Payloads

I'll begin by admitting that in raising the issue that follows I am, to some extent acknowledging some degree of failure on my part so, having fronted-up to that, here goes.

Two years ago, we swapped our Bailey Olympus for a Bailey Vigo series 3 and have, until recently been very happy with it.  In 2016, we visited Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Germany during a six week tour, then Shropshire and Somerset, and finally South Wales so it covered a fair mileage.  In October, I put it into the dealer for a service only to be told that it had a `broken axle'.  This was a surprise as a friend with an identical caravan had the same problem a few months earlier.  I understand from my dealer that the term `broken axle' is not technically correct as the actual problem is with a failure of an arm which goes into a rubber bush.

My enquiries suggest that this problem has arisen with a number of caravans with the current Al-Ko chassis and there have previously been threads on this website about this.  The issue which I wish to raise is that of payloads.  Bailey are repairing my caravan (as they did my friend's) as a matter of `goodwill', but we have both been told that we have overloaded our caravans.  When we bought the Vigo, I assumed that its payload would be similar to that of the Olympus because they are both Bailey AluTech of similar dimensions but I now discover that the payload of the Vigo is 25% less than that of the Olympus.  The Vigo's payload is 154kg (almost identical to similar Swift or Coachman vans) but this reduces to 100kg if you have a motor mover and leisure battery (ie. equivalent to 4 or 5 suitcases of the size accepted by airlines). This seems totally inadequate for a caravan which may be take away for a number of weeks at a time, especially when the weight of a second gas cylinder must also be deducted from the payload.  We are lured into choosing caravans by vast arrays of cupboards, under-bed storage and floor-to-ceiling fridges but the effectively told we have to put everything in the car to travel.  According to an article in `another camping and caravanning magazine' this month, the drive for lightness is to make caravans towable by cars which are also increasingly being made lighter but the reality is that, in my view, caravans seem to be in danger of becoming increasingly unfit for purpose.

For myself, I will have to evaluate for next season whether we can realistically keep within the payload for our caravan without constantly swapping stuff between the car and the caravan (we gave up camping to get away from that) or whether we must start looking for another caravan.  I can't help but feel that we are being taken for a ride, even though you can truthfully say that I have been party to my problem.