Problems with my Bailey Approach 745

[My Dog Likes Fishing]

We've had three habitation doors on our 740SE ! THREE!
Would I buy from Bailey again ............ I really don't know , my next motorhome will be a keeper and we will be buying in the £90K to £110K bracket so it's going to take some thought !

You can buy a fleet of Bailys for that! Wouldn't be wasting that sort of cash in a British van I'm ashamed to say.

 

[Adbt]

I had a serous electrical fault on my van early in its life. Burstner allocated me a Head Office contact in Germany. He copied me in on all emails between them and the dealer, often asked how progress was going and said contact him whenever I want over the issue.

In the end (after a couple of dealer visits) I took the van back to Germany where my contact meet us, gave us a personal one to one factory tour and made us feel very welcome. Van fixed. Burstner paid for all ferries, fuel and campsites. Or they said they would pick it up and return it but it would be without it for six weeks, i choose to take it myself as I wanted to see the factory and the personal tour had already been offered.

A good company can make a poor situation feel right in no time if they want to. Full marks Burstner.

ps water level gauges not very accurate

That sort of approach was everything Bailey wasn't , they were quite simply appalling re the last habitation door being replaced . Why did I have to threaten legal action to force them to fulfil their warranty obligations ? Sad but true !

 

[Humsafer]

If you have read my comments about my Bailey Autograph 765 above now go to my new thread "Bailey Autograph 765" in motorhome chat.

 

[Big Nick]

We got the van new in January. We have had many problems with things not working or packing up. The vehicle has been back to the dealer 3 times and the problems are getting worse.
Question 1/ Does anyone else have problems with the new Baileys?
Question 2/ Does the gauge/screen give you the true percentage of water/waste? The dealer tells me Bailey have many problems with this. My problem is that I have no idea how much water/waste I actually have on board. A visual inspection is a pain in the ***.
Question3/ Does your habitation door fit and does the alarm work?
Question 4/ Have you any leaks from your taps?
Question 5/ How close is the actual temperture to what the gauge says?
Question 6/ Have any of your light fittings fallen out?
Question 7/ Do you have a 5 second delay between turning on a hot tap and water coming out?
Question 8/ Did/has the entire plastic section at the rear of the vehicle parted company with the van?
I have a lot more questions.....just ask

We have a 625AA
Q1) Some but so do a lot of other makes
Q2) Yes mine do, you can recalibrate them via the control panel however
Q3) Fits perfect and we don't have an alarm
Q4) None at all
Q5) Wouldn't know for definite but feels like gauge seems to read lower than actual
Q6) Once, strip light in lounge pushed back in and hasn't again
Q7) Only when first using after refilling tank
Q8) No, never

If you have any more queries just ask!

 

[GWAYGWAY]

I looked at the YouTube video of the making of Bailey caravans to watch how the bodies are made. The bloke putting the glue along the edges seems to be VERY sparing with it as the one line of the green glue does not seem adequate to cover the width of the frame itself even under the press weight. Also the glue used on the insulation seems to be the minimum possible. Have a look yourselves and see how the caravans are put together. The motorhomes will be exactly the same.

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[Big Nick]

I think the issue is the customer service in most threads I read from unsatisfied Bailey MH owners.

When you spend tens of thousands of pounds on a product, it's totally unforgivable that the factory doesn't pull out all the stops to fully rectify that product for the customer

This thing about the contract being with the dealer is a load of BS in my view and I don't know how they get away with that, the dealer didn't build the blooming thing!!!

 

[Ingwe]

Well, whether you think it's BS or not, the contract,in law, is with the dealer and not the manufacturer. You are right it is a matter of customer service; if the dealer doesn't put right the issues with the faulty van, then the manufacturer should be concerned with the damage being done to their name and refuse to supply the dealer.
Conversely, should the manufacturer not be up to scratch, the dealer should make known that they won't sell the brand unless the issues are corrected.
On the legal side, should the van actually be dangerous it would be possible to fix the manufacturer with liability irrespective of the contract being between the customer and the dealer.

 

[deleted-member02]

Hardly inspires confidence in the workmanship !

 

[Adbt]

You can buy a fleet of Bailys for that! Wouldn't be wasting that sort of cash in a British van I'm ashamed to say.

What I was meaning was if say Bailey went up market price wise went into the upper echelons of Autotrail territory would I buy one ? The answer is probably no however I have NOT come across a foreign van that meets my needs
1. Don't want an A class with that massive useless cab area
2. I don't want a huge garage at the back which means I have to mountain climb into bed
3. I want a fully fitted kitchen with the hardware at human heights
4. I don't want the van layout on several different levels
5. I don't want a drinks cabinet /glasses cabinet
6. I don't want a reverse tardis effect

 

[Ingwe]

Interestingly, when I went to collect the van from the dealers, the service manager, brought out by the receptionist to answer our angry questions over the 3 week delay and failure, even then, to rectify the faults, said that they were so busy they couldn't cope. He accepted that this wasn't an excuse but it indicates that the dealership is just intersted in flogging vans and wasn't intersted in offering after-sales service.
Almost more important than the make of motorhome is to ensure you buy from a dealer with a good reputation for service. And I don't mean some slick salesman promising the earth until the money has been handed over.

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[Chris]

Interestingly, when I went to collect the van from the dealers, the service manager, brought out by the receptionist to answer our angry questions over the 3 week delay and failure, even then, to rectify the faults, said that they were so busy they couldn't cope. He accepted that this wasn't an excuse but it indicates that the dealership is just intersted in flogging vans and wasn't intersted in offering after-sales service.
Almost more important than the make of motorhome is to ensure you buy from a dealer with a good reputation for service. And I don't mean some slick salesman promising the earth until the money has been handed over.

I agree.

You don't get any of that nonsense from John's Cross who are a super dealer and honest.

In fairness so were Becks in Norfolk where we bought our previous van.

Looks like we might have been lucky.

 

[Ingwe]

Chris, you really do seem to have been lucky. We are going to a different dealer tomorrow but even in their telephone conversations making the booking, they seem more service oriented than the shower we boguht the van from.

Still, better not jinx it!

 

[Minster]

We got the van new in January. We have had many problems with things not working or packing up. The vehicle has been back to the dealer 3 times and the problems are getting worse.
Question 1/ Does anyone else have problems with the new Baileys?
Question 2/ Does the gauge/screen give you the true percentage of water/waste? The dealer tells me Bailey have many problems with this. My problem is that I have no idea how much water/waste I actually have on board. A visual inspection is a pain in the ***.
Question3/ Does your habitation door fit and does the alarm work?
Question 4/ Have you any leaks from your taps?
Question 5/ How close is the actual temperture to what the gauge says?
Question 6/ Have any of your light fittings fallen out?
Question 7/ Do you have a 5 second delay between turning on a hot tap and water coming out?
Question 8/ Did/has the entire plastic section at the rear of the vehicle parted company with the van?
I have a lot more questions.....just ask

 

[busby]

I drain the waste every day and top the water up at the same time,,never bother with the gauge,,,BUSBY,,,

 

[Bailey 15]

Just started having 2 problems today, habitation door won't shut unless you slam it, can't see what's causing it,
2, toilet cassette light very sensitive, now staying permanently on even when clean and emptied ?

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[Bailey 15]

Update on our habitation door problem.
All weekend we've had problems closing the door, had to really slam it shut, or push in middle and top of door for it to close properly so emailed dealer to get it booked in for repair
( especially after reading here that Bailey's have habitation door issues)
However, today we played around with the keys, remote and manually locking and unlocking and guess what! Hey presto it's back to normal!!
Was it just the remote central locking system out of sync? Seems to be so maybe worth trying this if others have this problem

 

[Ingwe]

@Bailey 15-did you keep notes of what you did? It may be helpful if there was some method that could be followed.
Glad you got it sorted. Ours remains lockable only with the handle inside, or the key from outside.

 

[PeteH]

Door locking playing up :-

Whilst Not inferring this is your issue, many problems with central locking are related to "Earthing". As can be other problems with ALL modern and CANBUS vehicle electrics. In order to reduce cost the CANBUS and like systems rely on very small currents in much smaller wiring to actuate systems. Any corrosion or badly made "earth" will introduce lower voltage/current and can affect operation. Also it is surprising just how quick the battery in the "fob" (zapper) can drop. Some use very cheap batteries, which then go intermittent.

The issue with door and window "fit", is manufacturer based, as most are build on the same door and frame as found on virtually ALL modern Caravans and Motorhomes just fitted out differently for each makers spec:.

I Haven't been there, so I cannot speak from personal experience, but I understand that a very large percentage of the workforce of a "local" huge Caravan/Motorhome manufacturer do not speak English as first language?, and have a large turnover of same. Which would beg the question of how do you consistently control "quality"?.

 

[Bailey 15]

@Bailey 15-did you keep notes of what you did? It may be helpful if there was some method that could be followed.
Glad you got it sorted. Ours remains lockable only with the handle inside, or the key from outside.

Hi
It was one of those things where you played around and it suddenly worked!
Do the obvious as suggested because we do forget gobs have batteries, then try to reset fob and start again. Your really do sound like a fob issue doesn't it.

 

[Bailey 15]

Sorry fob not gob!!!

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[jezport]

all our vans have had an accurate water gauge. I don't see how they cant be accurate, 4 metal probes of different lengths hang down and touch the water at varying heights.