A salutary lesson.
We own a 2012 Coachman 545. As per several member's posts in the past we have had a hot plastic smell coming from our Combi heater. Apparently this is nothing to worry about according to Truma and Coachman Caravans. That's all very well until one considers our experience last week. Though the weather was warm and the Combi unit was only being used for hot water we were experiencing a hot plastic smell once again. This was more prevalent first thing in the morning when more of the windows were closed. The smell was coming from under the front bench seat where the heater is. I did my usual checking under there, sniffing and feeling for anything unusually hot. Nothing apparent. I experimented by leaving the heater off. This cured the problem, so it would have seemed that the heater was causing the hot plastic smell. Temporary solution was to adjust the timing for essential hot water requirements so the heater was being used less. However, when we came to pack up to move to another site I discovered the real source of the problem. Disconnecting the mains lead from the van I noticed that it was quite warm and crack had developed in the plastic socket casing on the end of the lead. Dismantling the lead socket revealed that the live lead was almost burnt through. I suppose that in the fullness of time this could have possibly caught fire. The damage was largely confined to the socket on the end of the mains lead, which I replaced on site. However when we got home I checked the plug in the battery box. This showed slight signs of heat transfer damage from the lead socket so I changed that too. So because we expected a smell from from the Combi heater we were not looking for any other source. A salutary lesson! A side issue to this: Under the front bench seat, besides the heater, is the casing for the battery box/mains inlet, charger / fuse box and the caravan mover unit. The orange mains cable from the inlet was tightly pinned down and did not leave enough slack to allow me to remove and examine the aforementioned connector. So I had to remove the motor mover unit and then remove the black plastic box cowling so I could get to release some slack in the cable. I thought the workmanship on Coachman vans was pretty good till I removed the box. I have attached a photo of the tangle of excess cables that that I was faced with plus images of the cable connections.
Comments
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Well investigated , unqualified fitters ,passed of by sparky ,as long as readings are correct ,,he doesnt know how the inside of plug is secured properly
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We had a Coachman and can confirm that of the 5 caravans that we have owned it was the worst of the lot
things must have gone down hill with Coachman, I have a 2008 Amara, my only concern was in fact today when i changed a window strut to find 1 flat head screw and one pozidrive, everthing else looks just fine, all wiring looks to be tangle free, neatly laid out under offside front bunk, and the build quality in my opinion is far superior to some of the more common makes today. Personally i think too much emphasis is put on modern gadgets e.g. apps to switch on your heating, lights etc, combi boilers that would heat my bungalow, an array of lights that would light up a small village, and not enough on build quality. Call me old fashioned but what is wrong with a simple gas fire, or electric water heater, yes i do have blown air heating. Had it serviced last week, only damp of significance was 20% in the side locker door, put some gorilla sealant around the seals and that will fix that, and 15 pct in front locker, seals gone round the grab handles, again simple fix with glorilla sealant. My only luxury this year is a new mover, previous one was 2006 model Truma moved from previous caravan, passed its sell by date, everything else is almost original, battery has been replaced, but had van 6 years on same battery and passed service with flying colours, I replaced tyres when i bought it and put in Tyron bands, touch wood no problems, but I know i should replace tyres maybe next year. Hoping the caravan will see out my camping days.
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To be fair, the electrical problem was nothing to do with Coachman. If blame is to rest anywhere it must rest with me. It was my mains lead from our previous caravan and I should have given the terminals a check over at some point. The lead and the connectors were in good condition but the lead was a good few years old. I suppose I just got used to getting the lead out and putting it away. A lesson learned. I only mentioned Coachman because of the smell from the Combi heater that many owners seem to have experienced, and the fact that it did in our case mask another fault. Also I was appalled at the state of the wiring under the seat as referred to by MollysMummy.
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