rotten wood

[tonyr6]

Being new to motorhomes and only just this summer buying my 1st a 2004 compass avantgarde 400rl I went underneath to inspect and found some crumbling to the wood inside the rear wheel arches !! my question is are these wooden panels available to purchase ready made from a company or will I have to cut a sheet to fit ? anybody had similar experience ? many thanks Tony

[pepe63xnotuse]

Hi..

 

For the age of vehicle(and who the manufacture was/is), I'd think that it'd be doubtful that you could easily obtain such parts...and even if they did exist, the chances are Elddis (as I think they now go by?), would only steer you to a "local dealer" anyhow......

So if you're fairly handy, I'd be inclined to repair it as best and as OE looking as possible (and obviously, whilst at it, try to establish if this has been caused by a leak/water from above, rather than just road spray).

 

We had a 2007 Compass Avantgarde 120 and that was showing signs of corrosion on the outer aluminium panels, due to the rotting timber behind, at about 2-3 years old...On our model the outer panels were lapped the wrong way, meaning that water ran down "into" the panel-floor seam/joint instead of being directed over and away from it.

 

Neither the dealer(Discover Leisure) nor "Compass"(then Explorer Group) were of any real use when it came to addressing the matter..we were generally ping-ponged between the two for months(until our "local" Discover Leisure branch closed down, mid-claim, resulting in us having to start from scatch, with a different dealer(who were even worse!)....so ours never did get sorted.

 

When we'd look around at others at the time, on the whole,the slightly older "type"(like yours?) seemed to be better put together?(but obviously I've no idea how they configured their outer joints/seams)

 

'Worth doing a "search" on here, using "Compass corrosion".. and you'll see some previous threads..Thankfully I don't think that they involved "your" model type though...?

 

Good luck.

[michaelmorris]

We've got an Elddis Autoquest 200, The Compass Avantgarde and Elddis Autoquest ranges of this age are (AFAIK) basically identical. I agree with the earlier poster, I too think your problem is most likely the result of an internal water leak.

[globebuster]

There is an inherent design flaw in ALL the Elddis/Compass group products from that era [and before]

 

I doubt you will find any pre-SoLiD construction van without some degree of rot, and it is seldom an internal leak.

Don't assume the newer construction methods are fault free either.

 

 

The whole rear end and sides have exposed wood, the extreme corners seem worst affected.

 

I don't wish to add to your woes, but I suggest that you take a very thorough look around the whole of the underside.

As I have said many times, habitation checks do not include the underside in most cases, so don't rely on that to give any van a clean bill of health.

 

If you purchased from a dealer seek redress with them, if not you are better off dealing with it yourself - just use the right materials.

 

 

Poor design and shoddy workmanship - search the forum and you will find other posts relating to this, and a few other british built vans.

BTW - I'm not specifically knocking UK brands - but they are without doubt the worst offenders.

 

[Grumblewagon]

I discovered severe rot round the rear door step on my van. Looked really bad, but I managed to remove the old wood sufficiently intact to us as templates. I made new panels from marine ply and assembled them with stainless steel screws and a waterproof PU adhesive. It was disappointing to see how bad the original work was.

[tonyr6]

Thanks for the replies I will investigate further and report back ! as this part of the van is not structural I think it is there to mount cables and pipes I had thought about replacing it with thick upvc the type used on house fascias ?