Calling Series 3 unicorn owners with failed axles.
I am aware that there are two discussions on this topic already but this is aimed specifically at those people directly involved. We have an on going issue with our Series 3 Seville regarding an axle deemed to have failed and would be very interested to hear from others who have found themselves in the same position.
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2015 U3 Madrid. Axle replaced on warranty after inspection by Alko
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No, dealer said that Alko inspector considered it had not been overloaded as it had only failed one side. I took it to the dealers almost empty.
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I would like to know how your axle has 'failed'. We have a two year old swift with an axle problem which the dealer and alko refuse to acknowlege. We have been told the van has been overloaded which we know is incorrect - everything in the van has been weighed and we are 20k under the payload limit. Thnks in anticipation of your response.
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Hi, sorry but we don't know the details of the outcome of the inspection of our axle as the fault was discovered at the point of part exchange. The dealership required £1k as deposit against it being proven to be our fault. If Alko carry out a full inspection thay can establish from the measurements if the axle has failed or if the fault is caused by overloading or pot holes. We have now had our £1k repaid as the investigation went in our favour but obviously as we no longer own the caravan we have not been given the full results. Advice would be to insist on a full alko inspection. Needless to say we are very satisfied on a personal front and have faith in our dealership who have acted on our behalf.
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I have just been through the same investigation.
Although I was not given the results of the investigation I was told that I had overloaded the van at some point. Yes I have weighed the van at a weighbridge and I know it was within MTPLM. The replacement axle was a gesture of goodwill, not warranty.The symptoms are that the clearance between the tyre and wheel arch reduces as the axle rubbers give up, in extreme cases the tyre can wear through the wheel arch liner. My clearance identified as failure was <20mm. I believe that the failure is either because the rubbers are initially too soft or incorrectly processed ie undercured.
Another clue is if the swing arm of the suspension is horizontal or above horizontal, if you unload the van and there is no recovery to below horizontal you may have a problem.
The Alko illustration below shows loaded, unloaded and maximum travel indicating that a loaded axle swing arm is horizontal. Scroll down and click on the “technical data” tab. If you scroll further it shows the diagram and the recommended wheel arch clearance. Single axle 4 berth Baileys 2015 era have an Alko B1600 series axle rated at around 1550Kg this has a 160mm swing arm. This is on vans with MTPLM around 1500Kg which can be uprated to 1550Kg. The max rating of this axle series is 1600Kg. Not much headroom in my opinion.http://www.alko-tech.com/en/al-ko-hexagonal-rubber-suspension
Bailey single axle caravans show these symptoms early as I believe they start out as designed with less wheel arch clearance than most other makes, maybe even less than the Alko recommendations in the above document.
I would be surprised if Bailey are the only make suffering this problem as Alko supply most of the chassis in the UK, so could be the tip of the iceberg. Other makes may not get the wheel arch clearance problem but may have pronounced lean as the loaded side may fail first (or nearside which takes more of a battering from roads).
If you have a single axle Bailey 2-3 years old I would urge you to do a check on clearance, see if you can get your fingers above the tyre, if it is a tight fit get it checked.
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Further to my last post
A working link
http://www.alko-tech.com/en/al-ko-hexagonal-rubber-suspension
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The wheel arch clearance may appear ok on a swift a they are a different design and use 70 series tyres giving more clearance than a bailey. Check for lean looking at the van from the back and squint under the van at the suspension swing arms to see if they are above horizontal.
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We have found some more information regarding our axle. The dealer special has a 1200k miro and a 1350k mtplm. This gives a payload of 150k - to which we have been working. But, and it is a big but, the axle is graded at 1350k, so there is no room whatsoever if we overload. We have emptied the van, weighed it at a public weighbridge, to find it weighs more than the plated miro! And here is the rub, on the swift website, in small print, there is a disclaimer saying all measurements and weights are approximate and checks should be made to verify actual size / weight. So unwittingly we haveoverloaded the van and caused the tyre to feather. Having spoken to Alko they assure us that as long as we keep to the mtplm the radius arm will return to the correct position and the tyre will wear evenly.
So I think the lesson here is that not all dealer specials are that special!!
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Very interesting, If your van is still empty and you've towed a few miles back from the weighbridge I would definitely take a look at the radius arm and see if it has recovered to below horizontal.
Dealer specials usually have several extras that woulds eat into the load margin, so I guess they have plated it up to the axle limit to retain the margin.
Did the tyre feather because it came into contact with the wheel arch liner or some other trim? Out of interest what was the unloaded weight? And was it without gas and battery?
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We emptied the van of all contents we had, including battery and gas bottle and the van weighed 1230k. Take off the mover (28k) and two alko jack brackets (2k), you can see the van is 1200k - but the miro states an allowance of 10k for gas bottle! So I believe the van starts at 10k over before anything is added.
We have been told by the dealer the tyre feathered due to overloading, but when we challenged this (as no one has inspected the van or taken any measurements) they decided we had bent the radius arm by hitting a pot hole. They were quite willing to fit a new axle for only £1000 or we could claim on insurance as we could not be specific on when or where we hit the alleged pot hole.
Needless to say Lowdhams will not be getting any further business from us.
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Have a look at Worldwidewalkies blog. They successful challenged a refusal on an axle issue. Some good information on how to challenge it.
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This appears to affect other unicorn models. I have a Unicorn 2 Cadiz bought new in late 2014. I have recently returned from North Wales without my caravan. The axle has collapsed down on both sides leaving a gap between the wheel and wheel arch of approximately 4 to 5mm leaving it impossible to tow home to Surrey. Bailey are at the moment refusing to do an inspection because I’m just out of warranty. They are at the moment investigating problems concerning Unicorn 3 Cadiz, Madrid, Valencia and Vigo models builtbeteeen 2014 and 2016. It appears to me that should be looking further back. I have had 5 caravans over nearly 30 years and had previously not heard of axle problems. My caravan was serviced in October 17 the anniversary of my purchase. I then had it out for one weekend only 2 miles from where I store it. This trip to Wales was the only other outing. I am in the process of waiting to have the axle replaced. I have contacted Bailey to reconsider there rejection of an inspection and await there reply.
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I have a 2015 Unicorn 3 Vigo. When I went to collect it after it's 3rd service I was told of the axle problem. They arranged for an Alko agent to inspect 2 others on the same day and asked me to drop it off the night before. We had a holiday booked not too far away so we agreed to return a day early and drop the caravan off as we passed on the way home.The outcome so I was told was the caravan had been overloaded (even though they said it was 20kg under the max weight when we dropped it off after a weeks holiday ! ) but as a GESTURE OF GOODWILL ?? they would replace the axle free of charge.
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That is the stock answer from Bailey /Alko regarding the failed axle problems. If they accept that there are manufacturing and design errors they and other caravan manufacturers have a much bigger problem to contain. I have been all through this experience and I believe Alko had a batch of dodgy rubber and Bailey cocked up on clearance. My new axle if fine with clearance better than 55mm as opposed to less than 20mm after several hundred miles fully laden. I contacted Bailey to see if the new axle had been updated or modified, they were cagey but when pressed admitted that there were some modifications but were not specific. Intrigued to know Itook a look at the new axle The only difference I can ascertain is that the axle has been lowered by about 10mm. This would directly add to the wheel arch clearance. BTW, the axle has the same plate rating as the old one 1550Kg so no clues there.
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That’s interesting that they have lowered the axle position.
Hi Viatorem, would it be possible to post some pictures of this new mounting position?
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pictures are tricky as I found you need exactly the same angle etc, my phone ones don't really compare well.
I did measure from the bottom of the axle to the bottom of the axle end plate on the old and new which is where I get about 10mm.
It does possibly indicate that there was a problem with the original clearance though.
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