AL-KO IRS axle failure . 9 month old Swift sprite.

I bought a brand new Swift Sprite Alpine 4 caravan from Glossop Caravans in October 2022

I have used it twice once in May to go down to Corfu where we have some apartment's and stay for the summer and once when we returned at the end of September .

We only need to take the basics for the trip as we have all we need in Corfu .

We had the caravan serviced in November 2023 by an approved swift engineer.

He noticed that the van was lower on the off side and advised us to get it checked .

We took it into Glossop on the 2nd January , their earliest available appointment, for an assessment.

Some measurements were requested and sent to AL-KO .

AL-KO came back saying the measurements were outside their tolerance and that the van had been overloaded as the axle had failed.

As a result they rejected a warranty claim effectively invalidating my insurance.

The claim was sent to Swift who based on AL-KOs comment stood by the decision and also rejected the claim.

Despite me contacting them both and advising them that I had not overloaded the van and giving them information on my background the claim was rejected again twice by both company’s.

I had to obtain legal advice and consequently served a notice on Glossop caravans advising them that I was instigating court proceedings and that they had 28 days to respond . I did not want to do this as all the staff at Glossop had been very understanding and helpful but as the contract was with them and not the others I had to make the claim against them.

I was then advised that AL-KO had agreed to physically examine my van , something they had not yet done .

This examination is to take place on the 21st February .

I’m not holding my breath and have to proceed as if the rejection will be upheld.

I am compiling information for a possible court appearance and wanted to know if we have another Bailey type problem developing .

For those who are not aware of this several owners of mainly Bailey caravans suffered axle failure which were written off by AL-KO as being overload incidents.

This was later found to be false and the axles were in fact faulty .

I am posting this here to see if anyone has had a similar problem and how it has been dealt with .

This may be an isolated incident and hopefully they will accept that this is not a case of overloading and honour the warranty when they examine it next week .

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