Surfing Waves

Hi,
For my final major project at university I am designing a low cost small caravan that could be towed by a small car. The caravan will be designed for the UK lovers of outdoor sports such as surfing, scuba diving, downhill biking, etc., for people between the age of 20 and 35 years old. The caravan will have a cool and modern look and will be designed in a way to be customized by its owner in the way they’d love to. The caravan will have a facility for drying up wet suits and storing surfboards.
It would be really helpful for my research if you let me know if you would be interested to own a caravan like this one and what do you think of my project?
Many thanks!

Hi Shpyng

That sounds very interesting.. my major doubt would be cost. Have you seen the price of a new caravan? Even the tiny pod ones are ridiculously expensive, and they would be too small to cater for board and wettie storage. Then you have ongoing costs such as storage (over £300/annum in the north of England if you don't have space at home), servicing, campsites etc (you can't really stay 'offsite' like you might in campervan). I'm getting towards the higher end of your age limit (:( ), have a good job and no kids draining my finances, but I couldn't afford a new or nearly new caravan. Most people I see with new caravans are middle aged or retired.

I have an old 1990ish 2 berth that I pull with a Skoda Fabia estate. I sometimes hang wetsuits in the bathroom if the weather's wet. I often think it'd be cool to have a storage area that you could fit one or more boards in and hang wetsuits, that's accessible from the outside. However, you'd have to consider factors such as space and weight distribution for towing. You might sacrifice the bathroom and use a similar size storage space? You'd also need to consider ventilation to prevent the dreaded damp problem.

Another issue with board storage is that, unless you're camped right by a surf spot, you're going to be driving the boards to/from the beach so they'll either fit inside your car or you'll strap them on the roof. I definitely can't see myself taking a board off/out of the car at the end of the day, putting it into to caravan and then putting it back in/on to the car the next morning. So the only time I might use the storage in the caravan is while towing, but when towing I try to put as much as I can into/onto the car and as little as possible in the caravan. However, I always find somewhere to hang my wettie up to dry every evening and that can be a bit of an issue, so a ready made place in the caravan would be cool.

I like the 'bespoke' idea, it's not really something that's on offer from the various caravan manufacturers, though there's probably a good reason for that. Do you think offering bespoke layout/options would increase costs?

Hopefully I've given you some food for thought.

I would seriously look into the past for your "cool and modern look" - The iconic tear-drop shape is still one of the best micro caravans out there.

Hundreds of old and modern designs out there that you could put your own spin on.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=tear-d ... 8QOx5PzzAw

A caravan is needed by me for storing some home stuff. I think it is cheaper then other bigger units.
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