CCV advice

[keytothestone]

Looking for advice. I got a CCV top in Aug. Some of the screens are pulling away from the stitching. Not stoked. Contacted via email CCV 11/13/ about getting them fixed and doing floor ,walls, and dialing in the electrical. Was really surprised that I received a promp response. Especially after reading on here about how things are going since Brian left. Told Amber I was looking dropping with them in Feb. She said they had openings, and would get a estimate from Derek and would get back to me tomorrow. Haven't heard a word since. I have emailed a 4 times, called a bunch and still nothing. So I guess the advice I'm after looking for is should I just show the heck up in Feb.? Super frustrating. I don't need the van for 3 weeks. Flying out of DIA. Thoughts???? Thnks in advance.
Jeff

[Blowby]

Definitely wouldn't be dropping my van off without a confirmation date!
I would just keep at it,as presently you have some time and hopefully they will get
back to you.
Good luck.

[VtSoundman]

I haven't gotten a response from them since late October...

[keytothestone]

Hopefully I do hear from them. But at this point I'm very doubtful. I plan on flying out of Denver anyway I guess. So if I swing in & they deny me, I have a buddy I can park it with the 3 weeks I'm gone in Ft Collins. Then maybe just maybe I will be able to talk to someone and schedule an appt. for later. You would think repeat customers or warranty work might get a little more consideration?????

[86Scotty]

Yes, you'd think.

Best of luck.

[TheWooginator]

If you don’t hear anything back, it might be worth giving Doug/Dai a call at Opt Overland in Fort Collins. I’m also just down the road from those guys on the north end of town if you need to stash the van for a few weeks.

[keytothestone]

Finally heard back from CCV after trying to email them one last time after not hearing from them for 31 days. All set to go for Feb. I guess persistence pays off! Now if I could only get electricity to my home here in PR. 94 days & counting. 31 days on island. Solar Luci lights, 34qt Dometic fridge & 100w panel, & 100w Rigid inverter are getting me by. Thanks all for the input & advice. Happy Holidays

[B350]

Quite honestly, I would not be persistent about doing business with a company that has terrible customer service and poor build quality. Why spend your time and and hard earned money on a product that ends up falling short of your expectations?

Colorado Camper Van also installed a mid-height top on my van in July of 2016. While it functions as it should, meaning it goes up and down, the build quality in my opinion is less than acceptable for an eight thousand five hundred dollar pop top.

Here are my observations and feedback:

1. When I got my van back to MN I noticed the fiberglass shell was not cut to fit the van's roof line very well at all. It was a sloppy cut that left finger width gaps between the rubber gasket and rain gutter. I addressed this with Derek and ended up trimming/grinding down the sides myself. After addressing what I consider a quality control oversight again with Derek he did end up giving me a $500 refund.

2. The gas struts that hold up the bed platform were installed in two positions leaving all the screw holes from the first location. A minor detail but an oversight nonetheless.

3. A year into the build (and not one night actually spent sleeping in the van) I noticed that the canvas was pulling out of the wood lathing sandwiched in the fiberglass shell in the front corners. WTF?! Upon closer inspection I found that the majority (75%+) of screws around the entire canvas to shell perimeter were stripped. The screws were 1/2" which is too short to properly bite into the wood lathing. I ended up replacing each and every screw with a 3/4" screw. Up front I added wider aluminum trim so that the screws actually hit the center of the wood lathing. A call to Matt at the time and emails to both Matt and Derek expressing my disappointment in quality prompted no response whatsoever.

4. CCV installed 2 solar panels on the pop top when it was built. The other day I noticed that all the rivets holding the panels' brackets to the roof are loose. Now i have another project to attend to before it becomes a problem.

5. While the canvas around the top is good quality, the seams and stitching fall short for a product that is intended to be used on a regular basis in the elements. Wind blown rain will saturate and leak into the window stitching and vertical seams. In this case a higher quality marine grade wax thread should be used and the seams sealed at the time of the build. We ended up sealing all the stitching with seam sealer (IOSSO Seam Sealer) and the vertical seams with vinyl cement (H66 Vinyl Cement).

While others may have a more positive experience, this is purely my experience and general disappointment in the lack of quality and craftsmanship at CCV. Ask yourself what your expectations are and what level of customer service you would like. After all, you are putting your trust into that company with the expectation for quality and craftsmanship in return for a good sum of your money.

[VtSoundman]

Originally Posted by B350

Quite honestly, I would not be persistent about doing business with a company that has terrible customer service and poor build quality. Why spend your time and and hard earned money on a product that ends up falling short of your expectations?

Colorado Camper Van also installed a mid-height top on my van in July of 2016. While it functions as it should, meaning it goes up and down, the build quality in my opinion is less than acceptable for an eight thousand five hundred dollar pop top.
...

Sigh...damn it damn it damn it. Your post (and others like it with first hand CCV experience) is giving us great pause.

I went back through my emails & conversation logs. I didn't realize that we've attempted to spend some serious cash with CCV since the summer.

Their top has some very desirable qualities...but I'm not sure if it is worth the risk.

I'd hate for this to turn into one of those deals where regret and buyers remorse is instantaneous. It would be one thing if we were within a few hours of the shop and could hound CCV in person. But we aren't...

[1der]

My two cents: Just do it. We are not walking into a Ford dealer and buying a production car. These are semi custom, pretty unique modifications that we are making or having made to our vans. Have CCV do the top. You do the solar and build out or find someone else to do it. But if you are trying to find a better pop top than CCV, you will not find it.

Nearly all the upfitters have some issue, especially around communications. UJOR has had issues, Agile had issues for a while, Van Specialties, SMB, too. CCV is putting out 5 + rigs per week.

Concerned about risk? Get on a plane like I did and go check them out for yourself, see their work first hand, then decide. Get on a plane and come out to San Francisco and I will show you our mid size top and discuss the pros and cons of the top and getting it done. Find a SMB pop top and climb up into that and then compare size, space , function, canvas, bed, etc.

Is our top 100% perfect? No, but there is nothing big and the little things have been fixed or are accepted as part of dealing with semi custom. We love our top and have spent easily over 150 nights sleeping in it. I would do it again without a second thought. And that is even in light of our getting the first top off the mid size mold, unkowns and all. Just back from 20 nights and 1,500 miles in Baja - all good.

Question to B350. - would you make the decision again to get a CCV top, and/or how would you handle it differently? How did the expectations get set? What is the REAL RISK vs reward? What would you get instead?

Monkeys On The Road - Yosemite to Patagonia - - John, Mary and their daughter took off in October for the tip of South America in their mid size top CCV E Series. They are living it, and loving it.

This van stuff takes a bit of faith, patience, management, persistence and understanding of what is being done. Do your due diligence by comparing first hand, then decide.