Despite reading about the dreaded Bailey AlKO axle problems on Bailey caravans fitted with AL-KO axles and receiving some solid advice from Paul at Towfix on how to spot them easily, prior to buying, we still somehow managed to purchase a caravan that experienced an axle failure within days of owning it.
As an aside, we had made the decision to have our Fiamma F45 Zip Canopy removed from our caravan and had scheduled an appointment with Deb at Towfix. Upon our arrival at Towfix, with our Bailey S3 Unicorn Vigo caravan, Paul came out to inspect it and immediately informed us that the ALKO axle had failed.
He demonstrated how the offside wheel was rubbing against the wheel arch and he pointed out that the nearside wheel was barely clearing the wheel arch, despite the caravan being empty.
Before we purchased our caravan I hadn’t been sure if the Bailey Unicorn AlKO axle failures were an issue with single axle or twin axle models. Turns out it was ours, which is a single axle.
Paul from Towfix let us know that it would take a minimum of 10-14 days to repair the axle. The process would involve removing the existing axle, shipping it to a specialised refurbishment company, and then refitting it back onto our caravan.
Paul mentioned the cost for this repair was expected to exceed £1,000. He advised going for a replacement axle as it was likely the same problem could re-occur and in addition to the extra expense the delays for new axles was approximately 8-12 weeks.
Forearmed is forewarned
When we had purchased the Bailey Unicorn caravan from Taylor's Tourers a few weeks prior, I had asked the question about Bailey Alko caravan axle problems, their strength and durability and even did the wheel-arch hand test, and although we felt at the time the caravan was sitting a little bit low we were assured the axle was okay and went ahead with our purchase.
So the news from Paul at Towfix was no doubt a blow, as we had also booked our first proper trip away to Suffolk.
We decided at this point to leave our caravan with Towfix to remove the canopy and asked them to take care of the ALKO axle repair in the hope it would be ready in time for our trip to Suffolk.
When we got home I was surprised at how gutted I felt about our caravan and couldn’t help but be disappointed with our purchase.
I decided to call Scott at Taylors Tourers to let him know about the problem with our caravan and our disappointment. As ‘newbies’ to the caravan world, this was the first time we had to tow a caravan and we did not really know what to expect.
The response from Scott at Taylor's Tourers was amazing and slightly overwhelming.
He immediately assured me that his company would cover the cost of the ALKO axle refurbishment on our caravan. He expressed his disappointment that the problem had not been identified by his service company when the caravan had been serviced prior to sale.
He asked that the team at Towfix send him the bill directly so that he could promptly settle it. He emphasised that he wanted to uphold his company's reputation and ensure customer satisfaction.
I was completely surprised by Scott's willingness to resolve the matter, in my mind this is absolutely brilliant customer service and support!
Just over 7 Days later Paul at Towfix called me to say that my ALKO axle had been refurbished and had been returned to Towfix. He also said he would fit it back onto our Bailey caravan over the weekend so we did not miss our trip to Suffolk.
As you can see from the image above the clearance to the wheel box/arch is now ample and safe.
Again, absolutely brilliant customer service from Towfix too.
We collected our repaired van, minus it's canopy too, the following Tuesday to return it to storage ahead of our trip to Suffolk, which we had delayed by 7 days, in the hope we wouldn't miss it.
Paul had advised us that although he had made temporary repairs to the alu tech construction system Bailey use for their caravan body shells, when removing the canopy, he recommended I get in touch with Ian at Newman Caravan repairs who would complete the task of filling and re-spraying the holes to make it once again look like new.
What I can report post axle refurbishment is our caravan now tows considerably better, runs smoother and the MPG from our tow vehicle has improved by several mpg.
I was once again in love with our caravan and very much looking forward to our trip to Suffolk with the peace of mind of knowing our axle on our Bailey Unicorn Vigo is in tip top condition.
Thank you Scott at Taylor's Tourers, Thank you Paul at Towfix - great service from both!