Designed in 1985 & never seen on campsites suggests it's not a good idea at all. The reason will be that such a device cannot be built down to a price that even those that like it are prepared to pay. Even the usual folding camper design has limited appeal compared with tents or caravans so taking a folding camper concept too far to make it commercially viable will always fail.
As well is two words!
How does a sage know everything about everything? or does he? or does he just think he does?
Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.
I know that towing a caravan is a huge waste of fuel and makes real hard work for the car. The wind resistance is virtually all that needs power when driving at steady speed and that is huge with a caravan..
I know having towed the dandy that something that folds down makes towing feel the same as just driving the car on it's own.
Went from Bristol to Wigan with mine last week, 47mpg with he dandy on the back and 47mpg without it on the way back. Admittedly there was a good south westerly wind blowing. It normally makes less than 10% difference.
Having said that, the folders are very expensive whether they are folding campers or folding caravans such as the Gobur. Maybe this is because they are small scale manufacturing or hand made as with the Gobur.
Depreciation is much less than a caravan though as I believe they deteriorate less with most of it hidden from the sun when folded. I don't think the sun helps the joint sealant much and fades the interiors.
Pennine brought out the Artemis folding caravan but it never took off even though it looked good. It cost around 15K I believe which was a lot of money for a small caravan.
Quote: Originally posted by superbbird on 02/2/2016
Don't you ever dream opensauce......
Yes, I see your line of thinking. You see something & you say wow! But what is the point of a thread where somebody posts something like this & all posters just agree that it looks nice, why not deconstruct it?
It's more interesting to look at the psychology, the dream is there but will it stand the reality? The answer is usually no. Start with a fully equipped caravan, just a large white box full of all the things you have in your own house. That way you are good to go however long you want to stay out whatever the weather.
Anything less than that will fail either due to weather conditions or the plain annoyance of living too long without the things we have in our own home. One can live in a caravan all year but try that in a tent & most keen tent campers will get fed up with 'living rough' after a while.
The thing in the op is not even a tent though, it is just a not very good caravan, so if one enjoys camping in a tent then one will probably not regard the device in the op link a step up from tent camping but it is certainly a step down from caravanning.
If they use the flexible covering from a dandy it will be very good. It is PVC impregnated polyester which is tough as old boots and very importantly, well insulated. This means warm in winter and very cool in summer.
The material is about half an inch thick and the weight of it stops it flapping in the wind. No way is it simply a tent.
Yes the caravan is very good but it does have the shortcomings I posted above. With global warming and high fuel costs, it is good that someone is looking at a way of reducing the huge drag of a big white box on the back of a car. One day, conditions will be right when it will be viable.
If no one opened their mind and thought ahead we would still believe the world is flat.
Having been designed and made in the 80s with today's materials etc now available maybe it would be a viable move to make them. As we all know we have moved forward so much since the 80s. After all show trailers are built on those lines?
I posted it for a bit of fun, but I did move to the caravan in 2014 from big tents to make life a bit easier. I have been struck that putting up a full awning is the trickiest and longest part of pitching, so something that would just drop into place seems like something worth pursuing.
Interesting comments from Navver, who speaks of caravan inefficiency and the advantages of trailer tents, one of which he owns. I do note that trailer tents have their own forum, but suspect we are more interesting
------------- Camping Gear expands so as to fill the space available for its transportation.
Certainly an interesting concept, but like others have said, would it sell? If the price was right maybe, but how much would it cost to produce? Personally, I like it but then I've always liked the unusual or unconventional. However, not everyone does.