Bailey Ranger GT60 510-4

The 2009 Bailey Ranger GT60 510-4 is well priced, well designed, with wow-factor in the kitchen and a spacious end-washroom, too

Wow! Where do you find a five-metre-body caravan with a kitchen as big as this? Answer: amid Bailey’s crop of well-priced entry-level family caravans.

The 510-4’s kitchen surface size is amazing in a caravan of this size. Even with the plastic removable drainer in place, you still have about two thirds of a metre width of surface, plus more surrounding the hob. And the hob has four burners – another plus-point in a budget-priced model.

The kitchen is cleverly designed. The oven and grill are offset to the left of the hob, with the fridge to the left. To the right is the heater with, above it, two wide drawers.

   It isn’t all good news, though. Although this kitchen is well designed for cooking, there are no cupboards. Your only storage space is the overhead lockers. So where would you store food other than in the fridge? Lightweight items would be fine in one or more of the head lockers that run right the way round this caravan... It took us a few minutes to work out the best compromise for the baked bean cans and other heavy items, though. The cupboard beneath the front-central drawer unit, perhaps? It’s a workable solution – one worth considering for, other than lack of kitchen cupboard space, this is one superb caravan for its price.

Beds come in the form of two full-length singles or a double at the front, plus offside single with pull-up bunk above. Look closer at this area and you will discover one of this model’s really nice layout features. The table-store divider between lounge and bunk area has a top twice the width of the table-store cabinet. It’s curved, tapering towards the front. That means there’s enough room here to place your flatscreen television. The really good thing is that you can turn the television to face either the lounge or dining area.

There’s much more, though, that makes the 510-4 such a great family caravan. And it’s all in the rear sector: The full-width shower room is superb. There is a large amount of floor space – and the wardrobe is in here too, so it’s a complete dressing room. It’s inside the wardrobe, though, that we found our only criticism of the small room. There is full-length hanging space. But what you gain in hanging accommodation you lose in shoe storage space. If you put your shoes in the base of this wardrobe you’d have to scrabble among the trouser legs to find them. A door on the front at the base of the wardrobe would have made a world of difference.

Ranger GT60s are pleasantly plain in styling. That’s mainly due to the handleless lockers. Seat bases are warm-tone fawn; only the backrests have a pattern. It’s the curtains, though, that really move this caravan up far above its price-station in image terms. They’re pale brown, quality fabric with an overall sheen and little squares in the same colour but with more of a sheen. The curtain that partitions off the bunk area is also of high quality fabric, so thick that it folds and hangs exceptionally neatly. Get the picture? It’s a picture of quality – and that goes for the whole package.

Bailey launched its GT60 models, with more equipment and more luxury than the base-model Rangers, to celebrate 60 years of manufacture. The resulting caravans adhere to the Ranger ideals (no-nonsense good value) but also give us that little bit more specification than a basic model.
The Bailey Ranger GT60 510-4 layout is a brilliant, lightweight, well-priced family model that packs a lot of layout into a short length.