Sundance 630l water underneath on plywood

[Mattnewt]

Hi, I'd like some advice if possible please.

I'm looking at buying my first Swift Sundance 630l 2003. It is mint inside, the outside needs a good clean up as it's been sat for a while. It's only done 7000 miles which is good and bad.



Anyway, the concern I have is that when looking underneath the van, the ply wood was wet all along the sides of the van. It wasn't rotted and my finger didn't go through when I poked it, it seemed pretty solid still. Any ideas where this could be coming from? Is it a fairly simple repair or better to walk away?



Thanks for any information

 

[MikeD]

Swifts do have a history of being a bit leaky, as are a lot of other vans.

Buy and use a damp meter inside the van. Anything over 20% is not good.

And welcome to Motorhomefun.

 

[hilldweller]

2003, 7000 is that genuine ?

Anyway, my little grey cells tell me that kind of age Swift had a long floor level external joint which often was sealed badly resulting in many needed new floors.

 

[Mattnewt]

Hi.

Firstly, thanks for the rapid reply. Yeah it seems genuine miles as it's same owner from new and all the mot history online tallies up.

The ply wood underneath seems solid still. I'm wondering if it could be the trim that runs along the sides of the van that possibly need re sealing. Is that a common fault that you know off?

Thanks
Matt

 

[TerryL]

Many Sundances of that vintage went back to the factory for remedial floor work, often complete new floors. The fault, if I remember correctly, was insufficient sealing around the edges of the floor allowing water ingress to the ply, thus rotting it. Interesting that the one you're looking at is wet but apparently there is no rot.

Personally I'd walk away but before you do it would be interesting to see what the current owner has to say about it. Has the van been repaired possibly but the fault is still there?

Proceed with extreme caution. I very much doubt Swift will be interested now in a ten year old van.

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[hilldweller]

Is that a common fault that you know off?

Thanks
Matt

As I said, it's stuck in my head but without fine detail. It was a regular gripe on here. A good going over with a damp meter is called for if the deal is good.

 

[Mattnewt]

Thanks for all the replies. I'll speak with the seller and see if he's had any work done on it.

At the moment he won't go any lower than £16000 for the motorhome until I've got a report from a specialist that will value / quote for any work that will need doing. How does this price seem?

 

[Ambilkate]

Hi. We had a 2006 630g from new what we did was to take all the skirts of which was easy enough, resealed and sealed the screws as we replaced them .
we found out later that Swift had put a recall out for the skirt work to be done. Check with the owner if his was ever recalled. . If not it might well be worth asking swift the questions is recall still valid ? . But we found it simple to do and we knew it had been done right . Our sundance was brilliant we loved it and kept it for 10yrs.. .
Kate
Ps we had no damp problems at all

 

[138go]

Walk away. Lots of others out there. Water ingress is a right pain to trace as it can run down the inside of panels from all over the MH. Not a simple job. As you know about it now you will have no come back later. It really is just not worth the hassle.

With a Swift its not the inside you have to worry about its the outside getting in

 

[TerryL]

At the moment he won't go any lower than £16000 for the motorhome until I've got a report from a specialist that will value / quote for any work that will need doing. How does this price seem?

That looks remarkably cheap. A similar age 630l is currently on Autotrader at £29000 - it's a dealer true but huge difference. Methinks there may be something amiss.

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[grasscutter]

I had a Swift 630L that suffered this problem. I was fortunate that it was a few years ago and Swift carried out the repairs at their. Cost back at the factory.
The problem is very well documented.
They used a laminated plywood for the floors. The area where the side skirts joined the main body could leak if they were not sealed properly.
This would allow water to ingress down to the edges of the flooring.
As the plywood was laminated the moisture was trapped and had no way of drying out.
The solution at the time was to remove the side skirts and strip of the lamination.
Allow to dry in a controlled environment . Apply sealer to floors and reassemble side skirts, sealing properly.
I would be very wary if this vehicle has had this problem for a long period.
It may be very expensive to try and fix now.

 

[MikeD]

Thanks for all the replies. I'll speak with the seller and see if he's had any work done on it.

At the moment he won't go any lower than £16000 for the motorhome until I've got a report from a specialist that will value / quote for any work that will need doing. How does this price seem?

Sold 630's on ebay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...lete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

 

[Terry]

Hi let's get a couple of things right ...Swift changed there build method/floors on 2005 to 2007 models hence the problems...they did not seal the skirts on a lot of vans allowing water to go between the van side and skirt ending up soaking into the new type of floor which acted like a sponge ....Once the problem surfaced they told dealers to check and seal skirts when vans came in for any service/warranty work rather than recall all effected vans (claim they did not know how many were effected, yet all vans produced the same way )
After what ended up being what I considered one of the best public relations exercise I have seen on any vehicles,the boss / chairman /MD (Peter) said he stood by his products and Swift would repair any faulty product as and when they surfaced.....true to his word they did just that for about 3 yrs until he left company and then things changed and I started reading that people were getting sorry out of gtee ....beware of circa 2005 /06/07 Swift's the floors need checking

 

[sweetie]

As @Terry says the 2005/06/07 problem Swift used a ply with a vinyl film on the underside, as the side skirts where not sealed the water run behind them and got between ply and vinyl with no way for ply to dry out so rotted. We bought a 2006 Bessacar E 745 with the rotten floor problem just under 6 years old and at first swift refused to help but after our dealer went to the top of management they offered to repair if he would pay £2000 towards there cost which did.
They made such a poor job of the repair I had no faith in van so 3 months later got the dealer to sell it for us.

 

[busbuddy]

when i was searching for my van i found vans built from late 2003 to early 2008 can have the floor problems, some owners still had the documentation from swift proving remedial work had been done by the factory under warranty

not all vans during that time were built with the 'new experimental style' of wood floor so some escaped the instant rotten floor syndrome

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[ambulancekidd]

 

[jaypee]

Walk away..once a problem always a problem..

 

[Lenny HB]

Walk away any damp is bad news it could end up costing you thousands.

 

[Lofty1]

We had same problem traded it back to dealer as too much work. you could spend another £5000 to change the floor.

 

[WynandJean]

Hello and welcome from West Midlands. Could I just point out that @Mattnewt , you have used at least three of the five free posts you get on this forum if not subscribed. It will be the best £15 you will spend for help and advice (and discounts etc.) See the 'Subscribe' tab at top left of page.


Wyn

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[Huw s]

Agree, subscribe, best £15 you'll spend.
And leave the van there. We recently looked at a 2012 swift that had damp under the windows, under the floor, repairs to the floor, none of which were documented by the (dodgy) dealer.
Buy a moisture meter!