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Bailey Pageant Champagne

CHAMPAGNE IN FRANCE

France and champagne,are two items that go together like - er cheese and wine or even Laurel and Hardy.

That being so the first caravan that we are going to test for this exciting new magazine is, yes you’ve guessed it, the Bailey Pageant Champagne.

Bailey Caravans based in Bristol are now the largest single make manufacturer and are still family owned and run, their growth and their success being based on having a good product representing excellent value for money.

The Pageant Champagne is a mid-sized four berth caravan with a very spacious end washroom and a kitchen with a reasonable amount of space. Just, in fact, what the doctor ordered for a trip away to the joys and delights of France.

EXTERIOR LAYOUT

The new Series 5 Pageants have totally different exterior appearance from their predecessors. It is a shape that you maybe, will either love or dislike. We are not so keen on it as our own Monarch.

The front is much more upright, which gives more headroom inside but looks less streamlined. The brand new rear panel looks a little on the heavy side in our eyes but this is purely personal as a friend of ours says the new shape is superb.

This new body shell is fully bonded which carries a six year integrity guarantee. The new front and rear panels are now ABS as is the clever ‘A’ frame fairing with two steps incorporated.

The whole is mounted on an Al-Ko galvanised chassis and all Pageants are now fitted with an Al-Ko AKS 2004 stabiliser.

Al-Ko’s contribution finshes with the standard spare wheel carrier complete with spare wheel mounted on the chassis just behind the axle.

On the nearside the mains inlet and battery box is just forward of the wheel arch and at a higher level than usual, with the ‘stable’ door the only other item on this side.

The offside has the Truma water heater flue and pump inlet just behind the wheel and right aft is the Theford toilet access door with rinse water filler above.

INTERIOR LAYOUT

The Champagne is a four berth caravan, with the twin settees at the front making up into a large double bed or two singles. In between at the front is a chest incorporating two drawers above the bed slats, a larger deeper one under the slats and a folding table top.

On the nearside aft of the settee is the well-equipped kitchen. This has a reasonable amount of work space which meant the cook didn’t blaspheme too much while preparing a meal.

Two shallow drawers, one for cutlery, have the Truma heater under. These are followed by the domestic style Spinflo cooker, and lastly the sink with Thetford fridge under which, hurrah, had a light within.

The entrance door was aft of the kitchen and at last the thermostat sensor for the heater was in the right place, near the door.

On the offside, aft of the settee was a narrow cupboard containing two pull out wire vegetable racks with a little more storage room beneath. Behind this was the side dinette, conventional right down to the fact that if you make up the bunk you may need to count your fingers afterwards.

Then, at the rear, across the full width of the ‘van is the washroom. This is totally self contained with a reasonable wardrobe on the offside, and the Thetford swivel toilet right in the corner at the rear.

The washbasin occupies the centre of the rear wall with neat cupboard under.

On the nearside is the ‘piece de resistance’, the domestic style shower, a sort of “double bubble” walk in type with plenty of room to shower and dry oneself afterwards.

The Champagne has storage space aplenty, although the female tester thought that some of it was not in the right places, namely in the kitchen there is only one small pan cupboard under the cooker, two shallow drawers and a very narrow vegetable cupboard.

Around the roof are no less than 13 lockers in the living and other areas, with one more in the washroom. The two bed lockers have drop down doors and self supporting slats. One of the side bed lockers has useful storage space containing only the gas tap manifold, the other one contains the Truma water heater.

The area at the end of the kitchen, near the entrance and washroom doors is a little congested, especially if you are well built like us.

THE WASHROOM

This is the super part of the Champagne, plenty of room to shower and dry, quite a roomy wardrobe with shelves, and cupboard under. There is a high level locker which holds all the towels and fair sized cupboard under the sink for numerous beautifying potions we seem to carry.

The lady tester found the washroom lighting perfectly adequate for the usual glamorising that takes place, and for once she did not complain that she had no room for her clothes.

THE BEDS

The large double bed is fairly easy to make up, but fairly prominent knee rolls make it necessary to turn the large cushions over. You may gather that we are not too keen on knee rolls at all.

Once made up there are no creaks and groans and the caravanning dog had no complaints, which is always a good sign. We too had a couple of comfortable nights and the only grumble, if we are being pernickety, is that the pull out slats could do with a locking block either side to stop them gradually moving back.

We didn’t try the single bed or high level bunk (which is only suitable for children). I suppose we could have put the caravanning dog up there but neither of us had the strength to lift her.

THE KITCHEN

The kitchen layout is very different from our own ‘van and took a little acclimatising, but we prepared a roast chicken dinner without any problems.

A personal view, we found the work surface forward of the cooker projected rather too much towards the centre of the caravan.

The consequence of this was that the gangway seemed a little restricted or are we getting fatter? We felt that reducing this depth although curtailing the work surface, would be advantageous.

The Spinflo cooker works well, and the grill is fast and effective.

The Thetford ‘fridge with its internal light has plenty of space for the usual ‘cold’ storage and worked efficiently.

The kitchen is not the big selling point for the Champagne but it certainly does not let it down.

LIGHTING

Lighting in caravans can sometimes be fairly poor, sometimes fairly good and sometimes although rarely in our opinion, excellent.

We think that if the Champagne were not on electric hook-up, the lighting would be somewhat inadequate.

All the lights are halogen spots, no less than fifteen of them, and one halogen ceiling light in the shower room.

How long would the battery last with all those illuminated.

In addition to the 12 volt lights there are two rather attractive 240 volt ones on each side at the front of the caravan.

The centre mounted Remis rooflight has a surround with four spots incorporated and there are no other ceiling mounted lights in the living area.

In fairness the cooker and work surface have lights over them, an omission on many caravans.

The Champagne does, if all the lights are used, have sufficient light for even old togs to read in comfort.

TO SUM UP

The Bailey factory is the most mechanised caravan factory in Britain and the caravans that are turned out from it represent some of the best value in the market.

The Champagne is a fairly light, roomy caravan which will we suspect be bought mainly by couples, and as such it would make an ideal home from home to tramp down to the south of France.

With its plethora of windows the interior is bright and airy and the standard ‘Newbury’ upholstery blends well with the gold curtains and the green removable carpets. We think removable carpets are a brilliant idea.

Everything worked as it should, which is a lot more than some caravans achieve.

All the furniture appears to be strong and screwed together well. We really could not find any faults with the Champagne.

The Champagne was recently voted ‘Tourer of the Year’ in Practical Caravan’s competition.We would like to thank the Caravan Club for allowing us to use their Moreton-in-Marsh site for our test, Bailey for the loan of the Champagne, and Subaru for the loan of a Legacy to transport us.

TECHNICAL

BAILEY PAGEANT SERIES 5 CHAMPAGNE

Berths: Four

Internal length: 5.35 m

Overall width: 2.19 m

Overall height: 2.71 m

Maximum headroom: 1.90 m

Awning size: 965 cm

MRO: 1149 kg

MTPLM: 1350 kg

Price: £11,610

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