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Morning All!

I'm very new here so please forgive me if I'm repeating past posts but on searching it seems a while since anyone's posted about this subject and I thought there may be new caravans launched since then.

We currently own an Ace Award Transtar (and love it) but with 3 growing children and two dogs we are outgrowing it.  After a recent visit to a caravan shop where we saw a Bailey with triple bunks, we are certain that's the format we want to go with.  The idea of not having to unfold seats etc to make their beds and the idea of confining the kids to one end of the van which we can shut off at night is just too alluring! 

I was wondering what other caravans like this we should consider?  The bigger the van the better, quite like the idea of twin axel, wish I could get a van without a shower but with extra wardrobe space.  I intend to go and view a Lunar Quasar 616 as I believe that may be the layout for us.

Anyway, enough of my babbling, thanks for your time

Lisa

Hello Lisa,

Welcome to UKCS, it's a brilliant website & I hope you enjoy it. For masses of storage, take another trip to your Bailey dealership & have a look at the new Pageant Ardennes. It doesn't offer you the three bunks but does give more storage space than I thought possible in a caravan with two full wardrobes in the rear end bathroom.

For the three bunks & a twin axle, you'd need to llok at the Senator & Ranger line ups, I don't think the Pageant does it in a twin axle with the three bunks.

I don't know of a caravan without a shower these days, we too wanted one without but couldn't find one, this put us the other way & we've gone for the Pageant Provence 5 berth, it has a proper walk in shower cubicle, at least it's built for the job. As there's 6 of us, we use awning annexes & the kids love them.

BB

The new triple bunk Bailey's are lovely aren't they.  DH was really tempted to buy one last year once he'd seen it lol.  The trouble with ukcs is that you read what everyone else has written about them and then look for it in the van and i realised that no i didn't want one lol.

I agree with you about the showers too.  I wish the manufacturers would give you a choice of shower or more cupboard space.

Let us know how you get on with the Lunar and your thoughts on them.  Have you written a checklist of what it needs to have, i find that once you are inside a brand spanking new caravan you are so tempted to buy it that your requirements are all forgotten. 

Good Luck

Jeannie

Thanks, to be honest we are very new to caravanning and completely LOVE IT! We bought our Ace last April and have been away in it about eight times, it was bought from a friend so the only one we considered as it was a great 'buy'.

We have a large awning with a bedroom annex and in the summer use that for a bedroom and it works ok but would rather not have an awning, just one of those roll out blind-type awnings (sorry, said I was new to this, lol).

we like the look of the bailey triple bunk we had a proper look at the secc in february like the fact that the kids have their own space present caravan is the only one where they havn't had their own room trouble is we've only had the avondale a couple of years also saw an adria a couple of months ago same set up but 5 berth with huge bunks basic but nice

Just got back from our Sunday walk up to the dealers, the Senator Carolina fits your bill nicely as long as you want top of the range. I thought there was another twin axle with the Triple bunk layout & a proper walk in shower cublicle but, if there is, they never had one on show.

BB

Thank you all, I really need to go to a caravan show I think, I'll have to try and find out when there are some shows on.... any ideas?  I'm in Peterborough but don't mind travelling.

:)

Lisa

We have a Geist AK565 because we didn't want the hassle of bed making either! We love it - it has only got double not triple bunk and a side dinette making it 5 births (there is also a 6-birth option). But this gives more daytime space and we have used it for 2 yrs without an awning - though we are now going to get our old awning altered for this caravan as I miss somewhere too dry washing after last years wet summer!

We looked at other makes including Bailey, Lunar and swift – but from what I remember at that time (and we nearly bought a Bailey 6 birth) was that the bunks were a bit narrow. We spent a very long day at the NEC show with kids looking at various options.

We eventually found the Geist layout when we had nearly given up, that was only after going through nearly every obscure manufacturer via Internet.

The lay out we have means someone can be in the wash room while another is getting changed in the middle section – but I can still cook breakfast and the kids can watch TV at the front end – this works for us!

If you are at Peterborough, Camper UK at Lincoln may be worth a visit?

We had quite a strange list of requirements including making sure there was no toilet on the awning side as we didn’t like emptying the toilet from inside the awning! and I never again wanted a tip up sink – too many bars of soap lost down the back!

Good luck with your choosing.

ooooo just looked at the Geist website, hadn't even heard of them (I told you I'm a novice at this) but liking the Geist 595 twin axel, love how much space there is!  Good thing to remnd me of, the toilet being on the opposite sie to the awning.

Ta

:)

If you do go for a Geist - take  alook at Elite Caravans as we boutht an Aktiv 495 from them last year and it was over 4K cheaper!!!! and the bunk beds are rock solid!!

http://www.elitecaravans.co.uk/products.asp?c=36&d=2

Regards

Andy