Coachman caravans quality

Hi we had a VIP 4 berth for 9 years and the only issue was the rams for the roof lights. We replaced with a better make, British not Chinese and had no further issues. We now have a 2021 Laser 575 Excel single axle. The two way opening fridge fell off during transit, the door is not plumb so the bottom does not clip in.,our agents were great but Dometic are pretty useless. Appears still not opened warranty claims from June. The other main issue is the fan for the light/charging unit hums all the time when lights are on, so when quite times is very annoying. We have been told it’s due to overheating of previous models. We had about 5 other small issues, just not checked properly prior to dispatch. The van is brilliant though. 

 We bought a new Coachman 460 VIP Vogue on 27th July this year. We got home with it and not only had the radio had fallen out  but it was impossible to set the alarm system. We subsequently discovered a "fridge door open" alarm, you cannot reset it and for the only four days we have spent away in the caravan we either had to endure it or switch off the fridge. On our return home from this one and only trip we decided to keep a prior holiday engagement, foregoing the luxury of the fridge, (which according to Spinneys could not be rectified until 24/08/2021). On preparing the van for our holiday my wife discovered a copiously wet carpet immediately below the rooflight. By process of elimination we believe there is a problem with that rooflight. Spinney have had the caravan since the 10/08/2021 we have refused to accept it back under the circumstances and we have an ongoing dispute with Spinney. I have owned Fisher/Avondale/Leda/Award/ and Swift caravans and never experienced any thing so appalling as this. I would advise you to consider any make but Coachman and any dealer but Spinney!

As a post script Customer care at Coachman is non-existent! Three e-mails and so far no replies!

If they continue to ignore you consider seeking legal advice from a solicitor there’s other ways to get satisfaction than chasing after them. The longer you leave it the harder it will be to get satisfaction. I use my credit card for deposits on all big purchases, having section 75 support opens doors swiftly. I wish you luck👍🏻

I previously reported a similar problem with the Dometic Fridge fitted ( maybe I should say within ) my 2031 VIP 460.

we had the same door alarms even though the door was closed. My dealer couldn’t help when I contacted them as they hadn’t had this problem previously !. I managed to make contact with a Dometic Engineer who told me how to stop the alarm.

On top of the fridge door is a full length plastic cover, ease it off the body of the door and in the centre is a magnet ( It looks like a button battery). Carefully remove it from the recess and place a small ball of blue tak under the magnet in order to raise the magnet. Replace the plastic cover and this should stop the false alarms. It did on our van and we could then sleep with the fridge on!.

Incidentally  our other problems have been resolved( Faulty Microwave ,.Dometic Fridge door coming off in transit,Creaking Floor etc.) and we are still awaiting replies from Coachman also.

I think Coachman are compromising their good name by installing poor Quality equipment. “Spoiling the ship for a halfpennies worth of tar”

I hope this helps.

Mitch, I can't believe that the dealer couldn't be bothered to find the solution to your problem with he fridge. Wouldn't be based in Preston would they?

I also can't believe that Dometic haven't either issued guidance to the dealers that sell their product or have sorted the problem out permanently. 

We have a Coachman but its 4 years old now and has a Thetford fridge.

Hi Wherenext, 

No the dealer isn’t based in Preston!! Our 4 yr old Pastiche had aThetford  trouble free fridge.we exchanged it in April for the Vip .

I believe Coachman had similar problems when they stopped fitting Thetford Toilets and installed Dometic! You would have thought they had learned their lesson.

I am told it’s all to do with availability of Chinese manufactured products?

The wandering fridge door has been rectified 3 times now but we are going away in October so I’ll reserve judgement until then.

Regards

Good luck Mitch.

My wife reminded me that we had a problem with the fridge door alarm on our Coachman Amara 380/2 and I must admit that I had forgotten all about it as we haven't had that caravan since 2008/2009. The dealership service department fixed it by putting something behind it (sound familiar) to raise the button. She seems to recall that the fridge was a Dometic, surprise, surprise.

There is another thread ongoing somewhere on C.T. about Dometic toilet problems. As you alluded to, they should have learnt their lesson by now.

There is another thread ongoing somewhere on C.T. about Dometic toilet problems. As you alluded to, they should have learnt their lesson by now.

Indeed there is.  As one of the unfortunate owners of a Dometic toilet in a 2018 Coachman VIP I can vouch for the terrible quality (or rather, non-existent quality) of said toilet.  The link to that thread is >>HERE<<

I won't go into full details again on this thread, but there's plenty of reading on that thread if you're intereted!  Our problems started on our first outing (we'd bought it at 1 year old and have since wondered why the original owner got rid of it).  We couldn't get the cassette out to empty it, ended up going back to the dealer, who would show us how it was done!  But they couldn't remove it either.  We had to leave it with them and apparently they ended up breaking the whole thing trying to get it out.  We asked for a Thetford replacement, but they wouldn't do that, even when we offered to pay for it.  Still having problems with this one, light staying on when it's been emptied, no way of emptying water out other than flushing it umpteen times and the wheels are just too flimsy to be able to wheel it anywhere.

As an aside, we did contact Coachman too soon after experiencing problems.  They did grace us with a reply, but it was extremely condescending.  Words like: you shouldn't treat a Dometic toilet like a Thetford toilet, and explaining how to empty a toilet just added insult to injury after over 30 years of caravan/motorhome ownership.  

Taking it in tomorrow to a different dealer to have a Thetford fitted 

Best of luck Ina.

Amazing how the fitting a toilet can be looked forward to so much isn't it?🤣🤣