Warwick XL and use in heat

Hi all,

We are currently on our first long trip to Europe with our 67 plate Warwick XL.  Down in southern Spain and it is warming up nicely.  These seems to be causing 2 issues for the Warwick and I wondered if these are common?

1. We have about 5 or 6 decals starting to peel off. Im sure I can get them replaced under warranty when we return - but we will use the van again in the heat so is this a common problem and if so is it actually worth replacing them.  Tempted to start stripping them off. 

2. On the rear side windows behind the blinds the fabric over the wood which does look quite smart is lifting on 3 out of the 4 windows,  I am assuming super glue is not suitable to stick this all back down again and wondered if others had this issue and what sort of adhesive they used?  Of should I just get the dealer to do it when they do the decals.

Not heat related but also rather annoyingly the centre roof vent surround seems to be coming loose from the ceiling on one side ( in front of the microwave)     Does the plastic surround come away easily?  - and if I do take it off, will I find some screws behind it to tighten it back up again? 

Otherwise very pleased with the van -- aside from the ongoing very irritable squeak behind the drivers head which I have sought advice on before.  I think I will need to ask SMC for a back to factory warranty claim as I think the  plywood behind the driver, all needs stripping out and putting back.


Thanks as always for you input

I don't know the answers but I am concerned as I also have a warick XL. The decals should be able to handle the heat, the carpet should be stuck down with a high temperature contact adhesive ( only my opinion I don't know ) and it seems it's probably normal contact adhesive. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be along soon.

Our van when new came with badly fitted and split decals. We had them replaced under warranty. However we have not had a problem with decals peeling off in the heat, and we had temperatures of 35 degrees plus in Slovenia three years ago. I guess on a van conversion the metal sides could sometimes get quite warm. We did have hotting up plastic smells from the black roof GRP and some rippling expansion patterns but has since not caused any issues.

Pete

I have had to re stick the felt window surround material several times, I just used cheap Tesco general purpose glue.
The toilet cassette access door body colour film is now peeling off from the corners, not sure how to solve that one. 

Twiggy

Twiggy wrote:I have had to re stick the felt window surround material several times, I just used cheap Tesco general purpose glue.
The toilet cassette access door body colour film is now peeling off from the corners, not sure how to solve that one. 

Twiggy

 Ah yes,  mine is doing that as well.  None of these issues are, in themselves serious, but I am struggling to keep up with all the little niggles.

Peter Brown wrote:I've spent a lot of time with a lot of Auto-Sleepers on rallies in great heat over many years and never come across decals peeling off before.

 Hi Peter, 

We have lost the 2 on the bonnet, the decals with the word Autosleeper on both front doors are now bubbling up as is one of the higher decals on the near side.    So 5 in total have either come off, or are coming off.  Interesting what you say, Ill talk to SMC when we get home about replacements.   Thank you :)

We had the same problem with the carpet material coming off around the windows. We took it back to the dealers and they stuck it back down using a spray adhesive. After a short period of time it came loose again. This time I stuck it down myself using a glue gun and it has been ok for the last 18 months.

I don't think the issue with the carpet material coming unglued from around the windows is heat related, it's more likely the poor adhesion glue being used.

My most problematic window is on the rear offside and is on the shaded side of my van when parked at home. I've still to fix that !

My felts peeled too.....lol.....it was very painful

like this?


I have that effect on all my rear windows. I push it back and it sticks, until the next time I look and it has come away again.
I was going to use super glue but now gather that is not the best.
I plan to bring it up with AS at the hab check and hopefully they will stick it back.


All the decalls are still on my van.

I used a hot glue gun and they have now stayed in place for 18mths

Have you checked the toilet window, we found that came off as well.

With regards to the felt coming away mine did that within two months of being new. (cheap materials used!) It was repaired at Marquis Ipswich using double sided tape.
Works so far

actually, I might just let this drop off.

You can’t blame that on AS get on to GasIt near Caernarfon and tell em you want a new one    Our decals seen ok on our 2016 Warwick and I am sat looking at a Y reg Pollensa and those are like the day it left Willersey

roli wrote:You can’t blame that on AS get on to GasIt near Caernarfon and tell em you want a new one    Our decals seen ok on our 2016 Warwick and I am sat looking at a Y reg Pollensa and those are like the day it left Willersey

Regretfully we have 7 decals coming away.  Had to take photographs of  them all individually so a warranty claim can be made , you can see from the image below how they are peeling away - hope AS replace them as the van is only 6 months old.  Overall very pleased with it, but more niggles than our previous Autotrail.
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One decal replaced under warranty on our '67 Kingham, with several others now on the move - all on the nearside. Window frame felts repaired by SMC under warranty using Velcro... so far so good.