Small caravan box by Tom

[ipy]

Hi there.

My name is Tom and I write from Poland, so please forgive me my poor English.

I am a newbie in the subject of caravans and never had one. Last summer I started thinking about buying a second hand, small caravan but gave up as offers were not attractive to my eye. I wanted something else than I saw for sale- something smaller, that would fit in a small area by my house.

Small caravans are not popular in Poland and when I found information about teardrops (just by chance, on YouTube), I fell in love.

Wanted to build one by myself, but soon I realized that because of Polish regulations I would experience troubles with using homemade trailer on public roads, without having it legalized, which would cost a lot.

So someone in a vehicle inspection station suggested me building a kind of a box that would perfectly fit inside an ordinary utility trailer but still would be easy to lift up and put by the side. Just something being transported on a trailer.

That was the beginning. I ordered a trailer, measured it and knowing its dimensions, designed my 'camping trailer box'.

Main goals were: small, strongly built yet possibly lighweight, nicely insulated. Had to be large enough for me and my wife sleeping in main room plus our 5yr old daughter in another room. Sitting and dining area inside. Small storage space. Kitchen outdoors just like in teardrops, an option for bathroom in the back. So I made a plan and it looks like on the pictures attached.

Interior view shows child's room (yellow), kitchen unit (red) and bed/ coach (orange).

Next time I will tell you about the progress of my work.

[rowerwet]

Looks interesting, too bad you have to go to all that trouble to avoid useless regulations.
Good luck

[dales133]

Welcome again Tom looks great, your fitting alot in there!

[KCStudly]

Welcome to the forum. Your English translation is very good, so nothing to apologize for there.

I like the graphics and your renderings are very nice.

Does the red kitchen slide out? If so, it looks like it would have to be slid out in order to sleep in the main area. Maybe it would be better to put it to the front and have the kids bunk above your legs?

[Shadow Catcher]

Welcome to the forum and I would hope you will share your camping experience once you are finished.
Using an existing utility or salvaged caravan frame to get around EU regulations is something a number of others have done.
How you build and what you build it of is dependent on what is available. To put it simply you are building an aircraft not a tank. You can build light weight yet strong.
Ours used very light weight aluminum for the cabin frame 1" X 1.5" by .60" aluminum tube. The roof is strong enough to stand on. I will be following your build.

[ipy]

Hello. Last time I showed you my plans of a small caravan. Actually, I started building it using non-traditional materials: thin OSB as a floor with insulation panels between OSB and a trailer`s floor. Caravan`s structure is made from impregnated wood about 1 x 2 inch in size which I am very familiar with (a lot of work around house) and I appreciate its strength and resistance against moisture and wet rot.

Yes, the wood is heavy but I could not resist it. Still, I am happy with weight of my caravan, at the moment.

When I started my work about one month ago, I was working outside, in the place where the trailer will stand. But after 2 weeks it started to rain so I moved the structure to my garage on a wheeled construction. Since then, I work in a garage.

This time I will show you the progress that has been done before moving caravan to the garage.

As you can see, the bottom OSB plate is framed with the wood. Walls go 1 foot up and then there is another wood, outside. To this piece of wood there is attached the upper part of a caravan- wider than the lower part. This is because the lower part goes into the trailer and the upper is over boards so I needed extra width so that the rain would go outside the trailer rather than flow down on the floor.

The material I use for walls is something called MFP board. I am not sure if you know it. It is more durable and water resistant than OSB, but a bit heavier. To keep the weight down, I cut a lot of holes out and have an intention to create an outer shell with PVC panels.

Next part of the story soon, my friends.

[dales133]

Looks great, keep up the good work.
I realy like the shape

[noseoil]

Nice build! It looks like you're making good progress & have good ideas. Looks like your daughter & her small friend are enjoying it too. Nice pictures to show the way things are going together, I like the simplicity of the design and the lines.

[ipy]

When the caravan landed in my garage, I needed some time for it to dry. Then I realized that the roof construction bent down a bit. MFP boards on the top were originally supported underneath by pieces of wood installed horizontally (flat on their wider edges), between walls. So I had to change my construction and prepare new roof supports, longer, installed vertically, at the top of walls. This way caravan got 2 inch higher and slanted part of the roof become longer.

Now the roof does not tend to bend and I hope it will not in the future.

A couple of words about planned kitchen: at the moment I think it will be a kind of a box inside my camper, accessible from outside. When I open a hatch on a right hand wall down, it becomes a table and opens the inner kitchen space with a sink and shelves with kitchen equipment.

Last picture shows internal structure of the caravan, looking from rear. Yellow rectangle is a kid`s room at the front, red is a kitchen box. Hatch open down. Blue circles under the seat/ bed are planned water tanks.

[KCStudly]

I'm sure you are thinking about this and are looking for privacy between the sleeping quarters, but I am curious if you will you have two separate roof vents? How do you plan to vent the kid's bedroom?

Very important in these small water/airtight spaces.

[ipy]

There will be two windows made by popular Polish camper factory, Niewiadow: one in the front wall, which will overlook external world from child`s room and another one which will be on left wall, opposite to a day seat. Both windows can be open.

Moreover, there will be a large window in roof, with a constant air circulation system, it also can be wide open.

Below child`s room, on the front wall there will be 4 vents, always open. I plan that one of them will be connected with a child`s room.

I do not plan to build child room airtight, so door will allow air to circulate.

There are pictures showing current view of a front wall and a roof window. I will tell more about them later.

[KCStudly]

[Sheddie]

Hi Tom, welcome from New Zealand.
That is a nice job you are doing, and it is always interesting to see the different design ideas people have.
I do not know a lot about your country, so I will follow your build with interest. By following these builds it is surprising what you can learn about the differences and similarities of other parts of the world.

[ipy]

Poland is a very beautiful country and we hope to have a good fun visiting its part with over 1000 of lakes, Polish mountains and a seaside. Baltic sea is not too warm, but in summer it is quite pleasant. We also plan just to rest in a forest, enjoy the beauty of nature.

And now another part of my caravan`s story.

When the chassis was ready, I protected its edges from water by applying 3 coats of outdoor acrylic paint. Especially this egde that makes extra width, looking from bottom. When it dried, I filled holes in lower part with polystyrene foam and finished both sides and a front of a lower part with a radiator insulation foil. This is supposed to protect MFP from water and give the first stage of insulation. I let foil go a bit deeper than the level of the OSB as between OSB and trailer`s floor there will be a polystyrene foam insulation.

Insulation foil is not a durable material but this part of a caravan will be placed inside trailer boards and it seems to be a good solution. Vertical edges of a lower part will be finished with aluminium profiles so to stabilize the box and protect it from moving inside boards.

[Sheddie]

Poland is a very beautiful country and we hope to have a good fun visiting its part with over 1000 of lakes, Polish mountains and a seaside. Baltic sea is not too warm, but in summer it is quite pleasant. We also plan just to rest in a forest, enjoy the beauty of nature.

It sounds like you have a lot of camping opportunities to look forward to and I imagine that you can't wait to get the build finished so that you can go and enjoy them.