Gypsy Caravan

First Trip

2008-08-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

We took our first trip with the caravan recently. One thing I discovered is it is very hard to tow the caravan with a 4 cylinder car. We couldn't go over 55mph on level highway. I believe it is do to the large flat front of the caravan catching too much wind. The situation improved dramatically if a truck or something was in front of us to block the wind. I have ordered a wind deflector from JC Witney to try to move more air over the top of the caravan.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/WIND-DEFLECTORS/GP_2004985_N_111+10201+600001569_10101.jcw

[Update: the wind-deflector from JC Witney worked like a charm. on a test drive on a hilly highway, I was able to maintain speeds of 65 to 70 mph on all but the steeper hills which slow my car when it is not towing a trailer.]

That being said, the caravan towed really well through town.

We got to the campsite around dark. The first thing I tried was to plug the standard 110 extension cord into the power outlet. Guess what, I had a 15 amp plug and they use 30 amp plugs. A trip to Home Depot remedied that problem. Turns out only older campsites have 15 and 20 amp service. The standard for newer campgrounds is 30 to 50 amp service. I plan to order adapters so that I can hook to any service available. [Wal-Mart has RV adapters going from 50 amp to 30 amp and 30 amp to 15 amp. With the two adapters, I can hook to any available RV camp supply]

Other than those problems the trip was a success. I slept on the bed one night and a bench the other. Both slept very well. The air conditioner kept the trailer nice and frosty inside. Note, cover the air conditioner with a plastic bag when traveling as the wind will rotate the fan and cause problems. It took a few minutes for it to start working right when we arrived at the campground. Everyone at the campground was great and all had to come over and check out the caravan. Here are a few pics of the trip.

Lessons learned. We need some heavier duty folding chairs. My son broke three on the trip. Bring citronella candles. It is very nice sitting outside the back door watching TV at night without mosquitoes. Buy perishables locally as needed. Buy a camp stove. I tried cooking bacon in my Dutch oven. It worked but would be easier to just use a stove. Buy a microwave. Nice and quick for snacks or TV dinners. Buy a tent for a porta potty. Trips to the bathroom are a pain if you are parked too far away.

Finished at Last

2008-05-04T15:04:00.000-07:00

The trailer is finally finished. I added a Victorian style lock and the hanging lights. Also finished wiring up the trailer lights. Here is a tip for wiring the lights on Harbor Freight trailers. Because the trailer is bolted together an each piece is painted, there is no way to guarantee a good ground for the lights. I ran a separate ground wire for the lights and everything works correctly now. The next posts will be in a new blog all about our travels in the new caravan, Woo hoo ;)

The Porch

2008-03-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

Another good day. Managed to put the porch on today. It extends 18" off the back of the trailer and makes it much easier to get in and out of the caravan. It is bolted to the trailer using the pre-drilled holes. The light brackets are mounted to the sides of the porch. Should be finished next weekend. Then I will have to start a new blog to document our travels.

Flying Caravan

2008-03-30T07:02:00.000-07:00

Today was the big day. The day we had to mount the caravan on to the trailer. Early in the building process, we had set the caravan on to 4 round wooden fence posts so we could roll it from under the carport. We wrapped a rope around the caravan and slowly rolled it from under the carport pulling it with my car. Every few feet I would have to move a fence post from behind the caravan to the front so it would continue to have something to roll on. Once it was out from under the carport I used an engine hoist to jack up one side enough to slide a couple of tires under the caravan. Then we put the engine hoist on one side and a hydraulic jack on the other and used one of the fence posts to jack up the other end. We put one end of the trailer under the caravan and wedged a fence post between the caravan and the trailer and planned to roll the caravan onto the trailer. The trailer could actually lift one end of the caravan by pushing down on the tongue. The engine hoist was moved to the other end and we got some help from neighbors to push the caravan the rest of the way onto the trailer. The whole process was a bit scary but its done.

I bought a new trailer from Harbor Freight for the Caravan. A 1,700 lb model. My caravan is a bit heavier than normal because of the AC, bed, etc. and I thought the extra weight capacity would make it safer to pull. For some reason they designed it to have bolts sticking up on the bed so I had to add a couple of 3/4 deck boards to the trailer so the caravan would not sit on the bolt heads. You can see the deck boards in the picture. That is it for now. Off to Lowe's to get materials for a porch for the caravan.

Almost Finished

2008-03-23T15:09:00.001-07:00

Managed to get some more work done this weekend. Mounted the door and trim. The door will open 90 degrees. Glad I lowered it 1 1/2" to give it extra clearance. Found some nice Victorian hinges at antiquehardware.com. Finished attaching the bows. Currently waiting for the caulk to dry between the bows and the wall panels to paint the caulk. Once that is finished I can attach the tarp and it is ready to put on the trailer. My wife made some curtains out of the leftover material of the curtains we used on the walls. Here are some pictures of the finished interior. That is my son Gavin making the funny faces.

Windows

2008-01-27T10:06:00.000-08:00

I managed to get my windows put in. First I tried some kind of plastic glass from Home Depot. It was difficult to cut the curves so I tried a jig saw with a fine tooth metal cutting blade. It cracked. Went back to Home Depot and got a sheet of 3/16 Lexan. It cut very nicely with the jig saw. No cracking. My windows were attached with 1/2 rivets. I didn't try to pull the nail all the way through the rivet with the rivet gun as it may crack the Lexan. They were pulled snug and the nail was clipped of flush with the rivet. Hope to get through with this by May so we can get some camping done this summer. Pics to come.

The Bows

2007-08-31T06:55:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted for a while because it has just been too hot to work on the caravan. I finally gave up on the wall paper idea. Even with the flooring glue the wallpaper would not stick to the PVC wall panel. After shopping around for fabric, what we ended up doing is using some curtains from Wal-Mart. Actually looks better than the wallpaper. I'll post some pictures later. Did manage to finish the the bunk and get it painted. I have started on the bows and found that 1/4" by 1 and 1/2" pine lattice boards from Lowe's work very well. Hope to finish the bows and get the tarp on my caravan over the Labor Day weekend. More pictures shortly.

Paneling II

2007-07-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

It has been raining the last couple of weekends so we haven't done much work. The wiring is finished and the paneling is going back up. The tile glue is holding well. Much harder to get the bubbles out though, and you really need to let it set up a couple of days before installing the panels. We also bought our patio cushions at Target. They currently have a 50% off sale.

If you look at the back wall you can see where I installed a couple of scraps of plywood to cover the wiring. It also gave me a place to install the carrage lights. (Lowe's, $8.00 each) They are hooked to a dimmer switch for a more romantic mood. As romantic as you can get with two kids sleeping nearby. Anyway, that is it for today. Have to finish covering the bunk with plywood. Bet you are wondering how I'm going to get the caravan out from under the carport. I'll save that for later.

The Air Conditioner

2007-07-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

We installed the air conditioner over the weekend. Bought it from Sam's for $86. Wal-Mart has them too for $96. Had to widen the window opening about 1/2" to get it in. A piece of 3/4 plywood left over from the benches is on top along with some left over 2x2. The 3/4 plywood fits into the AC's upper mounting bracket. On the bottom I used 3/4 plywood and 2x2s. There is also a 1x4 window sill. The air conditioner's lower mounting brackets are screwed into the sill. I still need to caulk around the edges of the air conditioner to make a water-tight seal.

Two brass carriage lights will go over the top of the air conditioner. Some left over plywood will go between the king posts over and under the AC to cover the wiring of the lights and outlet for the AC. All the wiring is finished except for the 15 amp male exterior plug, the 15 amp ground fault plug, and the lights. The male plug will hook into the ground fault plug, which will act as a 15 amp circuit breaker. All other plugs are hooked in series to the ground fault plug ending with the dimmer switch for the lights. That way all the plugs and light switch are protected by the ground fault plug. The light switch gave me a fit for a few minutes. After a quick check on the Internet, I figured out how to wire it. The white wires are hooked together as are the green ground wires. The black wire hooks to the hot black wire from the previous plug and the red wire hooks to the black wire going to the lights. The yellow wire isn't used.

On the back of the AC you will notice some vented metal panels. They did not come with the AC. Nothing was covering the coils. Not the best of situations for traveling down the highway. The panels are actually vents bought from Lowe's for a couple of bucks. They measure about 17x8" and 17x4" and match the color of the AC. The two of them cover the coils of the AC. 4 screws were removed from the back of the AC cover, then the vents are slid under the air conditioner cover against the coils and attached with the screws. 4 small holes were drilled in the vents to match the original holes for the AC screws. DO NOT TRY TO DRILL NEW HOLES IN THE AC COVER TO ATTACH THE VENTS ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE COVER. You will damage the air conditioner. My wife Lisa had the idea to mount them under the cover after I learned the hard way not to drill new holes to attach the vents to the outside of the cover. This is the second AC I've installed in the caravan. The vents should protect the AC from debris and insects while traveling while providing enough ventilation so the AC works properly. Anyway, it is in. I'll finish the wiring next weekend and try to get a better picture of the vents.

The PVC panels have been removed to be recovered using tile floor cement. The other glue stuck in some places but started coming loose at the edges exposing the seams. The new glue should fix the problem.

The Paneling

2007-06-24T18:03:00.001-07:00

The bunk is finished and painted. The wiring that will be covered by the paneling is installed. I reinstalled the outlet boxes on the sides of the caravan with a longer board so the center runner can be screwed into it making it much more solid. See pic. My wife covered the PVC panels with wall paper. The panels were $15 from Lowe's. They are relatively light weight and really give a solid feel to the walls. We let the wallpaper glue dry overnight. It was still not dry since the water can't soak into the panels. I think floor adhesive might work better but we did get the panels installed without too much trouble. Only time will tell if we have to re-do the wall paper. Next weekend I hope to install the air conditioner and finish the wiring.

[UPDATE: The water based glue on the wallpaper did not adhere to the PVC panels and will have to be re-done using another adhesive. It sure did look great for a day or two though]

The Bunk II

2007-06-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

I finished bracing the bunk over the weekend. It is strong enough to support my 250 lbs without giving much. Once the plywood is installed on the bunk it will be even stronger. The center section will house a TV and DVD player. The sections on either side can be used for storage or sleeping as there is 6' of bench area available. Access to the rear most section will be through a hatch under the mattress. I plan to store stuff there that I don't need very often.

There are two outlet boxes on either side under the bunk. One will be used for an electrical outlet. The other for a dimmer switch for the lights. A piece of 1x2 hides them from view. After mounting them I realized that if I made the pieces of 1x2 a little longer, I could attach the middle 1x4 runners to it to stiffen them up. The angle of the side bunk supports is just right for this. The middle 1x4 runners bend when you put your weight on them because there is nothing supporting their 8' length, while the other two 1x4 runners are very stiff. I'll take care of that next weekend while I work on the wiring some more and figure out how to mount the air conditioner. While the build is going slowly, I like it that way as I have plenty of time to think things through.

The Bunk

2007-06-03T20:14:00.001-07:00

Finally got around to working on the bunk. Our bunk will be 4'6" wide so we can use a standard full sized futon mattress on the bunk. Prior to mounting the lower end panels, I used one as a pattern for the bunk supports. The bunk supports were shortened 3/4 to account for the thickness of the benches. 1x2 strips were attached along the upper edge of the bunk support to give me something to attach the bunk plywood to. A small piece of 3/8 plywood 2' wide covers the gap between the benches. Next I mounted the other bunk support 2' from the other. That leaves me 6' on the benches for sleeping areas. Now the caravan can sleep 6 easily. Both bunk supports were notched for the 2x2s that support the bunk. The bunk is not finished yet. I still have to add supports to the 2x2s. We couldn't resist putting the tarp on and seeing how the caravan will look covered. It actually felt much roomier inside once the cover was on.

Paint and Floor

2007-05-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

Things have been going rather slowly with the build lately. The upper rails are installed, and the caravan received a coat of primer and 2 coats of bright green paint. The interior received a coat of white. We had some leftover floor tiles from remodeling our bathroom that we decided to install. They look great and will be easier to keep clean than a painted floor.

The next step will be to install the bunk and then wall covering. I shopped for cloth but what my wife liked was $45 a yard. Just too pricey. Instead, we have decided to cover thin PVC bathroom wallboard with vinyl wall paper. The plastic should be stiff enough when installed on the caravan to eliminate the need for bows in the middle section of the caravan. Anyway, that is for the next post.

Upper End Panels

2007-05-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the caravan with the upper end panels attached. At this point, we thought it would be good to prime the whole caravan before any additional work was done because I can still get to the areas that will be under the bed easily. The bottom of the door has been cut out. I had to add some glue between the plywood panels at the base of the door so it was clamped. My door opening was lowered about 1, 1/2" in an effort to make the door open wider. Ideally the door should open at least 90 degrees before hitting the overhang of the bow top. This is a link to some Canadian friends building their own caravan. http://www.romanyrest.com/blog/

End Panels

2007-05-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

The next step is to attach the end 3/8" plywood end panels. I must say that the templates made this much easier than drawing it out by hand. I cut two panels at a time by screwing two sheets of plywood together. This made both end panels match, but if you make a mistake, you will mess up both end panels instead of just one. I chose a spot for the screws where the king posts would be screwed in to avoid having extra holes in the plywood.

My end panels were modified for the additional height of the box. Instead of having the squared off bottom of the end panel 11 1/2" high, I made it 15 1/4" high. I also decided to add an additional 3/4" so that the end panel covered the end of the sheet of plywood for the floor for a total of 16". Instead of making the bottom panel higher, I simply drew it out per the template, changed the squared off bottom from 11 1/2" to 16" high, and then lopped off a portion of the curved section to to accommodate the extra height of the box. My bottom end panel is now 3/4" higher than called for in the plans, but mounted, it is the same height. Now the end panels can be screwed and glued to the floor plywood making a very strong joint. You can see the additional screws every 6" on the bottom of the end panel. Now the end panel and upper part of the caravan cannot separate from the floor. The plywood sides make for a weaker joint than the 1x12s attached to the floor so I decided the overlap would compensate for this. As you can see, I will have to cut part of the box out that is covering the door opening.

The Benches

2007-05-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

The plans call for benches using 1x12s. I decided to use another sheet of 3/4 plywood so I could make the benches 18" deep to be more comfortable to sit on. The final depth of my benches was 18 3/4". The reason I chose 18" is because cushions are readily available for patio furniture that will fit the benches. My boys could also sleep on the benches. That is my significant other sitting on the bench before they were permanently mounted;) As you can see, the benches are much more functional and there is plenty of space between them for leg room and a walkway. The benches extend about 11" into the box. That leaves 26" for the walkway and king posts. Plenty of room;) Tim suggested adding a 1x3 along the upper edge of the box to add support for the bench so I did that before mounting the benches. The benches are screwed into the 1x3s. [Tip: Mount the end panels before the benches for a tighter joint between the end panel and the bench]

The Box

2007-05-10T21:14:00.000-07:00

The first thing I had to build was the box. The plans call for using a 3/4 sheet of plywood and a couple of 1x12s to build the box. I decided to increase the height of the sides of the box to 15 1/4" so the benches would be chair height. Instead of using 1x12s, I used another sheet of 3/4 plywood for the sides. That is my son Gavin helping to paint the bottom of the box before the other parts are attached. [Tip: Use PL Premium polyurethane construction adhesive. It is water proof, sandable, paintable, and gap filling]

The Search

2007-05-10T20:47:00.000-07:00

We haven't been on a real vacation in 20 years. My wife decided she wanted to go on vacation but I really couldn't afford it with the price of hotel rooms and all. She got the idea to buy a travel trailer but all the used travel trailers we could find in our price range were too heavy for my 4 cylinder car, which could only tow 1,500 lbs. Then she got the idea to build a trailer.

The first one we found was a survival trailer on eBay. It was built on a 6x12 landscaping trailer. Just the basics. No real interior to speak of. Bit on the ugly side too. I ordered the plans but decided to wait a while and see what else we could find.

The second candidit was a camp trailer. http://www.minicampingtrailer.com/index.html It was basically a kitchen and bathroom on a small Harbor Freight trailer. She ruled that one out because there was no place to sleep. She doesn't like the idea of sleeping on the ground.

Finally we lucked out and found Timothy Limke's site for the new gypsy caravan. http://www.amvardo.com/caravan/
First I bought the book. It was well written and even entertaining at times. The Caravan was designed to fit on a 4x8 utility trailer. I already had a 4x8 Harbor Freight trailer I rarely used. After thinking about it for a couple of weeks, I took the plunge and bought the book, plans, template set. I highly recommend the set for anyone thinking about building one. There is information on each of them that is not found in the other format. For example, the book has details on how to build the bed platform. The plans and templates don't include this information.

What follows is a build diary, which includes links to materials I found to use in my caravan.