Living with the Bailey Olympus 464
I have searched the Club's site to see if there were any reviews of the Bailey Olympus 464, but no success. Or whether any Owner surveys had been undertaken of the type where two competing types of caravan are reported on by their owners. Again no success. So I wonder if there are any Olympus 464 owners (past/present) who could share their experience of owning this particular caravan. Thanks.
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We bought a 464 when our boys stopped coming away with us,and we wanted a fixed bed.
It was 16 months old when we bought it and have had it almost 4 years now, have only had a couple of small problems with it. We had to replace the plastic water pipe connector as it started to leak and a new seal around the aerial.No damp problem so far either. It's a good van for a couple.
Is there anything you particularly wanted to know? If I can help I will.
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Thanks for the reply. We mainly travel as a couple and like the convenience of the fixed bed. Although we do take our granddaughter away during the school holidays too, so having 4 berths is useful.
Looking at the 464 we liked the layout as its similar to our old S5 Bordeaux but being slightly shorter it can be stored on the drive, ready for the "mythical" quick getaway!
The only slight concern is the reports of heavy noseweight at 88kg.ex works. The car has a limit of 80kg. But I haven't had a problem with any previous caravans where car noseweights have been between 70 and 90kgs depending on the car. To be honest Ive never checked the empty noseweight on a caravan. I load them up for the first time and then move things around until it comes in line with the car's towball limit. And none have required putting heavy items that far back towards the rear of the caravan. Nor have I had any concerns over stability with any caravans either and that's without the added benefit of ATC.
So your experience on loading the van would be useful, and do you tend to tow it at full MTPLM?
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Hi clivea, We tow ours with a Freelander 2 so haven't had any problems with nose weight. The van has always towed welL, the atc is a bonus. What car are you going to tow with?
We don't carry lots of heavy items in the van, only the porch awning we use, this is laid over the axle.
Your grand daughter should be ok on the bed at the front, our son has used it on a couple of occasions.
We also bought the van as it fits on our drive, but have now found that using CLs the shower is too small, and plan to change it next year.
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Hi clivea, We tow ours with a Freelander 2 so haven't had any problems with nose weight. The van has always towed welL, the atc is a bonus. What car are you going to tow with?
We don't carry lots of heavy items in the van, only the porch awning we use, this is laid over the axle.
Your grand daughter should be ok on the bed at the front, our son has used it on a couple of occasions.
We also bought the van as it fits on our drive, but have now found that using CLs the shower is too small, and plan to change it next year.
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Thanks for the feedback, I guess you car can take 100kg or higher noseweight. Our son has a FLs which he plans to change next year and we may consider buying it from him. However we are thinking of buying another caravan as soon as we sell our current one which is a lightweight Trigano 420. We sold our Bordeaux and XC70 in 2014, and bought a Subaru Forester 2.0 auto. We bought the non turbo petrol as we hadn't planned on doing any more caravanning but in Summer this year we decided to buy another caravan. I'd always quite fancied a Trigano or Eriba, but after using it there time now its just not suitable for us. Well made, good to tow and store, but just too small. So rather than sell the Subaru we have decided to buy a lighter van around 1300kg. The 464, Bordeaux S7 or Pursuit 430/4 comprise the short list.
The Subaru is very well matched to something around 1300kg albeit a little buzzy on incline for when overtaking.
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