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Can anyone give me a little guidance, I am thinking of buting a 3-4 year old six berth fixed rear bunk 'van'. I have looked at the Bailey range and quite like them. Can anyone else suggest similar vans for consideration.

Thanks in advance.

Hi... We have a 6 berth 2006 ...Swift Kingsmere... with fixed bunks at the back...  love ours....

xxx

Hi, we have a 2004/05 Bailey Ranger 550/6.

we think it is great. we really liked the newer layout where there are three bunks alongside a dinette in a seperate room for the kids, with lots of windows to the bunks. But they were out of our budget.

This was our next best. i do think however this slightly older layout is good, as the front end feels more airy, with the wardrobe to the back and lower counters adjacent to the bench seating at the front. The back end is quite dark, which in hindsight is a benefit for us, as our kids are light sleepers and they actually sleep longer in the caravan than they do at home.

It really works for us with two kids and we would reccomend it, not too sure if you have more kids though.

We had a Lunar Chateau 500 with end bunks across the van, liked the layout of caravans such as the Bailey with its bunks / dinette layout but as our children were getting older (12 and 14) and heavier then the we thought that the Bailey and others would not last 5 mins as they appeared to be less able to cope with teens.

But this is only my opinion.

In the end we went for a Geist Aktiv 495 - see my profile that had really well made bunk beds that were at the rear of the van i.e. away from the entrance door too and a pull across door for privacy etc..

Although we lost a little food prep area in the kitchen it works very well for our current needs.

Also it was only 9K New and the Bailey and others were much more expensive at the time.

Hope this helps

Andy 

Quote: Originally posted by angslj on 05/5/2009

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Hi... We have a 6 berth 2006 ...Swift Kingsmere... with fixed bunks at the back...  love ours....

 

xxx

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Hi

We are the same, except ours is a Swift Fairway 570, and as above is a dealer special edition based on the Charisma. The little 'garage door' at the rear is handy too

Jon

Hi

We have just got a 2005 Elddis Avante 556, have just had our first trip away and loved it. We have two children so prefer the two bunk end layout to the new Bailey 3 bunk version. We liked the more enclosed bunks on the Elddis to the more open Swift/Abbey - suits our son better, its just a case of thinking about what will suit you best and having a look at whats available. It did take us a while to find our van and we ended up at a dealer quite a way from home but it was worth it. Most of the dealers told us there was a lot of demand for this layout.

We found the caravan finder website very useful for information on layouts and models.

Hi

 We bought a brand new Bailey Ranger 540/6  triple bunk model , , we liked the seperate area  and table so the kids can go to bed without affecting us .This layout  worked great   and we really  liked every thing about the van  and were swayed by 6 year damp g/tee.  (Although not expecting any in the first few years!!)

 BUT  we had used our van for 9 days  when we found  damp and mould  under the bottom  bunk , due to a manufacturing defect. Its now back at the factory  for a major repair ie i believe at a minimum both full front and rear panels  full o/side inner and outer panels  etc  

Take a tip from us INSPECT THE VAN (any make )  VERY CAREFULLY BEFORE ACCEPTING IT . Get your self a damp meter and  be 100% its not leaking           BE FORE YOU DRIVE IT OFF , OR  YOU MAY  FIND YOUR FRIENDLY  DEALER  is NOT SO  HELPFUL / QUICK   ONCE  HE'S GOT YOUR MONEY or i.e. be in our position ,  we've been quoted  end June / July  for repair (we will not be accepting  this van  back )  and June / July if we order a ANOTHER NEW ONE !!!!!!!  so here we are  paid for our  band new  van which BAILEY now have, missing planned holidays  WAITING   for  our dealer who say they  are in Baileys  hands?.  

We have an Geist 565 and love it. We like the rear washroom layout with bunks in the middle as it means one of us can be washing another dressing in the middle section while the rest watch TV or cook breakfast at the front. It’s also good when the kids get bigger as the bunks are a decent side. It has an option of 6th berth.

J

Have a look at the Coachman 560/6, it may be a little more expensive that some of the above but once you actually get inside one youll see the reason why.

Bessie   

Quote: Originally posted by bessie500 on 06/5/2009

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Have a look at the Coachman 560/6, it may be a little more expensive that some of the above but once you actually get inside one youll see the reason why.

 

Bessie   

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