In another topic "no interest in Teardrops", a member mentioned that he had saved the chassis and some equipment from an older caravan and was going to use this to build his own caravan.
Now that got me to thinking about how that would work and would roughly the same rules apply as they do in building a customised car?
IE, would the chassis have to be replated because the weights etc had changed from the original van to the new one?
Who would you take it to to have it replated?
Would the new laws regarding reverse/braked wheels apply to the new build or would the law accept that the chassis/brakes being from an older van would still be okay today?
Me thinks that building a customised caravan may be a minefield especially when it came to insuring it.
I would imagine an email to VOSA would be the first step.
I know that when you build a kit car you can get a manual off them with all the regulations required to get it through the SVA (single vehicle approval)
I assume there is similar legislation for trailers/caravans etc.
The chassis should have a maximum loading stamped into it somewhere. I would expect any caravan chassis that did not have auto-reverse brakes to be well rusty & not ideal to start to build on.
Plenty of cheap galvanized chassis's for sale.
Keeping the weight down could well be an issue though, Extra little bits here and there would soon add up.
How would you test the structural rigidity after you built it? Take it up the motorway with your fingers crossed or find someone with a wind tunnel?
Quote: Originally posted by Ulti-Mates on 27/6/2009
Hi, You can build your own trailer so as long as the van is roadworthy I would think that no "official" intervention would be required. Mr UM
The problems would be when it came to insuring it.
A plain trailer would only need some sort of third party insurance but if someone were to build a customised caravan and put many thousands of pounds and a great deal of work into it, it would have to be properly insured.
Now while I have seen books on building or converting a commercial van into a motorhome and these books cover all the pitfalls of insurance and what steps one must take to insure that the vehicle remains structurally sound, I have never come across anything similar for constructing your own caravan.
However, I am slightly surprised that more folks do not go down this route especially as there is such a diverse opinion as to what different folks want in their ideal layout of a caravan.
Perhaps someday caravan manufacturers will be forced to admit that different people require different requirements and they should be designing vans that can be changed around to suit the individual requirements of their customers. It is either that or more and more people are going to start building their own vans.
you! lol All jokeing aside i can not understand why people are negative what you need to realise is they are across between trailer tent and caravan but cheaper and lighter!
there is nothing to stop you making your van. you dont need insurance its a caravan nomally get third party with your car ins. not even difficult these days with sandwich board sheets available . all the aluminium trim bits are available via truck box manufacturers. as the other person was on about a teardrop there are other shapes you can make. mine was built about 25/30yrs ago and looks like a busmar sidecar ,and was pulled around europe behind a m,cyclen sidecar. later a trike. then a vw t2, twice across the sahara and down to gambia n back. great peice of kit every one should have one
If i had the time and the money i'd lov to build a one off caravan , i'd have expanding sides or something wacky like 2 hexagon shape pods mounted to the chassis one bedroom / bathroom and one lounge / kitchen .
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Topic: Building your own Caravan.
