Caravan chassis rust

[chalkywhite]

Hi all, considering buying an older caravan to turn into a hobby room at end of garden.

Anyone with caravan experience know how old caravans tend to get before their chassis disintegrates please?

Thank you

 

[sxturbo]

Most tend to be galvanised or aluminium, the wooden floors rot out before the chassis does.

Generally speaking the vans are fairly high in the air and have good air flow. If you put it on a hard standing base it would be better

 

[chalkywhite]

Thanks. Hadn't thought about base. Was going to wheel it in over compacted soil and chipped bark, but that would only encourage damp. Good shout

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Hi all, considering buying an older caravan to turn into a hobby room at end of garden.

Anyone with caravan experience know how old caravans tend to get before their chassis disintegrates please?

Thank you

The bodies go long before the chassis on anything built recently. They used to fabricate them from plain steel angle, but modern ones are custom pressed steel, galvanised, Alko is the biggest supplier of chassis and running gear. They are modular.

 

[chalkywhite]

When you say modern, anything this century? I was aiming to avoid 90s 'vans. Thanks

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Galvanised gradually came in, along with insulation and double glazed windows. My guess would be post 1980 will almost certainly be galv., but it is easy to check just by looking.

 

[JohnD]

is it actually galvanised?

or it is pressed from sheet Zintect, like car bodies?

edit

ah, I found this, which mentions "hot dip galvanised steel" (assuming the German construction is the same as Australian)

though it will benefit from painting.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

is it actually galvanised?

or it is pressed from sheet Zintect, like car bodies?

My Bailey with Alko chassis, certainly is galvanised, as are the steadies and the rest of the underside metalwork. It's obviously a modular mass produced system, just bolted together to form the chassis needed. Quite clever really, they can make it what ever length needed, two or four wheel.

Most caravan's are underrated for the maximum payload. Manufacturers derate, to allow their models to legally be towed by less weighty vehicles. Every tow vehicle has maximum weight of trailer it is allowed to tow. You can simply apply to the manufacturer to have the payload increased to a higher figure (at a cost), or upto the maximum payload of the chassis design - with not actual changes made to the caravan.

 

[rds60h]

As others have said even the oldest caravans will usually have a strong chassis that will far outlast the flooring of the caravan. Some caravan floors have been known to "blow" in less than 5 years (The floors are plywood and unless perfectly made the ply layers can separate making the floor feel spongy).

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

As others have said even the oldest caravans will usually have a strong chassis that will far outlast the flooring of the caravan. Some caravan floors have been known to "blow" in less than 5 years (The floors are plywood and unless perfectly made the ply layers can separate making the floor feel spongy).

It's not the ply which separates. They are made from a ply, insulation, ply sandwhich. The ply can tend to separate from the insulation layer, making the floor weaker / moving underfoot. They sell an epoxy, to fix it. It involves drilling holes in a 4" spaced patern, pumping the epoxy, in then weighting the floor down until it sets.

 

[BlueLoo]

Damp kills caravans, not rust.
Couldn't think of a worse thing to sit in in a garden tbh. They are designed to be moving, not static.

Buy a metal frame shed, put it on a concrete base and insulate it.

Probably be as as cheap but a bazzilion times more useful.