As you can gather from our previous blog post, ‘Can you stand on a caravan roof to clean it?’, there are many different opinions within the caravanning community. Some people believe it to be perfectly safe to walk on your caravan roof. In contrast, others believe it to be hazardous. There may be times when you might consider standing or walking on your caravan to carry out various tasks such as cleaning the roof or removing any branches that may have fallen on top of your caravan. But what about Bailey caravans? Many caravan users often argue that due to the quality of the Bailey caravans, they are safe to walk on.
This only applies to the Baily Alu-Tech caravans. These caravans have been built with a robust bodyshell construction. This means that the roof of this caravan can safely hold a lot more weight than other caravans as it features an interlocking aluminium framework that works to clamp the body panels together, creating much more robust construction. It is important to know that only the Bailey Alu-Tech caravan has been built to hold this weight, and standing or walking on the roofs of other caravans is not safe and can lead to serious injury. In the blog post, I will be looking into the Bailey caravans in more detail to determine if the roof of these caravans can really take the weight of someone walking on it.
This blog post will cover the following:
Bailey Alu-Tech
To understand what makes the Bailey Alu-Tech caravan roofs suitable to walk on, it’s essential to look at the construction of these particular caravans. The Alu-Tech caravans have been created with an exterior shell that is much more robust and durable than Bailey’s previous models. What makes this design so robust is the reduction in the number of external joints and fixing points and the use of timber-free components in the upper bodyshell panels of the caravans. These caravans are also known for their thick and well-insulated panels that have been covered with glass reinforced plastic. Not only do these features make the roof suitable to stand and walk on, but it also offers excellent weather protection and improves the thermal performance of this caravan’s body shell, allowing you to use it all year round.
The Bailey Alu-Tech caravans are some of the best-engineered vehicles on the market due to how technically advanced their design is. One of the reasons why the Bailey Alu-Tech caravans are so widely trusted when it comes to standing don’t her roof is their approach to publicising the strength of their Alu-Tech designs. When promoting their Alu-Tech caravans, Bailey uploaded a video onto their website that showed how they tested the strength of the Alu-Tech design. First, they got an entire team of staff to stand and sit on the caravan’s roof. This didn’t affect the caravan, as it safely held its weight. Next, they put a Ford Mondeo Estate on the roof to further test the caravan’s strength, and again, the caravan remained unaffected by the weight. This is why these caravans are trusted by so many.
Non-Alu-Tech Caravans
As explained at the start of this blog post, many caravan users are against standing on their caravan roofs. This is where it can become quite dangerous as these caravans have not been built to handle the weight on their roof and, therefore, can cause a lot of damage to the caravan, as well as injury to yourself. This is because, despite Bailey claiming that their Alu-Tech caravans are safe to stand on, several caravan users have used their experiment to justify standing on their Bailey caravan that does not have the Alu-Tech design, and in some cases, they believe is it safe to stand on a caravan that is not even a Bailey model.
To gain more insight into the discussion around standing on a Bailey caravan’s roof, I posted on the Practical Caravan forum to ask users if it was safe to stand or walk on the roof of their caravan. User ‘ProfJohnL’ said:
“Not all caravans are Bailey’s, and not all caravans are built the same way. It is not advisable to stand on a caravan roof; it might damage the roof, but there is also the risk of slipping and falling off, an even greater risk if you are using cleaning products.”
I also looked at what caravan users on other forums had to say about standing and walking on a Bailey Caravan roof. On the Caravan Talk forum, user ‘Bob from Dunstable’ said:
“If your caravan is pre-Alutech and definitely (IMHO) you should not walk on the roof. Damage to mastic seals and even the roof panels is possible. I would not walk on the roof of an Alutech either, for that matter.”
This shows that some users don’t think standing on the roof of your caravan is a good idea, even if you have the Bailey Alu-Tech model, as it is always best to stay safe and not risk getting any injury.
Conclusion
After doing some research into Bailey caravans, what the Alu-Tech models have to offer, as well as the opinions and experiences of caravan users from online forums, it is clear that there is a considerable difference in opinion when it comes to the idea of standing and walking on your caravan’s roof. For most people, you should only stand or walk on the roof of your caravan if the manufacturer has said it is safe to do so, for example, the Bailey Alu-Tech caravans. Other people believe that even if the manufacturer has said it is safe to stand on your roof, you should avoid doing so.
Both of these arguments seem valid, and therefore, you should consider your own situation when standing or walking on the roof of your caravan. Firstly, you should ensure your caravan is a Bailey Alu-Tech model. Then consider the safety, is the roof of your caravan wet? If so, you could slip and fall off the roof. Standing on the roof of a caravan is not recommended for older people or anyone with mobility issues, as this can also lead to serious injury.
