Some years after converting my first caravan to a motorcycle trailer, my wife said to me "why don't you get a bigger caravan and then I could stay with you at the rallies?" And so the search for a suitable caravan commenced.
The first problem was to find one with the right configuration to enable it to be converted. It must have access at the back (no kitchen etc. in the way) and it must have enough space between the seats to accommodate the width of the scooter. So we started going around caravan sales sites with a tape measure to find the right one.
Eventually we found this lovely Elddis Tornado and what luxury. Central heating, a shower, hot and cold water and a proper cooker. The top plan shows it in the day configuration and the lower plan with the two double beds set up.
Now although this caravan has a shower/toilet at the back, I could see that I could still get a bike in at the side of it and then roll it forward until the bike was over the axle, to distribute the weight.
The caravan sales site was asking too much money for the Elddis Tornado, but at least I now knew which model I needed. So I went back to the Internet and found this one, at the right price, on Ebay. I went to Leicester to fetch it and the man who owned it seemed to be appalled when I told him that I intended to cut it up. Never the less, he sold it to me and I towed it home.
The next step was to take it to my friends workshop for the conversion. Colin of Unit Two Services, at Ilkeston, Derbyshire, was fantastic when it came to working out how to do the conversion and I cannot claim the credit for the actual metalwork which he manufactured for me.
The first job was to remove the rear bottom panel that contained the
rear lights and number plate etc. Once removed, I had to strip out all
of the furniture in the rear of the caravan. This exposed the water
pipes for the shower, which would have to be re-routed down through the
floorboards and under the caravan to give a clear path in for the bike.
The next job was the most frightening. It was time to cut the big hole in the back. The size of it was measured and marked on the back with a felt tip pen and then Colin set about it with a jigsaw. There was no going back now!
The section that had been cut out was saved to be used later as the door and the next stage was to strengthen the hole to give the caravan back its rigidity. Now I had learnt for my first caravan conversion that steel frames were too heavy and the rear door on my old van really took some lifting. So this one was to be all aluminium. Colin made a frame to sandwich the rear wall inside and out in the shape of a "U" and then welded all corners to make it one solid frame. It was then drilled all around and small tubes were inserted through the rear wall, in the drilled holes, to prevent the rear wall squashing as the fixing screws are tightened. As you may know, caravan walls have a thin aluminium inner and outer skin with only polystyrene between them.
Some pre-painted aluminium was bought and used to replace the rear bottom fibreglass panel that had been removed. These are the panels that you can see in blue on the photo. The blue colour is a protective film that will be removed later.
More of this new aluminium was used to make the bottom of the door and a matching aluminium frame was made and fitted around the door using the same method. This frame was also welded on all four corners to give the door rigidity. The door frame was designed to fit inside the wall frame with a rubber seal between the two to make it weather tight. This obviously required reducing the overall size of the door to accommodate the thickness of the two frames.
The door was then hung in place with a heavy duty stainless steel piano hinge. Well there it is in place, but there was lots more to do.
I found some German door catches on the Internet that not only turned to lock the door but also pulled the door in as you fold the handle down, sealing the door against the rubber seal.
Two additional "hook-over" fasteners were also added to the bottom of the door to pull the bottom edge in against the seal, when closed.
The trim strips and warning triangles could then be added.
Next it was time to look at the internal furniture. I wanted the original furniture to go back in but be removable, so that when the caravan was back in "living mode" you could not tell that it had been modified. The first task was the draws and storage area under the back seat.
Firstly I removed the draws and made a new cabinet to fit around them. Then with those in place I cut the kick board in half vertically to fill the gap to the left of the draws. I then hinged and fixed the half kick board to the underside of the seat base.
The seat base was then modified to drop on to side supports and lift out when needed.
Now came the really hard bit. The small corner seat needed to fold up against the wall but also down and open to twice its width to support the bed when in use. Also its kick board needed to fold away to make room for the bike to pass by.
On this photo you can see the small corner seat after modification in the folded position. You can also see the next stage: Floor strengthening.
As you may be aware caravan floors are made up of a thin plywood top, then 50mm (2") of polystyrene, and then another thing plywood layer. All of these layers are bonded together and form a good solid floor, but not strong enough to take a motorcycle or scooter. The decision was made to cover the floor, inside the caravan with galvanised sheet steel with a small chequer-plate area at the entrance to give grip as the bike comes up the ramp.
A ramp was then made from chequer-plate and a carrier made to hold the ramp under the caravan. This carrier is very clever as it runs the length of the caravan and provides strengthening to the underside of the caravan floor and is bolted through to the top interior steel plates.
On this photo you can see the small seat in its down position and the full view of the ramp.
Another thing that you can now see are the new rear light clusters. These were originally for trailers but fit nicely on the corners of the caravan so that no wires need to go onto the opening door.
You can also spot that the original window blind has now been fitted back onto the door.
Another small addition, that's hard to spot, is the rain channel that has been added over the door, just to add a little more weather protection.
Now, at last, I can try the scooter inside the caravan and see how it fits. Brilliant!
The next addition was four hitching points mounted in the floor, to fasten the scooter down. These stainless steel plates were cut into the floor and bolted through to large support plates on the underside of the caravan, sandwiching the floor between them. I also made some stainless steel cover plates to drop into them when they are not in use, so that my wife's high heels do not drop into them.
The final touch was to cover the steel floor with vinyl floor covering.
These pictures were taken after the conversion and show the caravan in living-mode with a virtually invisible conversion from the inside.
Well there it is the final completed conversion project. Not only did this caravan prove excellent for rallies, my wife and I found that we actually enjoyed caravanning and took it away on several holidays. Very handy when you can also take a motorcycle or scooter.
To prove it, here it is at St. Ives in Cornwall, and what a view!
It was during the use of this caravan that I finally decided that the scooter was finished and that I needed another project. So I bought a
1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket to renovate.
So this created a new challenge. How to get two bikes to the same show and still stay overnight? And that takes us to the next project and a change of direction in the next episode.
You can contact me on hopcroftscoot@gmail.com
Copyright 26.01.18 all rights reserved.
My Other Blogs:
1961 BSA A10 Super Rocket Motorcycle:
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/before.html
1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html
Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide
1971 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible Car:
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.htm
So taking the biggest part of the bed first, two vertical runners were made, using Unistrut. Plates were welded to the Unistrut for fixing it to the trailer wall and 5mm thick strips of steel were slid inside the runners. The bed was to be fixed to the sliding strips of steel and the bottom section of the sliding steel strip would form the back legs for the bed.
Now the frame could be made for the bed itself and bolted to the two hinge plates. Steel plates were then made, that the bed frame could hook over at the top, when folded away. You will note the holes in the steel frame to try and save as much weight as possible. The front legs were then fitted to the frame. These were made of angle-iron and pivot at the top to fold away.
Now to stop the pillows falling off the end of the bed, I made a headboard out of 12mm ply and hinged it to the wooden bottom base, so that it could fold under the mattress when packed away. As a final touch, I added a hinged "U" section of aluminium to hold the headboard vertical when in use.
