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1985 Sprite Musketeer Caravan Travel 16ft Trailer that is so Very cool !!!

We just bought it and are going to start re-doing the inside this spring.. Right now i am on a mission to find some new original windows or possibly replacement newer styled windows.. We are not to sure what we are going to do right now.. just kind of looking and thinking.. Hopefully have some kind of an idea by spring :-) Plus we are looking for one of those cool tents that go on the outside.....

We are not having any luck here in the states in finding any parts for our camper.. if anyone has any ideas to where we can find some good used parts over here, please let me know.. I am at a dead end.

Thanks for your time..

Tori in the USA :-)

That doesn't look like a British van; the door's on the wrong side and I'm not sure how original the air conditioner is. Over here I thought the Musketeeer was a 14ft, the 16ft was called the Major. My father had a Musketeer when we were kids, about 48 years ago.

By a 'cool tent' do you mean an awning as we have, made of canvas, or a Safari room, with walls made of netting.

I'm afraid I don't know where you can get parts your side of the pond, but we have many mail order companies although I don't know if any would ship to you. Might be worth a few emails though, but you'll need to call it a caravan over here, not a trailer.  A trailer is something you carry things in, not something you live in.

This site has a useful subforum on caravan repairs where you may find some useful info.

Good luck & let us know how you get on.

Hello guys...

Sorry... we call them travel trailers over here and a caravan is a Dodge mini-van ...ha ha ha .................................oops

Do any of you have any good links to mail order companies that i can email to get some shipping quotes?

I wonder if this may be a Canadian Caravan? Is there such a thing?

I am looking for a room that attaches to the caravan ..kind of like this one...

I know I have alot to learn about our new caravan...and so far we love it and are really excited about restoring it in the spring....

Can anyone tell me anything about the tag I found on the frame?

Here is another pix of the caravan.....

Anyway, thanks for looking and your time!

Tori

Yes, you certainly have a English built caravan. Newmarket is just a few miles from me.  I dont know why the door is on the wrong side, it`s on the right side for you though. maybe CI built some for export. I dont think your windows can be any more modern than the ones fitted, as CI ceased production several years ago. If the windows are scratched, as they often are, you can buy polishing creams that will remove minor scratches withquite good results. Dont use household creams ( bath cleaners etc. ) though, as they can make the windows cloudy. Have a look at the fixed it pages on this site, you`ll find it very helpful i`m sure. Send us some pics. when you start touring with it, I`m sure a lot of us limey`s would be interested to see where you take it. appy caravanning

Les.

Hey , Thanks

I actually have a broken window that flew off when we were driving home one day with it.. the pictures you see are some older pix, here is my problem....This is a temp. fix for us untill we figure out how to replace the window and hardware.. Mose of the window rubber pull things  (not sure the name)   have dryrot and dont work like they used to.. so i need to find some of them or make some of my own..:-) I will continue to search the forums and ebay

I will try cleaning the windows of them up like you said, I also need to repair a crack in the front window....  I have been searching this forum for LOTS of usefull information.. I am sure enjoying my visit to this forum..Thanks for all the advice and friendly emails...

I will keep you all up to date with pix this spring :-)

Thanks again!

Tori

http://www.caravanbreakers.net/

hi these guys have 4000 windows,you could ask how much carriage would be if they have a window.send them a photo of the identification plate on the van for a better match.

blondieandi,

Yes.. we love our  smaller camper due to the outrages gas prices... Ya, over here there are tons of really nice and expensive campers….We used to have a Suburban  and a 24ft bunkhouse camper , but it costs so much money to travel with it.. $100us to fill the tank and we only got about 8 miles to the gal with it towing. We have always loved the "light weight" campers and found this one because we thought it was cool and unusual for us.. we are into the unusual items.. we actually have a 1973 VW Bug and a 1974 VW Thing (type 181) … So this camper fit right in for us….

I did find a guy, or I should say , he found me... He has a 1984 Sprite Musketeer that he is working on fixing up. But in the State he lives in , he is having a hard time getting a title for it.. I think the original owner must have lost the title or never registered in here in the States...That makes it really hard to get plates and insurance for it...Hopefully he can figure that out and fix his up.. I told him about this site...So much wonderful information on here!!!!

Thanks again,

Tori from Iowa USA

Hello Toni, welcome to the forum.

If you Google "caravan awning" you will be able to find what you are looking for.  There are quite a few different manufacturers - Dorema, Isabella, Harrison.  The shipping costs are likely to be expensive as these things are made of canvas, with steel poles, so are very heavy.

When you buy an awning, you will also need a groundsheet to cover the floor area  (this is not usually included) and a skirt to go on the lower rail on your caravan to fill in the gap between the bottom of the van/wheel arch and the ground (these can be included with the awning when you buy it).  They also come with curtains which clip onto a rail or a curtain pole.

Had to laugh (sorry) when you mentioned the price of fuel.   Check out prices in the UK, you won't believe it!

As for the windows, sometimes will find them on Ebay (not new parts but salvaged from older vans).  They are hard to come by for caravans of this age, even in Europe.

The awning picture you showed is called a porch awning..These are shorter than the caravan and we use them for short breaks or when we get too old and can't manage to put a full one up.  A full awning runs the full length of the caravan.

Odd that you say you have to have title before you can get plates or insurance. Over here we don't need anything. We just buy a caravan, insure it only if we want to, and put our car number plate on the back. Makes stealing them very easy unfortunately.

Somehow I thought you'd get a lot of replies on here. We all get very nostalgic about old caravans and love it when someone is going to restore one and keep it going. It brings back many happy childhood memories from when we went away with our parents.

The Picture of the camper with the awning out was taken on the land of the original owners property in Minnesota.. but the rest of the pix was taken on our property in Iowa.

No, the air works and fits it just fine...Not top heavy at all...we love it :-)

We like the awing pictured because it would help give us just a tad bit more living space for our kids to hang out in :-) I think I am going to have to wait on getting one due to the fact its not in our budget :-) We are thinking about fabracating our own "add-a-room" to our trailer :-) Same with the windows, we are going to have to just do some more thinking and looking at our recourses in this side of the pond :-)

But I do have to say that this is a very cool caravan and we intend to fix it up and enjoy every minute of it!!! I will have to post some pix of us camping in it :-)

Thanks everyone!

Picture of my Husband and kids

Hi Tori , have a look at my website http://www.1carpc.co.uk/wcdr/ it should be of some help to you when you fix your caravan .
If you need advice ask away .

Regards Wizard