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Hello everyone, i have just registered here. i have been reading the comments made about the bailey range and am pleased because my wife and i are on the brink of buying one. I have never owned a caravan, so am new to the world of caravaning. I have been doing alot of research and seem to keep being attracted to the bailey range of 'vans. i am torn between buying a brand new bailey discovery 5 berth, or a 1 to 2 year old pageant. Can anyone with experience of these models advise me of pros and cons etc?

Thanks.                              

Hi and welcome to the UKCS!  I hope your purchase of a caravan will bring you a lot of fun and pleasure.  Any questions, just ask on this forum and you'll always get answers!

I'm sure someone will be along soon with comments of the Bailey models you are considering.  I know the Baileys are extremely popular.  We recently went to a CC rally and out of the 50 or so units there, only a handful were not Baileys.

Jazzycats.

Hello, we are new to caravanning too.

We stopped at a dealers the other day to buy an aerial and had a nosy around their vans - they seem to specialise in the Bailey Rangers as they had tonns of them! They were all very nice and might make us tempted in a few years.

They also had secondhand ones there too which weren't far off what they wanted for their new vans, price-wise.

I would rather go the extra £1k and get new - most of them came with flatscreen TV's as part of the deal too.

Yes, we are both excited at the prospect of caravanning, we live in northern ireland and the forrestry board run a scheme called 'touring in the trees'. for £120 a year you get access to 11 or 12 sites which you can visit as often as you like.

i have two young sons, one 5 yr old and the other 1 yr old. i imagine caravaning is great fun for the kids.

Hello has anyone got any ideas of where i can take my friend and our two 5 year olds this weekend as i am new to camping and have no ideas???

Just one piece of advice, if you are new to caravanning, it's a lot of money to shell out first time for a new one, especially if you're not too sure of things, read some of the posts, just because they're new doesn't mean they come without problems!!, look around the decent secondhand ones, and with a bit of thought most people have usually sorted out the little niggles, plus some people sell all equipment with them, as that's another expense. and if you don't like it you will lose more in the first 1-2 years than on a secondhand one!!

We have a Bailey and love it, have just looked in some of the newer ones, not particularly Baileys, Swift being one and didn't think the overall finish was as good as the one we have and ours is 3years old.  just take a good look round!!

Best of luck in your search though and welcome to the site

thanks

Hi All

as being the proud owner of a Pageant provence series 6  We have found it to be our best van yet. the Provence has an L shaped lounge of which we find as a family of four it suits us very well, especially at night when its time to settle down we can all sit facing the TV without being cramped and banging our legs off the front box and getting a stiff neck as with previous vans. The L shape lounge makes into a good size bed and has plenty of support across the base of the slats.The only thing that gets my goat about the Provence is the washbasin in the bathroom as the basin has a space between the basin and the wall the water does collect in it and i'm paranoid incase the water gets into the wall behind the unit so i put kitchen roll in the gap benind to catch any water.

apart from that its the best van weve had yet, and not bad for the money.

regards Ian

can you not get a small roll of flexible bath sealer and seal the gap using the strip and some silicone?

To answer your question personally I would go for the Pageant as the Discovery is fairly basic.  There is very little difference in price between Discoveries and Rangers but quite a difference in specification.  I think the Rangers and Pageants are overall better value for money.

Happy hunting.

Ali