Granby Head Liner Disintegrating

[mht]

Greetings,
The ceiling headliner in my '01 Granby is, little by little, turning into dust. From what I've read here it may be due to mold "eating" the material after it got wet. Now the reason it got wet was that FWC uses very course sheet metal screws which work themselves loose and allow rain/snow melt to enter. I have solved that problem by silicon sealing (the UV enhanced variety) all the screw heads. Unfortunately, through ignorance, I didn't do much mold prevention.

I doubt FWC will help me old with resolving the issue and so I'm looking for creative ways to install another liner w/o the $1000+ (plus travel expense) to rebuild the whole roof. The hardest part will be around the ceiling perimeter but I wonder if I could install wood trim around the edges just to keep the material stretched and give it a finished look.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Marty

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

Hey Marty

I have only seen this one other time in pictures, but I'm sure it has happened to more than a couple of FWC owners back then (on the older models approx. 1999 - 2001).

I wasn't around back then, so I'm not totally sure what they did, but I think for a short period (1 1/2 - 2 years) they were using a different type material (soft / cotton like material) for the head liner.

I thought we started using a newer / better material when Tom Hanagan took over the company late 2001, but I talked to someone out in the shop today that has been out there almost 9 years. He said he was thinking / kinda remembering that Ben switched back to the better head liner material before he sold the company approx. 2001. Maybe it was an unforseen thing. Sometimes they try new materials in production and find out down the road the quality is not as good as they thought it would be. A new company with a slick salesman comes along and sells you what you think might be the best things since sliced bread, and you find out it doesn't work and you go back to the old way of doing it -- the way it really worked. Just speculating here -- not sure of the total background on this topic ?

I'm GLAD we have been using the better material here for the past 5 or 6 years ! It hurts me to see the customers having to deal with this stuff.

Feel free to call our service dept. and ask for Chicali if you want.
He might be able to help a little for tips & trucks for a repair job.
But probably not. That is a tough repair without taking the roof off the camper (from what I can gather).

Maybe the ATC guys can give some advice on an easier cover up / fix ?

Sorry I don't have beter news for you.




.

 

[mht]

Hi Stan,
I'll give service a call tomorrow. Ya' know, $12K for a camper that requires a $1500-$2000 repair after 6 years doesn't make me a happy camper at all. Maybe the company was sold an inferior material at the time but I feel that ultimately, the responsibility to fix it rests with the mfg. FWC can go after the material OEM to recover their losses. This in a perfect world, of course!
Bought mine in Feb. '01. Bad luck I guess.

Marty

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

I totally understand with that.

Unfortunatly the new owner of four wheel campers didn't have any control over that material being used back then. We can only address the mistakes back then and move forward in a positive direction to benefit our customers in the long run.

We have seen this with other camper manufacturers over the years -- cheap materials might make you a few more $$ upfront, but everyone will lose on the back side.

Since the new owner took over FWC in 2001, the camper prices have slowly been increased so they can buy and source some of the best products on the market (as well as to keep up with inflation, of course).

You will pay more upfront on the new campers, but we really feel our products these days are better than they have even been. We still have room to grow and have a few more big changes coming down the road to make the campers even better.

Talk to you later

 

[benburnett]

Headliner

The material that was used for you head liner is a bad material. I have seen where is has done the same thing on a couple of campers now.

You can replace it with your idea of wood trim around the edges and it will work fine. Still a lot of work to take everything off and put the new material up there.

If you would like, I can send you some material that we are currently using tha works fine and will hold up in the long run.

If you would like some, just give me a call when you get a chance.

 

[Mark W. Ingalls]

$12K for a camper that requires a $1500-$2000 repair after 6 years doesn't make me a happy camper at all.

Average repair cost per year of less than 3% for leading-edge equipment doesn't seem so bad to this reader. Percentage-wise, how much does one stick into one's vehicle over a six year period, for example?

Just one other man's perspective...

 

[benburnett]

repair cost

Percentage wise you are right about the repair. FWC was always built though with the intention of not having to have that big a repair cost in that little of time. I just had a customer stop by the other day that has been using their camper steady for 7 years now. The total cost of repairs that they Will be coming back for is right at 350.00.

Unfortunately the material used for the headliner in the FWC campers for about an 8 month period back in late 2000 and early 2001 was a bad material.

 

[Blazer]

Marty,

I've SEEN the material Ben is using now, and it is gorgeous! If my wife saw it, she would poke holes in my headliner to force a replacement. Go for it.

Art
'86 Blazer

 

[mht]

Thanks for the offer Ben. Does anyone know of a reliable repair facility in the Colorado region which would be capable (and willing) to tackle the disassembly, if that's the direction I go? There's a Camping World in Denver but I doubt they'd want this job and Rocky Mt. RV did a FWC warranty repair for us (haven't called them yet). Not looking forward to a long road trip right now although we've got a son in San Diego.
The problem I foresee with the wood trim around the perimeter is the difficulty in attaching it (the trim) to the aluminum framework since the frame really doesn't have a "horizontal" exposure" at the perimeter.

As for the "nominal" cost of ownership, I bought a Toyota Tundra at the same time and haven't spent a dime on it (90K miles) other than routine maintenance. Now the Tundra has a few more moving parts than the FWC which I liken more to a fancy, portable, one room cabin which is used intermittently. I could also probably have a thousand or more in non essential repairs (shrunken plastic windows that don't match up with the openings (bad material I was told!), Velcro on the outer window flaps that haven't "stuck" (when rolled up) for years (I've got a fix for that if anyone is interested), etc. Even if the FWC were used 100% of the year that would yield about a $3-$4000 bill for, let's say, the paint flaking off the Toyota...earning it a big black dot in the Consumer Reports vehicle report. At 25-50% usage per year...

Given all that, we are really happy with the purchase and have had many, many, months happily camping all over Mexico, the Mountain West and in lots of places I wouldn't take any other camper!

Marty

 

[Stan@FourWheel]

Are these guys anywhere near you ?

I didn't have time to look at a map, I'm just heading out the door now.

We met them at the www.NATCOA.com show in Nebraska last year.

It seemed like they have found a good niche repairing and rebuilding the older FWC's out in Colorado.

The other camper dealerships at the show said their showroom was kinda old school, not focused on new camper sales, but when we talked to them they seemed pretty excited and more geared towards service & repairs.

Maybe worth a shot calling them ?

 

[mht]

Hi Stan,
Thanks for the info! They're about 170 miles from us (Steamboat Springs) but so is everyone else!
I'll check with them on Monday.

Marty

 

[DLN]

Sorry to hear about the bad luck with your camper. I don't think the problems you're having are typical, at least I sure hope they aren't.
Keep us posted.