10,000 mile Caravan Challenge

[ProfJohnL]

Thursday 4th Jan 2018 23:45 to 0:45, BBC 4 has just shown a programme that has been on before called Caravan's: A British Love Affair.

Just after the second world war, an ex naval mechanic by the name of Sam Alper, started to produce a caravans for about £200 whilst other makes were in teh order of £350 to £400. His vision was to bring caravanning to the masses.

At the time his products were viewed as cheap and therefore inferior, so to prove the pundits wrong he set him self a challenge to prove his Sprite products were as good if not better than his more expensive competitors.

He decided to take one of his caravans on a 10,000 mile trip around southern Europe and North Africa. I presume he completed it successfully. I don't know what his success criteria were, so I have no idea of what parts may have failed or dropped of, but it has made me wonder how many of todays UK caravans could repeat that same feat.

Any manufacturers or Caravan Journalists up to repeat the challenge?

 

[otherclive]

Thursday 4th Jan 2018 23:45 to 0:45, BBC 4 has just shown a programme that has been on before called Caravan's: A British Love Affair.

Just after the second world war, an ex naval mechanic by the name of Sam Alper, started to produce a caravans for about £200 whilst other makes were in teh order of £350 to £400. His vision was to bring caravanning to the masses.

At the time his products were viewed as cheap and therefore inferior, so to prove the pundits wrong he set him self a challenge to prove his Sprite products were as good if not better than his more expensive competitors.

He decided to take one of his caravans on a 10,000 mile trip around southern Europe and North Africa. I presume he completed it successfully. I don't know what his success criteria were, so I have no idea of what parts may have failed or dropped of, but it has made me wonder how many of todays UK caravans could repeat that same feat.

Any manufacturers or Caravan Journalists up to repeat the challenge?

I guess that he took it to Southern Europe and North Africa to keep the weight constant given the dryer conditions down there. Better take mine down there too!

 

[Gafferbill]

The statistics for my 1995 Swift Challenger 440Se may be of interest as a long term test..........

Bought new from a dealer for £9500 in 1995.
Only ever towed by me.
Only ever maintained by me.
Covered 84886 miles.
Slept in for 1150 nights

Parts replaced..............
Hitch head hydraulic damper.
One set of brake shoes.
One set of wheel bearings at 60000miles ( precautionary maintenance)
Flame guard in Carver gas fire. (rust and age damage)
Power supply unit.
Sink taps replaced in both sinks.
Shower hose replaced
Several Whale water pumps over the years.
12 volt switch on refrigerator.
Hinges on wardrobe replaced.
Some fly screens renewed.
Roof vent replaced (went brittle with age)
Under slung copper gas pipe fractured due to poor fitting of gas fire allowing movement.
Gas hoses, regulators and tyres replaced as required.

Caravan in regular use and hopefully about to embark on a 2850 mile tow to southern Spain

 

[otherclive]

The statistics for my 1995 Swift Challenger 440Se may be of interest as a long term test..........

Bought new from a dealer for £9500 in 1995.
Only ever towed by me.
Only ever maintained by me.
Covered 84886 miles.
Slept in for 1150 nights

Parts replaced..............
Hitch head hydraulic damper.
One set of brake shoes.
One set of wheel bearings at 60000miles ( precautionary maintenance)
Flame guard in Carver gas fire. (rust and age damage)
Power supply unit.
Sink taps replaced in both sinks.
Shower hose replaced
Several Whale water pumps over the years.
12 volt switch on refrigerator.
Hinges on wardrobe replaced.
Some fly screens renewed.
Roof vent replaced (went brittle with age)
Under slung copper gas pipe fractured due to poor fitting of gas fire allowing movement.
Gas hoses, regulators and tyres replaced as required.

Caravan in regular use and hopefully about to embark on a 2850 mile tow to southern Spain

That's a very good performance, but has their been any damp, or seals/joints replaced in that time?

 

[Gafferbill]

My wife has kept a caravan diary from new....... my post lists all work that has ever been carried out.
There is no damp and all seals/joints are original.

 

[otherclive]

My wife has kept a caravan diary from new....... my post lists all work that has ever been carried out.
There is no damp and all seals/joints are original.

That shows that good quality can be achieved.

 

[Raywood]

We kept our Coachman Mirage for over 10 years and the total mileage it covered both here and in Europe must have been well in excess of 20,000 miles although we did not keep records. The only failures were the water pumps which failed regularly. We also lost a table top when a JCB pulled out in front of us in France and the heavy braking caused the sink cover to fly off and through the table top which in those days was stored on the floor. We have now learned to remove sink covers when travelling.
It does show that if they get it right at the factory caravans can last but sadly standards seem to have dropped since then.

 

[Craigyoung]

I think as long as you look after stuff & maintain it , things should last a long time I had a car that was over 13 years old but was still like showroom condition because it was well looked after and when I came to sell it it was sold within 2 weeks privately ! Our Bailey that we got rid of this year was over three years old but went in like new because it was well looked after !

 

[otherclive]

I think as long as you look after stuff & maintain it , things should last a long time I had a car that was over 13 years old but was still like showroom condition because it was well looked after and when I came to sell it it was sold within 2 weeks privately ! Our Bailey that we got rid of this year was over three years old but went in like new because it was well looked after !

I’d agree with you in most respects but there are some things that are out of our hands, although regular servicing inspections can reduce their impact. My last Bailey had to have a new front end followed by a new rear end in years 2 and 3. It was the services that spotted the cracks which were so small I hadn’t seen them when cleaning it. But servicing didn’t stop them happening.

 

[Craigyoung]

Thursday 4th Jan 2018 23:45 to 0:45, BBC 4 has just shown a programme that has been on before called Caravan's: A British Love Affair.

Just after the second world war, an ex naval mechanic by the name of Sam Alper, started to produce a caravans for about £200 whilst other makes were in teh order of £350 to £400. His vision was to bring caravanning to the masses.

Prof ,
I have just watched the above program on BBC iPlayer , very interesting , I even had to rewind it a bit when someone getting interviewed was called Professor John... I thought it might off been you in until I realised it was a different surname !!
P.s nothing wrong with the Sprites !!!

 

[LeicesterLad]

We purchased one of the last Newmarket produced CI brand Eccles Elites at the '95 show, so good we kept it five years, couldn't replace with another as Swift had IMO ruined the product.
Happy caravanning.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Thank you for the replies so far,

The challenge was not to see how far a caravan would travel in its life time, but would it survive a very long overland trip over many unmade roads in a single trip. I believe he did it in 33 days? :woohoo:

I do wonder if any modern caravan straight of the production line with no special preparation , could survive the same trip. To day, we have much heavier caravans, with far more equipment, and different construction techniques.

And Craig my Nom-de- plume on this site does not reflect my surname, so I shall leave you guessing - no I won't - it wasn't me.

 

[Jaydug]

P.s nothing wrong with the Sprites !!!

Certainly not! We bought a Sprite Musketeer new in 1966 and kept it for 17 years until we sold it to some local people who used it for more years as an extra bedroom along side their house. In those days damp didn't seem to be a problem otherwise the white painted hardboard lining would very quickly have shown up any leakage.

Yes! I remember the long distance tows that Sam Alper did. In the '60 he also had one of his van hitched to an E-type Jag and towed around an airfield and achieved something like 120mph.

 

[SamandRose]

He decided to take one of his caravans on a 10,000 mile trip around southern Europe and North Africa. I presume he completed it successfully. I don't know what his success criteria were, so I have no idea of what parts may have failed or dropped of, but it has made me wonder how many of todays UK caravans could repeat that same feat.

Any manufacturers or Caravan Journalists up to repeat the challenge?

That's something that I'd love to volunteer for! :cheer:

Get me a Swift Sprite - which, incidentally, I'm sure Sam Alper would hate because it's not basic or low-cost - and any suitable car and let me see if I can break it towing it across Europe and North Africa for a month, and I promise to write about it all with loving care.

How about it, PC magazine?

 

[Gafferbill]

Bailey have done some testing..........See Here

These videos whilst a deviation from the Prof's topic are nonetheless entertaining...........

https://youtu.be/vO72mVDliIA
https://youtu.be/KFj58fOlV7k
https://youtu.be/vHjWmKITwtA

 

[RayS]

My first caravan was a 1957 Sprite Alpine otr £317. For it's time a brilliant design. Sprite also had a big sort of fixed bed model at the time, sort of, ax the whole fixed bed folded up into a wall.
I seem to remember that in addition to the long rage exploit mentioned Alper also held the world land speed record with a Sprite towed by a Jensen Interceptor at around 125 mph
Perhpas still does, does anyone know ?
By happy coincidence my current Coachman was bought last year within a few days of the 50th anniversary of my first purchase.

 

[Anseo]

Interesting trial of Bailey Australia, I enjoyed it.

I did not spend any time analysing the vans, but twin rail chassis and leaf sprung suspension were noted, not sure if the specification of the Aussie Bailey's has any relevance to us here and in most of Europe.

Seemed like a good test for the less serious outbackers, but in fairness these Baileys are not pretending to be for that purpose.

No sign of rain or midges, OH Well, horses for courses

 

[Craigyoung]

My first caravan was a 1957 Sprite Alpine otr £317. For it's time a brilliant design. Sprite also had a big sort of fixed bed model at the time, sort of, ax the whole fixed bed folded up into a wall.
I seem to remember that in addition to the long rage exploit mentioned Alper also held the world land speed record with a Sprite towed by a Jensen Interceptor at around 125 mph
Perhpas still does, does anyone know ?
By happy coincidence my current Coachman was bought last year within a few days of the 50th anniversary of my first purchase.

Well I must admit we only started caravaning 5 years ago so our first one was a lot more than £317.oo !! Even with today technology in the cars compared to in the olden days I must admit I've had to do about 80 once and that was no holding back to catch a ferry from France a few years ago but now we'll be lucky if I go over 65 !! honestly I am not a speeder

Craig .

 

[otherclive]

My first caravan was a 1957 Sprite Alpine otr £317. For it's time a brilliant design. Sprite also had a big sort of fixed bed model at the time, sort of, ax the whole fixed bed folded up into a wall.
I seem to remember that in addition to the long rage exploit mentioned Alper also held the world land speed record with a Sprite towed by a Jensen Interceptor at around 125 mph
Perhpas still does, does anyone know ?
By happy coincidence my current Coachman was bought last year within a few days of the 50th anniversary of my first purchase.

Well I must admit we only started caravaning 5 years ago so our first one was a lot more than £317.oo !! Even with today technology in the cars compared to in the olden days I must admit I've had to do about 80 once and that was no holding back to catch a ferry from France a few years ago but now we'll be lucky if I go over 65 !! honestly I am not a speeder

Craig .[/quote

Well I guess if that’s kph it is okay !!

 

[DrZhivago]

I seem to remember that in addition to the long rage exploit mentioned Alper also held the world land speed record with a Sprite towed by a Jensen Interceptor at around 125 mph
Perhpas still does, does anyone know ?

I knew that a Dodge Viper with a 8.3 litre V10 petengine took the record at 127mph about 10 years ago. But Googling just now comes up with a later record of almost 142mph towed by a GMC 2500HD pick-up truck. Don't be misled by the name - it's not a 2500 cc engine, it had a 8.1 litre V8 diesel. The caravan was a Carson Kalispell, quite small.

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/fastest-caravan-tow
https://www.caravantalk.co.uk/caravan-videos/misc-videos/fastest-caravan-in-the-world
One of the limitations of these records seems to be the caravan's windows blowing out. They are not allowed to modify the caravan for the record run, except the tyres.

 

[Craigyoung]

Clive , it was not kph either which would work out at 49mph !
It was only after losing nearly 2 hours stuck at Rouen in France 3 years ago when the tunnel by pass was shut to fire damage and everyone was diverting around the River, absolute chaos , we got to the ferry within 25 minutes of boarding !!

 

[GwaneTIme]

Damn, Sam Alper had a great motivation, for him to move so many people after him. For some reason, his challenge reminded me of Rebecca Zamolo (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeLur4zw9Yh_HEaqu08W7_uTOMtpjKfEs) , a cute girl that does interesting videos on YouTube, all of them also challenges. I like to watch her in my spare time and when I want to take a break from work.

 

[otherclive]

The posting that is the subject of spamming has been removed, along with the quote that was here.

This is not caravan related I think its spamming :evil:

 

[GlenMoore]

It will be interesting to repeat this challenge, although I don't know what's so challenging about it if you sit all the 10000 miles in the car. I don't even consider a challenge, it's a trip. This summer, I traveled with my caravan almost 5000 miles through Europe and I would have traveled 5000 miles more if only I had the time. My kids didn't even feel the distance or the time passing as they were watching their Youtube challenges playlist (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeLur4zw9Yh_HEaqu08W7_uTOMtpjKfEs). How do you think, how much time do you need for traveling these 10000 miles? Can you cover them in one month and still enjoy the trip? I'm thinking about a trip to Africa in the future with the caravan also.