Barefoot Caravan

[santacruzer]

Many might have seen this already:

Barefoot Caravan Makes Cool, Curved Campers | Digital Trends

[Ron in BC]

Cute and nicely done, but impractical to the extreme. At least for typical users.

I'm wondering what the frame material specs are, appears to my eye to have a potential for bending and causing the tongue box to hit the front of the trailer.

Ron

[Patandlinda]

I see some things I like , the stove top ,the upholstery ! Pat

[santacruzer]

Certainly wouldn't function as well over here, what with the entry door being on the opposite side from our standard. They've pretty skillfully hidden all those typically water, power, etc.

[Patandlinda]

If I were younger and alone I could see myself in a little RV like this . Pat

[Brian B-P]

It's interesting when promoters of marginal designs for products find an audience in "trend" websites, where they are billed as some sort of radical idea, because the reviewer is not objective or simply ignorant of the many similar products already available. It looks like no one will buy a Barefoot Caravan as an RV, so it is promoted as a high tech "tiny house".

Euro caravans are usually built on commercially available chassis, by companies such as AL-KO and BPW, in contrast to the North American practice of each RV manufacturer building their own frames. Those chassis frames are well-designed and the small-time caravan builder doesn't have an opportunity to mess the design up. Barefoot shows a manufacturers page which doesn't include a major chassis maker, so either one of the companies listed supplies the chassis or they simply left out the chassis manufacturer. The full specifications page (which includes several brand names) omits any chassis information (not even mentioning the suspension/axle) so I'm sure they are not making it themselves. Perhaps it is not mentioned because the chassis for this "proudly British" caravan is German. They say

The monocoque fibreglass body, galvanised steel chassis, and many other parts have been designed and built by many fantastic British manufacturers.

... but I suspect in the case of the chassis that means the UK branch of a company such as AL-KO supplies the chassis from their standard inventory of components.

The tongue has a narrower vee angle than the fifty degrees which is normal in North America, but that's common in Europe and not a problem - even straight "pole" tongues work fine with appropriate material and dimension choices.

It looks like the services may be behind that rectangular (but moulded to the shape of the shell) door on the right (street) side near the back.

The trailer is about the size and weight of an Escape 15', but less functionally shaped.

One interesting photo: they show the mould for the shell:

Given the door cutout in the mould, I wonder if they are moulding the body (without floor) in one piece, using the door opening for access?