cpaharley2008 wrote:
Robert,
Do the Australian trailers have similar issues as some American units with delimitation and roof leaks? Seems like the exteriors from down under appear to be composites?
You can see in the quote below from an Australian Caravan Repairer, that experiences with US 5vers really hurt the uptake of 5vers as a whole in Australia. As regards Travel Trailers although few have been imported experiences are similar.
Pretty much 100% of the fifth wheelers we have in for repair are US imports, we very rarely see an Aussie made unit in for a major failure. The list of disasters with the Yank stuff is monumental - snapped goose necks, suspensions totally destroyed, cladding coming adrift, no inner wall framing left at all - see the comments re wheatbix below, leaks and more leaks and the water ingress disagrees with the chipboard frames - we call them wheatbix because they blow apart when wet. At least the Aussie vans have a semblance of a frame and it is made of timber, of a sort, and they often have a decent sort of a chassis and some even have a reasonable suspension. We've had to repair fivers with static damage in excess of $50k - and the unit has probably travelled less than 2k on Aussie roads. Scary hey!
And don't mention the EPDM roofs fitted to many of them - might last a few years in the States, more like a few months out here.
No mate - regardless of how bad they may be I'll take an Aussie van over an insubstantial imported piece of show pony excrement any day of the week.
