It would be nice to rave good news about my rig..but...

[T1 Terry]

I can't get the CF to load at all, might have had a melt down

[Dot]

Sent it to yu.

[glenda]

Hart breaking

Stay strong

Glenda

[GregnDee]

We are aghast. We met a couple a couple of years back who had similar issues and eventually they got a replacement van. Took 18 months though.

We wish you well in your endeavours for recompense. This is one horrendous situation, and you actually live in your van!

So sorry to hear
Greg and Dee

[dream4red]

Good luck with your fight pelbo.
I wonder if cf realised that the link would implicate the manufacturer of your van, they may have not given the address out so keenly.
Somewhere in this world, justice should be happening to these shonky manufacturers. Thanks for sharing your pain and I am sure that we all sympathise with you and totally understand your frustrations with the company.

[pelbo]

I do intend to get on with my life! I try to put this situation into a separate box, deal with it in that box, then move on.
I have another good reason to expose this state of affairs.

When we were Katherine and then Darwin trying to get our van repaired and back on the road, and arguing with the manufacturer, I received a phone call from my cancer specialist's assistant that my prostate cancer had come back as a secondary. I had a radical prostatectomy 8 years before. A blood PSA blood test I had done in Katherine had come back with a doubled score compared to a test just 2 months prior. The specialist was overseas, but his assistant was so concerned, she phoned me to tell me I had better make urgent tracks back to Sydney to have radiation treatment. I was blown out of the water. Here we were with our full time home broken and I have urgent need to tow the van 4,000k back to Sydney to have treatment. I became so frustrated with the antics of Sunland trying to get out of fixing the suspension, one day on the phone to them I broke down and cried and begged them to do something and the possible urgency of the situation.

Later on, my specialist had returned and told me not to rush, though the PSA score was not good, they had two new radiation machines in Sydney that he was confident would have a good outcome. He said finish your trip and I will book you into Macquarie University Hospital early January and we can start the treatment. I booked into Lane Cove National Park CP, who waved the 4 week maximum limit and even reduced the price so that we could stay there for the full treatment.

I never told Sunland this. But they tried to use my cancer to wear me down. They even put in writing that this was the cause of all my problems with them!

The radiation treatment was successful and I now have no sign of the cancer - touch wood. I have to have further tests next month and again in December. I am confident of passing them. But it really egged me on to fight the b.....'s and to ignore their obscuration and delaying tactics when trying to get a negotiated fix to our serious problems.

So we are getting on with our life and repairing the van at our cost and I will be taking the matter to QCAT (Queensland small claims courts) who can rule on any amount up to $25,000 and have the teeth to enforce a judgement.

We have removed very heavy items to bring the van back to a useable capacity weight. We replaced the heavy 54kg front loader washing Machine with a Sphere that weighs 18kg. We have removed one spare wheel, saving 35kg. We have removed all 3 very heavy 100amp AGM batteries and replaced with Lithium (Compliments of TerryT1). We had to add the weight of all the extra steel re-enforcing. We estimate we now have 600kg carrying capacity. We will weight he van again when empty when we get back to Wyong next week.

In the meantime we are meandering all over Western NSW on our way back to Wyong and then a house sitting near Cessnock. Enjoying life on the wallaby again!

Here are a few photos of other problems we are fixing or have had fixed:

Hand brake cable guide was welded in the wrong location, causing the cable to wear out the inside of the tyre:



Microwave placed too far to the left, stopping the door from opening past this point:



How is this for the brilliant finish to the cupboard!!



All the drawers fell out because they only put one screw into the vertical adjustment slot on the runners. One extra screw fixed the problem. After the first drawer fell out and smashed, Sunland did repair it under warranty, but didn't bother to check why it fell out and then fix the problem. So it fell out again!
Photo showing just the one screw:



Reversing TV camera cable swinging in the breeze at rear of the van, just waiting for a flying stone to cut it:



My fix for the TV cable



Why did my water pump stop working? Climb under and find they had forgotten to swage the cable joint, so the wire fell out! It was also not shrinkwrapped (whatever they call it!) So I swagged the joint and put that shrink stuff over it and put one of those protective cable tubes over the cables.



One major fault to fix - the edge seal between the roof and walls has very little sealant, so it leaks badly. Even watched an ant crawl under the edge moulding and go inside the van! Quote to fix this is $4,000. The whole edge needs removing and a total clean-up and proper re-sealing.

[nut17]

Well, from this side of the Tasman, I was always "in awe" of Sunland Caravans reputation and perceived quality. With no dealer network or factory support over here I would never have considered one though.
With all the other issues going on in your life you certainly do not need to be treated the way you have by Sunland. Fingers and toes are crossed that you will end up with a positive outcome, not to mention some compensation for all the stress you have and are still suffering.

We purchased our first Jayco Van with some trepidation as there are a lot of "Jayco Knockers" out there and both with our first 2007 model and our current 2011 model any issues have been resolved in a timely and amicable fashion.

Best of luck !!

Cheers Chris

[mickd]

Gooday all . Pelbo i am really sorry to hear of your van problems rest assured i will spread the word about Sunland vans to all i meet. Last year i had a look at a Patriot van and i thought the chassis was very lightly constructed for a van of its size Regards Mick

[Izabarack]

My problems started because I trusted this builder 100%.

I take it a strong sense of betrayal underlies the stress now? Bit of a darling over on another forum, regularly bags other makers for poor service. I see a case for a professional acceptance service such as being offered to new home buyers. Might stop a lot of problems before they start.

Iza

[Dot]

I think we all need to take a lesson from here in regard to "trusting" people we really do not know. There are no friends in business is there? We have been conned a lot with the converting of our bus but now we stand back and get other ideas/suggestions etc from as many other "experts" as possible. (Gee I loathe that word) Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I reckon all will come out in the wash with this one, my bones in my back are speaking. We all wish Pelbo a quick and satisfying outcome to this situation.