Bailey Caravan damp
Can anyone help me please? I need some sound impartial advice both practical and legal. I bought a Bailey Verona brand new in 2013. Each year on its annual service the damp test has shown high readings of anywhere between 20 -100 in the toilet/shower area and each year the caravan has gone back to the dealership for repairs. This year the damp test reading for the same area showed at 22. The dealership says this is nothing to be concerned about and to return for a retest in 3 months. By that time we will have had 3 months of summer and in that a spell in southern France so I would expect the readings to be better but to my mind this would not be representative.By the time the next service is due I am convinced that I would be back with the same problem but of course cannot prove it. The problems I have are real and immediate. I cannot sell the van privately with a history of damp. Yes the dealership would no doubt buy it on a trade in but at their prices no thanks, What a dilemma! Where do I stand?
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The Bailey warranty against water ingress is for a minimum of 6yrs or 10yrs if you took the extended warranty,the reading you got this time is not out of line it seems, with most shower areas,and can also be caused by condensation,if it has dried out when the dealer advised a recall visit to check,as Bailey caravans do not have any wood to rot in the body only in the floor area,so that should be the only vunerable place,
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Hi Orest
I would get it sort out before you are out of warranty. From what I have heard about bailey, they don't care about there caravans in warranty or out of warranty. If this was a car we would want or money back or another car. But not in the world of caravans.they just don't care. Mine is a 2009 sancerra. So it eight years old the shower is cracking and at four corners of the outside is cracked. No damp but you never no what's behind the shower unit. Now I have to pay for repair. Four weeks a year that not a lot of use. Getting back to your damp keep on at them until you are happy. Like you say after south of France it will be dry but how about during or winter will it be back? Keep on at the dealer's and bailey until you are happy. Good luck. Dave
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I would advise getting it dealt with. Having been satisfied with a Bailey Olympus, we bought a new series 3 Unicorn Vigo two years ago. At its 2 year service it was found to have a broken axle and was returned to Bailey who repaired the axle but also found it had been leaking at the rear. The flooring in the washroom was removed and dried-out and the roof resealed. As soon as the Unicorn was returned, we traded it in for a Coachman VIP, replated to take a higher payload. My initial impression is that the Coachman is better built but only time will tell. I have spoken with one or two Bailey dealers/ex-Bailey dealers who feel that Bailey are focussing on making their caravans superficially attractive but neglecting build quality. One dealer who has dropped Bailey in preference to Adria said he had become fed-up with the volume of warranty repairs, for which he was inadequately reimbursed by Bailey.
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I have a similar problem with my 2010 Bailey Olympus, reported high dampness levels under the sink and in the "cupboard" at floor level at service in April this year.
Having monitored this since I firstly found that the back of sink seal was starting to go and silicon sealer sorted this (no trickle down the cupboard back below the sink) but the floor and cupboard bottom has still felt damp.
We use the van for two week trips and tend to stay on CL's so the van shower and sink get a fair bit of use and we found it very damp under the hot and cold pipes that run round the floor cupboard. I wondered if I had a pipe leak but have discounted this as even a pinhole pipe leak would produce much more water and I would hear the pump every so often so believe it's probably condensation
Anyone have any suggestions, having failed to persuade my wife to stop showering so often
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The damp reading of 22 appears to be within limits to me. And as long as the thing was repaired properly, who cares what it was previously?
I had a 2011 Pegasus Verona. It had water ingress a) due to a badly fitted rear window and b) (unknown to me, found by the dealer and apparently common) due to the front grab handles leaking. All this was fixed by the dealer with no problems / quibbles.
Of greater concern to me was that the early Alutech bodies would dent as soon as you looked at them and could be susceptible to stress creases. They're now clad with GRP on top of the outer alu shell, to fix that.
I traded the Pegasus in last year for a Unicorn Vigo and, bar squealling brakes, have had no problems with that at all so far - AFAICS build quality on current models is not an issue.
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If you find a crack in the shower wall, or a seam, this stuff is good
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Captain-Tolleys-Creeping-Crack-sealer/dp/B003T6EJ9A
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