My Kingham's First Fault

I thought it was doing so well too, but after 44 nights and just over 3500 of the UK's pothole ridden roads, the microwave shelf has given up its struggle to hold such a heavy unit in place, with only 4 little screws.

Fortunately I spotted that it had dropped on one side, whilst having my breakfast this morning, so I've been able to remove the microwave before it came crashing down in transit, potentially causing untold damage to the sink, tap & worktop.

I'm touring the Lake District at the moment, but have managed to speak to my dealer by phone and we have touched on having the whole shelving unit removed, as other forum members have done. Whether or not Auto-Sleeper will fund that, or partially fund it, in place of the warranty fix, remains to be seen.

Ken.

I have flagged this problem up along with numerous others whose microwave oven has came adrift. The youtube review on I think the original Kemerton actually has the shelf coming adrift behind the reviewers head if you look close! Unfortunately the factory dont listen or dont care. Small screws screwed into end grain mdf are not strong enough to support a microwave oven . If you google modesty blocks , I added 4 below the shelf in matching colour and shelf has not moved since. An easy fix that you should not have to do but you would only be bored otherwise!

Ours was just about to collapse after only four months, this was in June and we still have had no replacement shelf. We keep ringing Marquis at Preston but nothing seems to be happening. It is a cheap and shoddy fitting on an expensive van !

Julesanian wrote:Ours was just about to collapse after only four months, this was in June and we still have had no replacement shelf. We keep ringing Marquis at Preston but nothing seems to be happening. It is a cheap and shoddy fitting on an expensive van !

Assuming you've bought from new it's totally unacceptable. Sorry but i wouldn't settle for a replacement shelf.....i'd demand a replacement van and they'd keep getting it back until they got it right. You certainly shouldn't have to keep phoning them either. This is not good business and neither is it professional.

Don't get any fanciful ideas of touring the Baltics in a van like that because i can tell you now you won't have anything left of your van at all driving the roads in Lithuania....everything will fall apart.

Sadly, like many others, I think our Warwick Duo is suffering from this problem, a lot of noise coming from the microwave area and the shelf seems to be dropping slightly. Strangely never had this problem during our ownership of the Symbol, which has a similar cupboard arrangement  

Also don't know of any like problems in other manufacturers vans.

I would have thought that stronger shelves / fixings would be easy to implement during construction. Will be interested to see at the NEC next week if they have made any improvements on 2018 vans .

Hubert

Agreed the workmanship is very shoddy. Our Kingham had a microwave with just the front screws fitted so it bounced and rattled. The dealer fitted rear screws which made the noise worst as it squeaked.
We took the microwave out, as it was to much and could not use it anyway as we do not have 240v when camping. The shelf it left was great as we could place all our bits and bobs (keys/phone/wallet/paperwork/glasses etc) on it that previously would have been scattered in different places around the van.
When the van finally comes back from the dealer (other issues - another topic). We will remove the microwave casement and make a higher open shelf that will also open up the view from the lounge seat.

Just reading all the issues with the microwave shelf. Took delivery of a new Kingham. Travelled just 150 miles on the clock and guess what? Yep the microwave shelf is falling apart. Off to get it sorted by the dealer in the morning. Guess A S still have this problem.