Quality Issues

[tonyidle]

This stuff, although found in my current motorhome, could be found in most in my (past) experience.

Switches. I know that the Continentals often fit switches differently to the UK. And that's fine. What is not fine is fitting them at random. In mine the living area switches are down for on except for the awning light which is up for on. The bath / shower area (3 switches) are all up for on but the bedroom is down for on.

Screws and their installation. I admit to having removed and replaced a few in the course of a few mods. Every one (countersunk whether required or not) is driven halfway through the 'wood'. The resulting hole is covered with a little adhesive dot that matches the rest of the surface. When removed it lifts and damages the surface and that prevents the dot from sticking down flat. The point of using a CSK screw in the first place is that it sits flush with the surface it's driven in to. I said whether required or not: attaching something made of plastic that doesn't have CSK holes by using CSK screw risks splitting the plastic. I say 'risks' but given the average ham-fisted assembly attempts by the converter it's a certainty. Screws used to attach one piece of wood to another might be expected to be of consistent length and diameter? Not likely - just grab a handful from the mixed screws box & carry on.

Cable and pipe restraint. Usually by means of various sizes of grey plastic clips. They're fitted at random intervals and are rarely in a straight line even when that is the intent. When boredom sets in they randomise the screw (CSK!) position by alternating from side to side of the cable bunch or pipe.

There'll be more when I'm sufficiently irritated to risk boring anyone daft enough to read it.

 

[kip]

Blimey, you've described our le voyageur to the Tee ( apart from the fridge issues).Ours is a 2010 model so no change there then. Still love it though, best van we've owned.

 

[tonyidle]

Blimey, you've described our le voyageur to the Tee ( apart from the fridge issues).Ours is a 2010 model so no change there then. Still love it though, best van we've owned.

I suspect it applies to most vans - maybe not the £150K+ versions but I wouldn't bet on it. I love my 2012 but like you I'm not blind to its faults. I have fridge issues too - just about to have the refrigeration unit replaced - under warranty fortunately.

 

[kip]

Good luck with the fridge. We have a few niggerly issues to put right ie: laminate coming away from the shower were the door meets the shower tray, needs re sticking,new shower hose but that's just down to general wear & tear.She is 8 years old now so can't really complain lol..

We hope to be go back down to Spain again this winter & we're going to pop into the le voyageur factory at Angers to have a look around, may even get some bits & pieces.

 

[CazPaul]

I have read the older, up to 2006, Le Voyageurs were much better built than the new ones, much like every other make then.

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[tonyidle]

This stuff, although found in my current motorhome, could be found in most in my (past) experience.

Switches. I know that the Continentals often fit switches differently to the UK. And that's fine. What is not fine is fitting them at random. In mine the living area switches are down for on except for the awning light which is up for on. The bath / shower area (3 switches) are all up for on but the bedroom is down for on.

Screws and their installation. I admit to having removed and replaced a few in the course of a few mods. Every one (countersunk whether required or not) is driven halfway through the 'wood'. The resulting hole is covered with a little adhesive dot that matches the rest of the surface. When removed it lifts and damages the surface and that prevents the dot from sticking down flat. The point of using a CSK screw in the first place is that it sits flush with the surface it's driven in to. I said whether required or not: attaching something made of plastic that doesn't have CSK holes by using CSK screw risks splitting the plastic. I say 'risks' but given the average ham-fisted assembly attempts by the converter it's a certainty. Screws used to attach one piece of wood to another might be expected to be of consistent length and diameter? Not likely - just grab a handful from the mixed screws box & carry on.

Cable and pipe restraint. Usually by means of various sizes of grey plastic clips. They're fitted at random intervals and are rarely in a straight line even when that is the intent. When boredom sets in they randomise the screw (CSK!) position by alternating from side to side of the cable bunch or pipe.

There'll be more when I'm sufficiently irritated to risk boring anyone daft enough to read it.

More to add: I decided to sort out a rattle - more like a drumming - that occurs over certain road surfaces. It turned out to be the heavy plastic cover that fills the gap between where the Sprinter dashboard ends and the bottom of the A Class windscreen. So I removed it. It was held on by 6 flanged spline-drive screws along the sides and two Pozidrive woodscrews (woodscrews!!!) at the edge nearest the driver - and lots of adhesive stuck to nothing. The edge nearest the screen was held with black rubberised adhesive which had to be cut to release it. Or at least the 12" still adhering needed to be cut. Having removed the cover I discovered another 2" wide strip of plastic laid flat below the windscreen.

This had been fitted by creating little hillocks of the by now familiar black adhesive and pressing the plastic onto them. They hadn't stuck to the plastic either. Plenty of opportunity for rattles. IMO the cover could need to be removed in future as there are two Alde heating radiators under it. They had bleed screws (probably 1/2" in diameter) facing down towards the engine compartment. 3" holes had been cut to clear the bleed screws covered on the underside by foam with a cross cut into it. One 1/2" bleed screw stub managed to just clear the edge of its 3" hole but the other didn't and was therefore inaccessible. This surprised me because although each radiator was held by two screws at each end there were many screw holes that indicated failed attempts at finding just the right position. Four sets of two holes each required a total of 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 attempts made before finalising the positions (22 holes of which 8 were in use). And still they missed the bleed holes. Releasing the radiators & 3 pipe clips revealed that they could be moved 2" in any direction so hitting the bleed holes was easy.

So: I glued heavy 6mm rubber sheet to the GRP exposed beneath the cover with 20mm holes for the bleed screws punched in positions to suit the centre of the 3" holes below. The rubber was pre-fitted with screws for the radiators & pipe clips. I drilled evenly spaced holes in the front plastic strip and provided rivnuts and levelling spacers below the holes. Several large blobs of Sikaflex now hold the plastic strip (after I'd cleaned off the release agent so my adhesive would stick) and tiny black-painted L-brackets are attached to the cover to hold the front edge via machine screws through the plastic strip and into the rivnuts. It can now be removed without damage or adhesive cutting. And it doesn't rattle.

Bathroom cupboard doors. These are mirrored doors with a strip of silvering missing to allow a strip of blue LEDs on each door to shine through. A nice bit of bling that lasted a couple of months before the twin cable feeding one of the strips broke where it was flexing. Flush with the little hole in the rear of the door. Sourcing something more flexible with flexible insulation was easy but the mirror had to be removed from the door to fit it. The mirrors were held on with double-sided tape so removal was time-consuming but not too difficult. I did both doors so that's another job jobbed.

 

[funflair]

Bleed screws facing down doesn't sound terribly effective, The drumming I recognised from the dashboard on our Flair, there is a big plastic moulded "plenum" underneath the dashboard top that connects the original heater vents to the screen in its new "forward position" as this "plenum" was loose it was banging and driving us mad, the whole dashboard top is on with big wood screws which I was surprised at but the insulation between the dashboard and engine is good.

The rest of the van I have been most impressed with in terms of design, build, assembly and accesability.

Martin

 

[jongood]

I have read the older, up to 2006, Le Voyageurs were much better built than the new ones, much like every other make then.

I tend to agree but question the year, I think it went wrong in the 07/08 recession when a lot of craftsmen were laid off and many firms 'merged' and we ended up with a version of the old BL style badge engineering, where some previously respected marques are no longer the quality item they used to be.

Sorry to be so negative about it but with another German recession looming and the looming death of the small diesel engine, it makes me wonder what is going to happen this time.

Jon

 

[Reallyretired]

Interesting about the switches. The washroom switches on my Rapido are also up for on where all the others are down. Could this be a consistent French thing?

 

[GJH]

Could some switches be up for on because they are in a position where it is easy to catch them by mistake and drain the battery by leaving something on without realising?

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[tonyidle]

Could some switches be up for on because they are in a position where it is easy to catch them by mistake and drain the battery by leaving something on without realising?

Not really. Mine are all flat rockers (probably the result of a motorcycle accident) and they're well tucked away. I suspect, like many other parts of the van, it was simply lack of interest and care during assembly. They're more likely to be left on because of assumptions about the off position.

 

[peterc10]

Re the switches. Most are modular Just take them off and turn them the other way up.

Hymer fitted my UK socket in the garage upside down, i.e. earth at the bottom. Took 10 minutes to sort out.

 

[tonyidle]

And more. I've been very critical of caravan and motorhome wiring practices in the past and some, but definitely not all, I recognise as due to my OCD in such matters. However my current van, the Le Voyageur, has without doubt the worst wiring I've ever seen. It appears to have been wired by different people, on different days, each with his/her favourite methods, and all on piecework.


Anyway I think I have an explanation. During the course of some wiring mods / improvements I've needed to remove a few wooden panels. On the back of each panel I removed, and others visible inside compartments, is a strip of masking tape with the words "Voy Proto" leading me to believe I have the prototype of the model. That would certainly explain the wiring.

 

[LesW]

"Voy Proto"

According to web search this is a drone from Startrek....

 

[tonyidle]

According to web search this is a drone from Startrek....

Can't be - wiring wouldn't hack space travel. It barely manages terrestria stuff.

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[Stealaway]

There's probably no power to test them when they are fitted and the final inspector neither tested them or cared. Many don't ever see a problem with upside down switches - if the lights not on, push the switch until it is

 

[tonyidle]

A little more to add: a recent trip away on a site not too far from home was where I discovered a rooflight leak. It proved to be from one corner and was entering between the frame and roof. Not a problem and (maybe) not unreasonable in a 2012 van. It's one of the large Heki rooflights (Heki 3) and had been installed with two different (and incompatible) sealants: black butyl took up half the width of the sealing surface with PU on the other half making it an absolute pig to remove. Once removed the cause of the leak was immediately apparent. The hole in the roof had been cut with square corners. The rounded corners of the frame came very close to the 'points' of each corner of the roof cut-out - in fact to within 12mm of the corner. So the available sealing surface at each corner was 12mm or less. Needless to say the template supplied with the Heki has rounded corners ensuring a continuous sealing surface of 40mm+.

The roof cut-out has an aluminium insert to maintain rigidity so the problem isn't an assembly accident - it is designed in from the outset. My solution is a continuous 1mm thick stainless steel surround with the correct cut-out and slightly wider that the rooflight. It will be stuck permanently to the roof with PU adhesive.

 

[tonyidle]

There's probably no power to test them when they are fitted and the final inspector neither tested them or cared. Many don't ever see a problem with upside down switches - if the lights not on, push the switch until it is

It isn't a problem - just an example of careless fit & finish and a lack of attention to detail. It isn't necessary to test them once installed - all switches are marked with the correct orientation (when the lettering on the rear is the correct way up so is the switch). It wouldn't happen (or be acceptable) in your home so why in a motorhome?

 

[BusyBuilder]

it annoys me when I have remove doors in a property and they flat and cross head mixed on same hinges and door handles.

 

[BusyBuilder]

should always cut square holes with radius corners to remove chance of stress fracture.

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