Problems with my Bailey Approach 745 (1 Viewer)

[mrhappydog]

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

 

[motorhomer]

Can't speak for Baileys but some of the things listed are just normal!

eg I suspect very few vans have waste water indicators anywhere near accurate. Mine shows 50% full when empty. Similarly the outside temp guage. Water delay might just be adjustment to the pressure switch. Alarm presumably was a dealer fit extra so not a Bailey issue. I have also had lights fall out.

I am not in any way trying to minimise your problems but having had several new vans from several suppliers I have had none without some issues. I guess its because they are largely hand built whereas a car is these days built by robots! Don't let it spoil your enjoyment of a wonderful hobby!

 

[scousebird]

We have a 745 as well. Very pleased with it. We took possession 1st May after waiting for ours to be built so maybe some of your issues had been ironed out by then. The only ongoing problem we have is the strip LED lights above the cupboards in the living area, they keep coming out, just makes us laugh - Alan is thinking of gluing them in place. We had a leak in the shower room and took it back to the dealer, it turned out to be just a bit of sealant that was missing.

Are your dealers helpful?

Hope you get your problems solved. Keep us up to date.

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[Bertie Bassett]

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

Can't but commiserate with you, on our seventh van purchase right now and can honestly say we've never had a water gauge that worked with any accuracy., the rest as 'motorhomer' says in #2 don't let it spoil your enjoyment of our lifestyle/hobby. Our fourth van was a Laika......................oh dear, there aren't the pixels left in space to describe our experience with that.

 

[DanielFord]

Before purchasing, we rented many motorhomes. IMO the water level meters should be treated as a sort of random number generator.
Luckily, on my MH the waste water level seems to be more or less accurate, so I use that as an inverse as to what is in the fresh tank

 

[Larrynwin]

Its the same in RVs, we measure our tank levels by days, after 6 days grey and black need emptying

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[sedge]

We measure by days too, was it Tuesday or Wednesday when we emptied/ filled that? Where were we then, was it at Chateau le whatever or Oozit sur Riviere? Or did we go there first? LOL

 

[BobtheBass]

Never had any major problems with our 745, just tiny niggles that you sort of expect nowadays. Ignore the temperature on the control panel, its just an educated guess. No leaks, no delays in water delivery and the door fit fine. The back panel seemed fine as well. Human error? You will eventually be delighted when the tweaks are completed.

 

[Bluemooner]

I just had new water gauges fitted on my Bailey they were both showing 0

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[Neil S]

We have a new 740 and have had no build quality issues at all .
Ok the water gauge is not terribly accurate but then
none of them are .
The temperature gauge on the Alde display is accurate

 

[PJGWiltshire]

We have a swift Kontiki and again the gages are not to be relied upon. Simple method of working out if we have water, Turn taps on no water needs filling Simples

 

[mrhappydog]

I hear what you all say but you are wrong!! So much money it should all be right. If it was a car you would really kick ass!! So why accept things on a motorhome? The water/waste gauge should be right as should everything else.

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[tinhat]

Ours is a pre-swift autocruise starlet 11 and the water gauge is only accurate when showing empty & full...rubbish inbetween.

 

[signworks]

No problems my 745 with my bailey love it

 

[Voyger1010]

Bailey 750 March 1st this year
answers
q1=no
q2=yes
q3=yes central locks and alarm fitted by Jim,no problems
q4=no
q5=closely very accurate
q6=no
q7=no, ensure air is purged from line on fill up
q8=no
We did have a small snagging list, but dealer remedied all, including a new mirror as the toilet original had a little mirroring missing from the bottom edge. Her indoors being picky, but as she said , it needs to be right.
The only major thing we've had was the power pack battery charger died in France, after being on for 7 weeks, but on contacting dealer, they spoke to Bailey ,who then sent a new one to the dealer and he shipped it out to us. Couldn't fault the service from Morans Motorhomes.
Anyway after owning two other brands of motorhome we are more than happy with ours, and I hope that your dealer sorts out your issues and you get to enjoy your Bailey

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[Linda Watt]

We've have had the Bailey Approch 475 since new in 2012......the doors been a problem for us what with blowing back on the hinges having to be rehung a few times...also notice if driving in the rain the footstep well can fill up with water.
Our biggest problem has been our Central locking.....it's been a problem since day one! The central locking opens and shuts all the time with nobody near it and even when we are in it. Its been in and out of the dealers every year for it habitation checks and they try and have a look at it. They have had the guys that fitted the Cobra Alarm over to try and fix it but with no success. The last trip we were away the locks clicked open and shut all night and all day.....came home phoned the Bailey dealer and he more or less told us they didn't know what to do and to take it to the Peugot garage?? Bailey says it Peugot and Peugot says it Bailey???
No one in the area could take the motorhome for the height so we put it to our local garage. It's been there 5 days and they have tried everything and are stumped! We have phoned the alarm installation guys today to see if they can give us some advice???? We are sooo frustrated with this!! Will be selling our motorhome if this isn't fixed had enough of it now!!

 

[BONZO]

It sounds like it's the computer in the van have tried to disconnect the battery and re boot it but it will take the radio of line and you might to put code back in .but I would have thought the garage may have done it .

 

[BONZO]

Ps could it be your key fob that is transmitting . With out you ?

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[tonyidle]

I hear what you all say but you are wrong!! So much money it should all be right. If it was a car you would really kick ass!! So why accept things on a motorhome? The water/waste gauge should be right as should everything else.

Correct. If it isn't then it wasn't designed / fitted / wired correctly. It will however fail eventually. Mine is just an example. It has 5 stainless rods hanging in the water. There is one full depth rod & four others equivalent to the quarter, half, three-quarter, and full levels. The rods are pushed into copper sockets in a fitting screwed into the top of the tank & the lot is embedded in epoxy. A fairly flimsy ribbon cable is embedded in the epoxy from above. As anyone with half a brain might expect water travels up between the epoxy & stainless & eventually reaches the stainless/copper interface. Then it does what water always does when it gets into a dissimilar metal joint. It corrodes & eventually destroys the joint. The cure would be to replace the entire sensor with another that will do the same eventually - so very few do and hence the reputation these things have. Having OCD and a lathe I machined out the epoxy (after pulling all the rods). cut a thread on each rod for a decent eyelet/2 nuts connection, re-connected all the wires & re-potted the lot in our favourite sealant. It now works perfectly and I hope will continue to do so. I did the easy one first (my fresh tank is indoors) - the underslung waste will take more effort. So I left it on the basis that it does indicate Full accurately although any other level is three-quarter-full according to the gauge.

 

[mitzimad]

i probably spent in total 4 hours fitting a waste and fresh gauage when i built my van, that was a waste of four hours we now know when the sink drain gets sluggish the waste tank is nearly full and we need water soon

 

[Ingwe]

Agree with mrhappydog and also Linda Watts.
We have a second hand 2012 620 Approach. We've had problems with the habitation door from the putset. We have had three trips to the dealer who can't find the problem. The door locks only sporadically and, whn the battery is flat there is no way to lock the habitation at all. The central locking, key and manual switch from inside all fail to lock it. Meaning we can't leave the van.
Same issues with the water level guages.
As mrhappydog says, it is completely nonsense for the dealer to try and palm you off with platitudes like "oh these things are all like this, blah de blah....". A van costing nearly £40k (some four times what I spent on my first home in 1975) should be right. And if not, the dealer should put it right, with as little pratting aboit and trying to dodge liability.
The dealer is currently trying to sort out our problem. This is their last,chance before I go to law. And, as a litigation solicitor, I'm aware of the remedies available. Let's hope they get it sorted but please don't accept BS from the dealers/ manifacturers.

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[SuperMike]

Its the same in RVs, we measure our tank levels by days, after 6 days grey and black need emptying

Woooooooooo LarryHappyChappy. Never had any problem with the gauges on our Winnebago . They are stuck on the outside of the tank and thus do not suffer from th cleaning problems of other inferior type RV's. Further talk about yourself, we can get at least a fortnight out of the black tank. Longer if I use the local trees.

.

 

[Bailey58]

Our 740 was new in 2013 and there was a problem with water ingress into the over cab area from a badly sealed cap on the front which was aired extensively on the motorhome media at the time.I found the same problem when I checked ours but it was quickly sorted by the dealer and I noticed it had been changed in the later model. Apart from a couple of cupboard catches failing I've had no problems.

 

[Humsafer]

I am so disappointed with my Bailey Autograph 765, purchased new 7 months ago. Brilliant concept, brilliant construction concept, brilliant layout from a company with an excellent reputation, everything!!! well nearly. Going wrong.
Habitation door that didn't fit or lock. after only a few weeks
Collapsing bed in the U lounge (fastened with 1/2 inch x6 screws into fibre board) I kid you not. Came home early from holiday in France due to this and the leaking shower and faulty habitation door.
Locker hinges coming off on the lift up bed slats in the U lounge, (not the bed that collapsed)
Locker doors very, very badly lined up.
Failed water pump needed replacing
Failed fridge thermostat needed replacing
Leaking shower into forward facing dinette locker. Ruined wife's coat, and now the carpet. Are they responsible for Consequential damage ???
System for filling water tank failed completely, suspect faulty control panel.
Dinette seat squabs slowly self destruct due to incorrect application of Velcro. Will be writing full details with Pics soon on this one, so other Bailey owners can check their own vans.

I am not too bothered about a slightly inaccurate and inconsistent water level indicator, A grey water drain pipe that is too small and has baffles at the exit, designed to promote clogging, the odd down lighter that falls out or cupboard catch that need attention. Unfortunately and quite wrongly we have come to accept these as the norm.

I have to say Elite Motorhomes have been Brilliant and I cannot fault them. although by now they must be as fed up with this van as I am.
Dealing with Bailey is difficult, you cant speak to their customer service. only e mail them ( unless you are on holiday and manage to get past the Haughty receptionist, well I am entitled to my opinion and perception). I wrote to their Managing Director, No reply! at least from him. I e-mailed one of their Senior Managers, no reply! I wrote him a letter and the reply I received was so full of grammatical errors I am surprised he signed it. I hesitate to publish, ( it is so disgraceful) but I just may if this van doesn't come right. My perception is that this company who have built up an excellent and well deserved reputation over the years are now letting it all slide. They are so busy trying to satisfy the enormous consumer demand for their vehicles they have little time for their customers. It beats me why major companies spend so much time and money advertising for new customers and so little time looking after the ones they already have. Motorhome s are a repeat business, I have been daft enough to purchase about 9 new ones over the last 15/18 years.

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[Ingwe]

@Humsafer-sorry to read your catalogue of problems with your Bailey. It is clear that there are real problems with habitation doors and Bailey. I have seen many references on forums to non-fitting habitation doors. Indeed the former owner of ours had to return from a trip with the door held closed with bungee ropes!
Two comments; your contract is with Elite and not Bailey and whilst Elite have been helpful, it remains their contractual obligation to put right the faults with the van. You may still be able to reject the van and get a full refund given how recently you bought the van and the faults still remain. The other comment I make is that the faults are clear breaches of contract and the damage to your wife's coat and the carpets flow directly from these breaches so form part of your claim.
I hope that you get it sorted soon. You're lucky at least in that Elite seem ok to deal with, though the fact that they haven't yet rectified the faults and you've felt the need to contact Bailey, isn't a good sign.

 

[mercianman]

This is an interesting post, before choosing our motorhome (we hired a few) and the Bailey Autograph gave us a few problems. The drop down bed stopped working halfway up (or down). And none of the external doors would stay shut and we had to tape them closed to stop rain from coming in under the seats, the grey water drain refused to either open or close properly and just dribbled. It was a nice van but you would expect doors to stay closed and dropdown beds to drop down! It was the first van we had ever used and we thought it was us doing things wrong.

 

[zac]

Just another example of poor british workmanship, it is a shame but very much the norm it seems with motorhomes. I feel for you i really do as i know what it is like to just keep on getting one issue after another. If i could give mine back (Autotrail Delware) i would and i would never buy another british motorhome again.
Dont give up and keep the pressure on the dealer as it has already been said the issue is with them and not the manufacturer (right or wrong).

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[Adbt]

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 !

 

[Allanm]

Our waste level gauge worked for about a week before it started playing up. Our van is an Autosleeper with Sargent electrics. The tank sensors have been cleaned twice, in the end, I disconnected the sensors and make sure we empty the waste every time we fill up. If we forget, we rely on the back up system, the shower tray starts filling up!

 

[Phillybarbour]

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

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