We have a 2001 Troll 540 GT. The overall build quality is one of the reasons we love it. But on a recent trip to the Peak District the bathroom door fell off in transit which was disappointing and surprising despite the age of the van. The screws used are tiny and I am not surprised that they are not up to the job. I have tried to screw back on but the it is tricky to gain purchase in the old holes and so I added some gorilla glue to help there. But now the door catch is not quite lined up so I have had to resort to velcro to keep the door shut as I got fed up with screwing holes in the wood work.

The inside containers on the exterior door are also extremely flimsy and are broken - I suspect by people using the shelf rather than the handle to close the door.

The drawer under the sink also seems fragile, perhaps the plastic has deteriorated over the years.

The mirror needs quite regular re-attachment in the bathroom.

On these blogs the suggestion is often that the build quality on earlier vans like ours is better than for later vans - in which case I will not be looking for a newer model any time soon......

Has anyone else experienced issues like these on early noughties vans?

We drive a nine year old mercedes E class and all the fittings on this just feel so much more solid than on the van - is this a fair comparison or are caravans inherently more flimsy than cars?

Caravans are built light, in order that they can be pulled by as many cars as possible. I suspect if a caravan was built of the same materials as a MB E Class it would need an HGV tractor unit to pull it.

You might want to check that your van's wheels are balanced as unbalanced wheels can cause vibrations that aren't apparent to the towing vehicle but can cause stuff to work loose inside the caravan.

The '01 era vans had a lot of white plastic and as they're knocking on towards 20 years old now, the plastic is getting brittle, which brings with it some of the problems you describe.

Thanks for these responses and I will check the wheel balancing - I suspect that bumpy Peak District roads might have had something to do with the door too. I guess that keeping on top of some of these issues is all part of the ownership experience.

Every time I've taken my Troll out on a long journey I've discovered a loose screw or fitting on the floor on my arrival. I've been wondering whether a smoother ride would help prevent the interior parts working loose and vibrating apart. I noticed the shock absorbers on my Troll are quite rusty and appear to be the originals from 2006. If my car had shock absorbers like this I would change them, however I've not really heard of people changing their caravan shock absorbers. Has anyone done this and has it led to a noticeable improvement in ride quality leading to better towing and a interior that isn't as keen to work loose?

Our '96 Pan seems to be doing better than her younger cousins, no such problems encountered as yet (she says crossing her fingers!). Even when following a diversion we had to rejoin the main road through a deep French ditch everything stayed put and we didn't even scrape our bottom oooerrrr! Cars were struggling in front of us and I admit to closing my eyes crossing the ditch (I wasn't driving) but Aimee happily followed and actually seemed to enjoy her off-road experience. We feared the worse after a long stretch of bumpy cobbles the same day, but again, not a thing out of place.