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Gel coat cracks


Coachman

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We have a Autotrail Cheyyene 2001, this will be the oldest m/c we have had however whilst on top cleaning it yesterday i found more gel cracks appearing on the raised edge more towards the rear.Before this we know we had cracks on the rear quarter in places. Also on this model the spare wheel carrier and battery has a hatch which was covered in cracks.This i repaired by sanding down to the fibre glass and building it up from there.When doing this repair i found no cracks /splits in the fibre glass coat so i am thinking those on top will be ok as they are just cosmetic.I am wondering whether Autotrail are worse than others for this problem.In the past we have had.Hymer 52-544-S520 bessacar 645-435, caravan Coachman and none have been bad as this Autotrail.
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My Cheyenne is also 2001 registered and there are quite a lot of "cracks" in the rear panel. A relative has a 2002 model with exactly the same appearance. Maybe it was just those two years or is it still the same on newer models I wonder.
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Hi,

I too had an Autotrail and it developed cracks in the gel coat. It is quite common. I kicked up a fuss at Autotrail factory as I had lots of other quality problems and someone from Lamplas who make the bodies for Autotrail came to my home and made a superb repair. While I had the 'van I often asked other owners if they had cracks in their panels, quite a few said"No" but I could usually show them they were wrong. I was never sure if it was genuine ignorance or just pretending; hoping that if they denied it the problem would go away. The rear valances were usually a problem and most of the curved sections on the roof would eventually crack, it seemed as if the curves were stress points. It wasn't so much the problems with the cracked gel coat that upset me as Colin Treacher's attitude at Autotrail who told me that if I wanted it repaired at the factory the 'van would have to go to the back of the queue and if any factory repairs needed doing it would have to wait till they were done. What an attitude. Needless to say I'd never buy another Autotrail.

 

Bill Ord

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Regarding cost of having these gelcoat repaires done. Rear hatch for spare wheel £250, rear quarter panel (few cracks )£375,top raised bits, either side £300.When i done the rear hatch panel where there were lots of cracks it took me about 5 hours just to sand down to glasss fibre, i was doing it by crack to crack and afterwards i think it would have been better to do the whole panel right off. Our local man said it would be a full day for him plus another day for recoating.
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Bill Ord - 2010-03-12 9:54 AM

 

Hi,

I too had an Autotrail and it developed cracks in the gel coat. It is quite common. I kicked up a fuss at Autotrail factory as I had lots of other quality problems and someone from Lamplas who make the bodies for Autotrail came to my home and made a superb repair. While I had the 'van I often asked other owners if they had cracks in their panels, quite a few said"No" but I could usually show them they were wrong. I was never sure if it was genuine ignorance or just pretending; hoping that if they denied it the problem would go away. The rear valances were usually a problem and most of the curved sections on the roof would eventually crack, it seemed as if the curves were stress points. It wasn't so much the problems with the cracked gel coat that upset me as Colin Treacher's attitude at Autotrail who told me that if I wanted it repaired at the factory the 'van would have to go to the back of the queue and if any factory repairs needed doing it would have to wait till they were done. What an attitude. Needless to say I'd never buy another Autotrail.

 

Hi,

 

I had that same experience, cracks in a new (then 2006) we had two home visits from, and a number of calls from Lamplas, in the end In we sold the van back to the original dealer. The worst part was trying to get sense from Colin Treacher and Auto-Trail.

 

Each of us make our own choices, but for these and other reasons I would not recommend anyone to buy Auto-Trail.

 

Bill Ord

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