First trip of 2021 and only nine months since our Sterling Eccles Ruby SE had a replacement rear panel and there’s a problem with the front bulkhead.

Arriving on-site, Moe noticed the front nearside winding nut had drop and it was difficult to locate the winder onto it. Also, there appeared some damage to the trim as if there had been vertical movement of the front end as we travelled down from East Devon to Stoke Gabriel.

As I keep a close eye on the various caravanning forums this movement alerted me to the front bulkhead problem with some Swift Caravans. The same problem as the caravans recalled from manufacturing year 2017 but the cause slightly different (allegedly).

Next was to examine the angle bracket securing the caravan sidewall to the bulkhead. On our 2015 Sterling Eccles this is hidden behind two cosmetic panels which have been stuck to the side wall of the caravan. These are glued with mastic and were easy tease away from the side panels.

You can see the cosmetic cover lying flat in the picture. Difficult to see in the image but EVERY single screw in the sidewall has sheared off.

In the inside of the van, the securing screws between the front shelf and vertical panels were also loose. In the case of the nearside screw, this had completely fallen out, the offside screw just loose.

On the offside of the van, the decorative panel within the gas locker was also removed and this revealed all screws were loose to varying degrees. However, non had sheared off and damage seems very limited in this area.

I haven’t got any pictures from underneath the caravan but there is movement between the sidewall and the floor. This is highly suggestive of that a number of the screws securing the sidewall to the floor have also loosened and sheared off.

This nearside will require the full attention of the Swift procedure on rectifying this problem (see next post).