Bailey Alora 69-4S low-profile motorhome

Testing a motorhome in minus 20 degrees is a big challenge, even for the winner of the 2024 Best Fixed Double Bed Motorhome award

The Bailey Alora 69-4S

Words and photos: Peter Vaughan

There are two unusual aspects of the Bailey Alora 69-4S that helped it to victory in its class in the Motorhome Awards 2024. Firstly, it’s a narrow-bodied coachbuilt with a side sofa lounge (rather than the more confined half-dinette more usually seen in these slimline models).

Secondly, it has a transverse rear bed, installed not to reduce overall length to 6m or so but to create a less compromised living space in a still modest 6.99m overall length. 

More unusual, though, are the circumstances of this test. Not for the Alora is a gentle spin around the Mendips  close to Bailey’s Bristol base. Instead, I meet up with this vehicle after it was driven 1,000 miles across Europe by the company’s marketing team. 

The plan was for three days of real-life winter testing in the Dolomites; fresh snow and the forecast of  seriously sub-zero temperatures (even in the daytime), suggested that the newest Bailey motorhome wasn’t going to get an easy ride. 

This is still the prototype, too – the actual vehicle that you may have seen at the NEC in October, where it made an early debut (the launch was originally planned for the February show). And the only non-standard features fitted are the off-road tyres and the covers on the door mirrors.

Bailey’s Marketing Director, Simon Howard, jokes that having tried to cook me in the Sahara (see our Endeavour road test in the November 2023 issue), they’re attempting to freeze me in Italy. Nevertheless, I’ve turned down the offer of a ski lodge and will be staying in the Alora…

The dimensions

Getting on the scales after Christmas was an unwelcome surprise for yours truly but it seems that motorhomes also want to get slimmer in 2024. 

There’s a growing trend for vehicles that are less than the typical 2.30m to 2.35m wide. Not only are these motorhomes easier to drive but less bulk means more payload. 

In the Alora’s case, there’s capacity for 550kg of passengers and possessions to go with the licence-friendly 3.5-tonne maximum gross weight.

Designed to suit campervan customers seeking more space, these compact coachbuilts still have the roomier flat sides of their bigger brothers. Few, however, are as slim as the Bailey – the Auto-Trail Excel, Pilote Atlas, Rapido C Series and Swift Ascari are all wider. 

The Alora’s Alu-Tech body (with GRP inside and out and wood banished from all panels bar the floor) barely seems broader than the Ford cab.

Not that you’d notice on the inside, thanks to the very open lounge area up front, which feels even bigger now that the fixed table has been jettisoned. 

Bailey listened to feedback from visitors to the NEC and has now installed a free-standing table instead. Pity, then, that it stores for travel in the garage, rather than inside the living area. 

Could it swap places with the board for the dinette bed, which is due to move to beneath the rear fixed bed? We’ve asked Bailey to investigate that possibility. In the meantime, it clips to the garage’s back wall and is reached through the nearside door.

The garage

There’s an identical door on the offside to service this space, which measures 65cm wide and 1.01m tall. There are 12V and 230V sockets in here, as well as fixed lashing points on the practical floor. 

The only illumination is on the nearside, where you’ll also find a drawer that will be useful for odds and ends but could be hard to access if  the space is fully loaded.

Also in the garage, on the offside, is  the gas locker, with room for just a single 6kg Calor cylinder. That shouldn’t be a big issue as the Alora has diesel/electric heating (Truma Combi D 4 E) – a first for a Bailey motorhome. We’ll be putting that system to the ultimate test… 

Bearing in mind our location, where campers ski directly from their pitches, it’s good to note that the fresh water tank (a generous 115 litres) is inboard, but we’d like to see a heater option for the underslung waste tank (although in more typically British conditions the T-handle will make for easy emptying).

Externally, it’s worth noting the flush Polyplastic windows and rear bike rack mounting points, but also the absence of outside shower or barbecue fittings. 

On the plus side, though, the habitation door has a low step, window, flyscreen, bin, umbrella holder and is linked to the Ford’s central locking.

The cab

The Transit cab comes with a good tally of toys, including automatic lights and wipers, adaptive cruise control and black 16in alloy wheels. The flashiest feature, however, is the 12in screen for the DAB radio, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and the reversing camera. 

An automatic gearbox is a well-priced £2,000 option in combination with the 155hp motor, but here we have the standard fare – 130 horses and six manually shifted gears. 

On the steep inclines and hairpin bends around our base in Sesto, Italy, the Ford coped surprisingly well. The gear change is easy, performance proved perfectly adequate and the handling feels the benefits of the modestly sized habitation area.

The driving position has the usual Ford benefits of sitting lower at a car-like wheel that has much more adjustment than a Fiat’s or Peugeot’s. But I was soon to discover that the marriage of Transit and Truma is currently causing a little trauma… 

On my first night in the Alora, I bade my compatriots a good night and settled into the comfortable fixed bed that’s so easily and conveniently accessed via folding steps. 

The temperature inside the motorhome was a cosy 17 degrees, in sharp contrast to the minus 20 that was recorded outside shortly afterwards. I sat up with a magazine, back against the padded headboard, for a while before switching off the reading lights.

I didn’t wake until 4am, when the heating went off, with the Truma display indicating a fuel supply issue. I should have switched to 230V-only heating but my brain was also indicating an error message at that hour, so I  dozed off. By 7am it was just six degrees inside the Alora… 

It seems there is an issue with the fuel feed to the heater from the Ford’s diesel tank if it isn’t full of fuel. Truma is aware of it and working with Ford on a solution.

The good news for me was that brimming the previously half-full supply of diesel solved the problem and I stayed toasty all of the following night. The good news for you is that the issue will be addressed by the time Aloras roll off the South Liberty Lane production line. 

It’s testament to the importance of Bailey testing in these conditions (not just in theory or in a cold chamber). Better motorhomes come out of such real-life use of prototype models.

The lounge

Back to why the Alora is an award-winner and that lounge is central to its appeal. The cab chairs (which are fractionally lower than the sofas) can spin through a full 180 degrees for feet-up relaxation.

There are reading lights (with USBs) over the front seats and ambient lighting over the top lockers that gives a good spread of illumination, thanks to the white GRP ceiling. 

Daylight (and mountain views) is provided by the large overcab sunroof and Midi Heki rooflight, so the smaller-than-average side windows (with attractive upholstered surrounds) only serve to create a cosy ambience.

Crucially, this doesn’t feel like a narrow motorhome, even when you add the large (92cm by 62cm) table, which is an ideal size for the space.

The lounge can also be converted into a second bed, simply by unfolding bases and moving the backrests into the middle. 

It’s a flat double berth that narrows towards the nearside, leaving full access through the habitation door. The only issue is the weight of the panel, which Bailey has promised to address.

With four berths, the 69-4S also offers four travel seats; Aguti frames fold up from under the settees. These reclining forward-facing seats have Isofix as well as enough legroom for adults, although kids might find the side windows too low to see much through. 

As usual, they rob you of some under-seat storage and what’s left isn’t the easiest to reach. Here, they also require you to carry extra cushions for their secondary travel role, while all the sofa cushions need to be stowed on the bed when passengers are carried.

The bedroom

At the opposite end of the motorhome, the bedroom layout can’t overcome the climbing-over-your-partner issue of any transverse bed but it leaves more space for other aspects compared with an island bed. 

Having room to sit up is a big plus and there’s ventilation from another Midi Heki and a window at the foot. There’s a privacy curtain here and even a recess at one side of the bed for a night-time drink, your phone, etc. 

Although the mattress measures 1.85m long, the usable length from headboard to wall is 1.94m. 

Under the bed, you’ll not only find the neat steps but a slide-out wardrobe and a drawer that could serve for clothes or kitchen. Lift the bed base and you’ll find even more additional storage.

The kitchen

Forward of the bedroom, the tambour door to the washroom opens to create more (carpeted) floor space in the galley, where the floor is 15cm higher than in the lounge but headroom is still 1.89m. Again, it’s an area that belies the Alora’s dimensions through thoughtful design.

The kitchen is well equipped, too, with its Thetford Triplex Plus cooker having a mains hotplate, three gas rings  and a combined oven/grill, while diagonally opposite is the tall 137.6-litre compressor fridge (another first for a Bailey motorhome). 

The main galley unit has one big cutlery/utensil drawer, two large low-level cupboards and a supersized upper locker with a single door, so you can see all its contents at once. 

Twin 230V sockets at the rear end can only really be used with the sink cover in place but there’s more worktop at the forward end, via a folding flap. 

The washroom

In the washroom, the key feature is that the basin (combined with the mirror and wall behind) slides to the left, over the loo, to create more room for showering. 

With the washroom’s false floor removed, the shower tray flexed under my 76kg weight (Bailey will strengthen it). There is a curtain, but this is only to cover the toilet and basin, so it doesn’t stick to you. 

On Truma boiler’s 70-degree ‘long shower’ setting, twin drains and plentiful water pressure, this was an excellent alternative to traipsing across the snow to Campingpark Sexten’s admittedly exceptional ablutions facilities.

Slide the basin back and its mirror hides useful shelved storage but some may need to check thigh room on the loo; the cassette toilet is, however, at a comfortable height and I found plenty of space to use both it and the washbasin. 

The washroom also benefits from four towel/robe hooks, a roof vent and a hanging rail for drying soggy garments. A strap is to be added to stop the tambour door sliding back and forth while you drive.

Motorhome supplied by Bailey of Bristol
Tel: 01173 135447
baileyofbristol.co.uk

Insurance: £684.57
Tel: 0800 975 1307
shieldtotalinsurance.co.uk
For quote details: motorhome.ma/QuoteInfo

There’s no substitute for real-life testing, as shown here by the issue we uncovered with the diesel heating. 

That will be addressed, along with some other minor points we highlighted to Bailey, so production versions of the Alora 69-4S will be even better than the prototype that scooped the award for Best Fixed Double Bed Motorhome 2024 at its very first outing.