Hi, just got a Grand Caravan, now what?

[WQTraveller]

Hi:

I just wanted to say hello. Excuse the TL;DR intro. My name is Jenn. I live in the Ottawa Valley in western Quebec and I have been fascinated with vanlife since a friend decided to get a van, move it to BC and travel. I've always been a camper, staring out in a tent, then a teardrop and finally a tent trailer while driving compact or subcompact cars. The dog loves it. I love it, but I am getting tired of the setup and pulldown work. It seem that every step is an evolution of resources and desire for space. I got the teardrop because I was tired of having no space in the cab of the car while travelling. I got the tent trailer after the teardop was destroyed by a negligent neighbour's tree fell onto my property and that of another neighbour. I was tired of not being able to sit up, get dressed or use the loo anyhow. I love my tent trailer. It ticks off a lot of boxes, but storage is minimal whes folded down. It's an antique if 1967 is antique and I'm destroying it by using it without renovating it. I tend do monthly three-day weekend trips in the from May to October, skipping August and a two-week long road trip in August. Because it's ancient, there is nothing fancy, no mechanical or electric lift equipment. I use a carpenter's level to level it and when you have 60 hours to travel, losing a few hours unpacking and repacking and playing tetris with gear is no fun.

Now I have the van. It's a 2011 Grand Caravan. With remote work being more frequent even after Covid is in our collective pasts, being older, having more vacation time and resources to travel, I want to do that more frequently with a little less labour. I also want to travel more spontaneously. With the tent trailer, I'd always have a destination booked. It was a campground if I expected to end my driving during daylight, or motel on longer trips if I expected to end the driving at night. It's too much work or expense. The van will never be my primary vehicle, but I still don't want to build anything permanent into it. The plan is to put a no-build bedframe in the back with some under-bed storage for food, clean clothes, valuable things etc. Maybe we'll have a cooler or fridge inside while driving. I haven't decided what to do with the stow and go seating yet. Currently they're buried into the floor.

What I'm thinking of doing over the winter is purchasing a 4x6 enclosed cargo trailer, putting a teardrop style kitchen, food and bulky and stinky storage back there. I am also wondering if it could support a canoe. I'm not feeling confident that I can lift my canoe on top of the van. I can do it with my Crosstrek.

There is so much to see in northern Quebec and Ontario and virus-willing, the Adirodacks and Vermont. The van will help facilitate that. I would appreciate feedback on my idea for the towed kitchen/storage idea. Not a lot of van-based nomads that I've seen on YouTube tow trailers. There must be reason. I'm guessing factors include parking and security in the city and easy access during bad weather.

 

[treesprite]

Welcome!

 

[bullfrog]

My original plan was to build a small enclosed trailer that would be a bathroom/kitchen but it quickly became too heavy and large as I wanted to not have to set anything up. Trailers depending on how they are built and what they are built out of are too heavy for most anything less than a 1/2 ton truck. Add cargo to them like propane tanks, water, sinks, pumps, cast iron skillets and etc. it quickly requires a 3/4 ton truck. Your old tent trailer is probably light weight as most of it is probably uninsulated and canvas and therefore the axle wheels and tires are lighter as well. A 4’x6’ all aluminum trailer that is 4’ tall would be light enough and short enough you could handle one end of a canoe. If you mount a set of dolly wheels on the top side of the canoe and trailer rack it makes it really easy. All aluminum trailers like Featherweight are expensive and not as sturdy or easy to repair as steel trailers but in this case worth it in my opinion since you won’t be going too far off road with a mini van. A regular steel cargo trailer will work but you will have to be careful you don’t weigh it down with cargo. You could use the base of your tent camper and build a foamie trailer type enclosure as described on the Teardrop and Tiny Trailers web site in the foamie forum. There are a few people there that have canoes and have done just that.

 

[landyachtman]

Welcome to the CRVL forums! To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips, Tricks and Rules" post lists some helpful information to get you started.

Most of our rules boil down to two simple over-riding principles: 1) What you post should provide good information (like your introductory post), and 2) Any response to someone else's post should make them feel glad they are part of this forum community.

We look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[skyl4rk]

A Grand Caravan has a lot of room, you may not need a trailer (?). The one thing it lacks is good ventilation. You can start by putting rain guards on the front windows and leave them cracked open at night. Some mosquitos may find their way inside. Another option is to install an RV style roof vent with a screen. But that can get in the way of the canoe on top. Perhaps a low profile roof vent? I have traveled a lot with a Grand Caravan and find it an excellent camping vehicle with the exception of ventilation. I carried a kayak on a roof rack to places like Chapleau, ON and to Appalachian Trail trailhead locations. Regarding food, you might consider eating no cook meals in town, and unpacking a small kitchen while camping. Pulling a trailer increases fuel consumption and it makes it hard to back out of places.

 

[GypsyJan]

Welcome to the forum, WQTraveller:

You could fashion a mini-galley kitchen facing out of the rear hatch (tear drop style). There are lots of pictures of this on the internet. An additional option is to have a kitchen on a steel swing-away hitch carrier.

The Adirodacks and Vermont are on my bucket list, too, along with NH & parts of Canada.

 

[eDJ_]

Welcome to the CRVL Forum  

One of the greatest things about this way of life & travel is that we can try different types of vehicles
to see what would work best.   Even between home built or factory built.  There are just so many ways
of doing things that half the fun is putting your rig together.  And even revising it.   Always a work in progress much like a hobby in itself.

The links below may be of interest to you to look thru.  One is about the put together and the other is the planner with resources for going on the road. Knowing where to go and how to go about it stumps a lot of people.  This site is to help people out with that.

All the best eh

 

[flying kurbmaster]

Hi I have a dodge grand caravan that was professionally built with a pop top, swivel front seats, has all the amenities fridge, stove, storage, vented heater, sleeps four. I think it is probably an ideal vehicle. The swivel seats extend your living space dramatically, with the roof down it is very stealth, it is economical to run and they are on every corner so plenty of parts and people who can fix them. I got a few ideas for you. You could have a pop top installed. A company called safari condo may do them in Montreal you would have to call them, I know they do them on full size vans. You can buy a tent cover that fits over your back door to extend your living space, they work great. For loading your canoe if you get a trailer hitch installed you can have a pole manufactured with a pulley at the top with cradles on each side. You lift the front of the canoe into the cradle onto the pulley go to back of canoe lift and push onto roof rack. This contraption makes loading canoes easier. I have another van in another place a Toyota, that I have made modular parts that fit into the van like a puzzle it takes about 10 minutes. If you search on this site in best mini vans there pictures of both of them in there Somewhere. Good luck after pulling a ten foot Camper for many years I don’t like the idea of dragging a trailer around.

 

[crofter]

Welcome to the forum!    -crofter

 

[RvNaut]

Next? Flush the transmission and do so every 25k min... it will save the trans....

 

[Inti]

Have a look at my very simple conversion: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1af1N3xyrlLYU45MgfLrnyNjM0ijAQF-GeK23tvD7_LI/edit?usp=sharing

 

[frodo2222]

A Grand Caravan has a lot of room, you may not need a trailer (?). The one thing it lacks is good ventilation. You can start by putting rain guards on the front windows and leave them cracked open at night. Some mosquitos may find their way inside. Another option is to install an RV style roof vent with a screen. But that can get in the way of the canoe on top. Perhaps a low profile roof vent? I have traveled a lot with a Grand Caravan and find it an excellent camping vehicle with the exception of ventilation. I carried a kayak on a roof rack to places like Chapleau, ON and to Appalachian Trail trailhead locations. Regarding food, you might consider eating no cook meals in town, and unpacking a small kitchen while camping. Pulling a trailer increases fuel consumption and it makes it hard to back out of places.

I got C/V Grand caravan so the ladder rack was a bit higher which allowed me to do both solar and kayak with the added vent and the solar slides out and becomes a awning on both sides