Retreat Caravans

Koala · Veteran Member

Retreat Caravans

Dougwe · Chief one feather

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

I looked at the Retreat the same day I ordered my Chief. The Chief was what I wanted. I have had many problems though but mainly due to a dodgy Auto Elec doing the wrong thing and not reading the plan. Speaking with fellow travellers, 99% of new vans have problems. You and I are obviously part of that 99% mate. Not to worry, just get it sorted and continue the journey.

the rocket · Guru

Dougwe wrote:
Welcome to the gang KJ, enjoy here and out in the playground.

I looked at the Retreat the same day I ordered my Chief. The Chief was what I wanted. I have had many problems though but mainly due to a dodgy Auto Elec doing the wrong thing and not reading the plan. Speaking with fellow travellers, 99% of new vans have problems. You and I are obviously part of that 99% mate. Not to worry, just get it sorted and continue the journey.

hi dougwe, yes, that is a hassle for you. we thought of buying a new van but decided lets buy a secondhand one that someone else has had to get sorted out. we did, best decision we ever made.

RodLainie · Senior Member

Good move The Rocket
We will look at that next time because we also are in the 99%
Rod

Peter1059 · Senior Member

Hi Guys

I have a friend who owns Retreat and had the pleasure of meeting one of the owners at the recent Perth C'van show and found him to be honest and very proud of his product. It may pay to speak to the head office and see if they provide a solution, regardless best of luck.

Peter

Androb · Member

hi kj

my retreat booked in 4th may 4 warranty work. 6 month old.
don,t want to say 2 much at this stage, i want to work with retreat not against them.
will post more when iget home from melbourne.
androb

Koala · Veteran Member

Well that's bit of a worry if you have had few warranty issues already, I can understand that you want to stay on the good side of Retreat, I am a bit the same. The more people we talk to everyone has had problems in all brands.

Koala · Veteran Member

Yea thanks for suggestion, we have also met the young guy who is part of the company as you said he does back his product, it was more that they didn't act fast enough as we live 6 hrs away from Brisbane which is our closest place for warranty & with our work situation we needed to get it up there ASAP,they couldn't give us a quick enough answer.

pricey43 · Guru

Hi KJ. We have a Retreat, bought two and a half years ago. We had trouble with water leaking the first day we had it. A quick call to Melbourne and within half an hour they had it organised to go to the local repairer the next day because we needed to head off the next week. He was amazed that it could be leaking but siliconed up everywhere he thought it could be leaking. 3 months away with no rain so no problems. Hubby hosed off the solar panels to come home and what a waterfall we had. Once back home, back on the phone to Melbourne and back to the repairer. He eventually found that the contractor who had put the solar panels on for Retreat had simply made a hole in the roof, stuck a screwdriver in and rotated to make it bigger and afterwards just plugged it all with silicon. Now have a metal plate and a rubber boot and no water problems.

Peter, Steve the owner is a lovely guy who takes a lot of pride in his product. The way he looked at our van as we were about to leave the factory was like he was losing part of him.

We have had no problem with them covering problems under warranty. Extremely helpful.

Delta18 · Guru

We have a Retreat Fraser, have had a few small issues but none relating to the van build, rather other components supplied by outsiders. Mostly Dometic.

We have had no problems regarding water leaks.

Happy owners.

<edit> we bought new in November 2013.

-- Edited by Delta18 on Saturday 2nd of May 2015 01:06:30 PM