Barbarian Posted October 15, 2010 Author Share Posted October 15, 2010 Hi all, just a quick update FM Caravans got in touch while we were away last weekend. Booked in for Monday morning 25th October for repair and collection the same day. Watch this space, may be able to close the saga soon! Regards to all - Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted October 25, 2010 Author Share Posted October 25, 2010 Hi all, I hope this is it, sorted. As recommended by Mel B, Thank you again Mel, we went to FM Caravans today, Steve was ready and waiting to start when we arrived at 8.50am. He even enquired if I needed a lift anywere while the work was ongoing! At 9.30am he rang me to say it was ready for collection, WHAT! you may say! Well, when they were taking the window out they saw it had not been fitted correctly on construction. The top corner where the water was coming in had not been seated correctly, he said it could not have worked loose, been dislodged or forced by rough handling into the position it was in, it was absolutely a constuction failure. Because of that he did not replace the seal, he was so confident that was the problem, bearing in mind he had purchased the seal for the job. When we went back I mentioned again the water coming in at the caravan door. I saw how it was happening one day, the awning is located halfway across the door, when it rains the water from the roof comes around the end of the awning and onto the door, it goes in around the door seal and some goes inside. Steve and his guys removed the awning there and then to try to move it along fully over the door but to no avail due to the roof shape at the front. They are trying to think of a solution, I mentioned guttering but that would redirect the water to the kithen window or the awning outside light. But it is not a big problem. The cost? Steve refused to take anything because he had not carried out the work he said he would do, even though he is absolutely sure the problem is resolved which is what I would have been more than happy to pay for no matter what the resolution mehtod. So if you need any work doing or parts (Small shop) I cannot recommend FM Caravans highly enough. www.fmcaravans.co.uk or info@fmcaravans.karoo.co.uk And a BIG THANK YOU to you forum people for all the help, support and suggestions, we are very grateful. Barbara & Ian (Hence Barbarian) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 Hi Barbara I'm pleased you've got to the bottom of the problem and I'm sure Steve is right with his diagnosis! As for moving the awning, we had a 'problem' when we had the awning fitted to our Chausson as the front moulding came too far back and went over the habitation door as can be seen in the first and second photos below. The answer was to trim back the moulding at you can see in the third, fourth and fifth pictures. Not sure if it's possible with yours, but worth considering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted October 26, 2010 Author Share Posted October 26, 2010 Hi again Mel, our problem with the awning is that it is roof mounted not on the side, so the bit that is in the way is the roof where it starts to rise just forward of the caravan door. Steve at FM said he had never seen one placed like that before, it ends half way across the door, when he tried to move it forward to clear the door, he realised why it was in that position. What should have been done is they should have fitted a spacer under the fixing bracket to raise it enough to clear the rise at the front so it could have gone further forward clearing the door. The spacer is not an option now as removing the fixing bracket would damage the roof. In one of your early messages in this thread you sent me link 'starspirit' (I am not PC literate enough to repeat it!) but if you look at it it shows a good photo of this model, the awning is fitted on the nearside in the same position as mine on the roof edge. Steve is erring on the side of some sort of water deflector above the door, I suggested a gutter as was mentioned as one of the resolutions for the back window, but this would then re-route the rain water to the side window or awning light to the right of the caravan door, also seen in the photo. I am confident Steve will help, I think he sees it as a bit of a challenge, he will always be my first port of call in the future. I think I am starting to understand why Swift dropped this model from the range when they took over Autocruise, we are happy with it apart from the water problem, it is comfortable, warm and a very good drive. Thank you, Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flicka Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 Barbarian - 2010-10-26 11:17 PM Hi again Mel, our problem with the awning is that it is roof mounted not on the side, so the bit that is in the way is the roof where it starts to rise just forward of the caravan door. Steve at FM said he had never seen one placed like that before, it ends half way across the door, when he tried to move it forward to clear the door, he realised why it was in that position. What should have been done is they should have fitted a spacer under the fixing bracket to raise it enough to clear the rise at the front so it could have gone further forward clearing the door. The spacer is not an option now as removing the fixing bracket would damage the roof. In one of your early messages in this thread you sent me link 'starspirit' (I am not PC literate enough to repeat it!) but if you look at it it shows a good photo of this model, the awning is fitted on the nearside in the same position as mine on the roof edge. Steve is erring on the side of some sort of water deflector above the door, I suggested a gutter as was mentioned as one of the resolutions for the back window, but this would then re-route the rain water to the side window or awning light to the right of the caravan door, also seen in the photo. I am confident Steve will help, I think he sees it as a bit of a challenge, he will always be my first port of call in the future. I think I am starting to understand why Swift dropped this model from the range when they took over Autocruise, we are happy with it apart from the water problem, it is comfortable, warm and a very good drive. Thank you, Ian Hi Ian For info - The Starspirit model is still avaialable in the Autocruise range. http://www.autocruise.co.uk/star-range/starspirit No pictures on their website, but I think this link illustrates your problem with the Awning position. http://www.martinsofexeter.co.uk/mall/MartinsOfExeter/products/product-4347931.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 I see! Looks from this picture as if it can be done though ... Starspirit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flicka Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 Yes, Mel that one certainly has an extra "something" added above the habitation door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 Hi again, I have been comparing the Starspirit models the 2007 top front shape is not as bulky as the 2008 model. My 07 model is a 2 berth, the 08 shown is a 3 berth, can I presume that the extra bulk is an overcab bed. Also the 08 model roof appears flatter towards the front and the awning is longer so it passes over the width of the habitation door. My awning finishes halfway across the habitation door. When the guys at FM Caravans removed my awning to move it forward it would not re-seat in its' fixing bracket because the rise on the roof front meant the end of the awning would not clear it before rising away from the roof mounting, preventing it being secured. I will endeavour to photgraph mine this weekend to show what I mean, it will be much easier than trying to explain, if I can work out how to put pic's on the forum. Regarding the availability of the Starspirit, I am surprised it is still available because it was someone at Swift who told me on the phone that the model was dropped from the range when they took over, which is why they were not interested in the leaking window! Regards, Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted November 1, 2010 Author Share Posted November 1, 2010 Hi all, just a note we had an elderly neighbour taken ill at the weekend and had no time to take the pic's with helping out, I will try in the next couple of days, watch this space! Regards Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted November 9, 2010 Author Share Posted November 9, 2010 Hi all, I have now taken some photo's of my Autocruise and I would like to post a couple here to better explain my point re. the awning position above the habitation door, but I can't transfer the link! The pic's are JPEG format downloaded to Picasa3 and a folder in windows. I click copy ok but when I try to paste to here it will not work, the 'paste' is in greyscale not black so it will not work. Can anyone assist please? Thank you - barbarian :$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted November 9, 2010 Share Posted November 9, 2010 When you post a reply you will see an option at bottom of pane 'attach a file after posting'. Select this and when you submit the post it will ask you to attach a file. You search and look for the jpeg file you want to upload. It has to be no larger than 100Kb, so you may need to reduce the size of the picture files by saving at a lower resolution/size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted November 11, 2010 Author Share Posted November 11, 2010 Hi Brambles, thank you. There should be at least one attachment on this message! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted November 11, 2010 Author Share Posted November 11, 2010 Hi again Brambles, I followed your instructions but it came up with a server error and would not allow the attachment. A message came up saying the administrator has been informed of the error. I will give it some time and try again tomorrow. Thanks - Barbarian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brambles Posted November 11, 2010 Share Posted November 11, 2010 Usual reason is picture is too large. You need to reduce the size/resolution still. There is a way of automatically doing it using emails, something like sending pic to yourself embeddd in an email and then is automatically sized much smaller....but will need someone else to explain as I just use my photo edit software to change resolution to 72dpi, and then make it between 10 and 15 cm wide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted November 12, 2010 Author Share Posted November 12, 2010 Hi again, I did try sending them to myself to auto resize but that went wrong too! I followed some instructions in the ? / help format to crop the pictures so it reduces to the relevant area, lets see how I get on. Barbarian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted November 12, 2010 Author Share Posted November 12, 2010 Hi, Failed again, still too large! I will not give up. :$ :-( Barbarian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted November 18, 2010 Author Share Posted November 18, 2010 Hello all, well I finally gave up with the photo's. I even tried sending them between our laptop and PC to try to reduce the size but that plan did not work. The original problem with the leak is resolved so rather than escalate this thread, I will admit to 'defeat by technology' on this occasion and close the thread now. We thank you all again, you have been a big help and we are very grateful. Barbarian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 18, 2010 Share Posted November 18, 2010 If you want to email me a photo I'll have a look and see what the problem is so you know for the future - I'll pm you my email address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted November 18, 2010 Share Posted November 18, 2010 Mel B - 2010-11-18 10:27 PM Hi, Failed again, still too large! I will not give up. Barbarian If you want to email me a photo I'll have a look and see what the problem is so you know for the future - I'll pm you my email address. ----- Mel B Do you do medical problems Mel (?) (lol) (lol) (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted November 23, 2010 Author Share Posted November 23, 2010 Hi Mel, I sent you 2 pic's by PM but my laptop does not always do what I want or expect it to do! Please let me know if you did not get them and I will try again on a PC, thanks Regards - Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 Hi Ian No I haven't got anything - I don't think you can send attachments via PMs though. I'll email you, you can then reply to my email with the attachements and I'll have a look at them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Ian ... I've found out what your 'problem' is ... size! 8-) The photos were waaaaayyyyyyyy tooooooooo big ... they need to be less than 100kb - I've cropped and resized them so check your email as I've sent them back to you. :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted November 26, 2010 Author Share Posted November 26, 2010 Hi Mel, Thank you for the PM's, been away visiting friends we met in Portugal last year. I am going to try again with the resized pic's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarian Posted November 26, 2010 Author Share Posted November 26, 2010 Barbarian - 2010-11-26 8:35 PM Hi Mel, Thank you for the PM's, been away visiting friends we met in Portugal last year. I am going to try again with the resized pic's. Mel, you are a star! Thank you. What I was trying to explain was the way the awning stops over the habitation door, when it rains the water runs in the top of the door and down the inside of the window. You can make out the water mark between the awning and the door. What I am looking for is a way to divert it. I am told that O'Learys may have the 'guttering' for the job so I will try there, but any other idea's will be gratefully received! Regards to all and drive carefully in the snow - Barbarian :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted November 26, 2010 Share Posted November 26, 2010 Have to say it does look like a daft place to position the awning 8-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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