Bourton hab door step well flooded

Had a motorway drive in the rain on Wednesday in our new Bourton and found the habitation footwell step flooded with water on arrival. Had chance to take a closer look in the dry today. It appears that the step inside the van has ventilation? slots on each side, one of which is in line with water thrown up by the rear wheels. In the absence of drainage it just collects in the step well. The water is also thown onto the retracted step which collects any road muck. I'm sure rear mudflaps would stop this. Anyone else had this problem and any ideas on a resolution?

They have rear mud flaps fitted don't they, only problem is they don't seem to be very long ones

This is a common problem!

Do a search on this forum for “BROADWAY ENTRANCE STEP FILLS WITH WATER” Nov 2017. (It is two thirds down the list page).

It seems that in the AS factory, some are fitted with rear mudflaps and some aren’t !!  Why? , only AS know!

Our Broadway was fitted automatically with rear mudflaps when new and so far we have not had a flood in the door well.

It’s yet another crazy thing that AS do! Mark at AS Service Centre has probably retrofitted several vans with mudflaps recently!

Pete

Maasai Warrior wrote:This is a common problem!

Do a search on this forum for “BROADWAY ENTRANCE STEP FILLS WITH WATER” Nov 2017. (It is two thirds down the list page).

It seems that in the AS factory, some are fitted with rear mudflaps and some aren’t !!  Why? , only AS know!

Our Broadway was fitted automatically with rear mudflaps when new and so far we have not had a flood in the door well.

It’s yet another crazy thing that AS do! Mark at AS Service Centre has probably retrofitted several vans with mudflaps recently!

Pete

Thanks. Pleased (well realatively!) that it's a known issue. Waiting for a response from our dealer first before taking the AS option.

Maasai Warrior wrote:This is a common problem!

Do a search on this forum for “BROADWAY ENTRANCE STEP FILLS WITH WATER” Nov 2017. (It is two thirds down the list page).

It seems that in the AS factory, some are fitted with rear mudflaps and some aren’t !!  Why? , only AS know!

Our Broadway was fitted automatically with rear mudflaps when new and so far we have not had a flood in the door well.

It’s yet another crazy thing that AS do! Mark at AS Service Centre has probably retrofitted several vans with mudflaps recently!

Pete

I seem to recall there was also an issue with some of the footwell "air vents" that had been incorrectly fitted which I believe AS corrected FOC, as one would expect!
Personally, I would always refer such issues to Mark (Service centre Manager) at the AS service centre in Willersey - he is much better informed on all arising problems than any dealer and generally you will get an instant solution.

Have just spoken to our dealer to make sure they are fitted to ours which we collect on 1st march. He told us that if the habitation door is after the rear wheel,  mud flaps are fitted.

Here's the problem. Removed two small screws holding the vent in place and you can see the sand and salt that has been thrown up from the clearly visible rear tyre - you can just see the tread. The vent clearly needs some sort of protection.

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Mud flaps are not fitted as standard. They weren't on our Bourton and I met a Broadway owner who had not got them originally but had just had some fitted. Another Bourton member on this forum had the same problem and another one I met had insisted on them being fitted before delivery as she knew about the problem.

Tell the dealer that they must be fitted before delivery. It is a well known problem and a proper solution should have been found before now.

The upside is that they seem to work.

Stunning piece of  design Peter. Who would have thought that putting a vent a few inches behind a road wheel throwing up all kinds of road filth would allow water easy entry?  Obviously yours is a one in a million occurrence- aye right!  
          I would fibreglass in a deflector plate over the vent / step moulding which allows the vent to breathe but sheds water before it is forced at pressure straight into the door entry. Our Previous coachbuilt suffered similarly but only in very heavy rain / puddles and it had mudflaps but water just ran round the flaps at speed.

pstallwood wrote:Mud flaps are not fitted as standard. They weren't on our Bourton and I met a Broadway owner who had not got them originally but had just had some fitted. Another Bourton member on this forum had the same problem and another one I met had insisted on them being fitted before delivery as she knew about the problem.

Tell the dealer that they must be fitted before delivery. It is a well known problem and a proper solution should have been found before now.

The upside is that they seem to work.

- All our mud flaps, front and rear were fitted by AS in the factory as standard. We certainly didn’t request them to be retro fitted. That was for a new 2014 Broadway EB, with the habitation door behind the rear wheels. As a consequence we have never had a problem with water from the road coming through the vents and flooding the door well. We were not even aware at the time, that there was a potential issue from not having them fitted.

So why oh why are AS changing their build procedures and leaving them off? - It doesn’t make sense!

Pete

My step is well in front of the rear wheels, but has mug flaps fitted anyway. Sounds like penny pinching like the submersible pump change.

We’ve also been taken in some water through that offending vent, and so suspected it was a lack of fitted mud flaps causing the problem, as stated above. Had a look behind the rear wheels, sure enough no mud flaps fitted. Called Willersley to explain the situation, but got a rather confusing answer. Now, I always thought of mudflaps as being made of rubber or plastic, and usually black in colour. But, the mud flaps fitted to our Bourton are not the conventional mud flaps but steel mudflaps. ? And that’s what Willersley told me, they’re steel mudflaps. I’ve taken a picture, which will hopefully upload. Surely there should be a conventional mud flap here ? 

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Where is the vent in that picture?

PLOUGHLIN wrote:Where is the vent in that picture?

There is another panel behind the “Steel mudflap”, which has a large square hole approx 6”x4” in it, and its through that hole the vent is located. I couldn’t get a camera shot from the wheel side, but you can see it from the vent side, in the picture posted earlier. What’s happening I believe is that the spray from the tyres, is getting up behind the “steel mudflap” and driving through the open hole, and directly onto the vent. And then, through to the hab footwell. A convential rubber mudflap would sort it surely ?

We've got mudflaps fitted & still get water in the footwell, also wet in the skirt locker.

According to the AS brochure (2016) - Rear (rubber) Mud flats were standard fit on all of the MB range of vehicles - fitted at chassis build by MB! 
Indeed as was my 2014 Malvern fitted with rear mud flaps. However front mud flaps were not an option and had to be an after market fit

PS. - The 2018 brochure for the Mercedes range also shows "rear mud flaps" as a standard fit!!

This is the mudflap fitted to my MH, hangs well down below the skirt.

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Liam wrote:According to the AS brochure (2016) - Rear (rubber) Mud flats were standard fit on all of the MB range of vehicles - fitted at chassis build by MB! 
Indeed as was my 2014 Malvern fitted with rear mud flaps. However front mud flaps were not an option and had to be an after market fit

PS. - The 2018 brochure for the Mercedes range also shows "rear mud flaps" as a standard fit!!

Just looked at the 2017 brochure, which also shows rear mud flaps on the spec. What it doesn’t say is the word “rubber”, which you say is used on the 2016 brochure. It looks like they’ve stopped fitting conventional rubber rear mudflaps, and now fit a steel mudflap. Although the brochure doesn’t reveal that. Furthermore, it doesn’t work, so seems to be a design fault. Only way I think to make this water tight, if an additional rear rubber mudflap won’t solve it, is to block up the vent facing the wheel. ?

kaiser wrote:
Just looked at the 2017 brochure, which also shows rear mud flaps on the spec. What it doesn’t say is the word “rubber”, which you say is used on the 2016 brochure. It looks like they’ve stopped fitting conventional rubber rear mudflaps, and now fit a steel mudflap. Although the brochure doesn’t reveal that. Furthermore, it doesn’t work, so seems to be a design fault. Only way I think to make this water tight, if an additional rear rubber mudflap won’t solve it, is to block up the vent facing the wheel. ?

To be fair - the earlier AS Brochures did not mention rubber in their description - I added (rubber) merely as a description of what was fitted to my van.
My van is exactly as shown by Peter in his posted picture above.

Mine is like Peter's NOW!

We have the same problem . Sodden !
Little carpet drying and step drying in the sun ( when it appears ! ) Not good !

Norwich Lass wrote:We have the same problem . Sodden !
Little carpet drying and step drying in the sun ( when it appears ! ) Not good !

This should not be happening!!!
I would speak directly with AS at Willersey and get it resolved - I can assure you it is not happening to previous Mercedes based models.
As far as I can deduce from the comments on this thread - MB appear to have replaced the original rubber mud flaps with some sort of a steel arrangement which does not protect the underside of the motorhome from water spray.

Ive taken this back up with Willersley, and to be fair to them, they have authorised our dealer to fit rear rubber mudflaps to be fitted under warranty.

Many thanks - will take this further !

Don’t think it has anything to do with wether mudflaps are fitted or not... it’s wether or not baffles are fitted to the exterior of the step ventilation holes! 

Our Broadway had this annoyance every time it rained our step and mats got drenched and took several days to dry out... after many complaints  to Marquis who could find no reason for it, Mark at the Auto Sleeper service centre said “that’s because you have no baffles fitted” they fixed it and it’s been fine since!

I’m “Baffled” that Auto-Sleepers don’t seem to fit these baffles at the factory manufacture stage rather than wait until customers experience this on the road then rectify it at a later date  must be due to that marvellous AutoSleepers quality we hear so much about.