Full review

Bailey Pursuits represent two departures from tradition in the Bristol-based caravan manufacturer’s portfolio.
This is the first range to have grey sides. And this is the only range that’s not named after mythical beasts and winged horses.

Bailey’s thinking behind naming its Pursuit range is that these caravans are designed specifically for buyers who are looking for a caravan to use in order to enjoy pursuits; sport, fishing, surfing, perhaps.

So what else is different about these 2015 caravans? They’re distinguished by their good-value, budget price.

The five-berth we review here, with two fixed bunks, costs just £14,865. And if its layout looks familiar that's because it's very similar to the Pegasus GT65 Ancona, at £18,385. Pursuits have lower specification than Pegasus. That’s not a criticism; it's a positive, because they’re also lighter in weight and on price. For example, Pursuits have combination grill-ovens which are lighter than full oven units with separate grills. And in order to get a hitch-head stabiliser you have to buy the £405 Premium Pack, which also gets you a spare wheel (essential) and a microwave oven (desirable).

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Showering

The Pursuit 540-5’s unusual-shaped shower room is pleasingly familiar to us. Some time ago we had a Pegasus Ancona on live-in test, and loved its shower room. The Pursuit’s washbasin is oval, rather than the Belfast-style in the Ancona. But the shower shape is the same and so is the large amount of floor space, which is key to the family practicality appeal of this caravan.

The shower room is slightly wedge-shaped, spanning the width between the bunks and the nearside wall, and extending forward, to line up with the entrance door. The shower is also slightly wedge-shaped, which makes the best use of the space, and also gives it a wide aperture, making it easy for a parent to shower little ones. Two towel hooks are high up on the rear wall (though more of them would have been useful).
 

Sleeping

A family of four with two very young children took our live-in-test Ancona away for a week and the resultant report was glowing in terms of this layout’s versatility and practicality.

We had an Olympus 540-5 of the same layout on our long-term test fleet for several months, and successive testers remarked on its practicality. Amid their comments was praise for the position of the bunks, secluded in the rear offside corner with the wall of the shower room to create a partial barrier. But the Pursuit version of this layout lacks a partition or curtain. Which means there’s nothing to exclude the light when the little ones go to bed.

A third bed makes up in the nearside dining area. This bed is 1.72m long and 70cm wide. The settees are also 1.72m in length, so not quite long enough to make adult-length singles. The slatted base of the double bed pulls out from under the offside settee. It's a substantial affair which is easy to pull into position, we discovered.
 

Storage

A vital element of a five-berth caravan is its storage capability and the ease of access to it. The Pursuit 540-5 has loads of good design features on this topic, and one that’s not so good. The table is stored horizontally, on brackets under the nearside settee. That means that any small items stored in this locker are likely to move under the table when you’re towing. And that will prove to be a nuisance; you have to get the table out to get at anything that has migrated underneath it.

Everywhere else, though, the 540 excels on storage. The spaces under the nearside dining area seats are easy to get at, by lifting the slatted seat bases, which are light in weight. The same goes for getting into the large space under the bottom bunk.

The wardrobe is large, with 64cm of hanging width and full garment depth, and a cabinet beneath, with 36cm of depth. Under this cabinet is space that looks at first glance like a storage area. But here is where the Truma dual fuel Combi boiler hides (its output is 2kW on gas and 1.8kW on mains power); four outlets push the warmed air around the caravan. And on the 8ºC first day of the 540’s test stay with us, this caravan was pleasantly toasty within 10 minutes.
 

Dining

We’ve already aired our views on the table under the topic of “storage”. Now we have to get it out for mealtime duties. That means removing both the backrest and the seat base, to lift the slatted base to its vertical position in order to extract the table. It’s possible to do this with the seat base in position if one person holds it up at an angle while another person reaches inside for the table, but we found this to be even more awkward than removing the upholstery.

However, don’t let this put you off the otherwise brilliant 540, for there is an alternative place for the table. You can slide it into the wardrobe. A turn-button retainer is there to keep it against the wall. At 55cm wide, there is plenty of space for it without impinging on space for clothes.
 

Lounging

In this caravan, designed for a young family, there’s likely to be less “lounging”, in the relaxing sense of the word, than, err, following pursuits in the lounge area. The scenario of table-top games, laptop pursuits – or playing cards springs to mind, all against the background sounds coming from the radio/CD player that’s part of the Premium Pack we mentioned earlier.

Any which way you look at this caravan with its two seating areas, it works. Brilliantly. There is space for two to play at the side table, four to play at the freestanding table, or everyone to watch your television which you can put on the small dresser between the dining and lounging areas. Oh, and two can even take their toys to the lower bunk and play there… The Pursuit 540-5 is a real star.
 

Kitchen

The fridge is below the sink. There’s a good-sized cabinet under the oven-grill alongside, but its usable capacity is compromised by two heating ducts (don’t complain, though, for the heating system is super-efficient!). And there’s something in the kitchen that, at first glance, may puzzle you. What looks as if it’s a cabinet, beneath the wide cutlery drawer on the fore end of the kitchen, doesn’t have a handle. That's because its opening is on the outside. It’s the gas bottle compartment, situated amidships to lighten nose weight.

But don’t let this intrusion lead you to the conclusion that lower kitchen storage space is lacking. For, opposite, there’s a cabinet that will take care of most families’ kitchen storage needs. It's 40cm wide and 60cm deep, divided into two shelf areas.

Above the kitchen, one large cabinet has fitments for four mugs and 10 plates, with space around them for bowls and other table equipment. The smaller cabinet, 46cm deep and 30cm wide, is the ideal place for tall cereal packets and pasta.
Overall, we’d rate the kitchen storage opportunities as fine.
 

Towing

The Pursuit 540-5 weighs only 1182kg unladen and that’s probably what it did weigh during its test tow, with very little of our equipment inside it. No surprise, then, that even on the one slight incline on our test route, our Kia Sorento’s engine was not aware of the caravan’s presence on the hook. Neither, in stability terms, was the driver. As we relaxed into an enjoyable test tow we decided that this is a caravan to pick for long continental tows when you want the going to be easy.


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