IH Motorhome Rear Panel Cracks....Again

[nhamps]

I have an IH FL640 which has developed cracks in the rear panel again. The panel has failed 3 times since I bought it in late 2020., and I expressed that it was faulty manufacture each time, however they refused to change the entire panel and insisted that a repair would be adequate.

After speaking to several IH owners of vans with a rear GRP panel, it has become apparent that this is a common fault, and I would guess 4 out of 5 owners seem to have had this issue.

The current failure is adjacent to the corner of the rear window which was repaired, IH stating that it is a different issue, however to me as an engineer it is obviously a failure at the next weakest point.

IH have stated that the van is out of warranty and do not recognise Consumer Rights or Sales of Goods act which state that it should be expected to last at least 6 years.

Has anyone got experience of how I might take this forward please as I would expect this to be a repair reaching into 4 figures, for which IH are knowingly producing panels with inherent design faults, while also ignoring my rights for repair, refund or replacement.

All useful comments welcome.

 

[Nanniemate]

Some photos may help.

You could try steading standards as a first point of call.

Do you have direct contact with other who have issues or is it 'hearsay'

There's always BBC watchdog or similar especially if a few of you get together and make a united approach

Mine is 2006 with solid back and it seems sturdy and until now would have gone for another one if I changed it

 

[Terry]

I believe IH buy the panels in. I have a mate who used to work for IH and left starting converting himself. He got the people who made the back panel for IH to make him a couple of back panels but at the time they wouldn’t give him exact copies of the IH panel so he had to pay £1500 for his own panel mould - He always thought it was the same as IH but it’s now his As far as I know he still uses them on his own builds.

 

[Riverbankannie]

I am on the FB IH owners group and there are a couple of people who had cracks around where the rear barn door hinges used to be.
Might be worth you joining the group if you want to contact them however I think they were just getting the repairs done themselves.

 

[Fragle]

Bugger.
Just checking around our van and noticed this around the door. I wonder what they will say.

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[Dutch 68]

I have an IH FL640 which has developed cracks in the rear panel again. The panel has failed 3 times since I bought it in late 2020., and I expressed that it was faulty manufacture each time, however they refused to change the entire panel and insisted that a repair would be adequate.

After speaking to several IH owners of vans with a rear GRP panel, it has become apparent that this is a common fault, and I would guess 4 out of 5 owners seem to have had this issue.

The current failure is adjacent to the corner of the rear window which was repaired, IH stating that it is a different issue, however to me as an engineer it is obviously a failure at the next weakest point.

IH have stated that the van is out of warranty and do not recognise Consumer Rights or Sales of Goods act which state that it should be expected to last at least 6 years.

Has anyone got experience of how I might take this forward please as I would expect this to be a repair reaching into 4 figures, for which IH are knowingly producing panels with inherent design faults, while also ignoring my rights for repair, refund or replacement.

All useful comments welcome.

That’s really bad form from a so called quality manufacturer

 

[Flairy]

I’m very surprised I met them when they started and they were very much for quality and exceptional customer service,I think they need a reminder.

 

[Fragle]

That’s really bad form from a so called quality manufacturer

I really am concerned about making a comment on this

 

[Terry]

I really am concerned about making a comment on this

Why? If you’re vans under warranty then they should rectify it. If it’s out of warranty then people need to know about things that go wrong so that to me comes under informed choice. Get IHs response and report back
IH were a good converter be nice to see they still are.

 

[carolyn]

We had two IHs and did have a lot of problems with the 2nd when new, this then ran into Covid and lovely Carol retiring. In the end I copied Ian into my email when I started getting frustrated and everything suddenly changed. I think he wants to keep that good reputation but maybe sometimes newer staff need a bit of educating.

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[TinaLes]

I really am concerned about making a comment on this

Its very hard to tell from your photos, but it looks to me like small scratches in the paint rather than cracks, especially where they are as they don't appear to be stress points.
Lets hope I am correct on that, but your eyes are nearer than mine.
Go on, Go on, make a comment, be brave, as I see you are already in Coventry, what you got to lose?
Joking of course, best wishes to you.
LES

 

[Fragle]

Its very hard to tell from your photos, but it looks to me like small scratches in the paint rather than cracks, especially where they are as they don't appear to be stress points.
Lets hope I am correct on that, but your eyes are nearer than mine.
Go on, Go on, make a comment, be brave, as I see you are already in Coventry, what you got to lose?
Joking of course, best wishes to you.
LES

Well according to them it is not a problem. Just a paint job £400 ish
Might just get a really sticky non slip mat and cut it to shape

 

[Guigsy]

I wonder if the bodyshell of the van flexes quite a bit. It's a long tube with not a lot to resist torsional twist along the body. The normal rear barn doors have quite a lot of movement. The doors can slide past one another by several millimetres to allow the twist to happen. But filling the back in with a fibreglass panel with then try to resist all that load instead of letting the body twist happen.

 

[nhamps]

Well according to them it is not a problem. Just a paint job £400 ish
Might just get a really sticky non slip mat and cut it to shape

Yes, I assume you've been dealing with John, the aftersales chap. He told me initially that the first issue (cracking on the corners of the boot door hatch) was "just cosmetic" despite being less than 1 year old. He seemed to think that this was a valid response and had no intention of doing anything about it.

 

[Terry]

Yes, I assume you've been dealing with John, the aftersales chap. He told me initially that the first issue (cracking on the corners of the boot door hatch) was "just cosmetic" despite being less than 1 year old. He seemed to think that this was a valid response and had no intention of doing anything about it.

Did you accept that?

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[nhamps]

D

I wonder if the bodyshell of the van flexes quite a bit. It's a long tube with not a lot to resist torsional twist along the body. The normal rear barn doors have quite a lot of movement. The doors can slide past one another by several millimetres to allow the twist to happen. But filling the back in with a fibreglass panel with then try to resist all that load instead of letting the body twist happen.

That may be the case, however they have managed to get type approval for their conversions somehow, and that still shouldn't absolve them of responsibility for producing products with such a limited lifespan.
Does anyone have contact details for Ian at IH? I think sending him an email outlining the continuous issues and lack of concern from his aftersales team may be worth a shot.

 

[Guigsy]

D

That may be the case, however they have managed to get type approval for their conversions somehow, and that still shouldn't absolve them of responsibility for producing products with such a limited lifespan.
Does anyone have contact details for Ian at IH? I think sending him an email outlining the continuous issues and lack of concern from his aftersales team may be worth a shot.

Type approval... meaning it's safe to use? I don't think it there's anything to check quality and longevity.

 

[nhamps]

Did you accept that?

No. They carried out a shoddy repair with a bad paint job that I refused to accept, so they did it again. This subsequently failed in the final year of the 3 year warranty period. It also needed stress cracks repairing at the top corners of the rear window, which is the issue I now have as it has cracked next to where it was repaired. Just the next weakest point along the top of the window.

 

[nhamps]

We had two IHs and did have a lot of problems with the 2nd when new, this then ran into Covid and lovely Carol retiring. In the end I copied Ian into my email when I started getting frustrated and everything suddenly changed. I think he wants to keep that good reputation but maybe sometimes newer staff need a bit of educating.

Could you send Ian's email address to me? (if that's permitted on here of course).

 

[carolyn]

Could you send Ian's email address to me? (if that's permitted on here of course).

I think it was just ianhartley@ihmotorhomes.com , that’s the only one I can find. I just guessed if I remember correctly and thought I’d give it a go. I’ve gone back through old saved emails and found one that I cc’d him so I think that was what got things moving. We’re talking 4 years ago at least!

We didn’t have a rear panel.

Other than that one brief frustrating spell we always found them very helpful. I don’t think that member of staff lasted in a front facing role or they might not have lasted at all!

Our fridge went wrong during Covid and John send me the new panel and talked me through fitting it. We should have gone through Theford or Dometic (can’t remember which!).

I know you’re having a bad experience but I don’t want people getting the wrong idea.

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[Terry]

Type approval... meaning it's safe to use? I don't think it there's anything to check quality and longevity.

Type Approval ( if I remember ) cost around 4k years ago / you took the van to DVLA down South for a glorified check/MOT on the inside of the van/conversion - this meant that you got approval to convert and register that model of van (big converters) If you did a different layout to the TA van you needed to get TA for the next model but once you got TA you could produce 100s of same model.
I see loads of vans that have TA and no metal lined gas lockers which is required for gas regs approval so take TA with a pinch of salt TA was done on the day as presented, like a MOT

 

[Nanniemate]

My IH is 18 years old and to.my knowledge no cracks on the back panel I fact its the only bit where there no flaking

 

[funflair]

No. They carried out a shoddy repair with a bad paint job that I refused to accept, so they did it again. This subsequently failed in the final year of the 3 year warranty period. It also needed stress cracks repairing at the top corners of the rear window, which is the issue I now have as it has cracked next to where it was repaired. Just the next weakest point along the top of the window.

You can’t repair gel coat cracks by putting over them, it might look nice at first but for sure will come back.

 

[Anne PoppyVan]

I have an IH FL640 which has developed cracks in the rear panel again. The panel has failed 3 times since I bought it in late 2020., and I expressed that it was faulty manufacture each time, however they refused to change the entire panel and insisted that a repair would be adequate.

After speaking to several IH owners of vans with a rear GRP panel, it has become apparent that this is a common fault, and I would guess 4 out of 5 owners seem to have had this issue.

The current failure is adjacent to the corner of the rear window which was repaired, IH stating that it is a different issue, however to me as an engineer it is obviously a failure at the next weakest point.

IH have stated that the van is out of warranty and do not recognise Consumer Rights or Sales of Goods act which state that it should be expected to last at least 6 years.

Has anyone got experience of how I might take this forward please as I would expect this to be a repair reaching into 4 figures, for which IH are knowingly producing panels with inherent design faults, while also ignoring my rights for repair, refund or replacement.

All useful comments welcome.

Hi, we've owned our IH Tio R since brand new in 2013. We had numerous problems with our van and felt that we received a poor response from IH to these issues. We first found bubbling in the paintwork adjacent to the rear GRP panel after just 17 months. IH insisted we took it back to them for repair so we had to take the van all the way back from Somerset to Knottingly and find somewhere to stay while they repaired it.

Within a year there were more paint "bubbles" appearing and also the paintwork over the filled-in area where the hinges had been developed an orange peel effect. IH again insisted we had to take it up to them rather than using a local repairer. After contacting the legal expenses department of our insurance they advised us that IH had no right to insist on this, and also should have recommpensef us for our fuel and accommodation on the previous occasion.

The paintwork in this area was excluded from the Fiat paintwork warranty due to the alterations made by IH in installing the GRP panel so it wasn't easy to find someone with the correct skills. Luckily we found a highly experienced caravan bodywork repairers in Bristol. However, IH said they'd only pay £400.

Our repairer had to remove the entire GRP panel and he had to keep it in his workshop for four weeks. Where water had been getting in the internal electrics were very wet.

He showed us the filler that had been used where the hinges had been. This looked like it might have been fibre glass filler and it had forged a shape of protrusions into the bodywork holes where the door hinge bolts would have been. IH hadn't even welded a metal seal over these holes which I would have thought should be done before filler was used where the hinge recesses had been.

The work cost way more than £400 but that's all IH would pay out.

We've now got more cracks that are going rusty and we're struggling to find a repairer as the guy in Bristol now only does contract work.

Perhaps we should find more IH owners who've experienced these problems and make a joint approach to IH for compensation for their clearly faulty construction?

 

[Plumb]

Not sure them not recognising the consumer rights act , releases them from their obligations? Doesn’t these consumer laws apply to everyone?