FOR SALE: Bailey Orion 440-4 Caravan – SOLD!
SOLD….SOLD…..SOLD…….SOLD!
2012 Model – 4-Berth – Immaculately Clean – Many Extras
A mobile leisure vehicle designed to allow families or couples to get the most from the great outdoors. Orion is easy to drive, easy to park and easy to store and offers the flexibility of use as a mobile base from which to enjoy the chosen leisure activity. Its compact lightweight Alu-Tech bodyshell, featuring a unique aerodynamic exterior profile, assists with lowering the costs of motoring by reducing fuel consumption and consequently lowers the environmental impact of a journey through a reduction in vehicle emissions.
Building on this Bailey, in partnership with the University of Bath, has looked to take the process a stage further with the development of the Orion Evo-4. After having carried out a lifecycle assessment on a caravan from ‘cradle to grave’ to determine the environmental impact of each phase of development it became clear that the most significant impact came from when the caravan was in use.
Of the in-use impacts 98% can be accounted for by the energy required to tow a caravan which in turn leads to a 37% increase in fuel consumption of the tow vehicle when compared to driving solo. Clearly therefore any new design should concentrate on this area, looking at product weight and aerodynamics, if we are to make our caravans more environmentally friendly.
Aerodynamics
All Orion models feature a unique curved rear profile which has been incorporated into the design to improve the aerodynamics of the vehicle. A well designed aerodynamic object ensures that the air flow has minimal disturbance over it by allowing the air to remain attached to the outer surface for as long as possible – which means that the design of the rear of the object is normally more critical than the design of the front. Orion’s more streamlined, curved rear profile therefore ensures that the air is attached to the surface longer thus reducing the overall drag on the caravan which in turn improves the fuel efficiency of the tow vehicle.
In-house testing conducted by Bailey indicated that, when compared to a conventional caravan of equal size and weight, towing the Orion results in an improved fuel efficiency of around 8% roughly equating to an improvement of 2 miles per gallon (using a standard family estate car).
Weight Reduction
Weight is distributed in a traditional caravan in the following manner:
Bailey chose to focus on reducing the weight of the interior components as altering the body shell and chassis could potentially compromise the integrity of the caravan. In doing so the company was careful not to achieve this by removing key elements of the specification as experience has shown that this will reduce the desirability and saleability of the finished product.
Instead Bailey considered how people actually use their caravans for the answer, particularly by looking at their preferred choice of power source. With only 8.5% of respondents in the Bailey survey claiming they regularly use the 12v battery as their primary power source this became an obvious avenue to explore.
Converting a vehicle from a multi-source to a single-source does have a significant impact on both the weight and cost of the product through the simplification of the sourced components and caravan services as well as the modification of the furniture.
