On-going Maintenance Issues 2020 Caravel Owners

[Snow Peak]

I have a 2020 22ft FB Caravel and am wondering if other owners are experiencing similar on-going maintenance issues. In addition to rivets popping, dinette cushions that wont stay in place and the grill grate coming loose, I have other maintenance issues and wonder if I got a ‘special trailer’.


1.The plexiglass privacy between the bedroom and dinette area will not stay in place. The trailer is at the dealership for a fourth repair attempt. It was repaired in August after a 2 week trip to ID from western OR. Then in October after about 500 freeway miles towards WY, it came loose again. Admittedly I drove some rough roads in ID. I drove very slow but with granite cobbles sticking out the road bed there was some bouncing going on but not on the second trip. ( I do plan to add an on-board air system so I can deflate all tires when off pavement)
The hex screws continue to fail (with Loctite ) particularly the upper one which is hard to access due to the curtain rail on the ceiling. I am wondering it a longer hex screw would get more bite into the plexiglass since they are only about 3/8 of an inch long. The dealership is suggesting that maybe I don’t need the screen and use a curtain instead. I really don’t like that idea.
2. The gally faucet keeps coming loose. After the repair in August it came loose after about 1500 highway miles in NM. From that point on during the rest of my 4000 mile trip I had to tighten it daily when traveling. It is in a hard place to get a wrench on it so I just tightened with my fingers and a screw driver. I am wondering it a metal nut would stay tight. Anybody have any ideas besides replacing the faucet?
3. The Baraldi stove top keeps coming loose as well. It is more difficult to tighten since you have to remove the microwave.
These issues have left me wondering if I bought the right trailer and would a more expensive model be performing better? Does anyone have any experience getting AS to extend the warranty for repeated repair problems? It would have been nice if AS spent more effort on designing a more maintenance free trailer rather than sticking all those worthless designer pillows in there.
Thanks in advance for your input. frank Schnitzer

[s1000pre]

I had a 2020 International that sounds very similar to what you are experiencing. While we are relaxing in our comfy bucket seats, our poor trailers are getting pummeled by an earthquake. I finally reached a point where I would open the door expecting chaos. My recommendation is to rely as little as possible on the dealer. Try to figure out a solution on your own. You will get better at it, and your trailer will receive much better care, resulting in fewer issues. Pulling a microwave out gives us something to do. If I find that a screw is loose or stripped, figure out a way to fix it to eliminate further issues. We can help with ideas, we have all been there.

[PB_NB]

Our plexi-glas sections have been coming loose since we got the trailer. I carry an allen key set and tighten them periodically. I trimmed a bit of the plexi-glas on the curb side section as it didn’t fit very well causing one of the fasteners to just grab the edge of the plexi now it stays put for longer. It would be counter productive to make these super tight or rigid as the movement of the trailer will just pull out the entire fastener bracket leaving another bigger repair job to do. I think it would be better to just tighten it up from time to time or take them out all together.

We had bunch of things to fix when we got our trailer home. Once you get past the little things, you will find that the trailer works great. Just some initial debugging to get through.

If you are handy, you will be able to get through most of the little things.

We had a loose sink and bathroom door handle that didn’t work and a leak from our emergency exit window just to list a few items.

Stick with it and you will get to a point where these annoyances are behind you.

[BigSxyWhtGuy]

Unfortunately there is no such thing as maintenance free trailers. It’s just what you’re willing to tolerate and learning to fix things yourself.

RE popped rivets, we have about 6 missing now. I’m waiting for a couple more so I can just make a day of it. They are all interior and in different places through out so it’s not impacting anything.

For the plexi glass thing, I’m not certain what that is. We had accordion style room dividers but just changed to curtains and the change was super simple and we enjoy them better.

Faucet coming loose is about just getting the right tool and getting it tight once and for all.

Unfortunately in our history, we haven’t had much luck with dealer services. They just fix things that one time and aren’t looking at the root cause. Why are these screws backing out? Maybe it needs lock tight but maybe it’s also a stripped female end? A lot of screws just end up going into plywood and wood glue with toothpicks can be used to fill the hold and start tapping the screw from scratch.

If you haven’t done a warranty trip back to Jackson Center, that’s always a good idea. They will fix everything the right way and also likely catch things that you may not know about. There is free camping full hook ups while you are there too. We ended up doing one trip there half way through our warranty period and then another one right when our warranty was expiring.

After that, it’s just been me learning how to address different issues myself.

[cobrawine]

We also have a 22fb caravel and have the same issues as you describe. There are a few additional items like the shower door etc. Dealer can't perform maintenance until March [emoji849].

Anyway on the divider between bed and kitchen. Had the same issue...dealers solution was to tighten more and use loctite...which made it worse. Here's what fixed for us.

1. Remove plexiglass
2. Remove all fasteners that are stretched/out of square form overtightening. they are held in by a screw (overtightening stretches them out which causes the plexiglass to come out).
3. Put the fasteners in a vice and get them "square".
4. Reinstall and don't overtighten. You don't need loctite.

~30 hrs of driving with no issue.

[AzAirstream]

You might adjust your tire pressure to a lower but safe value to reduce vibration. Made a huge difference to my AS and no more popped rivits.

[Saluda372]

I don't feel it's your AS model. You've received some good suggestions. Good luck.

[KCurtis]

How much air PSI are you running on your tires?

[AzAirstream]

Originally Posted by KCurtis

How much air PSI are you running on your tires?

60PSI on GY Endurance 15inch - 25' Airstream

[FredWilma]

I have all of the same problems with our 22FB. In addition the microwave fell out of its housing and, worse, the front rock guard pulled away from the body and tore a hole in the skin of the airstream.

I was towing with a lightly loaded trailer, using a equalizer hitch and the recommended 80psi in the tires.

After reading a number of threads on this forum I think my problem is too much pressure in the tires and too hard a ride from the WD hitch. All coupled with a light trailer that kind of bounced around.

I have backed off on the WD and now run at 65 psi which is ample for my load. I also run with full tank of fresh water to stop the light trailer from bouncing around.

Never seen another issue in the last 4000 miles. Dinette cushions now stay in place!

This worked for me. Mileage may vary.

[jmickow]

I also have a 22FB but a 2016 model, and I can tell you that the problems are all the same regardless of year. It is important to understand that the on the road it’s like a constant earthquake inside the trailer. Long long honeymoon on YouTube has a video taken from inside while traveling. As noted by previous commenters, the first step is to minimize the stress on the trailer from the road, which means carefully setting the tire pressure. I found that 80 PSI was a huge issue with stuff shaking and moving, and now run Goodyear Endurance tires at no more than 60-65 psi.

With respect to those plastic partitions, the main problem is that the shell shakes side to side and those panels need to be able to move. Just tightening all the hex screws will only make things worse. I added some washers behind the hex screws with a layer of slippery plastic laminated to them and the inside bracket face so the panels can move. The two countertop brackets are tight, and the various others on the wall and ceiling are somewhat loose. Blue loctite keeps the screws in place. I also needed to trim the plastic as the shape did not match the sidewalls and they were rubbing and wore through the finish on the aluminum. Very few problems now, although they still need occasional checking and adjustment.