Message Forums

I am looking to move up from a tent to a van but without changing our car so have to keep the MTPLM around the 1250kg and have room for 2 adults and a 14 year old.

The Bailey Orion 440-4 and the Lunar Quasar 464 meet our requirements.

I have read the comments on here about the Orion and agree on the finish quality, having looked round one at a dealers.  I would welcome any comments or advice on the Lunar 464 as I cannot find anything on this forum.

We looked long and hard at the Orion but the things that made us think it wouldn't suit us were the lack of locker storage and also no front gas locker. We ended up going for a 4 year old Bailey Ranger which was over £5k less than the Orion. The advantage we felt was that it had more lockers, a large wardrobe in the bathroom and also a good size front gas locker for all the "extras". Also there were a few little things we didn't like about the Orion such as it only has a 7L hot water tank, this was a factor for us as we intend to us our own shower and 7L is quite a small tank!. Also a few people have made some negative comments about the heating system on the Orion.....but I couldn't comment on if this is fair or not.

Don't get me wrong the Orion is a nice van but we just felt for us that it wasn't quite right in a few areas. Like you it was our first van and we have one child and we love the Ranger......the extra £5k will pay for many many years holidays!!

Didn't look at the Lunar as the OH wanted a large end bathroom.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Personally, I would go for the Lunar, ours has been brilliant, we love the large locker at the front for all your storage needs, and have had very few problems with it build wise. When you read the many Bailey horror stories on here over the season then i would never buy Bailey myself, although we have recently been tempted by an Elddis, although i doubt we will actually buy it as we do love our Lunar so much.

Julia  

Thankyou for your comments so far.

I am impressed by the construction  quality of the Bailey, its just the attention to detail thats letting it down. As I have never had a van before, am I expecting to much at this entry level weight and price?

Does the lack of 464 comments mean they are that good no one can find faults or are people just not buying them?

Thanks again so far.

I think the 464 Quasar was a new model introduced for 2011, so probably not many around yet thats why less comments.

They are very similar in layout and spec though to the Zenith 4s which were discontinued a couple of years ago, of which we have one.

From past experiances i would not buy a caravan without it had a front locker for all the essential bits of kit to be stored whilst on site. our front locker on the Lunar is large enough to take the waterhog and grey water container, as well as the ehu cable when not in use plus 2 x gas bottles, stabilizer and steady winder.

Julia

One other (small) thing that we didn't like about the Orion we saw is that the table isn't free standing so couldn't be removed and used in the awning. I think this is another money saving cut from Bailey! The one we saw just clipped against the wall, as opposed to our ranger one which is a proper folding table we could use in the awning. These are little things that, like you, we didn't think of when we first viewed as we had never had a van before. Thanks to people on this forum a few of these short comings were highlighted to us. I didn't think I would need a front locker but having collected our van this week I can't believe how useful it has been to put stuff into!

The Orion does have a great warranty which was one thing that nearly made us go for it but in the end we brought 2nd hand and just opted for an extended warranty to cover water ingress, etc.