Looking for advice on Swift Kon-Tiki build quality

J

Just us on Tour

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Hello All …
I guess this is a question to all Kon-Tiki owners or past owners . We are considering ordering a new Kon-Tiki , however we are worried about the reported bad build quality , especially the noises on line about them being known as Con - Leakys . Has anyone ever experienced a swift with “Smart Construction“ that’s suffered with water ingress please ? Any advice regarding your experience with build quality and warranty back up would be greatly appreciated.
thank you 🙏
 
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Suzukikettle can you recount your experience (by Private Message (‘Conversation’ in MotorhomeFun speak) if preferred)?

Ian
 
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I've got a Swift from new they look good I've had no problems with water ingress they are plastic and as well built as any of the other makes don't be fazed by the German contingent
There will be a few hiccups but buy with your eyes open and go for it
 
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Ponner said:
I've got a Swift from new they look good I've had no problems with water ingress they are plastic and as well built as any of the other makes don't be fazed by the German contingent
There will be a few hiccups but buy with your eyes open and go for it
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Thank you . Yes I was considering buying German but if I am honest the layouts don’t really work for us . We have a friend who has a very well respected german brand . It’s less than 6 months old and been back for issues 3 times already . I do accept all brands will have their Friday afternoon built van .Thank you for your reply Ponner very much appreciated.

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Had a 2010 679 bought in 2012 for 8 years. No leaks very happy with van other than 1, truma heater elements. 2, comfortmatic gear box. Ended ownership after recovery 4 times in 2019 despite fiat pro saying all well.
If it's not a comfortmatic enjoy. Only down side is the +8metre Van's aren't covered by nationwide plus account breakdown and some sites who fail to understand overhang say their pitches are to small
 
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Don't forget kon tiki is their flagship brand it will be as good as all the others
I've got an escape which is a budget model and to be honest it's lovely with minimal problems and certainly no major ones
 
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We've got a Swift Bessacarr 584 since new, 2019 and no problems to date with leaks. We think Swift are as good as many out there and really like the interior. Would love a Kon-Tiki but out of our price range and think too long for us.
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Roaming radfords on YouTube seem happy with theirs and made a good few mods to it.

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We have a 2014 kontiki 669 from new nearly 56ooo miles and as yet no major problems can't fault design or build quality
 
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We bought a Swift Kontiki 669 when it was a year old, and had done 2,500 miles, it’s now done over 77,000.
We have now had it nearly nine years and love it.We have had no problems with damp whatsoever,and in fact have had nothing go wrong with the Swift side at all. I have had injector problems with the Fiat side though.

Every manufacturer,be it British,German, Italian or French all have problems.
And we couldn’t find a German motorhome layout that suited us like the Swift Kontiki.

What you need to remember is Swift are one of the biggest sellers of motorhomes and caravans in this country,and you only hear about the few that have problems,not the thousands that are reasonably fault free,like mine is.
 
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2nd owner Kon-Tiki 599 Sport, only 6 months old and 1,600 miles when we got it.
Thread 'Water Ingress into Rear Garage' https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/water-ingress-into-rear-garage.293886/

Note youtube link van is another Swift brand and exactly the same design as our Kon-Tiki 599

Ingress is a design issue really, horizontal butt joints unless perfectly sealed will leak.
If they were vertical they would not.

I have other issues with Swift design that are not "body leak" related.
e.g. being bathroom tap, you can see issue month 1, in fact day 1 of our USA road trip @ https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/journals/categories/americas.82/

There are many "features" of the Kon-Tiki that are feature over function.

You can follow our misadventures @ https://www.polarsteps.com/JezAng/7186963-gap-year
 
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We bought a new Kontiki 625 in March 2018. Loved the layout and design.

Major build quality issues, including amongst other things, significant roof leaks. Resulted in Swift taking it back to their factory for 12 weeks and a financial compensation payment.

Having lost confidence in it, we changed the Moho within 12 months.
 
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Ponner said:
I've got a Swift from new they look good I've had no problems with water ingress they are plastic and as well built as any of the other makes don't be fazed by the German contingent
There will be a few hiccups but buy with your eyes open and go for it
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Youve clearly never had German! I was pro British unti i brought a Bailey an horror story from day one!

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Jenka said:
Youve clearly never had German! I was pro British unti i brought a Bailey an horror story from day one!
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I would not buy a Bailey even before stepping inside it, if they cannot get the side wall panel construction better than they do then heaven only knows what else they are deficient on.

They have an unusual manufacturing process for the side walls which gives a horrible rippled appearence.
 
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Everything we buy in life is open to scrutiny. There are forums for virtually everything we buy these days but they generally only attract visitors when those visitors encounter a problem and are seeking advice. People rarely come to such sites to praise a product so people responding will respond with their own issues. One or two will say they are happy, but generally all here are talking about problems. You can buy a new car and it’s a lemon in the same way you can buy a new MH and it leaks. These are complex vehicles now so inevitably some will fail. Out of the 100s or 1000s produced only a few have issues. Forums do not generally give a balanced view on a products success or failure. There will be buyers who are extremely happy with their MH and others completely dissatisfied.
 
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Tombola said:
Roaming radfords on YouTube seem happy with theirs and made a good few mods to it.
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I doubt everything these people say, it’s about sponsorship and freebies I doubt very much anything they say does not have an element of bias towards who gives them what.

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Fatboy said:
He is a nice lad Steve Radfords, but average joe wouldn’t have spent what he has on a kontiki if it wasn’t sponsored, his rig must have 30 grands worth of upgrades, quite scary
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Suspect it's more than that, he spent about £12k on electrics, has full air, levelling jacks, and a while ago had an expensive sound system installed, plus lots of other smaller bits.
 
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Just us on Tour said:
Hello All …
I guess this is a question to all Kon-Tiki owners or past owners . We are considering ordering a new Kon-Tiki , however we are worried about the reported bad build quality , especially the noises on line about them being known as Con - Leakys . Has anyone ever experienced a swift with “Smart Construction“ that’s suffered with water ingress please ? Any advice regarding your experience with build quality and warranty back up would be greatly appreciated.
thank you 🙏
Click to expand...
We have had five vans, first one a Dethleffs, no problem, then we bought a Hymer, no problem then a Swift, which we got rid of after a year, after warranty issues, and then bought a Hobby Motorhome, no problems, then we bought a Burstner no problems. All of our good vans have been German built.
This is my observation, on vans owned by myself.
 
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Fatboy said:
He is a nice lad Steve Radfords, but average joe wouldn’t have spent what he has on a kontiki if it wasn’t sponsored, his rig must have 30 grands worth of upgrades, quite scary
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I'm sure you are not one of these folks, Fatboy, but there does seem sometimes to be a a sort of snobby element on the forum with people ''dissing'' certain types of motorhomes. It seems to me a bit like people from London being down on Liverpool or Manchester or Newcastle although they've never even been to those places. By contrast, those Londoners who HAVE been are normally quite complimentary about the people and places mentioned. By that, I mean that the people talking down about Swift are most often the people who don't actually OWN them (so how could they know how good or bad they are) and just want to crow about their own purportedly ''superior'' (mainly German) model. I've motorhomed since 1980 and had all kinds of vans, German included. Most lately, though, we bought a second-hand Swift Kontiki 649 in 2019 and (25,000 miles later) haven't had a lick of trouble with it that you wouldn't expect - a cupboard bolt coming loose here or there, but easily tightened. No leaks, no mechanical problems, nothing. We've even driven to Malta and back in it - not a hitch.
Also, although I consider myself an average Joe (I'm certainly not sponsored by anyone) I have been fortunate enough after a lifetime's work to have been able to spend a large amount of money on my Swift - see this link - Apart from the electrical improvements, I've had E&P hydraulics fitted, VB all-round air suspension and a 360° camera system. I wouldn't have paid all that money on a bag of nails. No, we bought our motorhome primarily because of the layout and having the habitation door on the pavement side, and, secondly, because of the purchase price. Our van, six months old, with 2,500 miles on the clock cost us GBP 67,000 (those were the days!) whereas a German one of similar layout and age was over double that. I guess you could liken it to either buying a Jaguar or a Rolls-Royce. Both are perfectly functional and comfortable, so maybe the question should be why would someone pay double the cost for something that does just the same? Not something your average Joe would do, but if they have the cash, and like the prestige, then why not? It's their choice and good luck to them if It gives them pleasure. We shouldn't begrudge them that, but at the same time we wouldn't want to see those Rolls-Royce owners crowing about how much better they think their cars are than ours, would we? So why do it with our motorhomes? In our case, we've bought the ideal layout for us, plus upgraded it massively for far less than the cost of a ''superior'' German model (with the habitation door opening onto the road) and still without all the upgrades that we have. To finish, based on our experience, I would say to the OP to buy a Kon-Tiki without any reservations. Ours has been wonderful, as are the vast majority of others from what I have seen and heard.
 
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Mick Kennedy said:
I'm sure you are not one of these folks, Fatboy, but there does seem sometimes to be a a sort of snobby element on the forum with people ''dissing'' certain types of motorhomes. It seems to me a bit like people from London being down on Liverpool or Manchester or Newcastle although they've never even been to those places. By contrast, those Londoners who HAVE been are normally quite complimentary about the people and places mentioned. By that, I mean that the people talking down about Swift are most often the people who don't actually OWN them (so how could they know how good or bad they are) and just want to crow about their own purportedly ''superior'' (mainly German) model. I've motorhomed since 1980 and had all kinds of vans, German included. Most lately, though, we bought a second-hand Swift Kontiki 649 in 2019 and (25,000 miles later) haven't had a lick of trouble with it that you wouldn't expect - a cupboard bolt coming loose here or there, but easily tightened. No leaks, no mechanical problems, nothing. We've even driven to Malta and back in it - not a hitch.
Also, although I consider myself an average Joe (I'm certainly not sponsored by anyone) I have been fortunate enough after a lifetime's work to have been able to spend a large amount of money on my Swift - see this link - Apart from the electrical improvements, I've had E&P hydraulics fitted, VB all-round air suspension and a 360° camera system. I wouldn't have paid all that money on a bag of nails. No, we bought our motorhome primarily because of the layout and having the habitation door on the pavement side, and, secondly, because of the purchase price. Our van, six months old, with 2,500 miles on the clock cost us GBP 67,000 (those were the days!) whereas a German one of similar layout and age was over double that. I guess you could liken it to either buying a Jaguar or a Rolls-Royce. Both are perfectly functional and comfortable, so maybe the question should be why would someone pay double the cost for something that does just the same? Not something your average Joe would do, but if they have the cash, and like the prestige, then why not? It's their choice and good luck to them if It gives them pleasure. We shouldn't begrudge them that, but at the same time we wouldn't want to see those Rolls-Royce owners crowing about how much better they think their cars ours than ours, would we? So why do it with our motorhomes? In our case, we've bought the ideal layout for us, plus upgraded it massively for far less than the cost of a ''superior'' German model (with the habitation door opening onto the road) and still without all the upgrades that we have. To finish, based on our experience, I would say to the OP to buy a Kon-Tiki without any reservations. Ours has been wonderful, as are the vast majority of others from what I have seen and heard.
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We bought a 21 year old Swift Sundance recently, it’s all we can afford. It wasn’t pristine, but I’m reasonably handy so was not put off by a bit of loose trim inside. The kitchen draw runners had collapsed. £8 later for a new pair and 20 minutes later and the draw is like new. We’ve been campers all our lives and stayed in many caravans, both tourers and statics, but never towed one, never wanted to, but we have wanted a MH for a while now. As you say, not everyone can afford big money to live the dream.
 
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stewartwebr said:
I doubt everything these people say, it’s about sponsorship and freebies I doubt very much anything they say does not have an element of bias towards who gives them what.
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Totaly agree theres loads of sponsored bloggers who rave about a van they dont even own!
 
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Mick Kennedy said:
I'm sure you are not one of these folks, Fatboy, but there does seem sometimes to be a a sort of snobby element on the forum with people ''dissing'' certain types of motorhomes. It seems to me a bit like people from London being down on Liverpool or Manchester or Newcastle although they've never even been to those places. By contrast, those Londoners who HAVE been are normally quite complimentary about the people and places mentioned. By that, I mean that the people talking down about Swift are most often the people who don't actually OWN them (so how could they know how good or bad they are) and just want to crow about their own purportedly ''superior'' (mainly German) model. I've motorhomed since 1980 and had all kinds of vans, German included. Most lately, though, we bought a second-hand Swift Kontiki 649 in 2019 and (25,000 miles later) haven't had a lick of trouble with it that you wouldn't expect - a cupboard bolt coming loose here or there, but easily tightened. No leaks, no mechanical problems, nothing. We've even driven to Malta and back in it - not a hitch.
Also, although I consider myself an average Joe (I'm certainly not sponsored by anyone) I have been fortunate enough after a lifetime's work to have been able to spend a large amount of money on my Swift - see this link - Apart from the electrical improvements, I've had E&P hydraulics fitted, VB all-round air suspension and a 360° camera system. I wouldn't have paid all that money on a bag of nails. No, we bought our motorhome primarily because of the layout and having the habitation door on the pavement side, and, secondly, because of the purchase price. Our van, six months old, with 2,500 miles on the clock cost us GBP 67,000 (those were the days!) whereas a German one of similar layout and age was over double that. I guess you could liken it to either buying a Jaguar or a Rolls-Royce. Both are perfectly functional and comfortable, so maybe the question should be why would someone pay double the cost for something that does just the same? Not something your average Joe would do, but if they have the cash, and like the prestige, then why not? It's their choice and good luck to them if It gives them pleasure. We shouldn't begrudge them that, but at the same time we wouldn't want to see those Rolls-Royce owners crowing about how much better they think their cars are than ours, would we? So why do it with our motorhomes? In our case, we've bought the ideal layout for us, plus upgraded it massively for far less than the cost of a ''superior'' German model (with the habitation door opening onto the road) and still without all the upgrades that we have. To finish, based on our experience, I would say to the OP to buy a Kon-Tiki without any reservations. Ours has been wonderful, as are the vast majority of others from what I have seen and heard.
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Mick, I have to respond to this, I have a 2022 Swift Kontiki 884,I bought it new unseen as they were not launched when we went on the waiting list. These are £116,000 new now. i have spent around 7k on mine, gaslow, 360 camera, diesel heater etc, I will spend more as and when I can afford it. I’ve not dished Swift yet I am a prime example why the OP is asking the question, i have never had an issue with mine till it’s first hab check. they found serious damp in it, fortunately it’s going back to the factory for repair. you get a lot of motorhome for you money with swift, I went for a new kontiki because they were the best option for around 100k, if I went into that and went on to spend another 30-40k I would have personally been looking at a Carthago to start with. As I said Steve radfords is a great guy but you and I pay for our upgrades, he gets huge discounts for promoting them, and for us we get to see the product, though I’ve yet to see a bad review.
 
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