard some bad stories about them as well but I didn't witness it.

I am now enjoying my new Den as it should be.

Whatever you decide and do, enjoy and keep safe.

Kendo · Senior Member

G'Day

Plenty of comments about Dealers in these forums. Look at "Recommendations" section of the forum for some good ones.

My personal experience is to have bought a camper from a Jayco dealer in Adelaide, and then a Poptop caravan from a well known Adelaide caravan dealer here. Both experiences have been akin to dealing with used car dealers from the Seventys. Their quick to say the right things to sell you the RV but after sales service is terrible. In my experience with talking to others, this is commonplace in the industry.

I'm sure there is some good ones (dealers) out there. So it's important to ask the question you have and it's very important that we all support the ones that get the thumbs up.

It amazing how the car industry in australia has been tipped over a cliff, and the RV industry is in a massive increase. Hopefully competition for the RV dollar will mean Dealers will pull themselves into this century.

Good luck with your search, and if you find a good dealer, give them every support and don't forget to tell us about it biggrin

Radar · Guru

Hi Sailor.

I have owned my 2nd hand 2008 Supreme Spirit 17.6 for a few years now and have really enjoy every moment of that time. With most camping gear you have some maintenance or alteration to make it a better, I have not done anything to this caravan it has been a real pleasure until September last year.

As you do we were giving it a spring clean after being on the road for 6 weeks and we noticed that the decorative covering on the panels near the front window and a bit in one of the rear cupboards was parting, took some photos and rang Supreme asking for some advice.

We emailed photos to them waited a few days rang again and then realised I was getting lame answers where people are. So much for customer service. No help there.

Had a caravan repairer in Brisbane look at the panelling in the caravan and straight off said its water damage, I argued that there has never been any water or for that matter any dampness in the van. He then pulled off the plastic strip that runs external around the join side wall to the back near the water damage inside the van and bingo 4 rusty screws, a broken one and no, yes no sealing compound to be seen anywhere.

Now at the moment our van is back in having hail damage repair done from a storm in December. The whole right hand side needs to be replaced, we called in on Friday to see how things were going and I wanted to take photos of the electrical wiring for future reference.

To our disappointment our repairer has found small amounts of water damage to the frame which he will replace near the frig and air conditioning vents, lucky for us we had the hail damage as its allowed us to expose this water ingress and repair it before it became a major issue.

We feel with the water damage the lack of sealant and the use of better screws would of helped in the longevity of there product along with quality control by what we have seen with the inspection we did on Friday.

For the most I still believe it to be a good van, just a little #×@# off at the moment.

The repairer has assured us in 6 years or so he has been in working in the industry there mostly built the same, meaning caravan manufacturers use the same techniques.

Hope this helps in some small way. Ralph.

JohnR · Senior Member

We tow a Jayco (2013) 23 Sterling Outback with slideout. Have had minor issues and will next week put it in for service and have the floor in the unsuite looked at. (squeaky flooring). The Warranty expired in Dec 2014, however Jayco have extended the warranty period for further 3 months. We needed to find a Jayco Agent that fitted with our house sitting calendar. Jayco Melbourne were very supportive providing e-mails and written confirmations.

You will find most manufactures of vans will produce a product that looks the part but will develop issues. The trick is to find the one that is prepared to service the product and fix the issues.

We have had 2 Jayco sterlings with slide outs and would not hesitate in buying a future product from their extensive range.

JohnR

Bruce and Bev · Guru

Hi Lindsay. All the posts made by others here are typical of the RV industry in Australia.

We have a 6 mnth old Supreme Executive and to date we have had 36 warrantable faults with it. In fact it goes in next Saturday to have a leaking exterior pipe joiner replaced (minor), a new window blind unit fitted (most manufacturers use the same product from Dometic and it quite common for them to jam and not operate correctly) and a replacement door to the fridge as the seal is faulty (Dometic again - but they have good warranty procedures).

If you go online and look at Supreme customer reviews under the google search of "Supreme caravans" you will find lots of bad comments and no good ones. Because I have never dealt directly with Supreme, I have no idea what their attitude is to customers, put I suspect it is not good.

Sadly you will find pretty much all the RV manufacturers (and most of the Dealers) are like the experience we have had. Just check their on-line customer reviews

We bought a new Jayco 25fter about 8 years ago and never had one warranty issue. Speak with other new RV owners on the road and they all seem to have a multitude of warranty issues with their vehicles (includes motor homes).

When we were on our 1st 4 mnth trip round WA, we had to go to 2 country caravan repairers for warranty repairs. The first said he would never own a van, he and his family used a tent and he thought all the brands were cr** (his words) but made him a happy $$$$ man. The second guy was the same although he owned a Jayco that was about 10 years old and he had re-built. When I asked him about Jayco he laughed and said "theyre good from the chassis down". The only benefit he saw with Jayco is they are good with warranty work and have the largest dealer network. He said they allowed the buyer of their units to do their quality control through warranty claims !!

So, you may be lucky or be like most new buyers and become bitter and twisted about the poor quality of assembly and non-existant quality control.

A lot of your warranty angst will be with the Dealer and their attitude to you once they have your dollars!! The best advice is when you buy take your van away for a week and use all of it - tow it over some dirt or bumpy roads and if its self contained - free camp. Use everything on and in the can fairly hard and most of the build faults will become evident. When dealing with warranty issues with your Dealer, ALWAYS email it to them and request they email their response back (to keep a written record) and if they give you grief, tell them you intend to complain to the ACCC - and if you have to - do just that!!

-- Edited by Webmaster on Thursday 12th of February 2015 02:03:21 PM

moamajohn · Guru

Hi Sailor I have a Supreme van for 2 yrs.I have ,to date not 1 fault period ! with my van.Done 15000 kays so far including a $7000 damage bill when I argued with a post and rail fence .I went to Supreme direct as I have a home 10 mins away from the factory to have it repaired.They were fantastic in a word.Most folk forget that @85% of the van is only installing a manufactures product and when it fails you bitch to the dealer and then the manufacturer has a duty of care {most times } to repair the said problem when in fact he is only an agent that cops the flack ! Good luck with your dealings with whomever you go with .John

Cloak · Guru

I'll be buying an import the Aussie standards are too low.

Bruce and Bev · Guru

Steve. My imput on this subject is all negative unfortunately:)

Just be careful with imports - especially from UK and Europe. Im told they are of good build but made for quality tar sealed roads and wont stand up to our dirt/gravel roads or other rough surfaces.

No doubt fine if youre going to stick with main roads and CP's though

So far all our problems have been fixable and although numerous and bloody anooying, relatively annoying. I think to an extent its luck with the particular van you buy. They are hand made, unlike motor vehicles which are built to high standards on a production line that is mainly machine operated. With a van being hand built, it depends on primarily the manufacturers attitude towards a quality build (which costs money) and who and on what day your van was built - weekend or overnight hangover, argued with partner the previous night and so on - all reflects in the attitude of the guy building or installing that particular part on your van.

Obviously Westy got a well built van and it helps to live so close to the builder

Bruce and Bev · Guru

other thought is, buy a late model 2nd hand one with what you want.

Hopefully the original buyers have had all the faults sorted out.

If a 2nd hand van is acceptable to you, and you can find a van that matches what you want, take it to a caravan repairer. Some specialize in pre-buy inspections (theres one in Perth for example and you can take the van to them or they will come to where the van is. The inspection takes 2-3 hours and they give you a written report - costs about $200-300 depending on if they have to go to site). Experienced repairers know exactly where to look for all the usual faults

the rocket · Guru

We have a 25 foot supreme 2007. love it. love it. love it. have not had to deal with any problems though and bought it secondhand . good luck. oh. and welcome to the playground.

-- Edited by the rocket on Sunday 8th of February 2015 01:24:25 PM

-- Edited by the rocket on Sunday 8th of February 2015 01:32:27 PM

Radar · Guru

Come back Sailor Hobart hope we have not put you off purchasing a caravan.

banjo · Senior Member

PM sent !

PeterD · Guru

Most forums will not allow discussions like these as the manufacturers lean on the moderators with threats of liable and slander action. It's a wonder Cindy has let the thread go so long. There is a web site that seems to be able to weather these legal threats - http://notgoodenough.com/ - I suggest you start your action there so our forum will not be closed down.

Radar · Guru

Peter D hi.

I re read and then re read again I doubt that anything which has been written here would cause to much excitement.

In my post I praised my choice of van and the problem with water ingress is more then likely to happen to any van and I was for the most part trying to warn people that unbeknown to them they may be experiencing the some water damage. Ralph.

johna56 · Member

Cloak wrote:
I'll be buying an import the Aussie standards are too low.

Be careful, mine is assembled in Melbourne but some parts come from Overseas, and have had the van since new 26 weeks and out of that it has and is STILL sitting in a dealers yard for 18 weeks so far and part still not here..

johna56 · Member

PeterD wrote:
Most forums will not allow discussions like these as the manufacturers lean on the moderators with threats of liable and slander action. It's a wonder Cindy has let the thread go so long. There is a web site that seems to be able to weather these legal threats - http://notgoodenough.com/ - I suggest you start your action there so our forum will not be closed down.

The other option is to go to their Facebook page and state the fault FACTS there as they can't remove them. Only you and Facebook can remove your comments.

Just make sure you keep with the facts and truth and hopefully the company will wake up and do the right thing.

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.