Thread: Should I renovate the camper

Yeah go for the rebuild if you have the time and money and knolage as they are a great van the old colemans, as fibre glass is easy to repair and light.

I would build a separate chassis and then drop the body and the old chassis onto it, I was going to do it to my families old Corvet but I wont have the time for a few years so its going over to the west for a while.

Hi Aaron. I'm in much the same boat. Got given a home made camper trailer a couple of years ago. Father in law built it many years ago - he worked for Holden in Adelaide for years and was very handy at anything mechanical. Basically, he copied the design of the Jayco pop tops, but he built it on top of the rear end of a mini minor (widened), and running on mini wheels with no room to increase wheel / tyre size. It used to be pulled behind a Torana. I recently took it to Tassie behind a Prado and had a lot of trouble with suspension, and eventually snapped draw bar in Devonport - luckily in caravan park - also luckily caravan park manager was a retired boilermaker with a mig welded in his shed.

Since getting it home to Kalgoorlie, I have built a complete new chassis and draw bar (longer than original) under the original chassis. The material he used originally for the chassis / draw bar simply was not big / thick enough and there was too much flex in the whole thing. I've fitted leaf springs and gone to a solid axle with Ford 14" rims, Bridgestone light truck tyres.

The actual camper is very well built - I'd say better than the Jayco of the same vintage. Certainly his canvas work is better than I've seen on many newer trailers.

Anyway, if your trailer is still in reasonable condition and you have the ability / resources, I'd definitely say do it up yourself. You won't get anywhere near what it is worth as a trade-in, and if you put some thought into what you want, your renovation can include some mods that you might not be able to get on a newer trailer. For example, I've lengthened the draw bar and fitted one of those checker plate aluminium "gull wing" toolboxes that they make for the sides of Landcruiser utes or similar - but I've fitted the box across the front of the trailer - gives me a huge boot / storage area, and I'm installing second battery, charging system etc in there.

Have fun.

I read an article in a caravan magazine about a bloke who had an old caravan and he had a new chassis fitted and more modern fittings. Did some himself, had some done for him but saved heaps on the cost of a new and was more tailor made than second hand.

Jeff

Rebuild it, you can modify it any way you want

Thanks guys,
I will start costing the repairs and decide if its worth it.

Aaron

Don't forget the add on for the dog