Next Generation Caravan

Oct 22, 2008
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Hi everyone

some of you may or may not remember but a while ago a posted a topic asking for you views on current caravan design problems and what could be done to improve the humble caravan. This was to aid me in my final university project which i am pleased to say i have completed. I thought i would come back on the forum and show you what i have proposed for a caravan to be brought up to date.

My design is inspired by airstreams and 50s style, highlighted by the whitewall tyres and wheel covers, and the sleek airstream form and aluminium band and dark windows. I aimed to design something that would stand out from the crowd of plain boring white boxes that fill today's caravan parks and recapture some of the individuality that was about when caravanning first began. But I didn't want to design something that would not resemble a caravan at all and alienate potential buyers. The interior is modern and sophisticated and miles away from the poor quality chipboard filled spaces found in many of today's popular caravans. The bedroom is located above the main living area which is provided by the electronically operated pop up roof, access to this bedroom space is provided via the movable ladder at the end of the kitchen area. There is a comfortable sized bathroom and a clean kitchen with fold out breakfast bar area. In the main living area there is a sofa which also doubles as a bed with a second slide out mattress and stackable chairs provide more seating options. Additional space is provided via the fold down rear panel which gives a decking area which can b used as both an inside and outside space. The caravan is constructed from a lightweight GRP foam core sandwich body which sits on top of a steel tubular chassis. This eradicates current problems caused by leaks damaging plywood floors and walls found in today's caravans.

here are some images of my final design, i hope you like the idea and i would love to hear any feedback that you guys may have. (hopefully the images will work!)

exterior4.jpg


interior1.jpg


exterior1.jpg


exterior2.jpg


cutaway.jpg


bathroom1.jpg


Cheers

rob









 
Jun 20, 2005
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Hi Rob

Excellent mate . The thought of a double decker has always appealed to me. The last one was carefully rebuilt a while back and featured on the Caravan Show on TV. Now I'm dying to see your pics but they wont open. If it's me , then sorry now.

Perhaps Mr Mods can help here?

Cheers

Dustydog
 
G

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Four caravanners here looking at your pictures (2nd one, Interior, does not work)and they are very pretty.

Designer and Practical may not go hand in hand though. As I hate Airstreams it was not a good start for me. My brother thinks you've captured the idea about leaks and bits dropping off caravans but have not exactly gone for the future.

Tubular Chassis, wasted. Carbon or composite chassis come one piece floor pan with built in water and wasts tanks and motor drive option would have been more of a future proposal with axle/wheels and A frame bolted on. Getting the floor as low to the grond as possible would have been a better idea as a starting point.

Your design looks pretty but from our engineering and caravanners point of view it could be a pig to tow. The bed in the roof is a nice idea, but how about the weight up their? People would want storage space and that also means weight. So would it tend to go topsy turvy and I for one wouldn't want to face an Atlantic wind on site up there in that bedroom. We all think it would get blown over!

I and plenty of others like to be able to look out around my field with nice big panoramic views so where are all the big windows?

The curvy shape and sloped back don't lend themselves to a spacy feeling and good storage.

A bonded seamles GRP Sandwich core seamless body would delight many Leaky Lunar owners and others, but what about the sealing of the pop top. Even the most modern seals would probably leak and with time they would be guaranteed to leak.

Then there's the motor drive for the pop top and the mechanism, when we pull up at Baie de la Somme or Watford Gap services for a break how much space is available with the top down.

With eletric drive to the pop top how does that work? Screw assembly and electric and hydraulic pumps to the corners tend to jam unless you have an expensive system where even speed and drive is applied at the same time. If it's not clever it jams up and then it would be real fun to tow.

Designer Rob we think your design is pretty but that the engineers would rip it apart and users would be worried about how practical it was. Current box designs may not be that pretty but most work and are practical.

Caravans have to offer value for money for most buyers, having seen the ugly new
 
Mar 14, 2009
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Can anyone tell me why Caravans have to be built like see-saws, with wheels in the middle? Wouldn't it be practical to have a wheel at each corner with the front wheels steered by the towbar?

This would seem to solve the stability problems and allow lighter cars to tow heavier vans. It would also make the van less liable to suffer from problems with overloaded wheels and tyres, and reduce loss of space caused by central wheel arches.

Dave C
 
Nov 29, 2007
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Having seen the problems some people have trying to reverse a mid axle van I hate to think what would happen if they had to reverse a van with a steering front axle!
 
Feb 16, 2009
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Maybe l am slow to change but if anyone can say the Airstream is a good looking van and a design we should follow, Lord help us.

Might be an American icon but when did they ever designed anything that is suitable for UK roads.

White wall tyres, ruddy eche! first bad rain fall, mud slutch, bang goes white wall tyres to an off white grey.

l can see the advantages of a full sealed roof but not something that resembles a tear drop, why cant we adapt it to our designs cant be that difficult.

Concept designs are good if you can get something from them and introduce into present day manufacturing.

What we should be doing is improving the reliability of the designs we have, after all we all seem to approve of looks of them.

Finally cant remember which personnel of PC bought the airstream,( might answer to the name of Mark) he must be on a good salary to pay 30k + for bunch of aluminium rivets, come on we are the worlds best caravaners we have good product lets improve it , then we maybe able to export like we have always done.

NigelH
 
Mar 10, 2006
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Rob

I like your colour scheme. But don't approve of grp or abs, carbon fibre would be stronger and lighter?

The popup roof is normally associated with motor homes.

What ever the end product is, it must be water tight, moving parts will always wear.
 
Aug 4, 2004
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Now that I can see the actual design I have to say that I would feel too embarassed to be towing something like that behind my vehicle never mind parking it up on a site. It would stand out like a sore thumb and be hotter than a white caravan.

When I went to school I was taught that white reflects and black absorbs which is why caravans are white to keep them cooler! Maybe things have changed since with global warming. However all things said and done it was a good effort but far too futurustic for us.
 
Oct 22, 2008
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Hi everyone, firstly would like to thank Steve for sorting out some images that actually work! cheers!

Secondly i would like to thank everyone for their comments n crit, when i began the project i knew the caravan market is notoriously tough, and some of the comments i have had prove this! But i didnt expect everyone to like it, everyone has there own opinions on things so thats fair enough.

Euro - You have raised some very valid points, and you are very right in the respect that it is more style over substance. My course is more of a styling course so i have tried to make things look nice, while trying to get the fundamentals of it working there too. So things like it wll it be top heavy? and the feasiblity of certain mechanisms have not had as much thought put into them as perhaps they would if this project had been done by a team of people or if i was on a more engineering geared course. You raise a good point with regards to costing! It would probably cost a fortune to build and buy, but tbh i was aiming to design something that was quite upmarket. Thankyou for your comments and please feel free to add anything else!

John L - Yes it would appear that it is very much a marmite design! My original brief was to design a bespoke caravan, so something that was on the smae track as luxury yachts, so beautiful fittings and fixtures, and using 1st class materials. But as i began researching i sort of realised that maybe designing a caravan to bring caravanning up to date would be a better idea. So i wanted to design a caravan that would use modern materials and construction techniques, to try and erradicate current problems with leaking and rot. My main aim was to design something that was good to look at, caravans are so boring, they all look the same. I wanted to inject a bit of indivduality into caravanning.

cheers rob
 
Aug 13, 2007
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Just echoing Chrisbe

I can reverse an artic trailer on a 5p. Not a snowball in hells chance of reversing a steering axle trailer.

I had to disconect and push the trailer nose first :eek:(
 

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