caravan conversions

[tlavazzi]

Hi All

I have become interested in the Traveler. I saw a pic online of a Marina that was converted to a caravan, with popup roof--do you know of anything like that available? One reason I was interested in the traveler was the possibility of converting the rear part of the roof to a popup, and figuring out how to get some perhaps fold-away appliances in the rear, to convert into an "RV"--any ideas about that? One thing I can't figure is how to get propane service, since obviously no room underneath for a tank, so maybe a marine alcohol stove? A 2-or 3- way fridg could also be a prob, since not possible to "fold" this away.

I was thinking of removing the bottom of the rear seat, which folds back, to make more room, and perhaps replacing that with cushion that the seat back cold fold down over, thus creating more space for sleeping (the seat back takes up I think about 6-8 inches? Also considering some other mods--maybe the front seats could be tilted forward when stopped for the night and latched in place (or maybe a kind of extendable platform which would extend the rear floor space up to the seats, thus holding them in place allowing even more sleeping room? In any case, space is the main issue, and the possibility of the popup

The seller of the one I've been looking at claims the roof is simply nailed to the wood? is that true? and if the roof were converted to popup, would there be any structural issues?

Thanks!

[bmcecosse]

Yes - there would be a serious structural problem......go with the Marina........excellent cars.....

[tysonn]

Buy a motorhome?

[simmitc]

The roof is indeed nailed to the wood, but behind the headlining are cross braces that tie the sides together. You would have to either stand between them (inconvenient) or remove them (bad idea). I normally say that "it's your car, do whatever you want", but in this case, I would urge you to not ruin what is a lovely vehicle. See also my comments in your other thread.

[kevin s]

You would have to add some sort of frame to replace the rigidity of the roof panel, could be done in timber or steel, a better option may be to get one with dodgy wood and build a camper body from scratch to replace it, I have often thought of doing something similar on a series landrover chassis.

[lowride stepside]

get a morris axel ,some traveller rear arches and a tow bar then make a teardrop trailor

[tlavazzi]

OK--I see you all are not keen on the idea; if the roof does have a structural function, then I guess that's out. It is interesting, though, that the pre-70 Traveler--or at least the late 60s one I looked at--has a 2-piece roof, with a rubber seal between the cab roof and the rear portion, which seemed to beg for such a mod--why not a one piece roof, not to tempt?

I also thought about the landrover....

[simmitc]

The two part roof is because the rear section (all timber frame, windows, panels and roof was assembled separately and then bolted to the rest of the vehicle - there are some photos around somewhere of the line in operation. However, that was during assembly, and it was never designed to be separated during use. A couple of Travellers have been converted to pickups, but with considerable strengthening of the chassis. There are also some caravan conversions about, but these were built on the commercial variant chassis. Handling has been described as "interesting".

[tlavazzi]

BTW--if I were to search for one of these caravan versions built on the commercial chassis, what would the search terms be? What models, etc?

Thanks!