Tell me what you think of this old <span class="highlight">caravan</span>

...and what should I pay for this thing?

Crikey! I'm fairly optimistic by nature and enjoy a challenge buuut I'm thinking along the same lines as John here.

Cheaper to purchase a decent old van than to fix and refurbish

Ask him how much he'll give you to tow it away.

At moment it would be health risk to sleep in it, with all the mould inside. Even if you stripped it, replaced the timber and relined the interior, the roof is still going to leak.

If you want a project, give him a carton of beer for it, strip everything to the chassis, put a new floor on it, and build the walls/roof out of Bondcor. But would be cheaper, in long run, to buy something a bit more liveable. Chassis doesn't look too bad, bit of rust-kill and gal paint, new bearings, tyres and rims...........and the list goes on.

Bob

Roof b**ered Walls the same. floor even worse.

Tyres will be stuffed as well.

Will be one big heartache and money pit to even be able to shift it

If you got it for free it may almost be worth worth the hassle of trying to fix it up as a weekender if you like a challenge, but i wouldn't pay a cent for it myself. That thing needs a bucket load of work done to it just make it water tight let alone habitable. The chassis itself may likely be structually sound, but on top of the cladding needing replacing i'd wonder what the timber frame (i'm assuming it is) is like behind that internal cladding?.... it'll likely be rotted out in places, the rubbers on the windows will be hard and cracking / breaking off etc etc etc.

Surely you jest - its knackered and dangerous , but I'm sure you know that.

hi
Basically u need to gut it out .
Repair leak ,most likely a new roof
Reline inside
Have a domestic fridge ,a queen size bed a small lounge and a small table
Alternate is to use the chassis with new coolroom panel and reuse the doors and windows .

swampfox

It looks like a good opportunity to me, but it really depends on what sort of finish you are able to put up with compared to the work involved.
I had a need to supply hay and horse tack storage for my daughter when she moved from Brissie area to Roma and had her horse trucked up.
I paid $500 for an old caravan that was partly stripped out, complete with a roof leak. some wall lining damage, swollen chipboard cabinets and the shag carpet was mouldy. The chassis was similar to yours with surface rust,
A weekends worth of work stripping out the remainder of the furniture, a couple of tubes of silicon on the roof leaks, new door hinges, and a decent hasp and staple had it watertight and secure.
Two new tyres, and a self made light board, an unregistered trailer transport department permit for around $38 for a day and we towed it to Roma.
Same thing 2 years later and it was back to Kooralbyn, and now needs a new home rather than take it up to Rockhampton, as her new place has plenty of shed space.
If what you want is a mobile semi-rough living facility, in my opinion it's better than a tent, and at least it is up off the ground, insulated, has windows (and screens?) for ventilation and easy to fit power to it.
If you want to sell it later you should also get your money back, even if you do what many have done and rip off the top and make it into a car trailer.
Good luck with your choice, but if I had to do the same thing again, and the overall structure was half decent, I'd be willing to pay $500 or so similar to what I did previously, but buying from a friend you could try for far less.
Cheers
Ian

That's the sort of van Topgear should've used in their caravan challenge a few years ago. Trouble is, they were destroying vans in much better nick than this one!

Runaway, Runaway

Don't look back

Nice size, but hopefully you didn't pay for this caravan or not more than ....$50 :) Looks like a lot of work and money before you can use it.

Thanks for the replies everyone. In spite of the resounding "RUN AWAY" chorus...I'm still contemplating getting it, if I can get it for the right price (almost nothing).

One poster suggested ripping the whole thing off and bunging a shipping container on it instead. I like this idea..I really just want something which is up off the ground, and can be moved around the property easily.

Does anyone have any other suggestions as to what else I could put on top of it (on a budget!) besides a shipping container?

Ok...so you found this derelict van in a scrapyard, took some pics and thought it would be funny to scam readers here....that has to be it...right ?

I didn't get beyond your first line. ".. buy ... off a friend" has always been a recipe for disaster, and has soured many a friendship.

All that mould and damp would certainly be unhealthy and probably impossible to remove. Maybe you could connect power to it and gas but what condition is all the wiring and pluming? Surely, if you only want it for weekend visits and not long stays, a decent second hand tent with a fly would be cheap, simple and easy to move. You could even relocate or sell it later if you needed to. A portable camp stove and lamp and a good sized water container and you would be clean and comfortable with just a stretcher and a couple of camp chairs! Then you could try out the whole arrangement easily. At least you would not be investing many hours of time and quite a bit of money into a disaster with no resale value! John and Lynne

Thanks for the ideas Bob Y.
I just priced Bondor cool room panels and they're $40/sq metre.

So for say a 5m(L) x 2.5m(W) x 2.2m(H) box, I'd be looking at about $1500 worth of panels, which is not bad I think given that -

1. they are already lined, inside and out
2. they come with the bonus of being well-insulated
3. they can be joined without any further framing (just some aluminium brackets) and sealed with silicone or similar to make weatherproof

So then I just bung in a couple of second hand windows, a door and Bob's your auntie!

What do y'all think?

Go here.... plenty of sub $5k jobbies that are fairly neat. Honestly, by the time you factor your time & materiels etc. - it would be easier to get something cleaner

http://www.caravancampingsales.com.au/buy/results?sort=Premium&limit=15&Q=%28Price%3Drange[..10000]%26%28%28%28%28%28%28SiloType%3D[Dealer%20Used]|SiloType%3D[Dealer%20New]%29|SiloType%3D[Private%20Used]%29|SiloType%3D[Dealer%20Near%20New]%29%26SaleStatus%3D[For%20Sale]%29%26Category%3D[Caravans]%29%26Service%3D[Caravancampingsales]%29%29&offset=75&SearchAction=Pagination

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