Can anyone advise me regarding a potential purchase of another caravan. The van is a 1998 swift Challenger 5 berth, the van looks in good condition and is 5 years newer than my present van, my only concern is the advert states that there is a softening of wall boards by cooker and door. Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this may have happened ( I am guessing a leak somewhere) and also how this problem could be fixed and at what expense. I really like the look of the van but dont want to be stung by the expense of fixing it. I would like to be away in a new van for easter!
get a damp meter, sharpen the prongs put into the affected wallboards and if it beeps like mad walk/run in the opposite direction. There is plenty of DRY vans out there, they are a right to find but it does save you money long term
welcome to UKCS possibly the best camping/caravanning forum on the interweb
Thanks for your replies, I was not surprised to hear the type of comments posted, however has anyone experienced repairing any damp, there must be a leak somewhere, it isn't like a house were damp rises. It is very easy to say there are plenty of vans out there, I am sure there are but finding one resonably local and having the time to view it when working full time is extremely dificult. My present van had a couple of leaks which were very simple to repair and had no other problems with it since.
Yes runaway ....... Sounds like the door seal isn;t doing its job , I think you will find that the floor will be like a trampoline too ..... I went to have a look at some caravans at a dealer in cheshire on sunday and i saw a van on a special offer..£3495...LOL .... As soon as you walked in , it was like walking on a tramoline and the cupboard by the door stunk , i had a look around the door and the wall was wet and rotten and the door seal was damaged....... its a shame as a simple cheap repair few years back would have provented all the damp....... Water creaps up the wall like bloting paper , making people think the leak is from the roof.
Damp van usually means structural problems. My 96 conqueror
had swelling and softening walls at the front corners not an easy fix, it was caused by sealant coming away from front sealing strip above windows. No cure for it except to replace wall sections and as they were all bonded together it would of been a nightmare.
Got shut of van and pointed out problem to buyer.
As everyone else has said walk away and don't even consider it, you are only going to buy trouble if you purchase it.
Buy in haste repent at leisure!
There is absolutely no cure for damp apart from replacing the panels and a full reseal as it is very hard to tell where the leak is coming from, what you have to ask is if it is that good a caravan why would they be selling? You can see the damp now its probably very minimal at the moment but there is one place for it to go and it can only get worse don't give your hard earned money away to someone who is going to con you out of it!
In answer to your question yes plenty of people on here have done the repairs. Look for Wizard's postings for instance, I think he has a link to his website. It is very time consuming and often once you start you end up removing masses of struts and walls as the problem is often quite widespread.