Caravan Handbooks

[bertieboy1]

The Bailey caravan handbook I received with the (new) caravan is full of errors,covering equipment that is not fitted and not covering equipment that is fitted.
The wiring diagram is a disgrace probably having been drawn by a school child,is impossible to follow and cannot be used for fault finding.
fridge,microwave,space heater,water heater etc.they have tried to rewrite these manuals and incorporate all the info in a single ring binder,in doing so they have created a document that does not reflect what they have supplied.
Are other caravan manufacturer manuals the same.

 

[otherclive]

Yep. Truly a cottage industry. I get more sense out of my Pajero handbook and that's in Japanese! I tended to use the individual equipment suppliers documents that came with the van rather than the Bailey handbook. I fully agree that even with a magnifying glass the circuit diagrams are of limited use.

 

[RayS]

They seem to hae gone downhill over the years. The books for my Swift Corniche and Coachan Pastichiche 1992 - 2002 included wiring diagrams which showed colour of individual wires, but the current Elddis book does not, nor are there many different colours used. Even worse was the previous Burstner which used only white or white/red wiring and since the looms were made for vans with continental side doors there was miles of spare wire, particularly in the bottom of the wardrobe.

I agree the present standard is pretty low - it would be nice if the industry adopted the 'ladder' diagram where the uprights of the ladder are the 12v + and 12v - lines and the rungs are the individual circuits. These are very easy to understand, although should not be used as physical wiring diagrmas without due attention to cable size particularly for the 'downstream' side.

The looms are obviously pre-made which is quite understandable and you may find the loom for the most upmarket varient of your caravan regardless of which grade you actually have. This can be quite useful, for instance if you want to add additional lights over the table which you model does not have but the top of the range does, you may well find wiring ending in connectors near the appropriate positions.

 

[Raywood]

Have to agree they are not very good. As covers everything in the entire manufacturers range as have the last two and this means the coverage of everything is mostly basic and they then give you the manufacturers booklet for what you have as well. I doubt we are a lot better off than our first new caravan which simply gave us the leaflets in a folder and left it to us to get on with it.
Still remember checking my Coachman handbook many years ago when the water pump failed. That basically said drop the pump in the water container and turn the taps on. Nothing about the pressure switch in the bottom of the wardrobe was mantioned.