Drive It! The Complete Book of Motor-Caravanning 0854292373, 9780854292370

Citation preview

RIVEIT! ‘01 nplete Book of

_ltems should be returned . to the library from which they were borrowed on or before thedate stamped above unless a_ renewal has been granted.

Ba Gloucestershire County

Library

The Complete Book of

MOTOR: CARAVANNING

ISBN

O 85429

237

3

First published March 1979

© Chris Park All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holder

A FOULIS Motoring Book Published by

The Haynes Publishing Group Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7JJ England Distributed in North America by Haynes Publications Inc 861 Lawrence Drive, Newbury Park, California 91320 USA

' Editor: John Rose Layout design: Robson Designs Dust jacket design: Phill Jennings . Printed and bound by: Haynes Publishing Group

TEEN The Complete Book of

MOTORCARAVANNING Chris Park

_gOtBTERGy,ay rs

“ome 196 14 Efe us ony Sie & nny use

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Contents

Three-way DIY

106

10

The sites scene

12

Ze

How to begin

122

The clubs

134

On the road for business and pleasure

136

Motor caravanning around the world

146

Index

150

Preface

What’s

it all about

?

The base vehicles

A look at the market

I

34

A look

at the market

I

54

A look

at the market

Il

82

om Systems INS Ge dm GI QS

and equipment

86

Ial @ 6@ 12

Preface

»

Camping, trailer caravanning, motor caravanning ... what's the difference?

Despite its title, this book covers a lot of ground common to all forms of caravanning. It has to, because motor caravanning as a popular pastime cannot be practised in isolation, and consequently cannot be written about in

isolation. The get-away-from-it-all aspect has been plugged far too often. If you want to be a lone wolf intent on minimising contacts with your fellow men and women, a motor caravan can help, but you would be able to do your

wolfing much better on your own two feet with a tiny tent on your back. The majority of people are not quite so anti-social, preferring to do their camping or caravanning on what are known as organised sites, and are quite keen to take their home comforts with them. Unfortunately, in Britain the law and the non-camping public have got their knickers in a twist over these sites; elsewhere the nations that embrace camping wholeheartedly seem to have got it right without too much difficulty. The remainder of Europe is happy to use ‘camping’ as an international word, and when they do, they really mean ‘camping and caravanning’, or perhaps | should say ‘tenting and caravanning’. So do the Americans when they call their sites ‘campgrounds’. The joke is that the art of camping for its own sake is rarely, if ever, practised on these camping places, wherever they happen to be. Their transient occupants are really engaged in providing their own independent but temporary dwelling ina place they happen to like, or that happens to be along the route they are taking to some place they like, or where there are things to do they like. By providing their own accommodation they can live more cheaply or more luxuriously than they otherwise could sheltering under someone else’s roof; they can come and go as they like, eat and sleep when they like. Mostly they are motorised: some live happily in tents, some in trailers that open out into tents, some in trailers that open out into caravans, some in rigid trailer caravans, some in caravans built on to or adapted from motor vehicles of some sort, hence ‘motor caravan’. All these are simply tools, the choice of which to some extent influences the way things are done, but all their users are doing much the same thing. In this country, stupid law-making, snobbery and the activities of the various clubs involved tend to create divisions, but the whole business of genuinely mobile living is indivisible, its keenest exponents often progressing through the complete range of tools on offer from tents to the most sophisticated motor-homes;

some

do it the other way

round,

and very

many

trailer caravanners

use

add-on

tents

which

are

euphemistically called ‘awnings’. The emergence of new tools, say balloon, aircraft or hovercraft caravans would not alter the basic concept in any way, although the first two would certainly make site-finding easier when near enough to home in on one visually! Camping (there does not seem to be a better blanket word) is essentially a family exercise. Noise, litter and

vandalism are about as usual on camp sites as willing smiles accompanying the service in packed hotels. Believe it or not, most camp sites are relatively monastic places where the people sleep soundly at night unless disturbed by the insistent beat of a band somewhere trying to give package tourists their frenzied money's worth.

A high proportion of regular campers use their mobile accommodation to engage in other pastimes — fishing, * boating, skin-diving, gliding, show jumping, motor racing, walking, climbing, cycling etc. Its use for business purposes is still small but growing fast. So camping is not necessarily a pastime in itself, embracing as it does so many different activities, and the part of camping this book is concerned with, motor caravanning, is itself difficult to pin down as a

+

Compact luxury, the coachbuilt Bedford based Autosleeper

single, accurately defined entity. | myself am a compulsive wanderer and camping provides the mobility of accommodation | need, motor caravanning in particular giving the maximum

mobility and flexibility of all the different

forms of camping. In order to paint as complete a picture as possible of what motor caravanning is all about, | have felt it necessary to include a good deal of material describing the hardware that makes it all possible. The motor caravans currently available are an incredibly varied bunch, fascinating in themselves. Some models (and some makers) have a very short production life, never really getting beyond the prototype stage, others undergo frequent detail changes, while some seem to go on virtually unchanged for ever. The latter, however, are in the minority and so keeping all the information up to date is impossible. Fortunately for me, the overall scene changes very slowly and some aspects change hardly at

all. But even after more than a quarter of a century of active caravanning and writing about caravanning | cannot profess to know absolutely all the answers, and consequently must thank here those people who have helped to provide some of them; in particular, John Page, of Godfrey Davis Caravans, as representative of those enthusiasts who know about motor caravanning from both sides of the counter and are a rare asset both to the industry and its

potential customers. My hope is that, with the aid of this book, you will be able to enter this whole new world forewarned and forearmed against the pitfalls that abound. You may not manage to dodge round all of them but, if the bug bites deeply, these will not stop you from taking a road you will be compelled to follow for the rest of your active life. If you do not want to get hooked, don’t take the risk. If you do, read on!

What's it all about? too much early beginnings fashion could open the floodgates Should be fun the tax galore conversions up go roofs the usage alter can types choice? - demountable doubts forward the coachbuilts back to the car man cometh

second strings

cruisavan shake-up?

2

Choosing a motor caravan should be fun, and using it even more so. A methodical approach need do nothing to diminish the enjoyment and will ensure that the fun of using it survives beyond the first, too often transient, excitement accompanying the acquisition of a new toy. You may very well argue that you are not in the market for a toy. At this stage, however, you probably do not know quite what you are in the market for. Both breadth of choice and the possible variations in usage are quite enormous. So for a start let’s take a general look at the whole business, kicking off with some of the attendant folk lore, then homing in on the particular, the vehicles that make it all possible. In company with a whole army of sceptical caravanners, | once scoffed at the findings of one Dr Stephen Black, a psychologist whose researches included one that claimed to have probed the subconscious minds of a group of ordinary motorists. He was not the first man to point out that the motor car was popular because it served as an extension of the home. His researches, however, prompted him to advance a theory that went very much further. He claimed that his probings of the motorist’s subconscious showed that, deep down, the average car owner wanted his car to offer him much more than just the armchair comfort and privacy of his own drawing room. What he really desired was a vehicle that could provide all the functions of his static home, one in which he could eat, sleep, make love, talk, read, laze, listen to the radio, watch TV and so on. Such a hypothesis clearly suggests that virtually every motorist should be in the market for a motor caravan. The fact that he is not and most likely never will be does not necessarily prove that Dr Black got it all wrong. That’s what | think now, at any rate, mainly because of what has

happened to trailer caravanning in recent years. Relatively a short time ago the majority of drivers would hold up their hands in horror at the very thought of towing a mobile country cottage behind them, and were ever ready to designate as dangerous lunatics the people who pioneered the art of towing. Then, the sight of a caravan being towed was a rare one, and no one could have foreseen for sure that they would now form a high proportion of the traffic which flows along the holiday routes for most of the summer. So it can be said that there are already very many motorists yielding to the demands of their subconscious, doing it in the way that apparently makes most sense to them, towing a vehicle in which they can eat, sleep, make love, talk, read etc. There is another, very powerful reason why so many are doing it the way they are. Subconscious desires need some sort of really strong external stimulus to bring them to the surface, and there’s nothing more powerful than fashion. Trailer caravans are currently fashionable, and many of them are sold by the ‘van next door. The motor

caravanning explosion will arrive just as soon as it becomes fashionable to own one. The current signs are that this will not be long delayed, no longer than it takes for the country’s economic position to brighten sufficiently. The environmentalists will be sure to give it a shove when they finally begin to realize that, in a tight little island, a onepiece caravan outfit makes a whole lot better sense than a two-piece one, both on the road and on site. Our chronic

10

land shortage is sure to perpetuate the present shortage of sites and a nation wide conversion from trailer to motor caravanning would double the number of places where caravans could rest almost overnight. This will never happen completely, as each type of leisure vehicle will always have its own strong devotees. . Future trends, however, are likely to bring the position here closer to that in the USA where motorhomes are on about equal terms with trailers. Already, some British company executives opt for motor caravans instead of company

The intermediate types can double as a somewhat bulky estate car

cars, and anyone taking up the pastime now stands a good chance of being numbered among the trend setters when the snowball of fashion really begins to grow. As the word ‘pastime’ has just been allowed to creep in again, those are completely on the outside looking in, are probably getting a little tired is and how it can introduce you to a new pastime. Going back in time, the name of the game we are talking about was connected with what goes on at modern camp sites; essentially existence

of you who might still be feeling that you of wondering what a motor caravan actually

camping, a leisure pursuit only vaguely under canvas, it was outdoor living for its

own sake and without the mobility that is now essential to most of us. With the dawning of the age of mass motoring, ownership of a car and a tent introduced easy mobility and a measure of comfort into life on the sites in existence at the time. Trailer caravans then came on the scene to reduce the former and increase the latter. Finally the motor caravan brought back ease of mobility with scarcely any loss of comfort. Better described by the lengthier term ‘motorised caravan’, this ultimate in leisure vehicles is just what it says, a caravan-type living unit with its own engine and transmission like any other motor vehicle. Its size and degree of > camping/picnicking car; intermediate types make comfortable touring holiday homes and double as somewhat heavy sophistication are immensely variable. The smallest and simplest form can be more accurately termeda

11

The bigger models are suitable for year-round living

and bulky private estate cars; the bigger models amply justify being described as motorhomes. They are suitable for year-round living and in ultimate guise offer more luxury than brick-and-mortar equivalents.

In some ways the budding motor caravanner is faced with too much choice. The various types and sizes tend to be duplicated by an industry made up of a large number of small firms and there are always enough models (at least a hundred) on offer to utterly bewilder the beginner and often to puzzle even the oldest hand in the game. But the choice is there because the demand, however small it may be, is there, and the leisure user should not imagine that he is the

only one knocking on the makers’ doors. Workers who need to be constantly mobile, professional sportsmen and entertainers, outfits like the Grand Prix motor racing teams; all these are confirmed motor caravan users. The confusion often arises because so many different firms merely dabble by putting out details of prototypes that never get into production. This makes it difficult for any market survey to be completely accurate and the industry is notorious for the way customers’ enquiries are ignored. Perhaps it would be truer to say that this is a characteristic only of firms who are on the fringe, the main producers being far more conscious of the importance of promoting good relations with potential buyers. When it finally comes to deciding what to buy, money is for most people the overall limiting factor. What you can

afford, or are prepared to afford, serves as a very sobering influence when considering the more intoxicating

12

‘ possibilities. The next most important consideration is the type of usage envisaged. So it should be said here that the vehicle you decide to buy can determine to a considerable extent how you will use it. |do not want to cloud the issue

The Dormobile Roma, ingenious but too cramped

tax and escape being linked with the residential image that has nothing whatever to do with mobile caravanning. In

the event, the tax advantage endured until the April Budget of

1975 when the industry was kicked sharply in the teeth

by the Chancellor at a time when it was still reeling from the effects of the fuel crisis. Since then buyers have been

slowly digesting the tax-inflated prices, there has been a considerable shake-out of the weaker producers and everything now seems set for a period of stable expansion in a climate more realistic than at any previous time in

motor caravanning history. In the early days many of the base vehicles available were far from ideal for the job. A mid-sixties commentary in Modern Caravan magazine (now Caravanning Monthly) had this to say: ‘Motor caravans are not difficult to drive once users are familiar with their special characteristics. Usually the driving position is in front of a near vertical steering column above the off-side wheel, the view of the road ahead is high and wide, but full use must be made of the rear view mirrors. It is all too easy to forget the extra length and in doing so cut corners. Lower geared than a car, these vehicles have an average cruising speed of 55 mph. Controls are often spartan, and mechanically there is much to be

desired. Often, engine power is inadequate, pedals are too sharply angled for comfortable operation, the handbrake is little more than a legal fiction, the steering is both heavy and imprecise and roadholding is poor. There is clearly a need for greater engine power, more servo-assisted brakes and steering, improved suspension to obviate front end pitching and soundproofing to reduce engine noise.’ There is no denying that the present generation of base vehicles still exhibits some of the same undesirable characteristics, but fortunately greater engine power, better brakes, steering and suspension have all materialised to a greater or lesser degree, so have less spartan cab conditions. Welcome newcomers to the scene by the end of the sixties were the Ford Transit and Bedford CF vans, and more recently Leyland’s Sherpa and Toyota's Hi-Ace. Still soldiering on under the Dodge badge, the Commer of those days is the only one to survive virtually unchanged except for a modest increase in engine size and a very recent facelift improving both cab appearance and comfort. The rearengined Volkswagen has changed only a little more than the Dodge, but VW have a much more modern foothold in the market with the front-engined LT (light truck) which looks like becoming very popular with converters. Almost from the very beginning, brave attempts were made to make motor caravans out of Minis and other somewhat bigger but still car-sized vehicles. Dormobile used the Bedford Beagle (a van version of the HA Vauxhall Viva) to produce the Roma, adding both the well-tried rising roof and a somewhat similar hinged-out extension at the

15

The bigger models are suitable for year-round living

and bulky private estate cars; the bigger models amply justify being described as motorhomes. They are suitable for year-round living and in ultimate guise offer more luxury than brick-and-mortar equivalents. In some ways the budding motor caravanner is faced with too much choice. The various types and sizes tend to be duplicated by an industry made up of a large number of small firms and there are always enough models (at least a hundred) on offer to utterly bewilder the beginner and often to puzzle even the oldest hand in the game. But the choice

is there because the demand, however small it may be, is there, and the leisure user should not imagine that he is the only one knocking on the makers’ doors. Workers who need to be constantly mobile, professional sportsmen and entertainers, outfits like the Grand Prix motor racing teams; all these are confirmed motor caravan users. The confusion often arises because so many different firms merely dabble by putting out details of prototypes that never get into production. This makes it difficult for any market survey to be completely accurate and the industry is notorious for the way customers’ enquiries are ignored. Perhaps it would be truer to say that this is a characteristic only of firms who are on the fringe, the main producers being far more conscious of the importance of promoting good relations with potential buyers. When it finally comes to deciding what to buy, money is for most people the overall limiting factor. What you can afford, or are prepared to afford, serves as a very sobering influence when considering the more intoxicating

12

possibilities. The next most important consideration is the type of usage envisaged. So it should be said here that the vehicle you decide to buy can determine to a considerable extent how you will use it. |do not want to cloud the issue

The Dormobile Roma, ingenious but too cramped

tax and escape being linked with the residential image that has nothing whatever to do with mobile caravanning. In the event, the tax advantage endured until the April Budget of 1975 when the industry was kicked sharply in the teeth by the Chancellor at a time when it was still reeling from the effects of the fuel crisis. Since then buyers have been slowly digesting the tax-inflated prices, there has been a considerable shake-out of the weaker producers and everything now seems set for a period of stable expansion in a climate more realistic than at any previous time in motor caravanning history. In the early days many of the base vehicles available were far from ideal for the job. A mid-sixties commentary in Modern Caravan magazine (now Caravanning Monthly) had this to say: ‘Motor caravans are not difficult to drive once users are familiar with their special characteristics. Usually the driving position is in front of a near vertical steering column above the off-side wheel, the view of the road ahead is high and wide, but full use must be made of the rear view mirrors. It is all too easy to forget the extra length and in doing so cut corners. Lower geared than a car, these vehicles have an average cruising speed of 55 mph. Controls are often spartan, and mechanically there is much to be desired. Often, engine power is inadequate, pedals are too sharply angled for comfortable operation, the handbrake is little more than a legal fiction, the steering is both heavy and imprecise and roadholding is poor. There is clearly a need for greater engine power, more servo-assisted brakes and steering, improved suspension to obviate front end pitching and soundproofing to reduce engine noise.’ There is no denying that the present generation of base vehicles still exhibits some of the same undesirable characteristics, but fortunately greater engine power, better brakes, steering and suspension have all materialised to a greater or lesser degree, so have less spartan cab conditions. Welcome newcomers to the scene by the end of the sixties were the Ford Transit and Bedford CF vans, and more recently Leyland’s Sherpa and Toyota's Hi-Ace. Still soldiering on under the Dodge badge, the Commer of those days is the only one to survive virtually unchanged except

for a modest increase in engine size and a very recent facelift improving both cab appearance and comfort. The rear-

engined Volkswagen has changed only a little more than the Dodge, but VW have a much more modern foothold in the market with the front-engined LT (light truck) which looks like becoming very popular with converters. Almost from the very beginning, brave attempts were made to make motor caravans out of Minis and other somewhat bigger but still car-sized vehicles. Dormobile used the Bedford Beagle (a van version of the HA Vauxhall Viva) to produce the Roma, adding both the well-tried rising roof and a somewhat similar hinged-out extension at the

15

A SuntTor estate caravan beside a Welsh lake. Although more of a camping/picnic car than a family motor caravan, it still enables you to take both cooker and kitchen sink with you

rear to provide additional sleeping space. The same firm did the same thing on the Ford Escort and called it the Elba; Canterbury also had a go with this base, naming it the Siesta, a model which is still in production in Mark IV guise. But, strangely enough, one of the industry's success stories began with the conversion of the old, car-sized BMC half-ton van into what the converter called an ‘estate caravan’. This happened down in the Devon village of Torrington where a firm called Torcars somehow managed to succeed where many others had failed. Part of the secret of the SunTor, as the conversion was named, was the way the built-in furniture was kept low enough to keep all the normal height windows unobstructed, thus preserving the all-round visibility of a typical estate car. When in due course, the Leyland Marina van replaced the old half-ton A60, the SunTor was sufficiently well established for the transfer from one to the other to take place painlessly and, in the process, give the model an increased appeal. The SunTor Marina and its similarly car-sized competitors can be truly claimed to be dual or multi-purpose vehicles, entirely satisfactory as an ordinary estate car and able to serve reasonably well as a somewhat cramped caravan for two and as an excellent picnic car for four. Designers faced with converting the normal run of bigger and better (caravan-wise) base vehicles will always be hamstrung by the need to pursue the dual purpose idea, and will always be aware at the back of their minds that they are inevitably going to be faced with an end product that can never be wholly successful as a good car or a good caravan.

16

Happier is the man whose job it is to design a single purpose unit, especially now that the expense of converting an existing van is almost as much as when starting from scratch with a chassis cab and building a roomier, betterinsulated, more satisfactory all-round living unit on it. My own feeling is that more and more recruits to motor caravanning will be attracted to the true motorhome despite the problems posed by its unwieldy dimensions on the road and in the car parks. ; . Whether the latest coachbuilt type to arrive on the European scene will ever have a wide appeal seems doubtful. This is the ‘demountable’, known in North America as the pick-up camper. In the USA there are more pick-ups in use than any other single type of privately owned vehicle. These are easily converted into motor caravans by loading onto

Some American motorhome owners en route for a long holiday at one site tow their car behind them

their backs the necessary living units. There is a strong parallel in principle here with the car and trailer caravan: separate units which are combined on the road and separated on site. In the absence of an overwhelming population of pick-ups, the demountable is being offered in Britain as the answer to what is often alleged to be the greatest drawback of the motor caravan when compared with its towed rival. A great deal is often made of the need to uproot a motor caravan from its site just to carry out a minor errand like getting the morning paper or the milk. The ability to demount the living unit does overcome this, but many users will tend to think that the chore of demounting is an even greater nuisance. American motorhome owners en route for a long stay at their holiday destination sometimes tow a car or carry a motorcycle on their bumpers so that they have a runabout available when the motorhome is all set up on site. On this side of the Atlantic a bicycle is occasionally carried to serve the same purpose; another alternative is for one member of the party to travel separately by car so as to provide more carrying capacity as well as independent transport. These

expedients are totally unnecessary when touring intensively, staying only for one night at the majority of stopping places.

17

Motor caravans and cruising vans are based on the same vehicle. This Toyota Hi-Ace ‘cruisavan’ should give motor caravan designers points on brightening up a rather staid image

Another recent import from the US is the design for a vehicle that is very much the son of the motorist’s dreamwagon according to Dr Black. The private car possessing all the comforts of home has arrived in the shape of the

‘cruising van’. This is not quite a motor caravan, or is it? Almost all the essentials are there, lacking are side windows and sufficient headroom to enable the occupants to stand up. Arriving at a time when motor caravan design is ¥ showing clear signs of stagnation, the cruising van must have some influence on furniture styling and interior decor

18

generally. A sportier image can do no harm, and let it come soon.

i @i

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prbrdhad.’

ESD

DWE

:

LWA Cc

=




*

a

feet long with trailer-type

no bigger overall than many van conversions yet able to include two double beds and a shower/toilet compartment. There are three seats in the cab, perhaps to offset the absence of forward-facing seats but at the expense of losing the walk-through, not quite so vital when the entrance door is so close to the cab. The bigger models are built on Ford,

Bedford and the VW LT35 chassis, the one on the latter being nearly 20 feet long and 7 feet 6 inches wide. Not many of these will be sold unless the oil revenues make us all very rich. The smaller Fords and Bedfords are already popular and are likely to remain so if the prices stay competitive with those of some of the pricier van conversions. All models

have hot and cold water on tap, toilet/shower, oven cooker, fridge (12V/gas/240V), underfloor fresh and waste water tanks. One unusual option is the fitting of the trailer-type corner steadies, obviously useful when the rear overhang is

62

substantial although | am quite sure that some Advanturas thus equipped will be driven off site with the steadies still lowered, even if the very necessary warning light is fitted and functioning.

~

Autosleepers, after many fruitful years building successful conversions, carried on with essentially the same layout when designing their first-ever coachbuilt

Autos/eeper In view of the company’s remarkable record in keeping its enviable reputation unblemished in the van conversions field, it was not entirely unexpected when the first ever coachbuilt Autosleeper turned out to be exceptional in all respects. Cleverly styled externally and claimed to be a wind-cheating shape, the original quite harmonious and tasteful interior decor has been refined since and shows how a simple box can be transformed into a habitat that guarantees luxurious living and is constantly a delight to the eye. Autosleepers say that it is so well

equipped that no extras are available or necessary. The specification includes a flued water heater supplying hot water to shower, handbasin and sink, full oven cooker, 2 cubic feet gas/mains/12V fridge, flued convector space heating, flushing loo, vented locker for two 10 Ib gas bottles, cocktail cabinet, crockery and glassware for four people, five

63

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