Full review

Words: Val Chapman  Photography: Richard Chapman

The Bailey Pegasus Grande SE Bologna

Until a couple of years ago, lounges were a fairly predictable element of caravan layouts. The standard parallel configuration, plus a few U-shaped lounges (notably in continental caravans), and the rare L-shaped lounge format, summed up the choice in the market.

Then Bailey came along with something totally different. The Bristol manufacturer invented the G-shaped lounge, and put it into four of its eight-foot-width Pegasus Grande models. This innovation is an amalgam of L-shaped and U-shaped seating – and incorporates a dining area on the nearside. It’s clever. It works. And it creates a super-adaptable dining and lounging area.

This is how it works: two can stretch out to relax. At the same time, two can sit to the dining table. When you bring the free-standing dining table into play, you can have a variety of eating/seating configurations and, if you remove the side dining table, you have more seating space.

The G-shaped lounge is in four of the seven Pegasus Grande SE models: Rimini (single axle, twin beds); Brindisi (single axle, transverse bed); Messina (twin axle, rear island bed) and Bologna (twin axle, transverse bed).

We chose the Bologna for this review – backed, though, by a lot of experience of the Messina. Shortly after the G-shaped lounge was unveiled, Bailey dispatched a Messina to Caravan magazine for a long-term test. It was with us for many months, of touring, of working, and some holidays, too.

The lounge

The 2.45m width of the Bologna is, of course, a strong sales point; lounge floor space is one of this tourer’s main attributes. When you remove the side table, there’s seating space for six or more. You can also alter the position of the table by sliding along its rail, to make your lounge into more of a U-shape. You can put the main table up to adjoin the side table, or keep the two separate.

When you open the locker under the settee that runs across the front of the caravan, an enormous storage area is revealed. It stretches across the entire width of the caravan and has exterior access hatches at both sides. The nearside exterior hatch is 33cm by 29cm and the offside hatch is 70cm by 30cm.

During our Messina months, we discovered that this space has a multiplicity of uses and swallowed up everything we threw at it, including folding chairs, a table and a long-handled caravan wash brush – and left space for more.

The Pegasus Grande range may not be Bailey’s flagship (that accolade goes to the two Alicanto Grande models), but it is a very refined caravan. It lacks the Alicanto Grande’s Alde heating. But, drawing on our Messina experience, we know the Truma Combi 6 system, that delivers 6kW gas and 1.8kW electric power, to be super-efficient even in sub-zero temperatures.

Among the Bologna’s spec list is Al-Ko’s stability control system, a fridge/freezer that can be opened from either the left or right-hand side, the Tracker retrieve stolen vehicle recovery system – and niceties including a stunning kitchen splashback.

The kitchen

The kitchen’s storage capability is fine, though not enormous. There’s a double-doored main cabinet (72cm wide), with a drawer of the same width above it, plus lockers above and below the 153- litre fridge/freezer. There’s also a cabinet alongside the fridge/freezer; that’s 43cm wide and contains three shelf spaces. In addition, of course, there’s a locker ideal for pans beneath the oven. Above the kitchen there is one locker, beside the microwave. To the right of the kitchen, two shelves provide ideal places for the kitchen items you use most often. These are above a slim cabinet that presents the Bologna owner with a very useful alternative in terms of table storage. It contains clips and a runner to retain the main table – yet the table in our review Bologna is stowed under the double bed, sitting on four rests. We are never great fans of tables under beds, because you have to remove them to get at anything stored beneath. So it’s good to have the choice.

The bedroom

The Bologna’s under-bed storage offers you another option; you can access items stored here through an exterior hatch. The bedroom is spacious and has a luxury feel. The major factor is the 2.45m width of the Bologna, meaning that there is a generous 80cm of corridor width at the foot of the bed. With the bed base extended for night-time mode, there is still ample corridor space to walk along its foot without touching the wall or the duvet. If you wish, you can push the bed base and mattress back towards the wall to make more space (the pillow end of the mattress folds upwards to allow for this) – but it’s really not necessary.

Wardrobes are 41cm and 30cm wide, each with a cabinet of the same width containing two shelf spaces. The dressing table’s position, and size, has been thoroughly thought out. It’s a clever design, being slightly wedge shaped; it’s 70cm deep at the aft end and 50cm at the fore end, and plenty large enough for a television (there are connections here for that purpose). A shelf runs almost the entire length of the bedroom; it’s a whopping 2.13m long, and with concealed lighting under a pelmet.

The washroom

The shower room is not enormous, at 75cm deep, but there is enough floor space. Three shelves, each 63cm long, are alongside the washbasin, and a shelf runs almost the whole width between the shower and the cabinet on the offside wall, with two small shelves alongside it. The wall cabinet is 60cm wide with three shelves, each 10cm deep. The cabinet under the basin is 33cm wide and 17cm deep with three shelf spaces. This all adds up to plenty of shelf space for when you are not towing, and the two cabinets provide just enough hideaway storage space.

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