Taking a brand new Bailey Alliance 59-2 Motorhome wild camping

We're talking about a good time. We're chasing every moment, all the good nights. We're always looking out, and it's a good life. We go around the world for a show, oh, oh, oh. And it's a good time. We're chasing every moment, all the good nights. We're always looking out, and it's a good life. No, we are never letting this go, oh, oh, oh. Good morning, gang. We've got quite an exciting weekend coming up. We have hired a motorhome. Actually, technically, we've borrowed a motorhome. Bailey of Bristol contacted us after our video a couple of months back saying that we were thinking of downsizing, and we actually did a review of one of their vans. And they were like, would you like to borrow it for a weekend? And, of course, we said yes, because it'd give us an opportunity to try out whether downsizing from a big van to a little van would actually work for us. And we thought that that was very generous of them. They even said we could bring Matt the Puppet, so we're bringing Matt the Puppet. And we've got it for the whole bank holiday weekend, which is quite fun. It's a little bit scary having somebody else's van, and we've not done that, but we've never hired a motorhome. The other thing we've decided to do, because we're crazy, is go wild camping for the weekend, because it's bank holiday. And so we've got three, I think we've got four nights in total, which is quite nice. But we were looking at campsites, and the problem is we're used to airs, and we're used to wild camping and campsites. We've had some very bad experiences in the UK. I'm not by any means saying that all campsites in the UK are horrendous, because they're not, we've seen some incredible ones. But we are very, very wary, especially on a bank holiday weekend, of getting into the situation that we've been in in the past, where we have people who drink all night, who are up all night, who are having a great time, but making a lot of noise. And I guess we're just not into that, especially when it's somebody else's party. I suppose if it was our party, it would be different, but listening to someone else having a load of fun until six o'clock in the morning isn't our idea of fun. So we are avoiding campsites this weekend, which may or may not be a good idea, because we don't have any of our wild camping gear with us. So we don't have a barbecue, and we don't have our fire pit, which I love. We don't have any outdoor chairs, and we don't have an inverter, which could be a problem, because I don't have a laptop. Well, my laptop is ridiculously power-hungry. You turn it on, and an hour, two hours later, it's at, like, 20%. It's crazy. So that's our biggest problem when we wild camp is my laptop. And the problem is I love my laptop. It does everything I want it to do, but it is crazy power-hungry. And we've been trying to find ways of making it a bit better and struggling. Phones are pretty good at that, and iPads, we don't really use that much. We also don't have our co-pilot iPad sat-nav. We don't have a proper motorhome sat-nav at all. Literally just got Google Maps on my phone. So, yeah, that's going to be interesting, because we haven't bothered to buy, or we didn't want to buy, a sat-nav for the weekend, because it's only for a weekend, and it's a waste of money. So we're going to try and do it on a bare bed. This is minimal camping. We want to see if it's possible. It's like, if you can literally just rent a van and go off and head into the wild. We're heading towards the Brecon Beacon in Wales, which is beautiful, apparently. I have driven through it, but I've never stopped. So I know it's pretty, and I've seen pictures, and there are some places we've mapped out that we want to go to, but we've never actually been able to explore and drive around. So it's going to be a really interesting weekend. I will film a couple of videos over the weekend, hopefully, we'll see what we do. I'm not sure the weather's going to be that great, unfortunately, so we'll see what we get up to. And we will see how Mac gets on. I think that could be interesting, putting a dog into a vehicle. I'm a little bit... I don't know what the word is. Yeah, probably. I'm a little bit anxious about how it's going to go. I think my biggest thing is making sure we don't damage the van. I'm a little bit concerned about that, because we don't really worry about the odds of that tearing down our van. But I'm also quite excited, because if we could downsize. We love our van. I love it. I love the space. I love the layout. I love the options we've got. I love the payload, so we can just throw all our kit in it. But there are some things we don't like, and it all revolves around the fact that it is over three and a half tonnes. And it makes travelling, especially in certain countries in Europe, like Switzerland, really tough, because of the paperwork, and you can't just get the cheap vignettes. We have to go off and pay per day or whatever. So, yeah, there are various countries across Europe that anything over three and a half tonnes is a pest. And also, I can't drive our motorhome, although I am trying slowly to do my C1 at the moment. It would be really nice to be able to drive our own van. So, yeah, there are some things that we are seriously intrigued about, and whether or not we could long-term travel in a smaller van. So, this is the intro. Hi. Let's see what happens. I will keep you posted, obviously. I'll keep filming a new video throughout the weekend. And I'll put it all together, and stick it on a video, and hopefully you'll find it useful if you're looking at hiring a van, or if you're looking for a van to take home. Right. We're on the M5. We're heading to Bristol. We are. How are we feeling? Roadworks. We're feeling roadworks. That is how we are feeling. Are you looking forward to driving a smaller van? I'm excited. I'm very, very intrigued, because... Yeah. There is a real chance that, if this works, Wanda's going to change pretty quick. Oh, Wanda. Do you think, after all the work we've done, and the wrap that we had on her, and the legs that we've put on her... Maybe, yeah. Do you think? Maybe. But I'm looking forward to trying it in places that we wouldn't normally... Like a supermarket, that would normally be an absolute pain. Oh, I thought you were going to say a campsite. No. You said trying in places you don't want. I started off this whole thing this morning. I was like, we're going to hire a motorhome. And then I just became a rant about why I don't like campsites, especially on bank holiday weekends. Yeah. Which is, it's been nearly two years since that horrendous night for my birthday, with the guys who were up until, stupid, but the football team. Really, yeah. They were up until silly o'clock. Wherever we were. And the campsite put us right next to them, which was just bad. Bad, bad planning. Yes. So, it's a bit cloudy, although there's great... Okay. We will go and collect a van. Okay. All right. Let's go. Oh, my word. Bailey of Bristol. I keep saying Bailey's, but it's not. There's no S. Bailey. That's a lot of vans. I can't see now. I can just see a lot of hedge. Yeah, there is. So, I'm guessing we go... Caravan collection. No, no, caravan collection. It says all visitors must report to the security office. Oh, there's a man. There's a man. Hello, sir. We're collecting a motorhome. Okay, yeah, and then just go into reception, and I'll give you a bill. You're a superstar. Thank you very much. Thanks. What a nice guy. Oh, I see. There, on the... Yeah, on the... Right, I'm going to turn that off. Although it is... Oh, it is. There's a little van. Oh, she's so dippy. Hi. So, this is our motorhome. It's an Alliance 592, and it's really clean and empty, and there's no stuff in it. And, oh, look at this. This is awesome. We've got these on our van at the moment, but this one's got USB charging points, which I was quite excited about. I'm going to take that little tag off, actually. So, I think there's two... Yeah, there's two with USB charging points. Are they USB charging at the front? Yeah, there's a USB charging meter at the front. Well, there's only one, so we're going to have to fight over that. I think that's also for the iPod connection. Oh, yeah. Because that's the little phone holder. Oh, yeah. That's the same as ours. Oh, no, there's a couple, actually. There's an extra one, if I can pull it back. Oh, sorry. That was my bum. There's another USB. Ah, they've changed the cigarette lighter socket for a USB. Yeah, they have. We've got two at the front. We've got a cup holder thingy, which is all very exciting. That moves. Yeah. OK, we'll see. We'll see, we'll see. And then we've got... Ah, ah, ah. Push. Push that one. From the back. Where's your hand? Your left hand. Yes. Pull it up. iPod holder. Well, there's lights and noise, so it's working. It's quite a good-sized fridge, actually. Yeah, it's the same size as ours, isn't it? Yeah. So, we stuck it on battery. No, we stuck it on hook-up while we got hooked up. So it should chill quite quickly. All right, perfect. So now, we're going to transfer all of our stuff from the car in here, and a puppy. Off we go. What stuff in your car needs to come? Everything on the back seat, pretty much. So, certainly the big duvet and things. Everything on the back seat? Have you seen your back seat? Yep. Your back seat's bigger than this van. But we said we wanted to try as if it was our van, and we had stuff. Because our biggest problem, with a smaller van, is storage space. And we're not sure entirely how much... Oh, no. Take that off. We're not sure how much we can get in. So we said we'd try it. So, that's taken up pretty much that entire locker. We're going to leave that uncovered for a bit and just see how we do. Towels. More popcorn. Yeah, a lot of popcorn. We're going to get going, and we'll finish this off later. Before we've even gone anywhere, it's not actually done in. It's not been hooked in. I'll take it off for now, so we're not too long. Put it on the seat. How's that going to be? Now, that should be good. That should be good. OK, we'll try that. Comes with an inbuilt summer. I've got it on my thing here, just in case. This one says 40-odd minutes. So, we've got them both running. Come on then, let's go. In our baby van. Isn't it? Hi, pup. Oh, he's like, what, this again? Oh, mind the red post. Thank you. Have a lovely bank holiday. OK. Just let me get you on the main road, and I can play with the settings. She's light, isn't she? Yeah, very. Which is nice, she goes like a cat. What's your impressions so far? I actually really like it. I like... I love how new and clean it feels, for that's the thing with new and clean. I love the headroom, we've always said that. I'm really intrigued by the layout. We've never had a layout anything like this, so I don't know how I feel about it. It's different. I'm really impressed by the storage. All of that stuff off the back seat, and it was piled high. I went to take a photo before we did it all, but I forgot. And it's just disappeared. There's loads of room left. Yeah. You can't actually get a shower at the moment. That's true. Most of it into the shower. A bit later we'll actually properly pack away. I'll do that actually while you're working later. What's your first impressions? It's very neat. What do you like to drive? The wheelie and go all the way down there. Oh, I wasn't looking. What's my first impression? It's very neat. I don't know how we would be with a van conversion. It's lower. Yes, it is a lot lower. So I don't know. Which is why we said we haven't decided if we're going to mow down with a van, because the height and the space it feels, because you've got that higher space. I mean, it's a Peugeot, but it's actually the same as a Fiat. Yeah, it looks very similar, doesn't it? It is the same dashboard. It's just a Euro 6, which means that the controls are here on the steering wheel. Is it as wide as that? Is it the same width? It's exactly the same width. This part is exactly the same. It feels smaller, doesn't it? No, I don't think it does. I think it feels the same. It's still got the same cubby holes at the top and stuff. And it's still got the same sunroof, give or take. But no, I think this bit feels exactly the same. Right, Wales. I like the fact that it's a metre and a half shorter than ours, but so far it doesn't feel like it. How big is this? 5.9. And we're 7 point something. 7.8? Yeah. Oh, OK, so it's only 2 metres shorter than ours. And it just doesn't, I haven't missed anything yet. It'll be interesting tonight. I'm really apprehensive about the bed. I think the bed's going to be uncomfortable. Oh, ankle. You're forgetting how short we are. I know. It's a little baby van. I am so impressed by this sunroof actually. It's not squeaking, although because we haven't got a bed. The difference is, it's not electric and it's got 5 shutdowns. Whereas ours is electric and it only has 2 shutdowns. Oh, OK. So it's clamped down quite nicely. Yeah, it's really well clamped down. I wouldn't get in that. Easy. Which side do you want? Should we go up against the edge here? Yeah. So we've stopped. And I turned on the tap to get the puppy some water. And they left all the taps open. They've obviously bled the system or whatever. And the shower was on. And all the bags that I stuck in the shower to make a quick getaway got wet. So, whoops! Our fault for not checking that they were on and off properly. So, yes. Now most of my clothes are wet. But it's OK. We will fix it. Well, I was filming having to get 4 people in but I'm trying to look like putting your face in it. I tell you what. You hold it. Yeah, that's a great idea. I didn't actually want to interrupt you talking, I'm sorry. Hi. Is it filming there now? It's filming. Oh. See, look. There's 4 of us and a dog. Yeah. And there's space. There's the dog. And there's the 4 of us. I know. Go, go gadget then. Yeah, literally. You've got another player behind you and just want to push you out of it. I've got a booster seat. It's fine, it's fine. Calm, good boy. This is what we've got to put up with. It's going to be a long, long week. can I borrow you while he's filming? What? Can you open that vent? I genuinely want to. I know it's probably going to be really bad. I'm sorry. But I'm not convinced you could. This vent? Yeah. And then, do you reckon you could open it? No, there's no way in heck you could open that. How tall are you? Yeah, I can't do that. It's not going to work, is it? No, I'm about 5'2". You're admitting to 5'2", okay. You're about the same height as Gabe. What have you done? Have you broken it? I haven't broken it. Oh, there we go. It's because I can't reach it. It's the new nurse. Thank you for being my guinea pig. Oh, that's okay. Here we go, I'm making the bed up. I missed the start of it. Mac! Come on. Come on, get up. Good boy, you're not supposed to be on the bed. Good boy, aren't you? Go out and shoot. So, how has it been making the bed? Because I kind of missed it. Okay. It was... Did you put the roll-up edges towards the edges? Because it looks like there's a bump on this side. Yeah. Right there. There's a drop-down, that's where the pillow's gone. The pillow's gone that side, isn't it? Yeah, the problem is the roll is there, so that's higher. So we've either got to put that in the middle there. Right. I thought the roll went on the edge. And then do what in the middle? Okay. Alright, we'll try it like that then. At the moment. And then we'll put the pillows there. I see what you're thinking. The roll's going to go there. Yeah. So. And then, yeah, you're a puppy. That's my space. I did not put that there for you. So, anyway, two quick things. The first is I'm going to turn down the temperature to 18, 21, 22, 23. There we go, that's on there. And the second thing is I'm going to turn the water tank pump off, which I've just done. Yep. And then, oh, awning light is now off. Yes. Light, oh, no, we don't do that. And they're all off. You need to tell me what the voltage is. That's exactly what I was going to do. How do I do that? Just press the up arrow? Yep. Yeah. Hang on, let me do that. There we go. So that's, it's at 12.2 volts. Okay, so that's 12.2 volts. It was at 12, it's gone from 12.5. So we came back from our walk at about half nine. And it's now half eleven. So two hours, it's gone down 0.1. And we've had lights on heating on and the fridge, no, the fridge is on gas, isn't it? There's no hot water on, but it's just been lights and heating. It hasn't really gone down much. in the morning whether or not we get through. Now what we haven't done is we've been charging. No, that's true. Nothing's on charge at all, is it? But, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how the leisure battery does. Let's just go through the rest while we're here so we can see what there is. Leisure battery amps at 0.9 on one amp. We're on leisure battery. The internal temperature is apparently 27. I'm not sure I believe that. Waste levels at 12 percent. Our water levels at 81 percent. Which means it'll start at 86, doesn't it? And that's the time. OK. So. Evening of entertaining. You spent pretty much an entire day in the van. Where you at? What are your thoughts? I love it. It's spacious. We've had four people in and it did not feel as overcrowded. No, it hasn't felt overcrowded once. It's really fascinating given it's a metre and a half shorter. It's two metres short. I tell you what I love. I love how much storage there is. I think I've said that about 17 times so far with my dog or a cat. There's not much else to say. Yeah. The bed's my biggest deal breaker. I've always had an issue with a bench seat going into a bed because I don't see how it can possibly be comfortable. We'll find out. We're about to find out for tonight. Alright. And then the battery. The problem with this van is there's only a dedicated space for one battery. I would change that cupboard for a battery box in the cupboard for a second battery. Yeah, because we use two ledger batteries. There is a solar panel but obviously I'm not going to do much in the middle of the night. There is a solar panel. I've got to say it's using barely no electricity. No. To last how long it's lasted the heating vehicle in winter it would choose a battery. Well, so far it hasn't. Yeah, but it's not really on. It has been. It was up at 22. Was it? Yeah, because I turned it off I was cold. Oh, OK. So it's been on properly for about 22 for about 3 hours. So it's not really done much. We'll see in the morning. Awesome. Alright. OK, well we will speak in the morning and I'll show us how the night was. Night night. Good morning. You're alive. We are alive. We survived. We survived without cramps. We did. It was surprisingly comfortable. How did you find it? I thought it was great. It was really really good. I always thought the cushion would be really annoying. We rearranged them 3 times didn't we to get rid of that. No, we got it right first time. We got it right first time. We knew exactly what was going on. and piecemealed it and then we remembered that there was an infobit in the wardrobe and we thought why have they provided that and then we realised that made a lot more sense. It makes perfect sense. And it made the bed flat. Yes. So I'll show you at some point exactly what we did to make it work. But it was really comfy. Yes. Surprisingly comfy. I don't have a mug holder. So I made one with a chopping board on the seat. But there was no where to put my morning mug of coffee. Which is a bit sad. What else do we think? what else I found out is that the van doesn't shake. Our van, if you move around it shakes. You can feel it if I've got stabilising legs. But this one doesn't at all. Surprisingly stable. It's blowing again. It's not really. It is. You've not been outside I have. It's blowing again. For the benefit of camera I did the puppy walk in the morning. It's not my day to do the puppy walk today. It's a Saturday and I get a light. Yeah, it doesn't move. You don't need legs on this. We haven't even got it on shots have we? We did back it up onto a bit of a grassy mound to make it travel. A grassy mound. What a grassy mound. You will need chocks for the kind of stuff that we've put. But you won't need hydraulic legs because the weight that that would add to the van would put you over the payload. We're wanting the van light enough that we can put all our kit in sort ourselves out and go around the way we do at the moment without worrying about oh my word we've just got ten bottles in the van. Yes, we don't have to weigh everything we've got. Now, we made a big fuss yesterday about how much electric heating we've used and whether or not we'd have any battery power in the morning. So, do you want to... Dun, dun, dun. Dun, dun. On the fly. This is 12.7 volts. So the reason why we're at 12.7 volts is daytime. Oh, the solar panel is doing its job. The solar panel is doing its job. Which is great. Didn't we start at 12.3? Didn't we start at 12.3? Now, what it doesn't give you which hours does is it doesn't tell you how many amps you'll get from the solar panel. But that's quite good. So we did a night. We had the heating on all night. The heating's on right now. It's on timer doing its... And it's got hot water going as well. And it's got hot water going as well. And we've got more power now than we did before, which is good. Has there been anything over the past let's round up and call it 24 hours that we haven't been able to do that we can do in our van? Yes. What? Charge your laptop. Because the power pack is in our van and we didn't bring it. But aside from that we brought an inverter that clips onto the leisure battery. But we've got to lift it up what we should have done. We weren't sure on the battery power so we didn't want to use that. I'm flattered. Because I haven't used my laptop yet. So we need to do that while we're driving. OK. So we'll go back to charging. So we can use the inverter when we're driving. Yes. And not use it when we're stopped. Yes. It will choose. That makes sense. So we can do that on the road today. But I don't think of anything else. And we've still got a ridiculous amount of storage space. Incredible amount of storage space. I don't understand it. The only thing we're missing right now is a little office area. I'm not the one on the phone. So. I'm quite impressed. I thought this was going to be really uncomfortable. I don't know why. I've always had this no, I want a proper picture. No. I actually wasn't that bad. I've heard this for many, many years. You were the same. But also, I quite like the bed being low. Yes, I love the bed being low. Why? Because it's a pain in the bum to get an eye out of the bed I nearly broke my neck many, many times trying to get an eye out. And I wasn't worried about him falling off my bed. I never worry about him falling off the bed. I am. He's robust. No, he's not that robust. And he likes to roll around in his sleep and I've always liked him to roll around. And obviously he's relaxed. Yes, he's quite calm. Don't worry Bailey, he's on our sheet. Yes. He's all good, he's all good. And no point has the puppy touched the clock. No, there's only tiny, tiny little things. Like the cup holders. I'm not sure. We're getting really nippy. Yes, I was just going to say you're really going to Well that's beautiful. We could do a little drop down. Knees, I see you bug me. So, on our cupboards, they're fine to lift up but on our cupboards when you shut them they shut automatically. And on these you have to push the button. Are you proud I'm doing this without looking? I know. You have to push the button. You switch the light on four times but it's fine. So that is the silly little niggly thing but it's just not what we're used to. But I'm sure by the end of the weekend we'll all be used to it. It doesn't bother me. I just keep forgetting when we set off things flying around. Right, I think we're done. Okay, I think we're good. Okay then. Excellent. We're chasing every moment of the good night. We're always looking out and it's a good life. We go around the world for a shout.