Tag Archives: Review

Setting Up the Garmin Camper 770 LMT-D…

04 Saturday May 2019

Posted by in Gadgets, GPS, Navigation, Sat Nav, VW Amarok

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Following on from my issues with our TomTom (Why I’m ditching TomTom and moving to Garmin… ) our new Sat Nav arrived a few days ago. I did look a the Snooper option, but there were a few limitations that I personally wasn’t comfortable with, but overall it looked a good product. I have had some great feedback from users of the Snooper and the company seems to have a really good customer service department.

I ordered our Garmin Camper 770LMT-D from Amazon ( https://amzn.to/2Vca1j4 ) for £256 and opted to add a SanDisk Extream 32GB microSDHC Memory Card (https://amzn.to/2Jem1JK ) for £10 which should give me flexibility in the future. That said, the internal memory on the 770 is already quite big at 15Gb.

Before the unit arrived, I downloaded Garmin Basecamp – there are downloads available for both Windows and Mac platforms. I also downloaded Garmin Express. Installing on a Mac was straight forward as usual. I can’t comment on the Windows version as we have not owned a Microsoft platformed device for over 13 years.

While writing this I found out what the LMT-D stands for… LMT is Lifetime Maps & Traffic and the D is DAB Radio reception.. it receives traffic updated via the inbuilt DAB radio receiver. No it can’t play DAB radio stations before you ask.

Garmin Basecamp

Screenshot 2019-05-04 at 11.37.53

When you first install Basecamp is comes with a default Global Map….

Screenshot 2019-05-04 at 11.37.25

It is not until you connect your GPS and download the updated map from it does it have all the fine detail and pre installed POI’s.

Screenshot 2019-05-04 at 11.44.12

I have zoomed in to Holyhead here….

All the pre installed POI’s from the GPS show up and it makes it easy to have a mooch round the area from your desk when planning a route. I’m not going to go into too much detail about setting up your own POI’s (although they are really waypoints in Garmin’s world) or setting up Routs, tracks etc. I did find it really easy to follow Garmin’s on line video tutorial. However it took me a couple of go’s to get the information I wanted in the right fields.

Screenshot 2019-05-04 at 11.52.05

Here I set up a waypoint for Southport C & M Club. Really easy and only took less than a minute. By installing Garmin Basecamp before actually receiving the 770, it gave me a chance to sit and play about with the software before getting too distracted by the new gadget. I set up about 50 waypoints, sorting them into various categories – C & M Club, Museums, Ports, Friends etc. As I was unsure what actually came pre-installed I thought it might be best to get a head start on the most common ones.

What’s installed on the Camper 770?

Really I need not have bothered too much. The Garmin Camper 770 comes with ASCI, MHF, Campercontact as well as Trip Advisor & Foursquare databases already pre-installed. As it connects to WiFi and via a phone App to the internet, you can pretty much search for any location or attraction. I’ve set ours up so it connects to the Amarok’s WiFi system for permanent internet access. You can also install Archie’s database too if you think that you need all the bases covering.

First Job – Update the 770

First job was to update the Garmin 770 with the latest maps and databases. To do this you need to install Garmin Express. Once installed, simply connect the GPS with the supplied USB lead and follow the on screen prompts. To get to the point where it starts to update only took a minute or two… inputting an email address really and naming the unit so if you have multiple Garmin products you can easily identify which GPS you have connected. It estimated that it would take around 2 hours to perform the download and all the updates, in reality it took less than 30 minutes.

Screenshot 2019-05-04 at 12.34.38

Setting up the vehicle and vehicle options came next. Again really simple to do. I found the menu system is quite simple to navigate through, and it didn’t take too long to set up our rig…

81976

You may notice the “80” Kmh sign in the top right corner. As you can input the weights of the vehicle, caravan, motorhome into the unit. It will keep an eye on the speed limits on roads. In europe where a lot of countries have lower limits for vehicles or towing combinations above certain weights…. France for example has a 3.5t cut off, above this weight and you have a lower speed limit that say a car and caravan under 3.5t on the same road. I’m sure motorhome owners who regularly travel in Europe will be more aware of these rules.

I could have got away with just the standard CAR setup for the Amarok when not towing, but as the Amarok has a body width of  1954mm (6’5″) and maximum of mirror to mirror with of 2228mm (7’3.5″) (5321mm or 17’5.5″ long if you are playing top trumps!) sometimes on a couple of width restricted roads I have had to really squeeze through, so I thought I’d set up a motorhome setting with the Amarok’s size just so I wouldn’t get caught out. And yes… that weight is correct. The MTPLM of the caravan and MPM of the  Amarok totals 4770 Kgs and there are a couple of  bridges in the UK I can’t legally tow over!

The Installation…

I’m a bit of a…. well I don’t know, when it comes to getting things right. I sat in the truck and moved the 770 around… placing it almost everywhere. I wanted it so it could be reached from either the driver or passenger seats, but not too close as it might fall into that focal length area where it’s just outside the range of either part of my bi-focal’s. I wasn’t happy with all the options available. So I thought tomorrow might bring inspiration. However all tomorrow brought was the same ‘Umm….” and “Nope…..”. The third day however did bring fourth a result….

I still wanted access to the top tray, but placing the GPS on the windscreen with the suppled mount was not an option. One, I hate things stuck to the windscreen and two, neither Sue or I could reach the screen from our normal seating position. So off to the bat cave to come up with a cunning contrivance. Half an hour later after shaping and bending some 1.5mm thick aircraft aluminium and a quick application of anti glare black… (I also followed that up with some anti glare cloth tape we used in aircraft cockpits)

IMG_1630
IMG_1628

It still uses the Garmin quick release mount and has the flexibility to adjust fully either way and tilt down to minimise glare if the sun is reflecting directly on it (the screen is super bright though max and hopefully this won’t be a problem). We can both still reach it and the tray in front as well as being fully accessible is a convenient place to wrest your wrist while inputting info into the GPS. I have found though the Voice Command understands a “Manc” accent really well and i haven’t had any issues using voice command.

What I like…

I do like Basecamp. I’ve found out that I can overlay OS Landranger maps which makes plotting very accurate walking routes and printing them out easy. I can also create accurate Green Lane routes for off road 4 x 4 treks and import them into the 770. You can also convert Google Map routing and import it into Basecamp and your GPS. Now this is really useful. For example… setting off from Manchester about 04:00 going to Dover to catch the 10:00 ferry sailing, however I need to fill with LPG en route. I set my departure point, arrival point and search for LPG closest to my route. I can then pick one see the estimated arrival time at that point (check that the LPG station is open) and adjust my route to take in the LPG waypoint or choose the next LPG station if I am going to arrive too early.  This can then be uploaded to the 770 as a route and will adjust around traffic still directing you first to the LPG station then to your destination.

Within Basecamp you have an option to upload your waypoints to either the 770’s internal memory or the Memory Card. You can also update the memory card by removing it from the 770 and connecting it directly to your desktop device. I’ve chosen to install all my info on to the memory card rather than the 770’s internal memory… did I really need a memory card? At this point probably not but it has allowed me a bit more flexibility and when I ordered the 770 I didn’t know just how much space I’d be left with, at the moment I’ve used about 10Gb of the 15Gb internal memory. You do have the option to install additional maps on to the memory card, so for example if I wanted North America I could install it onto the removable card. There is security built in to stop maps downloaded on one device being transferred to another device.

I found the updating of the 770 using Garmin Express to be really easy too. I have been checking it every day so far just to get a fell of how often the updates come through. So far I’ve had three updates after my initial first download. I tend to suspect that maybe Garmin have a more frequent update policy, which could be a reflection of the aviation side of the business where updates are tightly scheduled and frequent to reflect any airspace and NOTAM updates. I did note that one or two things and functions in route planning within Basecamp seemed strangely familiar… until it clicked…. I’d seen and used them before in flight planning applications.

There is a couple of other features that I’ve not had before. The Garmin 770 records all your tracks… now this is really handy so when Sue say’s “Do you remember we passed such and such the other day… can we go back?” Well, I can usually remember the vague details… but being able to bring up the route we drove and doing a bit of investigation using Garmin Basecamps opens up the possibility of being able to find it again without having to resort to a darkened room, angle poise light and an impression of Herr Flick.

The other is the ability take a snapshot of the screen. I used it for a few screen shots ( like the one above showing the vehicle set up) and a few I’ve taken for a full review. I don’t know if this is a ‘feature’ that is not really a feature as it’s noever gets used…. or if it’s something I might use in the future. Might be handy for quick maps of trips or places, there again it might not. Jury’s out on that one.

I’m not able to give a full review… as we haven’t been anywhere with it yet so I can’t comment on traffic updates, turn by turn instructions, general usability or function. we are off in the next few days for five days so I’ll let you know how we get on.

… and for all those pilots out there the classic ATC…. “Resume own navigation”

Testing the Bosch Fontus…

24 Wednesday Apr 2019

Posted by in Accessories, Cleaning, Maintenance, Reviews

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , ,

As many of you know I don’t really do reviews… I occasionally buy things and put my thoughts on the product in a post. Companies do contact me and ask if I’d review their ‘Do-Hicky Mark 4’ on the blog and most of the time I decline. Why? Well a lot of them stipulate that they want to see anything I write before it’s posted, we’ll sorry no. If I think it’s crap, I want to be able to say so. There are a couple of companies that I deal with that say “We are thinking of importing/manufacturing/marketing the ‘Functionvardle Mark 9’ we would like to send one for your feedback and not for reviewing on your blog.” They do get an honest feedback and I never mention the company or the product in my blog…. Even if the “Functionvardle Mark 9” makes it to market.

This was slightly different. The PR department simply said “We’d like to send you a Bosch Fontus for review” No requests for editorial control, previews before publishing, promises of ‘it’s yours to keep’ if we like the review. What made me say “Yes” to this particular  request?

Well, for a while I’d been procrastinating on coming up with a contrivance of my own that did a similar job. I’d bought one of those bright yellow overgrown pump up spray things when they were on offer for rinsing down the caravan after cleaning… we have no water or electricity at the storage site we use. I’d already got three of those 25 litre water containers that I’d throw in the trailer along with the buckets, brushes, ladders… everything for a cleaning mission down at the caravan storage yard… and I thought it wasn’t beyond the realms of reality (and my awesomeness) to throw a 12 volt pump…. some hose…. a couple of hose connectors….  length of cable…. fuse & fuse holder……  suction pipe… board or box to hold it all…      you see where this is going? By the time I’d assembled all the bits found I’d got half of them wrong and moved the goal posts half a dozen times.  Apathy set in and I resigned myself to keep pumping the big yellow spray thing. The nice Lady from Bosch PR hit me in a weak moment and I thought “Hmmmmm.”

IMG_1602

OK why “Fontus” and not “Rechargeable Battery Powered Portable Water Reservoir and Spray“? Fontus, I had to Google it – In ancient Roman religion, Fontus or Fons (plural Fontes, “Font” or “Source”) was a god of wells and springs. So that answers that question. Now you know why I don’t work in product marketing! The box arrived and I was surprised at the heft of the box. The actual unit itself weighs in at just under 10 Kgs…. and has a water reservoir capacity of 15 litres.

So what is it… well basically it’s a Rechargeable Battery Powered Portable Water Reservoir and Spray Unit. You fill it up with water, insert the rechargeable battery, connect the included hose and spray head, push the ON button and squeeze the trigger. Is it a jet wash? No, it runs at a max of around 1.5 MPa that’s 15 Bar or 217 PSI to you or me or if you are really old 14.8 Atmospheres. So it’s not a jet washer.

Now here is the thing that has me fascinated. On the top there is a three position power switch. While testing (read playing around) I could tell it changed the power… but also it seemed to change the amount of water without affecting the spray pattern or distance it should spray the jet of water I could do the same width ‘fan’ of water on each of the three power settings but with three volumes of water. (OK I know the physics behind it… no need to comment.)

When washing the car when it comes to rinsing off I normally have my hosepipe rose set on ‘rain’ so its a constant rain shower and proceed to go round the whole vehicle rinsing off the shampoo (yes I shampoo my vehicles… get over it) Now with the Fontus I used the horizontal fan setting not he trigger and could literal have a line of water that I just moved down the body panel pushing the shampoo suds down as it went. I was amazed I could do the whole of the VW Amarok.. Which isn’t small… on less than 15 litres on the lowest power setting. That is some serious water saving there.

The battery duration is unknown at the moment. It comes complete with a 18 volt 2.5 Ah battery and charger, that are as far as I know the same Bosch fitting as used on many of their power tools. SO if you already have Bosch power tools it’s Billy Bonus time… another charger and battery for your tools and spare batteries for your Fontus. (Curse my early lifestyle choices for going with Makita and DeWalt.) I believe there are also 4.0Ah and 6.0Ah batteries available in the range.

Toy or Tool?

After first thinking what a great idea…. I had a look at the price… an eye watering mahhosive amount… list price. However as everyone knows “Google is you friend” a quick Google later and John Lewis & Partners have it down to £209* (*at the time of writing) Now that is not a small amount so the question is… expensive toy or tool? Well, After my initial “testing [read playing about again] I’d been jet washing in the front garden over Easter… around five hours worth of jet washing in fact and the front door and windows were to say the least showing the dried on signs of mud splattering. Now Sue is understanding, but waiting for the window cleaner to deal with it was not an excuse I was going to get away with! Not wanting to drag the hosepipe round to the front of the house again, I had a “Ha.. I have just the tool for that” moment and having already recharged the battery and topped off the water tank I wheeled the Bosch Fontus out of the garage and round to the front of the house. A quick light spray to wet each window and door, wipe down with a soapy sponge and rinse off with the Fontus. Done in ten minutes. It’s also completed several other little tasks around the home now too.

Would I take it with me on a caravan trip?…. If we were taking the bikes, yes. I have used a dog wash station in the past (I know I wasn’t supposed to) and as long as I don’t use a chemical on the bikes, just rely on pure water and the included brush I should be OK washing the bikes on the grass. I wouldn’t use the brush on a vehicle’s bodywork (but I’m a bit OCD about things like that) nor would I wash the vehicle or caravan for that matter, on a pitch.

 A few Q and A’s…

  • Can it be carried full of water? – Yep, I also tried it on its back, the filler cap seems to have an air admittance valve that stops water from leaking out. I wouldn’t do it for long periods though on it’s back… just the ten minute trip to the caravan storage yard. Upright shouldn’t be a problem I would have thought.
  • Can you spray anything else? – Nope… fresh water only.
  • Can you see how much water is in the tank? – Yes the tank has a site gauge in each side.
  • Can you store it full of water? – I did for  few days, however it cautions you not to do so in the instructions.
  • How big is the filler cap?–  It’s about the same size as an Aquarol filler cap and has a removable mesh filter trap… I could get a Hoselock fitting on the end of my hosepipe to fit through the opening and wedge in the filter when filling it. It’s also easy to poor water in from a container.
  • How heavy is it full? – 9.8 Kgs empty and 24.8 Kg’s full… so about two bags of sugar heavier than your airline baggage allowance.
  • How long does the battery last? – well I certainly got through 30 litres of water (2 tanks) on the low power setting (which was all I needed for rinsing off) and looking at the battery indicator maybe I could have made inroads to a third tank. I don’t know if the battery indicator is liner or not.
  • How long does it take the battery to recharge? – From battery empty indicator to full with the supplied AL1830 CV charger 60 minutes… or about 1 cup of tea, two digestives and a quick catchup with your neighbour.
  • Is it easy to move? – When full it trundles around just like one of the wheeled over head locker type pieces of luggage. If you can drive one of those… you can handle this.
  • Will 15 litres be enough to rinse a caravan? – Yes I could do it with 15 litres. But it’s easy just to have a container with a bit more water.
  • What fittings connect the hose, can I use a garden hose? – The fittings are a twist lock type.. not seen them before but I did like the fit and function of them. They seem quite suitable for the task. Why would you want to use a garden hose… just wheel it to where you need it.
  • What else can it be used for? – Washing off salt water from wet suits, boat trailer, outboard engines, muddy dogs, muddy bikes, wellies, washing windows, washing the beach off anything….  making sure your BBQ is properly extinguished (as I write this I keep getting the smell of burning moorland wafting in through the open windows into the office).

Anything Else?

Only two things… do they make a 12 volt ‘in car’ charger for that battery? That would be really cool and…. nope I got nothing else. That will be one thing then.

Final thoughts…

If I already had a couple of Bosh power tools that used the same battery pattern and was thinking about an additional battery and charger… then the price makes it a good deal. An extra tool that gives you an extra battery and charger into your Bosch ensemble of kit.

The hose is not as pliable as I’d have personally liked, but then again looking at it it’s not going to get damaged easily.

It is a bit of a ‘luxury’ bit of kit… but then again once you start using it… I’ll stop there, Sue might be reading this.

Do I want one? Well  I don’t really want to give this one back.

A Grande Day Out…

20 Thursday Sep 2018

Posted by in 2019 Pegasus Grande, Bailey of Bristol, Caravan Review, Events

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Right, I’m not known for caravan reviews… why?  Well those YouTube types always beat me to it… and how the heck they can shoot, edit and publish so quickly is a skill that I still consider voo doo, mind you, pilots aren’t required to have the knowledge of joined up writing let alone mastery of a keyboard. (A cursory nod to Dave Gunson… one of the finest controllers to ever say “Descend and maintain….”)

Onwards…

04:30… alarm chirps…. I had been invited by Bailey of Bristol to their launch of the Pegasus Grande and this meant a bit of an early start. By 05:15 the Amarok was idling warming up and the Sat Nav silently contemplating my route down to Swindon, while I  finished making a coffee in the Camelback insulated mug, cleaned the heavy dew off the windows and threw my day bag into the truck. Unfortunately it was going to be a solo trip.

The 167 mile trip took in the stunning vistas of road works on the M6 and M5 as far down as Gloucester via Birmingham, which tends to be more road works than motorway most of the year. Happily, leaving early meant a not to shabby arrival time of 08:40 and give me chance to have an early wander round and take a few photos while it was quiet.

IMG_1486

Bailey had brought all six of the new Pegasus Grande range – four twin axles and two single’s. All six were designed from the ground up to take advantage of being constructed on the 8 feet wide (2.450m) platform.

Grande Layouts

How Heavy?

One of the first things I tend to look at is what does it weigh in at? Being 8 foot wide the initial expectation is “Ohhh… that’s going to be heavy” Well I was quite surprised at the weight savings that have been made across the range.

The heaviest out of the six is not surprisingly the twin axle Grande Palermo 6 berth with twin bunks at the rear. However with a MRO of 1531Kgs and MTPLM of 1692Kgs giving a useful payload of 179Kgs.

The lightest is the four birth single axle Brindisi weigh in with a MRO of 1335Kgs and MTPLM of 1490Kgs allowing 155Kgs of payload.

The two single axle caravans have been built on ALKO 1600Kgs chassis and the four twin axle use 1800Kgs chassis, so there is an option to upgrade the plated weights if desired. The single axle units have a shipping length of 24’3″ (7.381m) and the twin axle 25’10” (7.863m).

IMG_1492

Everyone’s talking about it!

15_Pegasus Grande Interior Messina

One of the big talking points is the new “G” shape lounge layouts. Having a wider caravan and almost a ‘blank’ canvas allows the designers to play around with layouts. The new lounge design can be found in four of the Pegasus Grande range. (photos courtesy of Bailey)….

19_Pegasus Grande Couple G Shaped Lounge

Now I do like this layout… it provides a ‘dinette’ area in a caravan without a dinette. The table can be slid rearwards towards the door on a sliding bar if you need more space on the seat across the front of the caravan.

It does cover up the small seat near the entrance door though.

10_Pegasus Grande Interior Brindisi

However here’s my thoughts on it…. sitting using the table is a bit of a compromise. In order to accommodate under seat space for the electrics… there is a cushioned area against the wall that is not really a seat and that means it’s a bit tight on leg room. So for the person sitting near the door you are sitting right on the edge.

The cushioned section under the tables also the support for the pull out bed slats that allow it to become to a double bed.  The other thing is, a person sitting here doesn’t have a back rest, so don’t throw your head back for a hearty laugh at a joke after a glass of wine or two.. you might end up on the floor!

The table as I mentioned earlier does slide sideways it doesn’t drop down. That means two people want to stretch out facing the TV (or where the TV can be accommodated) then it’s not happening.

A bit of thinking could have sorted this out. Reversing the G so the table was on the same side as the kitchen would have allowed the side of the kitchen unit to become a back rest and maybe using the same sort of contrivance to drop the table to seat level as used when converting some dinettes into bed(s) and utilising the side and back cushions would still allow two people to stretch out facing the TV area.

Like I said, I do like the new layout as it really opens up the functionality of the space and if you are just a couple, maybe you would not need the big table that comes with the caravan.

Talking Tyres

All the models come fitted with mud/spray flaps to the wheel wells which I think is a welcome addition (it did get me thinking about adding these to our caravan!) and you have the option of going for Bailey’s wheel lock solution – which I do like, or if you want to stay with ALKO the chassis is still fitted with a receiver.

IMG_1488

Bailey have opted for 185/R14C as a tyre size for the single axle variant and a 185/65R14 for the twin axle.

Is there an echo in here?

One thing that Bailey have mastered by moving the gas locker to the side is the ability to have a mahoosive storage area stretching across the front of the caravan. Although not a skier, I’ll be you could get a couple of pairs of skies in there.

IMG_1498

It does also make it easier if you have a wind break you can just roll it up and thread it in. I would like to have seem a little protection for the hot air ducting though. I get the feeling that might sustain a few dimples here and there.

On the rear access on a couple of caravan there is a potential wrist slasher (go on, ask me how I know!) The pipe work has been secured by ‘zip ties’ across the front of the hatch. Maybe just getting the ties trimmed flush or the cut ends pushed down during assembly would be an easy fix.

IMG_1502

Let there be lights… go on, I’ll wait while the bit of wire warms up

The rear lights fixtures look stylish and are inset into a black trim. It was disappointing though that Bailey had used incandescent light fixtures (bulbs if you’re from up north like me) I would have thought that a fully sealed maintenance free LED units would have been more ‘on trend’ (I’ve spent too long down south can you tell!)

IMG_1489

Although the front and side marker lights were LED… I guess they are just working their way to the back

While we are on about LED lights… LED spotlights in particular, someone somewhere in a company that designs and manufactures light fittings for the leisure industry had an idea and thought it was a cracker. Put a USB socket in a spotlight. I too was similarly  smitten with the idea. That was until I sat in our caravan and looked at all the devices – MiFi, two iPhones, two battery chargers, Kindle, iPad, Christmas lights (yes we have some that plug into a USB socket)…. if I plugged everything in it would have looked like an explosion in a spaghetti factory. Good idea, but not at the sacrifice of a couple of points at a sensible height and location. It might just be me.

“Can you put a swivel on it?”

OK not a major one for me as I have about as much use for one as a certain Mr. Ditton… (we let our beards dry naturally… what did you think I was going to say!)  The only time I use a hair dryer is when I want to shrink some tubing and I’ve temporarily unsure of the location of my hot air blower. But I do know that there are people out there that have requirements to use hairdryers for prolonged periods and I’m speaking up for them.

IMG_1513

Sit on the edge of the bed… socket to plug aforementioned hairdryer in – check, place to rest brushes and hair styling products – check, adjust mirror so one can see ones self without resting side of head on window… nope. So the request will be from the fraternity of hair dryer users out there will be “Can you put a swivel on it…. so I can swing it round a bit?”

Oh, I do like this…

Ever since watching American RV videos, It has always struck me what a good idea to have an opening roof light in the shower… not necessarily to get rained on while having a shower (handy if the Aquarol is running low though), but to let the steam out when having a shower instead of watching it condense on any vertical surface in the caravan that are fractionally below body temperature. The shower head is one of the really excellent Ecocamel units… I have to say that a, because they are and b, we have one at home and one in our caravan.

IMG_1518
IMG_1517

The shower tray is new too… well it’s new to me as I haven’t seen one like this before… so it may not be new… but it’s new to me. I like the fact that even if you are pitched on something slightly less level that a billiard table you stand a chance with deft squeegeeing (is that a word) you can get the all the water out before it has chance to escape anywhere other than intended. Surprisingly the wheel arch doesn’t intrude as much as I’ve seen on other caravans. The only thing I did spot is that one one of the caravans I think the chap that was responsible for dispensing glue on the installing the shower sides had gone to see a man about some cheap awning pegs… the sides of the shower were bowed a little and a gentle push popped them back agains the sub wall… release the pressure and they popped out again. It was only on one caravan (I went back and checked the others… so to anyone was there that thought I was a bit demented running in and pressing no the shower sides and running out again… that explains it).

In Summary

Yep, I like them. 8 foot wide caravans do give you a lot more room. It was noticeable that on the Messina (mid bath, rear bed) version that the wardrobes either side of the bed were actually usable and that was down to the 8 foot width, not the bed being narrow. The MRO’s were amazing, opening up the options for choices of tow vehicles. I like the idea that at last the front ‘lounge’ isn’t two long benches… I would miss the traditional draws at the front but I’d get over it. It still irk’s me that no British manufacturer has yet  cottoned on to having one hatch you open with a pass through in the floor for your hook up pipes and cables instead of putting sockets and fixtures all over the sides of the cravan (think of the money savings guy’s!)

Range Creep…

One thing that often happens is you launch a new range, and it steps on the toes of an existing range. Recently Bailey launched the new Phoenix which on the face of it overlapped heavily on the Pegasus brand. However Bailey have taken a leap forward with Pegasus Grande and moved into the ‘wide body’ (in aircraft parlance) platform  which while not stepping on the toes of the flagship Unicorn, could be seen as enticing enough to draw potential Unicorn buyers away. I suspect the in the not too distant future there will be another announcement coming out of Bristol.

Go and see the new Pegasus Grande at your local dealer… or better still visit the Caravan Show at the NEC 16-21 October to see the whole Bailey range. (I’ll let you into a secret…. they have redesigned their stand at the NEC).

All the  Pegasus Grande information can be found here on the Bailey web site

Right, I guess after 2000 words of waffle, that is if you are still here,  you now know why I don’t do caravan reviews… and the memo will go round…”for God’s sake don’t invite him again”!