Elddis split gas locker door anyone? Warning!
We recently carefully shut the locker door on our 2016 Affinity 550, as we have always done. After we noticed a slight resistance, the door literally snapped at the top by the hinge! It now has a split, about a third of the way across, which is now being held in place with duct tape.
After the initial shock we set about trying to find out how this happened. We were horrified to find that the 'door' is in fact just a plastic window, sprayed grey. The 2 supporting gas struts seem far too powerful and due to the width of the window, the struts had literally forced the window hinge out of it's mounting at each side. The resulting distortion meant that the 'door' couldn't then close and hence the 'door' split (horrifyingly easily!) at its weakest point.
IMHO this is just poor design for which there is no excuse. Any Elddis owners reading this - please take care! Any comments welcome.
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We had a 2016 Affinity 482 and exactly the same thing happened to our locker lid when the van was 14 months old. I contacted our dealer and the matter was passed to Elddis who refused replacement under warranty as the lid was over 12 months old! I then contacted CAMC insurance and an assessor came out to look at the van. His report stated that this was a manufacturing fault due to the hinge. This went back to Elddis who completely refused to accept his findings. My dealer wanted over £800 to replace the lid unless they found evidence that it was a fault. I watched whilst they took the old lid and the black hinge off the van. Under the hinge there were 23 small vertical cracks which they repaired by drilling holes at each end and then used filler. This was on the main body of the van. The hinge was then reglued over this and the new lid fitted. When I asked about these cracks they said this is what Elddis told them to do which suggests they knew about the problem. I did not pay for the lid or the work. As this van was a replacement for an atrocious 2013 Affinity I no longer had any faith in the Elddis brand and sold the van in September 2017. You should be within your consumer rights to get this replaced without charge as it is a proven manufacturing fault. I, personally, wouldn’t ever again buy an Elddis product. In fact the problems with these last 2 vans led to us giving up vanning after almost 35 years.
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Thank you Cogit. Having now investigated the design I knew we wouldn't be alone with this problem as I can see the door is actually designed to break! I see that the design has been completely changed for the 2018 vans. I would normally expect this part to last the life of the caravan.
I have asked the repairer to submit a warranty claim. If Elddis refuse the claim then I will definitely take it further. The whole reason we bought a new caravan was so that we could enjoy stress-free caravanning. This is our 3rd major warranty claim in 2 years! The joke is that even when it's repaired I will have no confidence in the design. I will either have to somehow redesign it myself or trade in the caravan.
PS. we have also been caravanning for 35 years now. All we want is a trouble-free caravan!
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It’s a great shame as both our vans were comfortable and suited us perfectly. However, every time we went away something went wrong and in the end we could no longer put up with the hassle. Don’t be fobbed off by Elddis they obviously know it’s a manufacturing fault and, as you say, they’ve now changed the design.
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I have just had the exact same thing happen, I went to close the door and heard a noise, looked up and the top left side there was a massive crack, I took off the gas struts and checked them, they are so strong for just a lid and also the hinge above the crack was distorted. its going in for a service tomorrow and lets see what they say
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Back in July this year I had the same happen to me. its an Elddis rambler from wondahomes knottigley, we bought it last year from them and its 2016. I was emptying it to take for servicing and the locker door cracked, I was only pushing down with my figure tips too. I removed the gas struts and then took it for a service pointing out this issue, they said they would put it in for a warranty claim. weeks went by so I call in and they said it had been rejected, they only give 12 months warranaty on this part. I said so if you buy a car then the door falls off do ford only give 12 months on that?
I called Elddis and they said there was nothing they could do as it was 12months only they gave.
I spoke to wondahomes saying that it should be fit for the purpose as a £16k second hand van should be , they said write in and complain, I did and they just said the same as Elddis, dont seem to give a care, so great customer services on both parts. I am now speaking to black horse finance about it as they financed it. surely this is a design faults that they can't get away with?
does anyone have a good ending? they say it will cost around £900 to fix
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yes, I will look at that but also backing the crack with resin after filling the crack with glue and clamping it up to dry, its off back to wonder homes knottingley next week as they are doing some damp work on warranty so I asked them to find out how much a new hedge would be.
I won't buy a van from them or an Elddis again
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just an update
I found some one who makes caravan parts, in fibreglass and not plastic like the original part, only £325 and in the correct colour. I just placed an order
https://caravanpanels.com/cps-eld-503-locker-lid-2314-p.asp
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Hi, we have an Elddis Affinity 482, 2017, it's just had its annual service undertaken and we were informed it had a crack under the window, above the locker. We were horrified as we've only used the van 4 times since we bought it from a dealer 13 months ago. We submitted a claim to Elddis and received a reply from them today stating that this is no longer under warranty. We are devastated, especially as we have just been quoted £4,500 for the repair. Anyone else out there who has experienced this, or can give us some advice please?
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Has the caravan been serviced in line with the warranty requirements? Was any additional warranty offered by the dealer when you purchased the van? You need to press the dealer on this if nothing else will they contribute to the cost of repair? Was any of the purchase on finance/credit card? If so may be worth speaking to the finance company to see if they can bring pressure to bear.
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As the OP, I can only sympathise. With the benefit of hindsight I now know that the cracking is due to the poor design of the gas locker door. The struts are far to strong for the weedy door design so that every time you open/close the door it flexes the hinge mountings. The hinge is only screwed to the front panel so at each screw hole the panel then cracks. Left alone the cracks then travel up to the windows. And when that happens it's game over - the whole front panel has to be replaced!
In our case we traded in the caravan as we couldn't afford to spend any more money on it.
Elddis clearly don't comprehend (or don't care) that buyers may have limited funds. In our case this was to be our retirement caravan - bought with lifetime savings. We naively expected a brand new caravan to be trouble-free. So we had to find further precious savings to switch to a Knaus Starclass. The build quality of the Knaus is in a totally different class to the Elddis so we're now finally happy with our new retirement caravan!
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We have just had a similar issue with our Elddis affinity 554 and we’re shocked to be told today that we’re out of warranty. Not sure what our next move is but the crack is only going to get worse. I’m interested to hear how you have moved on with your repair.
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Stop drilling the end of cracks works. If you find they have continued then you missed the end as difficult to see sometimes. Make second one at the new position. Mine have not moved in the last 2 years having also removed the oversize/powerfull gas struts. A 3mm drill is a God size.
This is a proven method in the engineering world which I have had to use alot in the past on aluminium hulls.
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footlooserv wrote "A 3mm drill is a God size."
Are you sure? https://www.amazon.com/
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Yes exactly the same. Plastic bin lid split at hinge about 6mo after I bought Elddis Avante 576 in 2016. Did not go back within 12 mo so they would not repair. Door warped. Don’t fancy spending lots of money on this. Trying to repair (at last!).
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