new Avida Caravans

[Greynomad]

Agree with comments on wall-support.
Don't get to see the undersides of caravans these days... do they all have drawbars which stop so far forward?
I would have thought that the drawbar should at least run as far as the axle, so the tug is pulling the wheels along, and the frame's only task is to support the floor & what's above it.
Surely attaching the drawbar to the frame like that only adds unnecessary stress to the frame?
Is this detrimental to internals & fittings through flexing, etc?

[John M]

Following Cyclone Tracy a lot of caravans were transported to Darwin as emergency accommodation, They used to take a body truck and trailer to Mt Isa, to pick them up of the train, load two on the truck, a couple on the trailer and then hook another (usually the biggest) on the back.
In those days the road was no where near as good as it is now, from the Isa to Commonweal there must have been twenty or more dips,the contrition rate on the vans was horrendous, so much so that the insurance Companies would not insure a caravan that was towed behind a commercial vehicle, unless it had a suspension hitch. (There were a number of them on the market you don't see too many any more) Other than the insides parting company with the outsides, and sundry bits and pieces being left on the side of the road, one of the biggest problems, with the towed vans, was the A frames breaking off at the front of the van, caused by the vertical whip effect, imparted at the dips.
I believe another contributing factor at that time may have been the standards which stated that all vans were to have load sharing axles, where as now there is a trend towards independent suspension, which seems to work better on rougher roads, combined with the trend of the later 4WDs to go back to the original pattern, of a wheel at the corners and minimal overhang from the rear axle to the towball, thereby limiting the whip effect.
I don't think the overall construction methods have changed a lot since then, other than the change from timber to metal frames, the gauge of the metal used is no heavier, and probably lighter, with the current criteria being so much weight orientated, the only major differences seem to be the use of molded fibreglass or plastic roofs and end caps, and the use of foam insulation, instead of the old fibreglass bats, the foam when glued in place contributing to a large percentage of the strength, so long as the integrity of the bond is maintained.