and today's defective bits are:

[Wunny]

Just had the 2nd service done with a clean bill of health. Away for a long weekend in Kent and another screw holding a window blind comes out and a string breaks in the door fly screen mesh.

 

Poor design, poor construction.  Bailey must go out of their way to buy equipment that is designed to fail!

 

My caravan tool kit is growing with each outing, just so I can fix it enough to carry on until I get home.

 

 

 

 

[Doosan]

Don't worry Wunny, It's not your van it's the condition of the roads here in Kent. I live in Kent and our roads here must be the worst in Britain. 

[Borussia 1900]

Just now, Doosan said:

Don't worry Wunny, It's not your van it's the condition of the roads here in Kent. I live in Kent and our roads here must be the worst in Britain. 

I think you're probably correct Doosan, they are shocking.

[matelodave]

36 minutes ago, Doosan said:

Don't worry Wunny, It's not your van it's the condition of the roads here in Kent. I live in Kent and our roads here must be the worst in Britain. 

I'm sure that Cambridgeshire would give Kent some real competition for the worse roads in Britain title

[Wunny]

54 minutes ago, Doosan said:

Don't worry Wunny, It's not your van it's the condition of the roads here in Kent. I live in Kent and our roads here must be the worst in Britain. 

The roads didn't seem too bad the whole journey , less than a mile non dual carriageway  / motorway until Canterbury. Had to detour due to 2 x 6 mile queing traffic on M3 & M25 , so went north M25 and  headed south via Blackwell tunnel.  So no blame on Kent.

 

Buckinghamshire have the worst roads I've found on my travels.

[Hairyspinner]

What with pot holes, so called  traffic calming(more like traffic jam makers) speed bumps, these must all contribute to shaking our vehicles & caravans to bits. Broken springs, damaged tyres. I hit a kerb a couple of years back that marked the protruding edge of traffic calming, combination of unpainted kerbs, low sun on a wet road. Tyre instantly deflated, fortunately the rim was ok, still expensive though on a 4x4. 

I guess there is a need for these safety measures, maybe it needs vehicles to have speed limiters on them, I don’t like the idea though, any other suggestions? 

[Les Medes]

1 hour ago, Doosan said:

Don't worry Wunny, It's not your van it's the condition of the roads here in Kent. I live in Kent and our roads here must be the worst in Britain. 

Last week after leaving the Tunnel Mrs M and I had the same conversation travelling between Folkestone to Maidstone, mind, the M4 is not much better either

Edited July 2, 2019 by Les Medes

[Zeberdee]

I can only assume that none of you have been to sunny Bradford!!!!! More pot-holes than cars, and nearly as many speed humps. 

[rslsys]

Can I just put in a bid for Norfolk in terms of pot holes, corrugated surfaces and overgrown verges!

 

Cheers

 

Keith

[Guest]

On 01/07/2019 at 22:58, Wunny said:

 Away for a long weekend in Kent and another screw holding a window blind comes out and a string breaks in the door fly screen mesh.

 

 

Try getting your caravan wheels balanced, it can make an amazing difference. I set a camera up in my Senator before wheels balanced and oh my, I couldnt believe the vibration it's a wonder the caravan held together at all. New tyres fitted and when I asked for them to be balanced and the gorilla fitting the tyres said 'we dont normally do that on caravans' I insisted that it was done, the difference was dramatic.

 

[Jaydug]

1 hour ago, AJGalaxy2012 said:

 the gorilla fitting the tyres said

 

Can't help but wonder where they get some of their guys from.   A few years ago one of them spent half an hour taking off my Tyron band, then handed it to me in bits saying "You can stick that in your boot.   It doesn't need to go back on."

[iansoady]

I've always been interested in the topic of balancing wheels (and an allied one, which is the fitting of shock absorbers). We're now on our third set of tyres. The first set were the Bailey-fitted Trailermax which ran at 38 psi (IIRC); the second and current set are Bridgestone van tyres running at 52 psi. The wheels on our 2005 Bailey Pageant have never been balanced. Neither do we have shock absorbers (more correctly called dampers) fitted. We've probably towed in excess of 25,000 miles over the years. Our longest distances are in France - I accept that much of this is on motorways but we have also encountered many rough roads - chaussée déformée anyone? I normally drive close to the applicable speed limit.

 

We have never suffered from excessive bits coming loose inside (of course we have had the odd screw fall out). When we open the upper lockers everything is as we stored it; nothing drops out.

 

I firmly believe this is because we have steel rather than alloy wheels fitted. Of course it could be because I am a driving god......

[David 38]

15 hours ago, Zeberdee said:

I can only assume that none of you have been to sunny Bradford!!!!! More pot-holes than cars, and nearly as many speed humps. 

:-)  Best drivers in the world there   LOL

[Stevan]

Don't forget that that the most dangerous component in any outfit (and the most serious if it fails) is the nut holding the rim of the steering wheel.

Edited July 13, 2019 by Stevan

[Alan Stanley]

2 hours ago, AJGalaxy2012 said:

Try getting your caravan wheels balanced, it can make an amazing difference. I set a camera up in my Senator before wheels balanced and oh my, I couldnt believe the vibration it's a wonder the caravan held together at all. New tyres fitted and when I asked for them to be balanced and the gorilla fitting the tyres said 'we dont normally do that on caravans' I insisted that it was done, the difference was dramatic.

 

Now that is a good idea for proving what any sensible person knows   Tyres need to be balanced

[Guest]

2 hours ago, iansoady said:

The wheels on our 2005 Bailey Pageant have never been balanced. Neither do we have shock absorbers (more correctly called dampers) fitted. We've probably towed in excess of 25,000 miles over the years. Our longest distances are in France - I accept that much of this is on motorways but we have also encountered many rough roads - chaussée déformée anyone? I normally drive close to the applicable speed limit.

 

We have never suffered from excessive bits coming loose inside (of course we have had the odd screw fall out). When we open the upper lockers everything is as we stored it; nothing drops out.

 

I firmly believe this is because we have steel rather than alloy wheels fitted. Of course it could be because I am a driving god......

I bow in your presence driving God 

 

On my Wyoming I hadnt had much happen either but thought it was worth sticking a gopro in there and going for a drive. Just like car wheels, unbalanced there was vibration at different speeds, at times resonating and looking quite bad.
Once the wheels were balanced (mine are alloy) with the new tyres the gopro was absolutely smooth and I'm sure it can only improve the lifespan of my caravan and reduce maintenance costs. I dont have shock absorbers either and dont suffer any of the instabilities that would be cured by fitting them.

[Stevan]

12 minutes ago, AJGalaxy2012 said:

 

 

On my Wyoming I hadnt had much happen either but thought it was worth sticking a gopro in there and going for a drive. Just like car wheels, unbalanced there was vibration at different speeds, at times resonating and looking quite bad.
Once the wheels were balanced (mine are alloy) with the new tyres the gopro was absolutely smooth and I'm sure it can only improve the lifespan of my caravan and reduce maintenance costs. I dont have shock absorbers either and dont suffer any of the instabilities that would be cured by fitting them.

I don't think that a caravan is anywhere near as sensitive to tyre imbalance as the front of a car.

But, an out of balance wheel will vibrate and a badly out of balance wheel will vibrate a lot!

If that vibration hits resonance with any other part of the caravan the whole thing will vibrate a lot!

I would never leave the wheels unbalanced if I was having the tyres changed, but whether taking a van in just for a wheel balance is debatable unless there is a problem.

[iansoady]

I might just try the camera idea some time....

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Stevan said:

I don't think that a caravan is anywhere near as sensitive to tyre imbalance as the front of a car.

But, an out of balance wheel will vibrate and a badly out of balance wheel will vibrate a lot!

If that vibration hits resonance with any other part of the caravan the whole thing will vibrate a lot!

I would never leave the wheels unbalanced if I was having the tyres changed, but whether taking a van in just for a wheel balance is debatable unless there is a problem.

Well I'm not sure I can agree with that, a car has shock absorbers on it's axles and that will dampen any vibrations considerably. Most caravans dont have shock absorbers and usually pretty crude suspension. Approach resonance of the wheel and axle with care, if you ever find it you would be in trouble. Furthermore the structure of a caravan is relatively flimsy and again more susceptible to damage from the vibration caused by out of balance wheels. The driver wont notice the out of balance wheels at all, I really was shocked just how bad it was at 60 mph. For what it costs (nothing when having new tyres), why wouldnt you have the wheels balanced?

Edited July 13, 2019 by Guest

[pigsfly]

19 hours ago, rslsys said:

Can I just put in a bid for Norfolk in terms of pot holes, corrugated surfaces and overgrown verges!

 

Cheers

 

Keith

Keith

         your not wrong there,  the A11  between Attlebrough and Norwich is like a tank proving ground shakes the car so much that at anything over 55mph its dam uncomfortable

 

kot

pigs

[rslsys]

On 13/07/2019 at 17:07, pigsfly said:

Keith

         your not wrong there,  the A11  between Attlebrough and Norwich is like a tank proving ground shakes the car so much that at anything over 55mph its dam uncomfortable

 

kot

pigs

Wait till you try the NDR past Norwich Airport, I actually pulled over to which of my tyres were flat!

 

Cheers

 

Keith

[Wunny]

I got the warranty repair response back from Bailey and it was as I expected.

 

Only two years warranty on bought in equipment , so 2 years and 17 days to failure gets no warranty repair.  The fly screen door had only been used for a few days in that time.

 

From my experience, most bought equipment in caravans, is not expected to last long compared to domestic equivalents. 

 

As caravan equipment generally gets very little use, the cheapest that can be got away with is fitted. 

 

The manufacturers have us over a barrel, because we keep buying their shoddy products so the have no incentive to improve quality.

 

To  focus their minds, we could stop buying, but then they will go out of business, which could be a good thing as they fail one by one, those that survive may just get around to making something that deserves our hard earned cash.

 

I'll get out my tools once more and repair the fly screen, but I'll not be buying another Bailey.

[Guest]

12 hours ago, Wunny said:

I got the warranty repair response back from Bailey and it was as I expected.

 

Only two years warranty on bought in equipment , so 2 years and 17 days to failure gets no warranty repair.  The fly screen door had only been used for a few days in that time.

 

 

I had a LG 4K TV, that developed a shadow on the screen at Warranty period + 4 days... Same response.  The retailer was sympathetic and gave me a partial refund, but LG were useless.  Their bad... I'd never look at another LG appliance of any sort again...

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Guzzilazz said:

I had a LG 4K TV, that developed a shadow on the screen at Warranty period + 4 days... Same response.  The retailer was sympathetic and gave me a partial refund, but LG were useless.  Their bad... I'd never look at another LG appliance of any sort again...

You should have exercised your rights and taken the retailer to court, no matter what they say you're covered a lot longer than they'd admit to.

14 hours ago, Wunny said:

I got the warranty repair response back from Bailey and it was as I expected.

 

Only two years warranty on bought in equipment , so 2 years and 17 days to failure gets no warranty repair.  The fly screen door had only been used for a few days in that time.

 

From my experience, most bought equipment in caravans, is not expected to last long compared to domestic equivalents. 

 

As caravan equipment generally gets very little use, the cheapest that can be got away with is fitted. 

 

The manufacturers have us over a barrel, because we keep buying their shoddy products so the have no incentive to improve quality.

 

To  focus their minds, we could stop buying, but then they will go out of business, which could be a good thing as they fail one by one, those that survive may just get around to making something that deserves our hard earned cash.

 

I'll get out my tools once more and repair the fly screen, but I'll not be buying another Bailey.

Clearly it was sub standard at the time of sale, take the dealer to court. Write to the dealer explaining what the fault is, the little use it's had and then use the law to take them to court.