Everything I read suggests these should be erected by 2 adults, but I am just one with 2 very small helpers (6 and 3 years). Would it me managable (I really love the look of these so much more than other folding caravans) or should I just suck it up and look at something more practical?
Not being the sort to 'do as I'm told', I'll attempt things like '2 people needed' erecting of a 5 berth poled tunnel tent on my own, or erecting my caravan air awning on my own, well the air awning is no great trouble, the tent is a bit hit and miss, it's a struggle at best and impossible in wind!
Looking at the video (youtube) of how a rapido confort goes up (or down for that matter!), I wouldn't expect to be able to do that solo (even with the help of your munchkins), think you would need more hands and to be in two places at once. Not much of it stays in place on it's own whilst you add the next bit, it requires the roof to be supported whilst the walls are added for one thing.
With ingenuity and maybe a few removable 'props' you possibly could develop a technique of supporting the roof whilst you pop outside to put the walls in place, but that would be a bit of a project of trial and error until you maybe succeeded or most likely failed! I'm a professional design engineer and notorious for doing or overcoming the 'impossible', but I'd look upon your quest as quite a challenge. That's a shame because it looks like quite a nice outfit, and I'm all in favour of people pushing technical boundaries.
Think you might need to get hands on with one to make the definitive decision, only you know your abilities, and the video may not tell the whole story.
Difficult question. I'm 6'4" tall and don't have 6 and 3 year olds to keep an eye on while doing it. I can put the Dandy up and down solo no problem and would assume I could manage a Rapido.
However, I'm not sure how big and strong you are and I wouldn't like to do it in wind.
IMO the hardest part is always going to be the initial unfolding of the halves (and the refolding when packing up). Once you have that sorted (and in my experience it's easy to get help on a site to do that) I think the rest is down to technique. You get a "swing" going to unfold the roof and it's fairly easy to hold it while you lift the first wall. Once you have one wall raised at each end the rest is a doddle. If you are really interested I would suggest joining the Rapido group and seeing if there is maybe someone local to you who will let you have a look.
Thank you everyone, my head is telling me to give it up now as I'm a good 6 inches less than 6 foot and middling strong at best, but my heart isn't yet convinced.
I actually hadn't even thought about putting the caravan up in the wind or rain (because it's always glorious calm sunshine and perfectly level pitches surely).
Good advice to find someone who'll let me have a look, I think that's what I need to do.
Presumably you will be buying from ebay or gumtree or similar. If so, you should be able to go and see it before bidding/buying. That should include trying to put it up and down yourself.
hi we have a rapido comfort 1979 and the floor is quite bouncy especially the part that folds over i know the floor is quite thin plywood for weight purposes is this normal we have had 2 before this and they seemed the same thank you
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Topic: Erecting rapido confort solo
