Truma Safety Recall

[Don Madge]

Truma Safety Recall Safety takes priority - Truma is modifying individual Trumatic C models. Truma Gerätetechnik GmbH & Co. KG has decided to maintain the operational safety of its Trumatic C heater model by modifying heaters that were manufactured at certain times. The Trumatic C heater model has been operating reliably in many motor homes for many years. The following devices have to be modified: Model 1: equipment in model series C 3402/4002/6002 including EL versions serial numbers (Fabr.-Nr.): from C xxxxx-x-16 255 001 to C xxxxx-x-17 159 000 Model 2: equipment in the C 6002 EH model series serial numbers (Fabr.-Nr.): from C xxxxx-x-15 329 001 to C xxxxx-x-17 159 000 The serial number you can find on the name plate that is attached to your heater. For the concerned devices the following precautionary measures are urgently necessary: 1. The heater must not be used for heating or hot water preparation! 2. Please note the serial number you can find on the name plate of your heater 3. Please contact Truma Uk Service Department on 01283 586020 We understand that the modifications are carried out free of charge at your home location.

[Bill Ord]

Thanks for the info Don, My 2005 Rapido 924F is one of the units affected. I contacted Truma and they told the unit would be replaced!! and told me to contact my dealer. the van was supplied by Brownhills of Newark. I contacted their service dept. and they told me they would call back; I'm still waiting. I went to the German truma site and notice they advise a free service hotline 00800-88 488 488 I'll try this in the morning. I would like to have it replaced at my home if possible. Thanks again Bill Ord

[Derek Uzzell]

The Truma C6002EH Combi in my Hobby also falls into the safety-modification category (in fact it's probable that all C6002EH appliances up to a very recent date-of-manufacture will require modification). I've spoken to Truma(UK) who tell me that (at least for the C6002EH) replacement of the appliance is not required, just the fan-housing/shrouding needing to be changed. I'm pretty sure this is a further attempt to fix the smell-while-heating-water-on-gas that has been complained about with Combis since the Year Dot. My previous 2001 C3402 did it and, despite being told that a change of material had solved the problem (basically caused by heat-soak), my 2005 C6002EH does it too. The smell of 'cooking' plastic has lessened somewhat with use, but it's still present. Truma(UK) offered me the choice of visiting a Truma agency at Oxford for the modification to be made or having it done at my home with perhaps a month's delay. I've chosen the latter option and I'm told I shall be contacted in a fortnight or so to arrange an appointment date. Some Combis are deeply embedded in a motorhome's innards and, in such cases, the Truma technicians are going to have fun making the modification. Shouldn't be too hard with my Hobby as the heater is semi-naked beneath the rear bed. Besides which, I know the heater installation like the back of my hand having had to re-install completely the air-ducting last year. Pity the safety-mod couldn't have been made then, when I had everything in bits, but at least I already know how to get the surrounding 'furniture' apart in order to gain access to the appliance. Owners of all leisure-vehicles affected (even personal imports) should be contacted (though I wouldn't bet on it). Apparently the safety-notice was issued at the beginning of this week so some time may pass before notifications come through. Well done, Don.

[Bill Ord]

Further to my earlier posting and to add to Derek's. Truma offered me the option of having it fixed at Elite Motorhomes three miles from my home but the workshop manager there declined to do the job as it's means removing the burners and maybe more to access the Truma Combi and truma will only pay for one hour labour, I think there'll be some fun and games with some instalations. I'm now waiting for an appointment at Brownhills Swindon, should know by Monday. Truma are still unforthcoming as to what the recall is for but the workshop manager at Elite told me that some of the Combis had caught fire because the wrong type of plastic had been used. Truma heaters have always had the burned plastic smell in my experience which lessened over time but I think this is more serious. Bill Ord

[Derek Uzzell]

Bill: Truma(UK) also offered me Elite Motorhomes to carry out the safety modification, but I said it was just as simple for me to bring the motorhome to Truma(HQ) near Derby as to take it to Elite near Oxford, but I'd really rather wait for a 'home-call'. (Besides which I loathe the idea of people I don't know messing around with my vehicles and I'd rather have Truma technicians deal with it where I can keep an eye on them!) After phoning Truma I contacted my friendly local motorcaravan dealership who confirmed that they had received notifications about the safety mod from the motorhome converters for whom they had agencies (Swift Group and Lunar were both instanced). I asked whether they would be making the necessary modification themselves and they said "Probably", adding that motorhome owners were being asked to get in touch initially with the dealerships that had supplied their 'vans. I'm hoping to get a look at the 'official notification' early next week, but I understand that (roughly speaking) heaters manufactured before 2004 (for C6002EH models) or before 2005 (for C3402/C4002/C6002 models) won't be involved in the modification program. I think the notice describes the problem as "in exceptional circumstances overheating may result in the area near the fan" (or something similar), but I expect that "overheating" is a bit of an understatement. Frankly, I'm not surprised this has happened. Even when Combis had adequate air-space around them they used to smell when in gas water-heating-only mode and, as many converters shoe-horn these heaters into poorly ventilated wardrobe bases or encapsulate them into the corners of L-shaped kitchens, it seemed just a question of time before there would be big trouble. (In fact I met a Hymer 800-Series-owning couple at the Truma stand at the last NEC show who were complaining to the reps that their motorhome became uninhabitable when the heater was running. They also said that their Combi's plastic upper and side shrouding showed clear signs of physical damage from excessive heat.) I'm not sure that a Combi would actually catch fire if overheated, but I can easily imagine plastic components going into meltdown with a knock-on effect on anything close to the heater. Your comment about Truma paying only the cost of 1 hour's labour is interesting. C-Series heaters have a 24 months warranty, so I guess all the appliances affected by the safety mod will still be warranted. In the Combi Operating Instructions leaflet there's a "Scope of Warranty" section that says: "The manufacturer (ie. Truma) shall bear the cost of employing the Truma customer service for the removal of a malfunction under warranty - in particular transportation costs, travelling expenses, job and material costs, as long as the service is carried out in Germany. The warranty does not cover customer service work in other countries. Additional costs based on complicated removal and installation conditions of the appliance (eg. removal of furniture or parts of the vehicle body) do not come under warranty." These limitations may not matter unduly if you've purchased your motorcaravan in the UK, as our consumer legislation makes motorhome dealers squarely responsible for resolving problems with the vehicles they sell. However, as far as I can see, this responsibility is less stringently defined in Continental Europe and, where an appliance (eg. Truma heater, Dometic fridge) has its own warranty, then the motorhome dealer and motorhome converter will normally expect the motorhome purchaser to deal directly with the appliance-manufacturer regarding warranty issues. What I'm suggesting is that, if I had bought my Hobby motorhome from Brownhills I could say to that dealership "I don't care about Truma restricting labour costs - just get this heater modification carried out at no charge to me." But, having bought my Hobby in Germany and imported it to the UK, unless I take it back there for the work to be carried out, there seems to be a real possibility that I could be liable for the labour costs involved for any 'furniture' disassembly/re-assembly work needed. As you say, there are likely to be "fun and games" over this. Literally thousands of motorhomes are bound to be involved and many (most?) of these will have been built around a Combi heater with little thought how the appliance can be accessed subsequently for repair.

[Derek Uzzell]

I've now obtained copies of Truma's installation instructions for carrying out 'safety modifications' to specific Trumatic C (Combi) heaters. Preliminary Work: This involves undoing the four 9mm plastic nuts that secure the heater's top cover, pulling apart the connector that attaches the blown-air fan-motor's power supply cabling to the heater's wiring harness, then lifting off the top cover complete with the fan-motor and its housing. Simple enough, but undoubtedly with many installations it will prove impossible to carry out this process with the heater in situ. Safety Modifications: Truma have issued two sets of installation instructions headed "Modification kit fan housing" or "U-bracket". Modification kit fan housing: It is clear that the two mouldings that make up the housing that carries the fan-motor must be replaced but, as the "modification kit" is not described in detail, I can't say whether it's just the original housing-mouldings that are swapped for new ones, or whether the assembly of top-cover, mouldings and fan is replaced as a complete unit. (If the latter, then there's more than a possibility that Truma may recycle parts unaffected by the safety modification, which has obvious implications for owners of these heaters.) 'Kits' differ according to whether the appliance requiring modification is a C3402 model or one in the C4002/C6002/C6002EH ranges. Presumably the need for two kit variants is because the fan-housing for the C3402 differs from that of the more powerful C4002 and C6002 Combis U-bracket: (I admit to some difficulty deciding which Combi heaters this modification relates to, but it seems to apply to a relatively small number of late-model C3402/C4002/C6002/C6002EH appliances, plus a larger group of C6002 Combis beginning with a particular Serial Number. Anyway, I guess the people performing the modifications will know!!) The pictures of the U-bracket show it to be a piece of metal that is inserted on the inside of the heater's top cover where (I assume) it acts as a heat-shield protecting the lower edge of the inner moulding of the housing that carries the fan-motor.

[Don Madge]

The following was posted on the Motorhome List this morning by Mike S. at least Truma appear to be making an effort. Don "Having had my Truma sorted at Burton recently, I have today received in the post from Truma Germany a letter apologizing for the inconvenience and a warranty extension of 6 months a compensation." Mike