Gel coat cracks at front of Autotrail Apache 634 2011

We had similar cracks on one of our caravans.  They were repaired under warranty but more as a cosmetic excercise than anything I beleive.  I dont think the gel coat would lead to water getting in if cracked but you may want to get the gel coat done if oyu are worried.

Hi, thanks for your reply. We do gel coat repairs ourselves as we work in the boat industry so we understand the importance of having a water tight seal. Considering the cost of the van we don't think we should fix the cracks ourselves, and we aren't happy with the dealers response which he said came from Autotrail. The van still has factory warranty and a years warranty from the dealer, so we're a little suprised that they've refused to repair the cracks. 

But isnt the gel coat more a cosmetic thing rather than water?

If the gel coat has cracks in it, especially stress cracks, it could mean the fibre glass underneath has cracks in it too, this would eventually cause damp and water intrusion. We have a small speedboat, noticed water was very slowly creeping into the cabin area but coudln't find from where. Eventually found cracks in the gel coat underneath, removed gel coat to find hole in fibre glass - where the water was coming in from. I'm more concerned about the dealers attitude that it's not a problem and doesn't require repairing - in our experience it could become one, especially as it's on the overhead cab water run off curves.

 "We do gel coat repairs ourselves as we work in the boat industry"

Presumably you may well know the answer to your own question!

Yes you're absolutely right, we do! But I was asking to see what experience anyone else had received from dealers when requesting the gel coat to be repaired. It seems to me that many motorhome owners don't understand cracked gel coats can be more than just cosmetic issues!

At least osmosis shouldn't be a problem.

We had to have a small area of gel coat repaired in both one of our caravans and our current motorhome. Both repairs have been successful and have looked really good when completed. We have not long had the motorhome done but the caravan repair lasted until we traded it in with no signs of it reappearing.

David 

Hi all, we have just purchased an Autotrail Apache 634 (2011), which had 1 previous owner and 6000 miles on clock - so not heavily used. We have noticed that their are stress cracks in the gel coat at the front of the overhead cab, Our dealer has said that this is minor and not a problem according to Autotrail - is this true? We work with gel coats ourselves and are concerned about the cracks causing future water intrusion into the overhead cab.

Write your comments here...We had a 2012 Autotrail Savannah, (built in 2011) which developed  Gel coat cracks between the overcab pod and the metal cab joint, within 6 months of us buying it new.The dealer was told to take it to a specialist fibreglass repair shop (marine) by Autotrail. It was repaired to my satisfaction, and never leaked or cracked again until we traded it in March this year.

Dealer was Continental leisure vehicles of Llanelli.

I had the same problem with cracks in the first year,it was repaired under warranty at Marquis in Durham after a bit of consultation with Autotrail.I didn't keep it long enough to find out if it was a lasting solution after we had problems with the Ducato diesel particle filter.I replaced it with the exact same model and it's been ok so far at 4 years old.