Powertouch service

We too were told that the engagement mechanism should be lubricated every four months, which was news to us. But following a very close scrutiny of the document online, we found that advice. A similar situation exists with Dometic refridgerators which require an annual service. Neither are included in any dealer’s annual service that we’ve seen.

In a world where people aren’t expected to have their domestic refrigerators serviced annually, nor other electro mechanical devices such as garage door openers, then these leisure vehicle servicing requirements appear to fit into the category of get out clauses. Vanning may be a hobby for many who don’t engage in servicing as a recreation - seemingly, component manufacturers think differently.

I suppose too it rather begs the question, just what do the big dealers do for the £239 (Single axle £259 twin axle) service?  Yes they check the overrun braking system - say 15 mins? The Gas connections perhaps another 15 mins, Damp check? 15 mins?. They will not check the MM despite having sold it to you, and probably fitted it.  It seems that they won't check other kit like the refrigerator and the oven.  So what do we get for that £240 ish charge?  We know that the labour rate is about £60 per hour so that equates to about 6 hours work, - I don't think so!  Accepted of course there are overheads to cover re maintaining the workshops etc, but £240 seems to be a hell of a lot, more than I pay for my annual car service.

So my thinking is that we are probably paying to retain the van's warranty. But if that is the case why is servicing not much cheaper for out of warranty vans?  Its all very odd!

TF

Powrtouch coming tomorrow!  So we'll see what they have to say! £70 call out fee!

TF

Oh Dear, Its Sackcloth and Ashes time for me!  The Powrtouch engineer came today and checked, cleaned and tested everything and then asked to see me operate the system, which I did.  I switched on and energised the traction wheels to motor forward to engage the tyres, which they did.  I then motored the traction wheels back to the retracted position, checked that the yellow flag was in the correct box, switched off and removed the key.  At that point the engineer pounced!!

The problem was in my method of operating!  What I had never been told was that when the traction wheels motored back to the retracted position and the system appeared to close down, you had to wait a further 10-15 seconds before removing the key to allow the system to reset itself before switching off totally.  My failure to do that did not break contact between two parts of the mechanism which then tended to stick together when trying to engage the drive wheels on the next outing.

So I withdraw my caustic remarks about the reliability of the mover, because it does appear to be down to me!  I just wish my dealer had told me when fitting it!   I also would have though that given the number of times I had trouble they might have put two and two together like the engineer did!  Still bottom line, its down to me I think!

TF

Oh well TF ..... step forward those that have never made a mistake 

We had a Purple Line motor mover fitted on our last caravan, and we always had problems with it.  Sometimes it would work, and sometimes it wouldn’t.  When we exchanged our caravan in 2016 we had a Powrtouch Evolution fitted (manual engagement), and it’s so much better.  Hopefully I’m not tempting fate, but we haven’t had any problems with it and, usefully, the remote control handset has an outline of a caravan on it so that I know instantly which are the forwards and backwards buttons without resorting to trial and error each time.  I suppose I could have marked it on the old one but I never thought of that 

Tigerfish, you are in good company. Our dealer’s demo fell well short of unambiguous. It was only after a slightly heated discussion that the rituals and time delays were properly explained.

Sadly I think I'm now going to have to call them out again.  This time for a totally different fault.  Now that the  drive wheels are engaging properly and I can actually use the mover to move the caravan, I am getting sudden shut downs, corrected as soon as I use the Red key to switch the unit off and then on again.  At first it only happened occasionally but now its every couple of feet. I actually have to leave my wife to look where we are going, whilst I stay beside the battery box to manipulate they key every 10 seconds or so.

For a while I thought we were sorted!

TF

When we bought our caravan there was a manually engaged Powertouch mover fitted.  The dealer told us it had been transferred from another caravan by the previous owner so I have no idea how old it is.  I'd guess over ten years by now.

I tried to engage it a few months ago and a pin sheared and only one side engaged, not a major problem on site as I simply engaged each side separately.

I contacted Powertouch and they were brilliant, they posted replacement pins the same day, they were not expensive and I now have a spare just in case.  The mover works well and the customer service is first class.

I agree that they need to be greased occasionally and I do that now.

Probably a bit late to reply to this but we too have problems with our mover.

One problem we've experienced trice now we've traced to the in-line fuse. It's been fitted in such a position that puts it under strain. It's mounted vertically to the wall of a bed box adjacent to the battery box. A thick, rigid cable from the battery is routed under the caravan floor, up through a hole in the floor and is attached to one end of the in-line fuse. What happens is that the bed box moves around slightly relative to the floor when the caravan is in motion. This places a strain on the fuse which is held fast at the bottom end by the aforementioned cable. Eventually, the fuse snaps and contact becomes intermittent, causing the mover to fail to operate. It will fail randomly during engagement, disengagement or actual operation. If you experience any of these symptoms, track this fuse down and if possible, pull one of the cables attached to it gently while watching the green light on the mover's electronics unit (not the remote!). If it goes on and off while moving the cable around, your fuse has snapped and will have to be replaced.

We've now got a second problem that is most likely being caused by a faulty board in the electronics unit. The RH roller unit will not engage. We can engage it manually with the T-Bar and it will disengage using the remote but it will not engage. PowrWheel have told us to lubricate the unit. I'll do that but I don't think it will make any difference. The system is still under warranty so I think they will have to replace the electronics unit for us.