space age bonding is just "glue it" without the screws.. he he
i am new to caravanning i just bought a 1994 avondale mayfly.. one piece fibre glass roof with a good overlap between roof and side walls.. one piece fibre glass front and rear end.. again a good overlap at the joints..
wood floor but no rot.. apart from a leaky front window rubber the water has stayed on the outside.. the van is still dry and sold.
my basic thoughts about the construction of caravans is too much emphasis is placed on saving weight on the main structure so that more "luxury" stuff can be added to the inside.. the suspension is mostly too hard and that huge awnings putting huge stresses trying to pull the side of the caravan maybe plays a part in them leaking..
We've had Motorhomes for the last 7 years that include 2 Elddis and 1 Swift and had damp problems with all of them (fixed under warrant admittedly,but shouldn't happen especially when your spending nearly £30,000)our last van was a Burstner and was superb......just made the mistake of buying a Bailey caravan and found damp in it,what is it about British manufacturers and the fact that they can't get bugger all right.
You all talk about modern construction methods but my parents had a 1977 Monza 1200d. They owned it for 24 years and not one damp issue. Maybe caravan manufacturers need to look back at what they used to do.
I can't afford a new van but if I did buy one and it had damp I would be very disappointed.
You don't tend to hear as much about the likes of Adria vans, maybe these are better made.
I have heard from several dealers or should i say repair shops that bailey caravans are the worst for workmanship,and this proves it.It seems they are poor quality with poor fittings and i would not touch them with a barge pole.I have heard lots of stories of newish vans with trim etc falling off and the trin coverings wearing very quick.
Quote: Originally posted by glittering-prize on 29/6/2014
I have heard from several dealers or should i say repair shops that bailey caravans are the worst for workmanship,and this proves it.It seems they are poor quality with poor fittings and i would not touch them with a barge pole.I have heard lots of stories of newish vans with trim etc falling off and the trin coverings wearing very quick.
I think that Bailey's interior finish is superior to many as it was in ours. It is the exterior that let's the side down.
We bought an Olympus back in 2010, it was a "Friday Afternoon" model, our friends bought one at exactly the same time. Both had damp at the front that was just dried out and treated, we had huge patches appearing on the sides that we took back to the dealers to be dealt with, they took it down a pothole and we had to have a new shower door as it had shattered and the pipes had come loose at the sink so we had a flood in there they also brought it back with a dent in the rear. It had a respray but the patches kept reappearing. Dealers were useless. When all appeared to be done we traded it in for a new Swift. At the trade in the dealers then took an extra £1500 off us as they said it was buckled on one side. They said it would cost them a fortune to put things right. However our same van was on sale at that dealers for £2500 more than they gave us and within a week so no way could they have put anything that was supposed to be that bad right.
first, we took advice offered on here and used Twitter - tweet sent on a Saturday afternoon direct to Bailey, and reply received within 15 minutes.
I followed this up with a rather strongly worded second email, having had further discussions with our dealer.
We've since had dealings with Mr Simon Howard at Bailey, who I have to say has been exceptionally helpful.
Arrangements now made for return of van to Bailey (again) for removal of front section of flooring and replacement and resealing.
Having spent some time in the workshop at our dealers, and seeing how relatively easy it is to replace wet flooring, I can't figure out why Bailey didn't do the job properly in the first place. Now it's cost them more in terms of staff hours, and further poor publicity. It's pointless trying to keep costs down by doing half a job. Mind you, if they built the darn thing right in the first place.........
So, we just have to wait for end of August now.
------------- Glyn W.
What if the Hokey Cokey really is what it's all about....?
Sadly it's not just Bailey. Elddis customer service is just as bad,if not worse. What's worse is they don't have anybody checking the quality of work. The build quality in there vans are appalling . If I could afford it,I would get shut tomorrow.