Are all caravans the same?

[volvoturboman]

Having recently bought our first tourer (well my second but only had the first for one summer years ago) and getting away we've fallen in love with the freedom caravaning gives and the ability to take our personal space with us. We love it, the kids love it and having had friends visit while we were away they love it too. So much so one couple we are friends with are on the market for a van and the other couple we are friends with just invested in their first van.

My wonderment is this though, are all caravans made in the same factory? Random question I know and I know of course they are not but our 1999 Lunar Solar 5 berth is fairly much a mirror image of the 1993 Swift Challenger our friends bought. Albeit with a different finish. Even though ours is 5 berth and theirs is 4 it's still the same bar being a little shorter. How do competitor firms manage to produce identical products? Does it not hinder competition?

 

[Martin24]

The majority of running gear, safety and security equipment is the same whatever the brand of van. There are few differences in toilets, heating, water and cooking equipment a limited choice of brands for manufacturers to choose from. The same goes for roof lights and windows. Wiring systems and battery charging again a limited number of products to choose from.

In modern vans the main differences are the construction methods and the interior and exterior cladding. All the manufacturers seem to follow a general what is in vogue for upholstery and cabinetry so they're all going to be similar. Some layouts come and go, some slightly different ones filtering in now and again but in the main it's the tried and tested layouts that stay. In other words the ones that sell best.

The problems that occur are normally damp related or panel cracking common to all manufacturers unfortunately and if, for example, there's a faulty batch of fridges about it could affect any manufacturer.

Equipment levels change across the ranges as with most things but that's about it. Sorry to be unable to come up with something really different for you.

 

[volvoturboman]

That kind of does answer my question and thank you. So said manufacturer goes to equipment suppliers and so on and assembles the vans how they think they'll sell best. A bit like the Ford/VW thing with the old Galaxy/Sharan I assume.