Slide-in caravan build part 12 - The final chapter (For now)

The caravan is pretty much finished for now. In the future I would like to do more work on it to make it a better and more modern setup, but this is all I planned to do on it to start with.

This is the axle I started with for the chassis I decided to build for the caravan. 

I decided to make a dedicated chassis for it mainly to save weight as opposed to using a tandem box trailer which was the original idea.

Restoring and cleaning up the brakes.

The donor axle was too wide so I had to cut a section out of the middle and join it back together to make it narrower.

The basic frame laid out.

Marked out here is what would be the hitch plate, it was all cut with an angle grinder.

Adding the drawbar to the welded up chassis.

One of the rear legs.

Hitch plate welded on.

Cleaning up the front of the drawbar.

Painting the chassis.

I made the wheel arches out of 1mm thick steel sheet. In the end I had to reinforce them with angle iron because they were a bit too flimsy.

The trailer all assembled.

This is one of the power points I made for inside the caravan. It has a 12V cigarette lighter socket, a 5V USB outlet and a light and switch. There are two of these in the caravan.

3D printing a fan cover.

This is the 12V bus bar and fuse I made for the caravan.

Finishing off lining the interior.

I made this sticker so that people know I built this.

Marrying the 'camper' to the 'trailer' to finally make a proper caravan.

The two are held together mainly by six high tensile M10 bolts. But then just for backup there are four chains as well. They also make it LOOK like it's attached so it doesn't worry people. But the bolts are what's really doing the work.

I bought a window blind from the tip shop for $3 and then made these brackets to hold it. 

It just happens to fit the window perfectly.

And here it is finished. Well mostly. Since 'finishing' it I've put alloy wheels on it, they make it look a bit nicer, and I've also done a few minor things here and there. I've already done about 3500km with it and it's fantastic. I've put it through some pretty tough challenges and it hasn't failed me once. It tows really well, it's not a problem for my car to tow it at all, and it works really well for the way I like to travel.

I think the original design philosophy was followed quite well, and I think it fulfills most of the original goals. Overall I couldn't be happier with it.