New Bailey Caravans

[CliveH]

Has anyone else come across reports on the New Alutech Bailey caravans having problems with stone dents on the front after towing?

 

They are apparently having to make up a safety screen to protect the new aluminium front panel when towing as the aluminium front is easily damaged by stones.

 

Not a problem on "traditional" caravans because the plastic tends to be more resilient than aluminium. Having sadly dinged my caravan side with a misplaced awning pole I can see how this could happen.

 

If so, it will be a bit of a blow as I think the new construction method is a huge leap forward.

 

[Terrytraveller]

Hi Clive,

I've towed our Pegasus 462 for just over a 1000 miles this year. I've found two very small dents, just discernable when looking at the right angle, in the right type of ambient light. It is a concern Clive, but my last four caravans from 1965 to 1999, two of them new, suffered from water ingress and rotting bodywork.

As I recall the 1965 Sprite Alpine was aluminium all over, but had a dimpled bright looking stoneguard in the front, in the rear was a very large animal shaped indentation, where a herd of sheep had taken shelter one wet and windy night.

The large dent never allowed water ingress, I couldn't see it while towing or sleeping in the caravan, my memory of it faded - although the dent never did - I think :-D

Regards Terry

[CliveH]

Hi Terry

 

I like the new Bailey Caravans a lot - the construction method looks good and a genuine step forward. I have looked at them and am looking forward to attending an open day at our local Bailey Dealer. We have a Bailey now and are looking to upgrade in the next year or two.

 

However, a chance conversation with someone who had one gave me the distinct impression they (he and his wife) were not happy. There were a few issues with the interior but to be fair he stated these were about as "normal" for a new cvan as you can expect. His real issue was the dents on the front caused by stone chips. He went through a re-surfaced road and it looked like someone had been taking pot shots at it with an airgun! - to use his description.

 

He went onto say that he had heard that insurers were looking at this "carefully" as to fix a damaged front on one of these caravans requires a major refit compared to simply replacing a front plastic panel on a conventional cvan.

 

I hope the issue gets sorted. I am sure they will – but it seems such a shame. This has put me right off.

:-(

[Terrytraveller]

Hi Clive,

There are moves afoot to add extra protection to the front of the AluTech range, and there are 27 pages of comments on link http://www.caravantalk.org.uk/topic/35075-stone-dents/ , I advise looking at those before buying.

At the moment my concerns regarding water ingress and replacement walls on new classic build caravans, having suffered £1000's on those problems, override a few small dents I have received so far.

Baileys have been pretty good, fitting FOC extra protection to the front of our caravan, with the prospects of further modifications as they are produced.

I tug the caravan with a Hyundai 1.6 CRDi Estate link http://www.hyundai.co.uk/newCars/i30estate/

and it seems adequate delivering 31 mpg towing and around 60mpg solo, although I haven't towed in strong winds yet, I seem only to get fair weather as soon as I hitch up :-D

Regards Terry

[Terrytraveller]

Whoops - wrong forum.

[Ocsid]

Unfortunately denting aluminium fronted caravans is a fact of life, it was endemic years ago and I can vouch for it on a 1980s British van and on my 2002 German van. The primary cause is self inflicted from the tow cars rear wheels, this can be significantly mitigated by good and I mean good rear mud flaps. There is a trend now not to factory fit anything and if they do, or offer them as a dealer fit, they are a near useless styling feature. What I have done with all my tow vehicles is to add flexible extensions to the rigid makers flap and taken this down to 50mm from the ground and made a width that shades the tyres.

 

I feel the return to aluminium fronts is a positive and for me a very welcomed step backwards particularly from the capped ABS many builders adopted in the last two decades. This has a vulnerability to stress cracking , greatly aided in later life by UV degradation and where it is used to retain the watertight integrity these cracks spell "damp" followed quickly by internal rotting.

GRP was functionally good if thick enough but came at a weight penalty so could rarely be used at sufficient thickness for that good reason.

 

Where Bailey have sadly initially gone wrong is not to have integrated adequate shielding in the "wheel throw" zones. Hymer realised this and acted from 2006 with an ABS gas locker extended across the whole front width. Here the ABS is in a cosmetic role, like in cars and lorries, not a structural one and importantly not one relied on for water tight integrity.

 

Bailey on the Unicorn and 2011 Pegasus and Olympus models have taken some constructive steps to protect much of the more vulnerable area. However I firmly believe mudflap extensions remain the thinking towers best practical, cause addressing, means of protection.

 

IMO the Alu Tech construction even with its vulnerability to cosmetic denting is a great improvement over what went immediately before. Dents I can begrudgingly live with, and can mitigate against to a large extent, rotting substructure wood I cant.