As we all now know the Orion has now been superceded by the new Bailey Pursuit.
As we are not intending to swap to a Pursuit ( a Bailey GT65 Rimini might be on the cards one day ) I cannot give a great deal of first hand information about it except in the most generic of terms.
However if anyone is thinking of getting a Pursuit and wants me to blog about anything then I open up the blog to you.
Just e-mail me anything you want posted and leave the rest to me.
I will keep the title as the Baiey Orion Blog ( mainly as I have it printed on my red hoodie ).
Ian
Monday, 21 October 2013
Saturday, 19 October 2013
The NEC Show & Bailey Pursuit
SWMBO and I visited the NEC show on Thursday and found it rather quiet than on Thursdays we have attended in previous years however a stallholder told us that 27,000 advanced tickets had been sold for the Saturday ( today ) plus those paying on the door so it looks like a busy one today.
One of the main things we wanted to view was the new Bailey Pursuit with an intention to perhaps swap the Orion next year for a single fixed bed Pursuit ( the 550-4 ),sad to say we came away rather disappointed.
My comments concentrate on the 550-4 as this is the van we were interested in but obviously there are some common generic factors across the range.
First the good points,I rather liked the exterior of the Pursuit,in particular the grey colour scheme which I admit I prefer to the cream of the Orion.
The door now hinges the other way to avoid colliding with the front window and the wet locker has a much larger access door with a plastic tray for wet items.
There is now a front chest with a wide "window sill" area with a pull out table but what this does to the noseweight I don't know.
The electrics/fuse box are sited in the bottom of this chest which avoids the melee of cables in an exposed position in the Orion near side bed base.
Talking of tables,we couldn't find a second table stored anywhere and neither could a salesman although we were assured that there should be one,so if you decide to order a Pursuit make sure there is a table present.
Bailey have retained the large one piece front window but I hope they have uprated the stays as on the Orion they aren't strong enough to support it.
There is now a bowl shaped sink in the bathroom so drainage is simplified over the Orions flat bottomed "difficult to drain unles perfectly flat" Belfast style sink.
The kitchen and TV surfaces now have a shiny finish which I rather liked.
There are up to five 240v plug sockets.
The spare wheel is now stored under one of the fixed beds in a cover which does away with the dreaded Al-Ko carrier,where it is stored in a non-fixed bed van I don't know.
Incidentally Bailey have been rather crafty as the spare is included as an option,not on its own,but as part of a Premium Pack at £399 so if you want a spare,and who won't, you will have to also buy the Al-Ko AKS 3004 stabiliser,door flyscreen,microwave ( yes it's now an extra ) and radio/CD/mP3 player whether you want them or not.
My suspicion is that the Premium Pack will become more or less "standard" which jacks the price up by about £400.
The wheels are attached by the new WSL wheel bolts.
There are also separate stand alone options of an Al-Ko wheel lock ( £194 ),Al-Ko ATC ( £399 ) and a sunroof ( £356 ).
SWMBO wasn't keen on the sunroof and much prefered the large panoramic window of the Pegasus and Unicorn.
Now to the not so good in our opinion.
The interior look of medium hue wood,or "The Log Cabin Look" as someone on CT called it,is beginning to look rather tired and old fashioned against some other more contemporary fitted out vans.
Money seems to have been saved in the shower area which remains unlined as in the Orion.There were a couple of areas of dodgy sealing as well.
Doubtless these would be attended to by the dealer but even so.
The bi-fold shower door in the Orion has been replaced with a flimsy shower curtain which did not reach to the bottom of the shower tray leading to a possible wet floor,the shower curtain did not go down well with SWMBO and from what I overheard many other people.
I managed to have a word with Mr.Howard ,one of the Bailey head honchos and mentioned the shower curtain,he said that the fittings for a bi-fold door are there and one could be retro-fitted by the dealer.
This leads me to think that a door was in the original specification but was dropped for perhaps weight or financial reasons as why put the fittings in in the first place if they weren't going to be used..
Moving to the kitchen,the draining board when in place overlaps the hob.
If the hob is still hot you will have a melted draining board.
The ( optional ) microwave is positioned over the sink so if removing a hot or heavy dish there is nowhere immediately beneath the oven to put it down,you have move over the the left hand side of the hob.
The large bottom cupboard under the sink which is presumably for pans is obstructed by heating ducting which limits its usefulness besides putting the ducting at risk of damage.
Finally we come to the upholstery.
The "seat" areas are in a chocolate brown colour whilst the seat back cushions are in a ( horror of horrors ) lighter pattern.
Everyone to their own but we found the backrest pattern,shall we say,not to our taste.
According to Mr.Howard there is no alternative,take it or leave it.
That just about sums up our thoughts of the new Bailey Pursuit.
Please don't run away with the idea that this is a crap caravan,it's not,but certainly for us it lacked the "wow" factor that perhaps we were expecting.
There seemed little to entice us to swap to the Pursuit from our Orion 440/4.
More details of the Pursuit range,including weights and measurements can be downloaded from here:-
Pursuit Flyer
Ian
My comments concentrate on the 550-4 as this is the van we were interested in but obviously there are some common generic factors across the range.
First the good points,I rather liked the exterior of the Pursuit,in particular the grey colour scheme which I admit I prefer to the cream of the Orion.The door now hinges the other way to avoid colliding with the front window and the wet locker has a much larger access door with a plastic tray for wet items.
There is now a front chest with a wide "window sill" area with a pull out table but what this does to the noseweight I don't know.
The electrics/fuse box are sited in the bottom of this chest which avoids the melee of cables in an exposed position in the Orion near side bed base.
Talking of tables,we couldn't find a second table stored anywhere and neither could a salesman although we were assured that there should be one,so if you decide to order a Pursuit make sure there is a table present.
Bailey have retained the large one piece front window but I hope they have uprated the stays as on the Orion they aren't strong enough to support it.
There is now a bowl shaped sink in the bathroom so drainage is simplified over the Orions flat bottomed "difficult to drain unles perfectly flat" Belfast style sink.
The kitchen and TV surfaces now have a shiny finish which I rather liked.
There are up to five 240v plug sockets.
The spare wheel is now stored under one of the fixed beds in a cover which does away with the dreaded Al-Ko carrier,where it is stored in a non-fixed bed van I don't know.Incidentally Bailey have been rather crafty as the spare is included as an option,not on its own,but as part of a Premium Pack at £399 so if you want a spare,and who won't, you will have to also buy the Al-Ko AKS 3004 stabiliser,door flyscreen,microwave ( yes it's now an extra ) and radio/CD/mP3 player whether you want them or not.
My suspicion is that the Premium Pack will become more or less "standard" which jacks the price up by about £400.
The wheels are attached by the new WSL wheel bolts.
There are also separate stand alone options of an Al-Ko wheel lock ( £194 ),Al-Ko ATC ( £399 ) and a sunroof ( £356 ).
SWMBO wasn't keen on the sunroof and much prefered the large panoramic window of the Pegasus and Unicorn.
Now to the not so good in our opinion.
The interior look of medium hue wood,or "The Log Cabin Look" as someone on CT called it,is beginning to look rather tired and old fashioned against some other more contemporary fitted out vans.
Money seems to have been saved in the shower area which remains unlined as in the Orion.There were a couple of areas of dodgy sealing as well.
Doubtless these would be attended to by the dealer but even so.
The bi-fold shower door in the Orion has been replaced with a flimsy shower curtain which did not reach to the bottom of the shower tray leading to a possible wet floor,the shower curtain did not go down well with SWMBO and from what I overheard many other people.
I managed to have a word with Mr.Howard ,one of the Bailey head honchos and mentioned the shower curtain,he said that the fittings for a bi-fold door are there and one could be retro-fitted by the dealer.
This leads me to think that a door was in the original specification but was dropped for perhaps weight or financial reasons as why put the fittings in in the first place if they weren't going to be used..
Moving to the kitchen,the draining board when in place overlaps the hob.
If the hob is still hot you will have a melted draining board.
The ( optional ) microwave is positioned over the sink so if removing a hot or heavy dish there is nowhere immediately beneath the oven to put it down,you have move over the the left hand side of the hob.
The large bottom cupboard under the sink which is presumably for pans is obstructed by heating ducting which limits its usefulness besides putting the ducting at risk of damage.
Finally we come to the upholstery.
The "seat" areas are in a chocolate brown colour whilst the seat back cushions are in a ( horror of horrors ) lighter pattern.
Everyone to their own but we found the backrest pattern,shall we say,not to our taste.
According to Mr.Howard there is no alternative,take it or leave it.
That just about sums up our thoughts of the new Bailey Pursuit.
Please don't run away with the idea that this is a crap caravan,it's not,but certainly for us it lacked the "wow" factor that perhaps we were expecting.
There seemed little to entice us to swap to the Pursuit from our Orion 440/4.
More details of the Pursuit range,including weights and measurements can be downloaded from here:-
Pursuit Flyer
Ian
Monday, 14 October 2013
NEC
Your blogster and SWMBO will be visiting the Caravan Show at the NEC later this week.
There won't be any Orions there of course having been superceded by the new Pursuit,or "Orion on steroids" as someone has termed it..
I think the pictures and a video I have seen look quite promising but nothing is quite like seeing something in the flesh.
Bailey Pursuit at NEC 2013
Ian
There won't be any Orions there of course having been superceded by the new Pursuit,or "Orion on steroids" as someone has termed it..
I think the pictures and a video I have seen look quite promising but nothing is quite like seeing something in the flesh.
Bailey Pursuit at NEC 2013
Ian
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
First View of New Bailey Pursuit
Below is a .pdf of the new Bailey Pursuit.
Bailey Pursuit
Can't help feeling a little underwhelmed although admittedly this is only a brief view of the exterior.
They seem to have raided the Orion parts bin for the front and kept the ridiculously too heavy front window unless they have reinforced the stays to support it.
There appears to be some sort of separate sun roof rather than the "all in one" of the Pegasus and Unicorn.
Nice to see the door hinging the other way to avoid the front window.
I wonder what happened to the aerodynamic and fuel saving Orion shape of a curved front and rear roof that was trumpeted when the Orion was launched,presumably the Pursuit is not as aerodynamic as its predecessor having what appears to be a more traditional straight back.
At least front locker door seems larger.
Lets hope they have ditched the Al-Ko spare wheel carrier for the wind down apparatus of the Pegasus GT65.
It will be interesting to see the interior layouts of the various models but just from the picture ( which is a little unfair I know ) there seems little to fuel an imminent swap to the Pursuit.
Ian
Bailey Pursuit
Can't help feeling a little underwhelmed although admittedly this is only a brief view of the exterior.
They seem to have raided the Orion parts bin for the front and kept the ridiculously too heavy front window unless they have reinforced the stays to support it.
There appears to be some sort of separate sun roof rather than the "all in one" of the Pegasus and Unicorn.
Nice to see the door hinging the other way to avoid the front window.
I wonder what happened to the aerodynamic and fuel saving Orion shape of a curved front and rear roof that was trumpeted when the Orion was launched,presumably the Pursuit is not as aerodynamic as its predecessor having what appears to be a more traditional straight back.
At least front locker door seems larger.
Lets hope they have ditched the Al-Ko spare wheel carrier for the wind down apparatus of the Pegasus GT65.
It will be interesting to see the interior layouts of the various models but just from the picture ( which is a little unfair I know ) there seems little to fuel an imminent swap to the Pursuit.
Ian
Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Bailey & The Battery Locker Door
I have received a reply to my e-mail to Bailey regarding the lack of a latch mechanism on the battery locker door:-
To
Mr Broadhead
Thank
you for your email
I
am sorry to hear about the problems you have experienced with the Battery locker
door of your caravan.
Your
comments have been duly noted and I have passed your email onto our design and
production offices.
I
apologise for the inconvenience that has been caused
Kind
Regards
Chantelle
Kimmins
Customer
Service Co-Ordinator
E-mail:
chantellek@baileyofbristol.co.uk
You never know,something may happen.
Ian
Saturday, 21 September 2013
Assault & Battery On the Way To Durham.
Have just had three nights at Durham Grange CC site which we can thoroughly recommend.
The place is just off the A1 and about ten minutes walk from the Park & Ride into Durham ( £2 return ).
The site is well laid out,the toilet block is spotless and the wardens are very friendly and helpful.
There are some comments on the CC site and in the guest book regarding traffic noise from the A1 but we didn't find it intrusive at all.
As seems to be the way sometimes with our trips we had a bit of an incident on the way there.
We were tootling along the road from our storage near Castleford to join the A1 when SWMBO glanced in the near side mirror and very calmly asked me to pull over and stop.
She said the battery box door was open and got out to shut it.
Now this happened to us once before and just entailed us locking it and carrying on,not this time.
SWMBO returned to the car and said that the battery had gone,vanished,no longer there.
Naturally I doubted here word and thought she was joking but she was dead right the battery had fallen out complete with battery tray leaving the battery clamps dangling on the road.
To say I was not a happy bunny was a bit of an understatement but we decided I had better go back and look for it.
We were parked by a grass verge outside someones gated house so pressed the intercom to see if it was OK to leave the van there whilst I drove back,no one appeared to be in so we took a chance got the van onto the verge,unhitched it into a muddy puddle and I set off back to our storage.
Now all I can say is that they must be quick in Castleford because there was no sign of it,and I drove there and back,I thought it might have fallen out in the storage compound but of course it hadn't.
When I returned to the van,as there was nothing else to be done we decided to hitch up,set off and call at Ropers in Catterick for a new battery.
When I say hitch up that is where another "problem" reared its head,the hitch wouldn't drop onto the ball even after fifteen minutes of trying.
Whilst I was away SWMBO had dropped the front steadies as she said it made here feel better and had mentioned this on my return.
When the ball refused to locate she innocently asked if it was anything to do with the steadies to which I replied with a snort of disgust "NO".
After another ten minutes it shamefacedly dawned on me that is was very much to do with the steadies and as we were winding the jockey wheel down it was just coming to rest on the front steadies and not dropping as far as the ball,oh dear.
Steadies up,van hitched,red of face,and we were on our way.
Had dinner at Ropers and bought another battery and tray ( £87 worth ) all fitted into van.
Now although I had obviously not properly checked the battery box door prior to setting off ( and the safety strap was fastened as I had changed the battery the day before ) I feel that the design of the door leaves a little to be desired.
On the other locker doors there is a latch mechanism so even if the door wasn't locked it wouldn't come open but on the battery box door it is simply a lock so if not locked it comes open.
This seems to be standard fit on most vans I have observed not just Bailey,perhaps there is a reason for it but I can't think of one.
Any way I have e-mailed Bailey and told them it could do with a rethink but I won't hold my breath.
Of course we are now paranoid about checking the door is properly fastened and didn't set off home till we were both satisfied.
So young Chuggers the moral of this sad little tale is :-
"Double check your battery box door is properly shut and locked before setting off ".
Ian
The place is just off the A1 and about ten minutes walk from the Park & Ride into Durham ( £2 return ).
The site is well laid out,the toilet block is spotless and the wardens are very friendly and helpful.
There are some comments on the CC site and in the guest book regarding traffic noise from the A1 but we didn't find it intrusive at all.
As seems to be the way sometimes with our trips we had a bit of an incident on the way there.
We were tootling along the road from our storage near Castleford to join the A1 when SWMBO glanced in the near side mirror and very calmly asked me to pull over and stop.
She said the battery box door was open and got out to shut it.
Now this happened to us once before and just entailed us locking it and carrying on,not this time.
SWMBO returned to the car and said that the battery had gone,vanished,no longer there.
Naturally I doubted here word and thought she was joking but she was dead right the battery had fallen out complete with battery tray leaving the battery clamps dangling on the road.
To say I was not a happy bunny was a bit of an understatement but we decided I had better go back and look for it.
We were parked by a grass verge outside someones gated house so pressed the intercom to see if it was OK to leave the van there whilst I drove back,no one appeared to be in so we took a chance got the van onto the verge,unhitched it into a muddy puddle and I set off back to our storage.
Now all I can say is that they must be quick in Castleford because there was no sign of it,and I drove there and back,I thought it might have fallen out in the storage compound but of course it hadn't.
When I returned to the van,as there was nothing else to be done we decided to hitch up,set off and call at Ropers in Catterick for a new battery.
When I say hitch up that is where another "problem" reared its head,the hitch wouldn't drop onto the ball even after fifteen minutes of trying.
Whilst I was away SWMBO had dropped the front steadies as she said it made here feel better and had mentioned this on my return.
When the ball refused to locate she innocently asked if it was anything to do with the steadies to which I replied with a snort of disgust "NO".
After another ten minutes it shamefacedly dawned on me that is was very much to do with the steadies and as we were winding the jockey wheel down it was just coming to rest on the front steadies and not dropping as far as the ball,oh dear.
Steadies up,van hitched,red of face,and we were on our way.
Had dinner at Ropers and bought another battery and tray ( £87 worth ) all fitted into van.
Now although I had obviously not properly checked the battery box door prior to setting off ( and the safety strap was fastened as I had changed the battery the day before ) I feel that the design of the door leaves a little to be desired.
On the other locker doors there is a latch mechanism so even if the door wasn't locked it wouldn't come open but on the battery box door it is simply a lock so if not locked it comes open.
This seems to be standard fit on most vans I have observed not just Bailey,perhaps there is a reason for it but I can't think of one.
Any way I have e-mailed Bailey and told them it could do with a rethink but I won't hold my breath.
Of course we are now paranoid about checking the door is properly fastened and didn't set off home till we were both satisfied.
So young Chuggers the moral of this sad little tale is :-
"Double check your battery box door is properly shut and locked before setting off ".
Ian
Thursday, 19 September 2013
Aaarghh.....................................................................
After going to the trouble and cost of replacing the wheel bolts as I "lost" the adaptor the f****ing thing has turned up.
It had rolled into the gap by the heater duct under the rear seat where naturally I had already "looked".
So if anyone wants a set ( 4 ) of genuine Bailey locking wheelbolt for a tenner plus postage ( I think they cost about £30 ) then get in touch.
Ian
It had rolled into the gap by the heater duct under the rear seat where naturally I had already "looked".
So if anyone wants a set ( 4 ) of genuine Bailey locking wheelbolt for a tenner plus postage ( I think they cost about £30 ) then get in touch.
Ian
Bailey Pursuit
Got told by a dealer yesterday that the new lightweight Bailey will be called the Pursuit.
They should have been going to Bristol for a preview next week but it has been cancelled so the first they will see of it is at the NEC in October.
All seems very hush hush as no other details forthcoming.
Ian
They should have been going to Bristol for a preview next week but it has been cancelled so the first they will see of it is at the NEC in October.
All seems very hush hush as no other details forthcoming.
Ian
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
Bolts Again.
Well the new wheel bolts have arrived,very good next day service from WSL considering it is free postage.
Also got a rather nice digital tyre guage free of charge.
Total cost £49.98 which is about £15 less than Baileys prices ( inc. Baileys £5 P&P charge ).
As you order two packs of five bolts you get two adaptors,I will be keeping a firm eye on these two,no more shenanigans hopefully.
Will put them on in the next day or two.
Ian
Also got a rather nice digital tyre guage free of charge.
Total cost £49.98 which is about £15 less than Baileys prices ( inc. Baileys £5 P&P charge ).
As you order two packs of five bolts you get two adaptors,I will be keeping a firm eye on these two,no more shenanigans hopefully.
Will put them on in the next day or two.
Ian
Monday, 9 September 2013
Wheel Bolts Contd.
I had a reply from Bailey regarding the new WSL wheel bolts,this is what they say :-
Hi
Ian,
Thank
you for your email.
The
WSL wheel bolts are suitable for your model, and the new torque setting will be
130Nm.
Regards,
Neil
Baker
Aftersales/Online
Parts Technical Admin
E-Mail:
neilb@baileyofbristol.co.uk
Ian
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)