Bailey 75-2 Review (1 Viewer)

[Dide46]

Well after waiting six long weeks our brand new 75-2 arrived this Friday, so I thought I would share our initial thoughts on our experience so far after spending the last three days in it on three different campsites.

Firstly I would say overall we are absolutely delighted with it and it is by far the best van we have ever had and the layout for us is near perfect. This is our first new van and we were aware of some people's negative feedback with new vans but from our experience so far this has not materialised. The van feels very solid and well built and I am very particular in this department (I have worked in the construction all of my adult life so I understand about fitting kitchens/bathrooms etc).

The van is big it is so spacious internally and is just fantastic in both terms or size, style, layout and quality. On the road the size is apparent however nothing that concerns us overall or would put us off owning one, you must drive it a little slower on tight roads and be aware that space is tight between you the on coming traffic/stone walls/trees we tested this over two of the three days away. It drives very well and the 160 bhp is ample to cruise along with the engine untroubled, we are averaging 25mpg which seems to be rising slowly as the engine is bedding in.

Storage is ample for us it's swallows all of our kit with easy and space to spare. The pay load is totally fine it has some fab touches like the locker on the floor take all your shoes etc and the lockers under the bench seat are massive and so easy to access through the doors or just lift the seats up. All your windbreaks, BBQ, chairs etc just slide straight in through the outside locker under the bed.

Water filling systems is excellent, clip it in watch the digital gauge and fill it up, couldn't be any simpler especially if you are doing it by yourself which is sometimes the case as the wife can comes directly from work. You can also access both tanks from inside the van which is a very good idea.

A few negatives or teething troubles I prefer to call them, the Remis blind in front of the kitchen is stuck and has a small hole in it, there was a slight leak from the bathroom sink trap (fixed that in about 10 seconds the washer was slightly kinked). We also went for the media plus pack which includes sat nav and 24" tv for the bedroom etc however the tv bracket was missing so we weren't able to mount the tv to the wall. The van needs to go back for blind and to collect the tv bracket which to be honest is not a big issue. When ever you do building work you have a snagging period and even the most consiencious trades people can have things to go back to to tweak, so a motorhome is no different (a house on wheels with fixtures and fittings that may need adjusting).

Obviously it's early days and we need to see how the long term realibilty stands up but to sum it up:- we are so far delighted with our choice and for us the van is everything we had hoped for and more and there is very little we would change. We had considered Hymer and other foreign manufacturers however there layout just didn't work for us as they felt a little cramped where as immediately when we saw the Bailey 75-2 we were blown away by what it had to offer.

We can not wait for our next trip away and our tour around Europe later on in the year.

 

[Mickey1]

Mickey.

 

[aldhp21]

We can not wait for our next trip away and our tour around Europe later on in the year.

Nice review Dide46

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[Bailey 15]

Brilliant well done and excellent review.
We have the Bailey 625, love it but would maybe consider the larger model next time.

 

[Pand1958]

Hi
We're picking up our 75-2 in ten days time and are pleased to hear that you're loving it. Any extra words of wisdom to share with newbies?

 

[Dide46]

Not much really, except take a large towel as the sink is so close to the sofa that when cooking and washing up it is very exposed to get stained, so to prevent this we cover the cushions with a towel. I read a negative comment about this somewhere, however I must disagree I totally understand Bailey logic at having the sink set back and close to the end as it gives you a little bench space at the front to use whereas if the sink was positioned at the front and not in the corner you would lose precious working surface. The towel isn't idea but a worth while compromise for the extra bench space.

We also bought two rugs which are similar colour to the carpets, we have one in front of the kitchen so if there are any mishaps whilst cooking the rug takes the brunt of the damage. The second rug is between the bench seats which also protects the original carpet against wine spilages and covers the two access hatchs in the floor.

This is our third consecutive weekend away in a little over two weeks of ownership and our enthusiasm and happiness with our purchase only grows we are absolutely delighted with the 75-2 we have had a few small issues that need to get addressed but nothing to worry about. Like I said in my first post only time will tell about how reliable the van will prove but so far so good.

Is this your first van?

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[C.L.S]

Thanks for the review , looked at the 75-2 at the Stratford show for the first time and was really impressed with the layout and high spec of the van on offer at the show for a tad under 50k
Looks a great van , hope you enjoy.

 

[Mike Rivers]

Great review, very detailed and enjoyed reading your thoughts.
We too took delivery of our 75-2 mid June and have had 7 nights away so far. We liked the layout first and foremost which for a couple we found ideal. Plenty of space in the lounge/kitchen area and excellent bathroom swung it over the equivalent twin-bed option (although the garage space would have been welcome).
TBH, in a motorhome the size of the 75-2, if we find the storage space 'challenging', then we're probably taking too much clobber anyway!!
Our thoughts so far echo yours. We've had a couple of issues. 1) The duff microwave needed swapping over. 2) The front overcab skylight whistling noise. This I'm told is a work in progress issue with Bailey yet to determine the final remedy. We're in good company if you have a similar issue and replacing the rubber seals hasn't worked. My dealer has made further suggestions to Bailey for their approval and if successful I guess Bailey will roll this updated remedy out.
My only other concern was the metal trim on the underfloor storage locker catching on the upholstery. I've bought a couple of 18" x 1" silicon bands from Amazon which might do the trick when stretched over the offending trim.
I have read a lot of negative reviews about the whale water refill system but my experience is the exact opposite. Really easy to use and check the water level via the main digital display. Very good system as far as I'm concerned.
As for driving, well we've achieved about 35 mpg so far which is our goal. Yes, the vehicle is wide and I will factor in ease of access when picking sites. We aim to tour a lot on the continent and don't anticipate this being an issue. Devon/Cornwall and some areas of Scotland/Wales might be a different matter. We have a fortnight planned in September when we catch the ferry to Le Havre and head down to Switzerland. Certainly looking forward to our adventure. Will try out the Sanef Tolling tag as this apparently takes the pain out of travelling on toll roads with having the right change etc. and being the 'wrong' side of the pay kiosk. I have to add we prefer to travel non-toll but this is useful to have as a backup if you need to make up time.
We hope you post again with your experiences after more use (as we shall likewise). Wish you all the best and commend your choice!!

 

[Dide46]

I'm pleased that you are happy with you choice Mike. We have never bothered with the toll Sanef as we have never really had any bad ques so far, we also do try to avoid the tolls if possible, unless the roads are challenging. This year however we will use them all the way to Annecy then onto Italy so we figured the distance, time saving and the ease of driving will be worth the financial penalty.

We have done around 800 miles in 7 weekends away but our big trip to France and Italy is almost here. The van is getting some warranty work done to rectify some of the issues we have, which I have already mentioned.

Three other issues which have occurred are:-

The media plus pack had interference when the tv played through the surround sound (apparently power cable running to close to auxiliary cable), a faulty Truma solar consol (battery not charging not Bailey's fault) and the media plus pack bedroom tv bracket was to high so I had to lower the bracket so the tv could fit on the bracket (silly mistake however this was correct according to Bailey fitting instructions which need to be revised).

With regards to the lights coming on when you switch on the main lights on at the console, I mentioned this to the dealer who enquired with Bailey there response was "it is designed to do so" we never had a problem with this but I know in other posts it had been mentioned so I though I would ask!

All our issues so far I feel were just snagging and trivial and are now sorted. We have just had a Truma aventa comfort air conditioning unit fitted to keep us cool during our adventures

Can't wait for our trip away which will be a true test, but up to now we are both very pleased with our purchase.

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[Pete54]

We collected a 75-2 in July ( after a considerable wait I might add ) and have found a number of problems.
1. The overcab skylight whistles at about 50 mph - this seems a recurrent issue.
2. The water level indicator is inaccurate and shows empty when it is not. The water pump then shuts off and leaves a lot of water to be drained when leaving your pitch.
3. The overhead lockers in the lounge open when travelling- rather off putting.
4. The oven goes out for no apparent reason in the middle of cooking. It's not the gas as it is a new cylinder and you can light it again anyway.

Overall it is a lovely spacious van but these snags are disappointing, especially when some of them seem quite common. The van will be returning to the dealer for them to be addressed.

 

[Mike Rivers]

Hi Pete,
Had the same issue with overhead lockers. Had to rethink the contents in case they fell out. Open to ideas for securely fastening without spoiling the appearance. The bottom section of the door overhangs the bottom shelf so pondering about a discreet Velcro fixing on offending lockers. Keep us posted re your whistling noise progress and if I have any news then I'll post. I dare say I'll be able to give a more thorough assessment after our Euro trip next week. Hope you get your snag list sorted without too much pain.
Will also post our thoughts on the new Gaslow system, Growler security, Sanef toll tag and Coolmycamper air-con unit. Conscious of how hot it can get on the continent we might find this comes in handy. I appreciate it probably won't perform as well as an installation but at £500 we thought it worth a go to see how often we use it.

 

[Pand1958]

Yep. Our overhead lockers fly open too.
We contacted Bailey who said they were looking into it. That was quite a while back when I think of it, so I'll chase them again for their thoughts.
Our dealer adjusted the catches and when that didn't work they gave us some cork dampers to fix beside the catches. We haven't had a chance to try them out yet but we're on a long trip to Scotland next week, so here's hoping everything stays put up there!
Haven't noticed any skylight noise but that'll be because I never shut up when the old bloke is driving. Might try keeping my mouth shut for a while. But then again......

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[Gerby]

We collected a 75-2 in July ( after a considerable wait I might add ) and have found a number of problems.
1. The overcab skylight whistles at about 50 mph - this seems a recurrent issue.
2. The water level indicator is inaccurate and shows empty when it is not. The water pump then shuts off and leaves a lot of water to be drained when leaving your pitch.
3. The overhead lockers in the lounge open when travelling- rather off putting.
4. The oven goes out for no apparent reason in the middle of cooking. It's not the gas as it is a new cylinder and you can light it again anyway.

Overall it is a lovely spacious van but these snags are disappointing, especially when some of them seem quite common. The van will be returning to the dealer for them to be addressed.

Hi Pete

We have the 79-6 and with regards to your comments:

1 ours was really loud particularly on motorways at 70 mph, had the seal replaced by dealer and so far has been perfect ever since
2 ours went within 2 trips (really annoying as it turns the pumps off) we now have instructions on how to reset it ourselves though it seems to be behaving at the moment.
3 not had any issues with the airplane type lockers so far though did have an issue with the one under our drop down bed, turned out that Bailey had forgot to fit the magnetic catches used to hold it shut, dealers fitted them and no issues since
4 our oven has been good so far with no issues so sorry no help on that one.

our dealer has been really good so far though they are over 200 miles away from us so hope we don't get too many problems (we have had quite a few niggles but nothing that has spoilt the experience yet).

Kev W

 

[Dide46]

We are now approaching the back end of our trip away, we have stayed in France, Switzerland and Italy and cover over 1500 miles and lived in the van for 13 days now with another 900 miles and 5 days to go until we return home.

The width of the van has not been to problematic so far, however we have tried to stay out of main city's and just camp on the outskirts of places and use public transport or walk if possible. The only real issue we had was in Italy where the bespoke Pioneer sat nav tried to take us over a humpback bridge which I believe would have beached us with such low ground clearance (not good) fortunately we decided to abort the route with a few vehicles behind us and my wife backed the traffic up as I reversed out, I must say the Italian drivers were generally very helpful and understood our problem except for one crazy lady who was shouting on but the other helpful Italians stuck up for us. When we eventually got out of Genoa which was a quite busy and tight streets it was a relief to say the least!

Our van has the multimedia plus pack with the bespoke Pioneer sat nav, this was no where near as good as our trusty TomTom, which we now use as the main navigation unit and have the pioneer one as a back up for none suitable roads ( if it detects them)!

We are averaging about 28.2 mpg cruising at just below 70 mph or sticking to the speed limits which ever was less.

The flat battery issue I believe has turned out to be the Pioneer head unit unless you remove the security panel the sat nav randomly turns itself on after being switched off and this has been draining the battery, the sat nav also crashed at some terrible times like at main city junction (thankfully TomTom was on as a back up and got us through). I think the head unit is faulty and needs replaced! Overall the media plus pack is seriously let down by the choice of the Pioneer head unit!

We have found on a couple of occasions that some of the overhead lockers opened but only when we were on bad road surfaces, will keep an eye on it but at present not overly concerned as might have been we never shut them properly.

We don't seem to suffer any whistles on the overcab window however when it was extremely windy I felt that it amplifies the wind blast as it is thinner material. Just a silly thing I noticed is when we first got the van we struggles to close the latches on the overcab window to there tightest settings as I felt like they could snap as the seals where that tight, they are fine now as they have softened a little but it's still a snug fit.

Overall yes we have had some issues with the van and yes it's a big van which does restrict certain areas which we can travel to, however we are still very happy with our choice and the layout of the van is ideal for us. We feel we can live in complete comfort with all the luxurys and space that we need for our travels.

Only time will tell on the long term reliability and watertigtness of the van. We did upgrade the warrant to 10 years for water ingress and 6 year habitation for peice of mind, let's hope it's not needed. So far our supplying dealers aftercare service has been good which has help with the experience of the issues that we have had.

 

[Blue Knight]

That's a great review

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[Bertie Bus]

Hi All
We hopefully will be picking up our 75-2 in the next few weeks and we can't wait. We were hoping to get it for the summer season but we intend to use it throughout the year if we can. Thanks for the reviews.
We have looked at literally dozens of vehicles but keep coming back to Bertie as it has everything we want.
Cheers
Bob and Karen

 

[Bertie Bus]

We will be picking up Bertie in two weeks time at last and we can't wait to get going. We have been gradually collecting all the bits and pieces we need for our first weekend away although we will be stopping close to our supplier Alan Kerr just in case we get any snags etc. We have then looked to go away over Christmas for a few more days.
This is our first motorhome and after thinking we will wait until we retire before taking the plunge, we thought why wait, lets do it now and enjoy the freedom to go wherever we want. The above reviews have been very useful and in particular the comment on the kitchen sink being close to the furniture. We have seen this when we viewed the van and we have an idea to get a small piece of smoked safety glass cut and some brackets that will just fit on the worktop beside the basin. This should stop any small overspill/splashes getting on to the upholstery without the need for towels. The piece of glass will 'mirror' the opposite side of the kitchen worktop where the hob is and so shouldn't look too bad hopefully.
We will post more when we pick up the van and add our comments to those above.

 

[Pete54]

The snags identified when we first had our van have now been rectified by the dealer. So:
1. Seal around overcab skylight was replaced and has not whistled since.
2. Water level indicator was replaced and has been ok since.
3. Lockers had additional catches fitted at each end which has stopped them opening while travelling. You have to open them with two hands now though so the ‘ one touch’ advantage has gone.
4. No further problems with the oven.

It’s taken us a while to get used to the heating system but it seems very effective.
All in all a very comfortable van.

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[Bertie Bus]

Picked up our new 75-2 on Saturday and had our first night away in it over the weekend. All we can say is that the van was everything and more that we expected. We pulled up on site, plugged in the electric hook up and within 1/2 an hour the van was nice and toasty with plenty of hot water. The dealer had filled the water tank so we didn't have to do that but the van was awesome.
Driving it from Brixham back to the storage unit near Tavistock was a breeze. Even on some of the small roads, as long as we didn't try to squeeze through small gaps, we had no problems.
We absolutely love it.

 

[Blue Knight]

Picked up our new 75-2 on Saturday and had our first night away in it over the weekend. All we can say is that the van was everything and more that we expected. We pulled up on site, plugged in the electric hook up and within 1/2 an hour the van was nice and toasty with plenty of hot water. The dealer had filled the water tank so we didn't have to do that but the van was awesome.
Driving it from Brixham back to the storage unit near Tavistock was a breeze. Even on some of the small roads, as long as we didn't try to squeeze through small gaps, we had no problems.
We absolutely love it.

The next job is to get it on a weighbridge and check the payload. If you're only registered at 3,500kg then you may already be overloaded.

 

[Bertie Bus]

We had it uprated to 3850 Kg as we read that the payload was insufficient so we should be ok but we will check thanks.

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[Blue Knight]

We had it uprated to 3850 Kg as we read that the payload was insufficient so we should be ok but we will check thanks.

That was a great move and I hope the rear axle allows you to utilise the 3,850kg figure.

I would need to add semi air and alloys to get my van anywhere near 3850kg.

Good luck,

Andrew

 

[Ninjabob]

Unless you have a lot of extras I doubt the weight upgrade is absolutely necessary - this is a reply I gave to an earlier weight thread:

I recently bought a Bailey 75-2 and as I have a C1 licence decided that a payload of 315kg was not enough so had it uprated by Bailey to 3850kg. So 665kg payload - or maybe not!

This was intended to be my luxury two berth keeper Motorhome so I started to add the extras I really wanted. ALKO Towbar, Spare Wheel and Carrier, Oyster 85cm Autoskew, Truma Comfort Air Con and finally MA-VE hydraulic levelling.

So off to the weighbridge loaded with SWMBO (70kg) me (big git 110kg) and full tank of diesel, 10% water, empty waste, two 6kg gas cylinders, one leisure battery, two Avtex TVs, small toolkit, jack and gubbins removed (not needed), lightweight chairs x 4, BBQ, Vanco Kela III awning with groundsheet, lighting etc. Clothes and all gubbins to survive for three days and not much in the fridge.

Spec weights 2000kg max on the rear and 1850 max on the front.

Off to the weighbridge:

Front 1720kg
Rear 1940kg
Total 3660kg

So from my trip to the weighbridge I learnt a lot:

Anything really heavy needs to be towards the front of the under seat lounge lockers.

Lightweight, big volume stuff only under the French Bed at the rear.

Don't travel with much more than a half full water tank.

Although you are getting a 350kg weight upgrade a lot of that is only possible if moved towards the front axle.

Dissapointment for me may be keeping the weight down (SMART Car) on the back if I decide I need a trailer (nose weight) for European trips instead of the A Frame (no affect on payload) I currently have.

I am happy that I will be able to keep within the law even on longer trips.

 

[Bertie Bus]

Thanks for that update. We are still undecided with regards to a air beam awning, time will tell if we want one, but your input is much appreciated.
We have a trip planned over Christmas and we have accumulated more stuff to take in the van so we will take a trip to the weighbridge to see how we stand.
Just love the van though.

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[Dide46]

I am pleased that you are really happy with you van Bertie Bus, we bough an airbeam style awning for our first van unfortunately it leaked terribly and was replaced under warranty, however since the replacement it has not even been taken out of its bag! I personally don't like awnings as they take away the freedom a motorhome allows, it is like having a tent and just a hassle putting it up and taking it down especially if the weather is not very good. I think if you are pitching for a while and have kids or dogs then they can possibly be a useful addition but not if there is just the two of you and especially if you intend on moving about to different sites etc on a regular basis. We do find that our airbeam awnings is super easy to put up and take down, we only got ours for the kids but after our first year of motorhome ownership they were too old and didn't want to come away so that's why it has never been used again. I would not get rid of it as its always nice to know you have it if its needed (highly unlikely) but I certainly would not buy another one!

It would be interesting to know the weight of your extras Ninjajob as our van has been left at the 3500 kg GW, we too have added the Truma air conditioning unit which I believe (off memory) its approximately 35 kg so that theoretically only leaves us with 280 kg, which although seems quite low and means that we do need to be mindful of what we carry! Regardless of our gross weight we would only take what we deemed necessary as I dislike it when all the storage is full of things that you rarely/ever use, however I can see that having that extra capacity can be beneficial especially if you want to spec up your van as you have.

 

[Bertie Bus]

I think that your comments regarding the awning pretty much tie in with ours. Will we ever use it? We are getting rid of our tent now that we have the motorhome so unless we are staying at a site for some time, we won't use it.

 

[Road captain]

Picked up our 75/2 last May and we have used it all the way through the winter . Found it to be very comfortable but did fit a bed topper because of my back. The pioneer radio we had at first had issues and the whole unit was replaced, we still had problems. I kept telling the dealer it was an aerial problem and eventually the didital and fm aerials were replaced and repositioned now all work well. I will say though go to the pioneer web site and download the upgrade for the radio head. It sounds a little complicated but really easy if you take your time and read everything. Make sure you download the correct upgrade for your unit. Any issues then start again reading how to do the upgrade first, you will also need a larger than normal usb stick as the file is quite large.
All in all we are very pleased with our mh

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[Pete54]

Keep an eye on the cold water tank overflow pipe. Ours dropped off the underside of the van with a dreadful clattering and had to be removed and replaced before being re-screwed.
Drain tap for the hot water tank seems very difficult to access, unless we are taking the wrong approach so would appreciate comments on this.

 

[Dide46]

Our experiences so far :-

7000 miles, 14 months into ownership, two European trips plus plenty of UK trips all through the year.

Overall our opinion of the motorhome is pretty much the same. We went to the NEC caravan and motorhome show at the beginning of the year and viewed lots of other vans, regardless of cost (to a degree) there is not a van that we would trade ours for, don’t get me wrong there are some stunning vans, however our layout and size is ideal for how we use it, yes there are things we would change but I believe there is no perfect van, it’s always a compromise.

 

[Road captain]

Well in answer to the problem of the upper locker doors opening whilst traveling this is my solution. First I bought the baskets and found you can get 4 in each cupboard and each basket will hold 7 normal sized tins laid on their side. I found they are best like this to give you more storage and they move less. When they are in the cupboard and before you travel you put the retention bar between the walls of the cupboard and under the handle of the baskets. Not only can you utilise the space better nothing moves and knocks the door open. Since I’ve used this system I’ve not had any problems with the locker doors. I also use the baskets for a wide range of items including books, packets and anything not square. All the items were bought on eBay. As for the under seat lockers I bought some larger boxes and you can fit four into the locker on the offside. The other side I use for a different size box for odds and sods and get six in the near side locker. Hope this helps someone

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