New kid in town....

[cpaharley2008]

Barefoot Caravan Makes Cool, Curved Campers | Digital Trends

[GregandTeresa]

Pretty darned cool. Except for the price tag

[MyronL]

Speaking of new eggs on the market, so whatever happened to the much ballyhooed Nest Caravan? After 2 minutes I gave up waiting for their website to open.

[rbryan4]

I wonder if they'd flip the floor plan to put the door on the right side Jim?

Seriously though, I don't see it as a new kid in town if it's produced in such minimal quantities, and only in the UK.

[NW Cat Owner]

Hey, that's pretty cool looking. I like how you can get it in different body colors.

What I find interesting is that the European style trailers (or caravans) have that sloping front with the big window. I'm assuming with the sloping front you won't get much in the way of rocks and debris banging up against it and cracking/chipping the window.

I was rather intrigued by the window shades. It almost looked like there was another piece of glass (plexiglass, plastic, ?) on the inside of the trailer with the blind between the inside and outside glass. And the inside would roll up. But it was hard to tell in the photos and there wasn't any more information on them at the site.

[Brian B-P]

I like this, from a UK resident's comment:

The USA you drive on the right side of the road. In the UK we drive on the correct side of the road.

Originally Posted by NW Cat Owner

What I find interesting is that the European style trailers (or caravans) have that sloping front with the big window. I'm assuming with the sloping front you won't get much in the way of rocks and debris banging up against it and cracking/chipping the window.

Perhaps the slope helps with the rocks, but I think the use of an acrylic or polycarbonate window is more important to avoiding breaks.

Very sloped fronts are common here, and normal in Europe. I have heard that the main reason for the slope on the upper front in Europe is aerodynamic, to reduce the tendency for the trailer to tilt back and unload the hitch.

Originally Posted by NW Cat Owner

I was rather intrigued by the window shades. It almost looked like there was another piece of glass (plexiglass, plastic, ?) on the inside of the trailer with the blind between the inside and outside glass. And the inside would roll up. But it was hard to tell in the photos and there wasn't any more information on them at the site.

They look like typical "euro style" windows, from a supplier such as Dometic. They are used by some RV manufacturers in North America, but not many; the Dometic USA site doesn't show them, but their Australian site and UK sites do.

The screen and blind extend from top and bottom, and run in the same channel. You switch between them by leaving them hooked together and sliding the divider up and down; you can also separate them and leave both retracted. The screen-blind channel is on the inside; the plastic top-hinged outward-opening window (often double-pane) is on the outside. If there were another glazing (glass or clear plastic) layer inside of the screen and blind, there would be no way to move the screen and blind. The double-pane version has two sort of bubble-shaped layers joined only at the edges.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by MyronL

Speaking of new eggs on the market, so whatever happened to the much ballyhooed Nest Caravan? After 2 minutes I gave up waiting for their website to open.

The Nest ended up costing more to build than expected, and perhaps not being as well matched to potential buyers' preferences as hoped. The last I heard it was not dead, but the product was being reconsidered. As mentioned in other discussions here, the Nest and Escape approaches to product design are quite different.

[NW Cat Owner]

Thanks for the info on the windows. I was wondering why they looked different and now I no longer am! Pretty nifty idea on the windows and I like how far you can open them up.

It has to be frustrating for an RV mfgr to see something available in another country, but not their own, on products that would be nifty to have.

[cpaharley2008]

These windows are acrylic and very nice, I had them on my Lance and T@da trailers.

[Brian B-P]

As Jim said, those windows have been used here. Part of the frustration of dealing with Dometic (which may not may not be the actual window manufacturer in this case) is that they have an enormous range of products, only list some of them on each country's web site, and will sell products which they don't list.