BoatHouse - Rapido Page

Rapido

a french pop-top caravan

Our Rapido 32TDL ‘pop top’ Caravan.
(We bought her from the Folding Caravan Centre at Swindon via their RVsales.co.uk website for private adverts).

The (French) manufacturer has an excellent website (with English translation).

Despite the folding top, she's very cosy inside. We prefer 'pop-tops' to folding caravans, as they can still be stored in a garage, but all of the facilities can be used whilst on the road.

For security, she’s fitted with an Indespension integral hitchlock, and a ‘Mule’ armoured locking leg

ahhh, that's what you miss
in a small motor 'van.
Your own private 'space'....

We added a Fiamma cycle rack. ( It's been very carefully fitted at the correct load bearing points, and although it would make a normal caravan 'snake' by being tail-heavy, the Rapido has a very short rear overhang. (We've got a car mounted cycle carrier as well, but it's a more flexible arrangement to lock/store them in either place, depending on the plans for the day!

We added a balanced-flue Truma heater (of the correct type for this van). Quite expensive, but it makes us independant of electric hook-ups. The bottom of the wardrobe seems to have been especially designed to take this model (with the intake and exhaust flues run below the wardrobe floor). It pushes out a tremendous heat, which coupled with modern caravan insulation, enables all year round touring.

Despite being very small and easy to tow, the front locker still holds all of the junk you end up needing on site.

The gas supply has been modified to take Propane (for winter) and Butane (for summer) cylinders, together with a Gaslow changeover and the appropriate gaslow regulators.

The standard electrics didn't include a remote status panel (as was fitted to all of my motor 'vans). I like to know what's happening so I fitted a remote ZIG panel (only about £25 ) and the mobile phone bits and pieces, and an inside/outside thermometer (gadget freak !).
I was able to move forward the blanking plate of the cubbyhole just inside the door, to give me a nice 'original looking' control panel.

Actually it's quite useful to know how cold it is outside in the morning... I then resited the main electrics in the cupboard at the front, to enable more storage in the underseat box.