Hi All,
First of all thanks to those who replied and gave good advice!
I now give a better update of the first impressions of the California.
As far as general setting up goes it was pretty straight forward and the Al-ko secure aligned up well, but we have got a Rhyno mover fitted.
The front locker is very accessable, aided by a locker door ram. Inside from the front we have the centre chest fitted which gives good storage and easy eating facilities, but does add to the nose weight. After using a S6 Burgundy we found that we we were a little short of room, but this was over come by not being so wasteful with the room provided. The loss of cupboards by the entrance door can be countered by the bed room area which is better laid out and accessable wardrobe.
The front bunks are adequate when crashing out and watching t.v, I,m 6ft and SHMBO is 5'2, so therefore she gets the offside bunk and I get the nearside to accomodate different sizes.
The bed as per Bailey normal is great, we sleep better in the van than we do at home, without ache,s and pains and not too much alcohol.
The room is sufficent and can be isolated for getting changed by using both the bathroom and bed room. As far as the shower room goes it it more than sufficent to accomodate both of us at diffrent times, but I would recommend that both the 30 ltr on board and 40 ltr Aqua roll is used if both are showering one after the other, the shower is 69cm square and allows good movement to get a shower with out the normal cracking of elbows of knees. Lighting throughout the shower and washing area is good as well as good room around the toilet area, well done Bailey.
Lighting in the van is excellent even with the lack of mains lighting and is not only very suitable for hook up sites but also CLs with limited power resources ( e.g battery, solar power or generator)by the use of LEDs. The lack of a drawer over the fire unit is annoying as in the Burgundy this was a boon for cooking implements, but a friend is a carpenter and will amend this simple but daft omission by Bailey.
Towing was great, I thought the Burgundy was good, but the use of the AKS 3000 series and ATC makes a fantastic combanation (as long as you adhere to tyres,nose weight,MPTLM and sensible loading)
The Cooking area is 1 cm bigger that the S6 Burgundy, but this is not noticable, but the loss of a cupboard over the sink is, to the extent that all glasses (acrylic) are now next to the stereo cabinet.
Talking about the stereo this has been a great and good easy to use unit, giving good quality pictures from DVD and sound in general, good tuning lock and jack socket to take MP3,i-pod in our case make things easy.
All in all a great caravan unit that may be a bit smaller than the competition, but I think looking at the others they have got the compromise just right!
Von Ryan
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