Q:
How
long will it take to build my Slidavan?
It will take about 200 hours to
build a Slidavan. It is not a quick build. There are a lot of materials
in it, 20 sheets of ply, 1000 screws and 15 litres of glue for example
but it would make a great winter project.
Q:
How
much will a Slidavan cost to build?
Always
a very subjective question but if you bought only new parts you might
expect a Slidavan to cost about 3500 Euros to build but the cost could be
reduced dramatically using second hand parts.
Q:
Do you
sell a Slidavan kit?
Sorry no,
the Slidavan is only available in plan form. But don't let this stop you!
All you need is easily available and no special skills are required.
Q:
How
much weight can a Slidavan carry?
This depends on your car's
towing capacity and how lightly you build your Slidavan. Expect a
Slidavan to weigh about 300 unladen so even with a small car you still
have a respectable pay load of about 100 kilos.
Q: The
plans are metric can I build a Slidavan using Imperial materials?
Yes you can. The Slidavan will still have to be built using metric
measurements and it may be a couple of inches shorter. All the info you
need is in the plans.
Q: What
are the legal requirements for a Slidavan?
Because the Slidavan weighs less than 500 kilos it is considered a
trailer in Europe. Laws may differ in other parts of the world so check
first.
The Slidavan is very easy to tow. A small tow car
will notice the weight when pulling away and going up hills but other than
that you'll hardly know it is there. It is hardly any wider or higher than
the tow car so if the car can get through a gap, so can the Slidavan. No
special mirrors are needed.
Q:
How
much does a Slidavan weigh?
An unladen Slidavan will
weigh about 300 kilos including the trailer which makes it one of the
lightest caravans in the world.
The simple and light mechanism uses a threaded bar and a battery
opperated drill
Q: How
does the lifting mechanism work?
Q: How
well does it tow?
Q:
Is it hard to
manoeuvre?
Not at all but with the Slidavan there's really no need to even try. It
is much easier to simply unhitch it and move it by hand!
Q: I
don't have any woodwork experience, can I still build a Slidavan?
Yes. If you can follow instructions, have a few
basic tools and are willing to 'have a go' the plans will walk you
through every single step of the build. From wood selection to the
finished caravan. There is nothing difficult about building a Slidavan.
It just takes some time.
Q:
Tell me more about the plans
The metric Slidavan plans have over 100 pages and more than 250 photos
and even bonus sections full of useful information. The plans come as a
PDF file and are about 15 mb in size. The Plans can be downloaded
immediately from this site via PayPal. You do not need to have a PayPal
account, and you can pay with your credit card. Upon completion of your
payment you will be given an option to either save or open the plans.
Save the plans to your hard drive. You will receive an email
confirmation.
If you prefer the more traditional method of purchase, please visit
Duckworksbbs.com. Here you will be able to deal with real people. It
will take a bit longer and it costs a little more but they are really
nice people to do business with.
