New to me 2020 Warwick XL

Picking a Warwick XL 2020 up from dealer December 10th, I have had a good look round cant see any obvious problems. Dealer says it has had habitation check with no problems found, Do these vans suffer any inherent problems that I should check. Have done google searches for Warwick XL problems not much comes up. With regard to Auto-Sleepers warranty from what I read as the second owner I would only get 1 year so long as I paid £125. Not much point if that's the case as the dealer is giving me 1 year warranty anyway.

Hi
Welcome to the forum from Bridington 
Boaby

burlingtonboaby wrote:Hi
Welcome to the forum from Bridington 
Boaby

Thank you. I am sure I will have more questions once I pick the Van up.

6 month 2021 WXL owner, nothing major, but I would check Reversing Camera, Water Pump, 2nd Key, that the awning is ok, and any warranty on batteries like I say nothing major I believe the major stuff is sound, will need additions if you are using it 12 months a year off-grid...My dilemma is the single glazing, I love the look, but not the insulation properties all the rest is good...

Kevinktwo wrote:6 month 2021 WXL owner, nothing major, but I would check Reversing Camera, Water Pump, 2nd Key, that the awning is ok, and any warranty on batteries like I say nothing major I believe the major stuff is sound, will need additions if you are using it 12 months a year off-grid...My dilemma is the single glazing, I love the look, but not the insulation properties all the rest is good...

Van has got the winter pack, what other additions are you thinking besides a Karcher window vac for the glass and Silver screens for the front.

edit-: Ahh just saw off grid so your talking bigger solar panel and extra leisure battery

We are going away for 6 months, so also getting a diesel heater, as the gas heater is not very good at heating the front of the van, and in some of the countries we are visiting LPG is scarce!

Kevinktwo wrote:We are going away for 6 months, so also getting a diesel heater, as the gas heater is not very good at heating the front of the van, and in some of the countries we are visiting LPG is scarce!

Best of luck if the Countries are in the EU, Brexit made it 90 days in a 6 month period.

Enjoy you new van.
---------
Richard

rgermain wrote:

Enjoy you new van.
---------
Richard

Thanks rgermain, yes we are going to have to do the Schengen shuffle by visiting Turkey, or Morroco, or Bosnia, or Ireland, or Serbia, and if we are quick Bulgaria and Romania haven't joined Schengen yet. I also understand Portugal has passed something that allows you to stay longer than 90 days, but haven't researched it yet...

IanH wrote:Never had any issues with Warwick single glazing.
Much easier to get LPG in EU than here.
If it hasn't yet got one, get solar asap

Thank IanH, Yep I have additional solar panels ready to go up on the roof, just waiting for some issues to be sorted by the dealer as I might invalidate the warranty by fitting them as I also have a new Mppt and B2B to add.

LPG yes but might be thinking of Scandinavia and for instance, I don't believe there is LPG infrastructure in Finland.

I must admit I find the single glazing a pain. Off-grid at the weekend my pilot went out on the heating, and although I tried to light it after resetting (about 20 times)  and also turning the van into the gale, and hiding the van behind a buildingw, no joy. (coming up as fault 1) However I digress, the main point was that the inside temperature dropped too 5 degrees from 15 due to the lack of double glazing, which has a number of effects the dog tries and usually succeeds to get under the duvet, the cat cries, and it gets very close to the temp that you are not supposed to charge lithium batteries. I have put additional insulation in the rear doors, under carpets, and in the lockers and have silver screens So more work to be done

My point is that the van internal temperature dropped from 16 degrees to 5 degrees very quickly, and because of the amount of snow coming down we did not really want to move until the roads were gritted. So it is a safety issue for us, and although the weather this weekend was extreme, it would be fairly normal in the Eastern Highland Scotland in winter. ps it also causes issues in the summer in south Europe where the lack of double glazing means the van gets hotter quicker...

Single glass is not a problem and you won’t need the karcher window vac if you use external screens, ours is a 2016 and with the heater on 12 at night it’s toastie warm, we are away to Norfolk for Christmas and the only thing I will be adding is internal screens as well as the external to the front of the cab

Kevinktwo wrote:

IanH wrote:Never had any issues with Warwick single glazing.
Much easier to get LPG in EU than here.
If it hasn't yet got one, get solar asap

Thank IanH, Yep I have additional solar panels ready to go up on the roof, just waiting for some issues to be sorted by the dealer as I might invalidate the warranty by fitting them as I also have a new Mppt and B2B to add.

LPG yes but might be thinking of Scandinavia and for instance, I don't believe there is LPG infrastructure in Finland.

I must admit I find the single glazing a pain. Off-grid at the weekend my pilot went out on the heating, and although I tried to light it after resetting (about 20 times)  and also turning the van into the gale, and hiding the van behind a buildingw, no joy. (coming up as fault 1) However I digress, the main point was that the inside temperature dropped too 5 degrees from 15 due to the lack of double glazing, which has a number of effects the dog tries and usually succeeds to get under the duvet, the cat cries, and it gets very close to the temp that you are not supposed to charge lithium batteries. I have put additional insulation in the rear doors, under carpets, and in the lockers and have silver screens So more work to be done

My point is that the van internal temperature dropped from 16 degrees to 5 degrees very quickly, and because of the amount of snow coming down we did not really want to move until the roads were gritted. So it is a safety issue for us, and although the weather this weekend was extreme, it would be fairly normal in the Eastern Highland Scotland in winter. ps it also causes issues in the summer in south Europe where the lack of double glazing means the van gets hotter quicker...

Re the heater going out…I see you’ve got a 2021 van, so presumably the Whale heater?

On my Kingham I had exactly the same issue from day 1. After a lot of back and forth with the dealer, eventually Whale agreed to fit a new heater unit and I collected the van again yesterday.

I left the heating on up the drive when I got home, and it was still on this morning. That’s never happened before.

The dealer said my van was one of 3 that Whale had agreed to change the heater unit on.

So my suggestion is that your heater problem might not be down to how you are using it, but a more fundamental problem. Would be worth getting in touch with your dealer and pressing them to get it sorted…

Hi Millie, Interesting, I was pondering overnight and thinking the same, up till now have not had to use the heater in earnest, so starting to identify a pattern, I’m away next weekend and although on hook up, I will run the heater on gas and then decide..

Indeed - ours was fine on electric but if you tried to use it on gas or gas/electric combined then it would fall over on code 1.

Good luck with your experiments

I know our XL is an earlier model with truma heating/water etc.
But experience has shown, always make sure hot water taps are well flushed/run (shower cubicle as well) to get any trapped air out of the system and the boiler tank is full ( with only water) Do this while still hooked up to the whale filling/mains supply , then when your sure all trapped air is expelled in the system close the taps and fill fresh tank to full.
Just spent four days in north Norfolk, started in a blizzard, three cold windy nights etc. No problem with very warm XL, never had problems with fixed glass windows (summer or winter) When it's very cold outside just make sure all blinds are shut early evening and keep heating just ticking over all the time. Also make sure XL's shower heating vent is open slightly to keep that area warm, does not need much heat.
If you have trapped air in the heating system (and this is only my experience) the truma system does all manor of strange venting cycles, high interior fan speeds etc on its own (trying to cool it's self down I think. Do not turn off but just let it do it's stuff) 
Never needed to use elec / gas boost mix, just elec2. Also in winter the heating produces enough hot water while only set on room heating no need to set water heating on. hope that all makes sense and hope this might 
help even whale heater vans.