Rear bumper on caravan

[Alex_374296729]

All the caravan mags review the interior of vans. However am amazed that they never review the exterior, unlike car reviews. If you look or touch the rear of your van, around the light cluster you will find the plastic to be extremely weak. A heavy duty plastic would be more substantial and the light clusters more robust. It would not add much to the weight either.

Why are the rear ends of such poor quality and not reviewed?

 

[emmerson2]

I'll review the rear ends for you. Can I start with Felicity Kendall and Joanna Lumley?

 

[Ewan_5130997]

Hi Alex

I know what you mean. Last year I accidently reversed into a post. A piece of the rear panel, underneath where it fixes to the frame, snapped off due to it being so soft. I ended up having to replace the whole panel at a cost of

 

[mcghee]

Showing your age emmerson, Felicity Kendal? Old enough to be my Granny.

 

[Geordie]

once upon a time she won rear of the year !

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

I think Felicity's bottom will need delaminating now but I bet Joanna's is good for a few more miles :O)

 

[emmerson2]

Don't know about that LB, they're both in our age group now! herself takes a magazine called "Yours" which has a pic of F.K on the front, and she still looks good to me!Macghee, if your granny looks like her, I'll be happy to review her rear end too!.Sorry Alex, I'm sure yours was aseious post, but I just couldn't resist it!

 

[BrianStAlbans]

What is wrong with you guys? Everything has to end up as a smut.

I thought Alex's post was interesting as it would be good to know what rear would be on say an Elddis..

Hang on ..

be on say...

be on say....

Ahh Beyonce

Now there's a nice ar$e

Brian ;O)

 

[chrisn7]

Hi Alex

Now that the fantasies are fading, back to your point! I noticed that Hymer (I think) have what appear sto be a separate substantial moulding round the rear corners, which I guess makes minor repairs a lot easier.

Why not make the lower section of the front and rear panels separate at bumper level to reduce repair costs?

 

[Robert_374242026]

A reasonable comment Alex, only thing is that on our Coachman 460/2 i can only put in 24 KLG now so making caravans stronger has many knock on effects .

 

[Alex_374296729]

That's an interesting point. I did see a motorhome, think it was a Hymer and it had a box section iron bar across the back end, similar to a tow bar. Even if the rear bumper were built in sections it would be cheaper to replace.

Even if a car behind nudged the bumper you may not feel it in your car yet, the effect could ruin your holiday and no claims. I do feel that magazines and caravan clubs and manufacturers owe us an explanation.

 

[Garfield]

Anneka Rice, need a 4x4 for that one

 

[Lutz]

Making the rear bumpers of caravans more substantial is measure of rather questionable benefit. Firstly, it would undoubtedly add to weight, something which is always critical in the case of caravans. Secondly, due to the otherwise lightweight design of caravan bodies, a more substantial bumper would have to be mounted directly to the caravan chassis, preferably with an energy absorbing interface (resulting in significant additional cost). Otherwise, the bumper, while itself remaining intact, would, on impact, just wreck the rest of the back of the caravan. The cost of repair could then be even higher than it is today with the current rather flimsy designs.

The solution is therefore to design the bumper in such a way that it can be replaced easily and cheaply, rather than making it any stronger.