The same situation obtains throughout the caravan industry Colin. Unlike car dealers who are tied into contracts with car brands that include a demand that they service all cars from the brand, wherever they were purchased, caravan dealer franchises are much looser and contain no such provision. Car dealerships tend to have borrowed large sums from the brands they represent and this gives the brand a hold over them. Caravan makers don't have anywhere near the same size pockets as car brands and caravan dealers are few and far between. If a caravan maker wants representation, then they have to put up with what the caravan dealer says. It's a completely opposite type of market to cars.
Having said all that you can sometimes find dealerships willing to service vans they haven't sold, but they tend to be those with spare capacity in their service bays, in times when sales have been dull. The massive growth in caravan sales in the Covid period has left caravan dealers struggling for capacity. They've lost staff due to Brexit, had to reduce capacity in places for H&S reasons and have a mass of new customers. So it's not surprising they won't add to the length of time their buyers might have to wait by taking on foreigners.
The only dealer who is bound to carry out work on your van is the one you purchased it from.

Hi,
Just thinking that process through, Hymer must surely be open to service-only contracts without the dealership bit if they struggle to get dealers to act properly. Surely an opening there for mobile service providers too?

Is it really worth it, Colin?

If it was the first couple of damp tests perhaps so, but what are the chances of the window or awning rail seals suddenly failing now?

I'd invest in a damp meter and do my own annual checks from now on if I were you.

If you live in Scotland, Knowpark in Livingstone will do the ingress test on any Eriba whether bought from them or not. They are also very reasonable for service costs. Very friendly to deal with. Worth a look if you are within range, or combine it with a trip North.

I started doing frequent damp testing but found a regular cheap damp meter could not get into all areas such as above the windows, so splashed out on one with a remote probe. This works quite well especially for getting into corners of cupboards, especially at the front (Triton 420), but the head was still too wide to fit between the side windows and cupboards. Managed to make another probe which is thin enough to do the job and works fine.

By keeping records of the readings you get you can quickly identify any deterioration, which would indicate a problem. Haven't found any issues with our Triton so far. It passes the time when I am at a loose end!

meter.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

You can't blame Hymer, or any other caravan maker for you moving house and the dealership nearest your new location not being willing to add more stress to their overburdened servicing facilities by taking on work on vans they haven't supplied. Exactly the same thing happens with Bailey, Swift, Coachman and Elddis and all other brands dealers throughout the country. I'm sure that Hymer and any other maker would love to be able to force their dealerships to service vans locally but they can't, they don't have the clout. If they start pushing a dealership to do something the dealership don't want to do, they'll find the dealership just won't renew their franchise next year and the brand loses distribution in that area. Frustrating but it's always been that way throughout the UK caravan industry.

Quote: eribaMotters wrote in post #6

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So far it has been spoilt and spent one winter under a car port and then rest in a garage. Could these have hidden a potential damp issue

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I agree with you Colin, the Hymer servicing is hit and miss. I bought my first new Familia from Automotive Leisure in Poole and had delivered to my house 250 miles away. I obviously wasn't going to use them for servicing, I used Lowdhams in Huddersfield who at the time did not sell Eribas but sold Hymer caravans. I asked them if they could service it and their only stipulation was it had to be UK sourced and spec van and to their credit they carried out some corrective electrical work under warranty. Is it worth the water ingress check? I would say yes, they found damp in my locker door on my fourth service and a new locker door was installed.
As we know dealerships can come and go and if where you bought your Eriba from no longer exists then it is not unreasonable to expect the next closest dealership to undertake any servicing and warranty work. My van is now out of it's six year water ingress warranty so I will be using a mobile caravan engineer later this year.