I have been converting a Sankey trailer as a sort of one-man caravan/off road base camp for about 6 months now. I followed Wiggs' conversion to see how he did it but the welding and steel frame were not my bag. After several goes and lots of assembly and disassembly it is now starting to come together and works like a dream!
Wiggs had obviously intended to use a tent or canopy for shelter. I always wanted to have a space inside that would be ready to use as a caravan as soon as I needed it without all the assembling of tent sheets and ground sheets.
Being a big bloke (Some would say massive), I have always had to adjust anything shop bought to fit my delicate frame. I spend a lot of time metal detecting on farmland, usually in isolated areas where there are no facilities or shops to get food or supplies from, so having a towable store room and accomodation for those long weekend events is a must.
I bought my sankey as a tub-less chassis from Witham Specialist Vehicles up north for £265, pulling it home using a light board and a tractor towing pintle. It was in really good condition, just needing a clean and degrease, then respraying with black hammerite.
I changed the wiring and lights to 12 volts, and added an extension to the drawbar made from two stainless steel, square profile tubes and moved all of the brake actuators and towing ring forward to improve reverse handling and allow a longer deck to accommodate a standard camping cot.
The sides are made from modular plastic panels rescued from a skip.
I originally planned to have a standing-height roof but after pulling this around for a weekend found this increased fuel consumption hugely, so I have dropped it down to land rover-roof height and put the frame on extendible trestles so it can be raised and lowered when parked. This makes it accessible but at stooping height for me, extending to over 200 cm height which gives loads of headroom. It is a full length landrover roof with a brown church roof rack on top so there is a bit of weight to contend with, but I plan to use bottle jacks or compressed air cushions to elevate and lower it.
I have installed a powerful marine battery so I can run internal and external lights, charge detector batteries and run a computer and broad-band connection. I have also installed a solar panel battery charger which puts out 4 watts at 12 volts so could be used on its own on sunny days(!), but will trickle charge the battery in daylight.
Now it is almost complete, I have a toilet, kitchen, heaters and extractors, bench seats and carpet installed. I tried it out on a weekend in chucking-down rain and howling winds and it was cozy and convenient. The toilet got a bit whiffy but it was bearable.
At the moment the roof is white and the body is green but this may change to camo colours.
If I can work out how to post pictures, I will get round to this when I can.
Eric
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5th Apr 2012 6:09 am
buellbeast
Member Since: 30 Jul 2008
Location: Exile
Posts: 1885
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Club Forum Criminal !!!
5th Apr 2012 6:26 am
DiscoDunc
Member Since: 08 May 2006
Location: Bristol
Posts: 16390
that'll kill the fuel consumption of the D3
you need some of RLDs HGV wind deflectors
Im always amazed at the sort of things people can make. Excellant Duncan
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