Merry Christmas and all the best for 2012!

I hope that next year my work and study will require al little less time so I can be in the workshop some more. And update this blog of course!

Cheers,
Erik

I have been on holiday twice, spend a lot of time on my caravan (blogpost coming) and had to completely re-install my Macbook which took much longer than I expected. And in between I am back at work where it is very busy as usual.
And all this while my redone Squirrel engine has not even been unpacked (sorry Richard…). I have not even had time or opportunity this season to do one single rally on a motorcyle or scooter! And that is a first for the last 15 years or so!

Hopefully all returns to normal soon as my Mac is now done and camping season is almost over. Ideas and subjects to write about enough, it is just a matter of finding time… So just keep on checking this blog for updates!

This evening I was browsing through some back numbers of Yowl when I found an interesting snippet. It was in Volume 13 issue number 11 on page 247.

The series of articles is about riding a then “old” 1918 standard Scott in the reliability trials of the era during 1928 onward. The writer, William Lucas, is telling how he had ordered some updates from Hemmings of Liverpool and goes on to say:

“Also by the same firm an aluminium cylinder head was offered similar to the head used on the production Super Squirrel of that year (1928). It was held down to the (air cooled) cylinders by two holding down bolts instead of the locking rings round the centre core of the production Supers. This head was quite successful if great care was taken in drilling and tapping the cylinders precisely. When this was fitted a real improvement resulted.”

This description is very close to the aluminium dome conversion that I had “under my bench” until it was needed for further duty in The Netherlands earlier this year.
 
Colin Heath.

After about 4 months all parts of my Scott are in one place again. So I “only” have to put it together now…
But, with all the work that needs to be done to the Rapido folding caravan before we go on holiday, this could take some time…

In between I have kind of given up the idea of using the Scott this riding season. At least that would give me the time I need to finish the job properly.

So to be continued!

The folding caravan is in a pretty good shape given its 31 years of age. But of course there are always lots of little things to do. And there are also a few things that can be improved…

The things I want to do on the Rapido can be divided in several categories:

• safety
• interior
• exterior
• improvements

All work will be done while retaining as much of the original state of the caravan as possible.

Safety

Wheels and tyres
The caravan has a maximum weight of 695 kg. At this moment 145/80 x 10 tyres were fitted with a load capacity of only 315 kg. So a bit on (or even over) the edge. Besides that the tyres were fitted with tubes. In case of a puncture a tube type tyre goes flat almost instantly. And as I have read on several forums this could very well leave the Rapido as a total loss. The last thing with the tyres was that they were about 8 years old and though profile was still ok, there were quite some dry cracks.
So I started to look into my options. As a lot of the better trailer tyres only come in 500 x 10 I had to find out if that would fit. According to a few forum posts that would be no problem. So then it was just a matter of fitting tubeless tyres on my original rims. Or at least that is what I thought…
After some more reading I discovered that the original rims did not have enough “hump” to keep a tubeless tyre on the rim. I checked that on one of my rims and indeed, the “hump” just was non existent! That left me with one option only and that was to buy me a set of new rims already fitted with Vredestein V47 500 x 10 tyres with a load capacity of 450 kg. So I did and I am now awaiting delivery. One plus point is also that the original rims were quite tatty and rusty so with these new shiny wheels the caravan will look a lot smarter!

Edit 27-6-2011
The new tyres arrived and look very smart. Installing has to wait a while though as with the caravan unfolded there is no way I can change the wheels…

Rear lights
The caravan was fitted with two different rear lights. I think one was still original but this was heavily corroded on the inside and the glass was cracked. The other one was ok but smaller and of a different model. The caravan came with a pair of brand new rear light units still in the bag so I decided to fit those. It took me a while as they might look nice, the inside is designed poorly and cheaply. But they are on the trailer now and I hope they work!

The lighting work is not over yet as since a few years a fog light is mandatory on all trailers in Holland. And of course the Rapido did not have one. To my relief I found out that both my car as the Rapido had the necessary cables already in place so I have now ordered a light unit to fit later.

Edit 30-6-2011
The new fog light came in and I installed it on the LH underside of the caravan. I put all the wiring in the rear bench of the dining area. The wiring of the rearlight was attached inside this bench with sticky tape…
I installed the new wire for the fog light and put it, together with the wires for the rear lights, in a neat cable tray. That way the front tent, that is stored in here, can not accidentally damage the wiring.

I do however still have to test if the light actually works, but that has to wait untill the caravan is folded up again as there is no way I can get the car close enough to the coupling to plug the electrics in.

Nose wheel
The coupling end of the trailer has been raised in the past because the tow bars on modern cars are a lot higher placed than in the past. If this is not done the trailer is very tilted behind a modern car. During this alteration the nose wheel was also fitted differently… and poorly! It had quite a lot of play caused by a very poor fit to the coupler and due to the fact it was attached with two M8 bolts through two M10 holes…

So I changed the bracket to exactly fit the contour of the coupling. The empty space behind it was filled with a solid steel plate and the whole lot was fixed to the caravan with two M10 bolts. It now is there for life!

Exterior
This is the least important of course. But as I am kind of a perfectionist I would like the caravan to look smart both folded as well as unfolded.

Cover
The elastic rope that holds the cover in place was old and it was also getting thin at some points. So I ordered some new.
The elastic rope is tied around some plastic knobs around the whole caravan. I have counted at least three different kinds and a lot of them are cracked. Although being still fully functional I would still want to replace them so the whole looks a bit smarter. But so far I have not been able to find a source for these parts…

The former owner always transported some of the mattresses under the cover on top of the caravan while it was folded. This way there was more storage space left in the caravan for smaller stuff. As the caravan is standing outside in our driveway, we had put the mattresses in the garage so they would not get too damp and then put the cover back on. And after that we realized that there was another reason for putting things on to of the caravan… without it the cover simply sits to low and over the rear lights and license plate! This although it is an original Rapido cover (or at least, that is what we were told)…

Front box
The Rapido is fitted with an original Rapido aluminium front box that contains the large 35 liter fridge.

When we bought the caravan I already noticed that the box was very loose on the coupling. At home I discovered it was only fixed with two (too long) M6 bolts and one woodscrew… Definitely not how this should be done as this box can be pretty heavy when fully loaded.

I also saw that the woodwork of the box (it is like a wooden box that is covered with aluminium) has seen better days and was far from straight. The lock did not work too.
And the last thing is that, in the box as it is, the fridge can only be placed on the LH side (looking at the box from the front). With the door of the caravan on the RH side of the box, placing the fridge on the RH side too seems far more logical. That way you can get a cool beer without ever leaving the caravan!

So I took the box off the frame and intend to make a new wooden interior for it in which the fridge can be placed on the RH side. I will use the original aluminium sheet material for the exterior so the changes cannot not be seen from the outside.

Interior
No work done yet on the interior as we still have not had the opportunity to set the caravan up.

Improvements
None made yet.