A mobile home away from home
A mobile abode, a home away from home.
Wherever you are in this country, it seems every second vehicle on the road is either a campervan or an SUV towing a caravan. Kiwis and tourists alike, the desire to spend quality time beside our beautiful rivers, lakes and oceans is being realised in ever increasing numbers.
And we’re doing it in style. More often than not these days the humble tent, stretcher and billy is cast aside in favour of a queen-sized mattress, a shower, toilet and a fully-fledged kitchen. Rather than ‘roughing it’ we’re holidaying in mobile hotel rooms with a view.
It’s perhaps not surprising that Angove Engineering’s MStar Motorsport Trailers team was approached to fabricate a unique ‘toy-hauler’ caravan. The business’ enclosed trailers are often cited as likely candidates for kitting out as caravans, and earlier this year the idea turned reality with an order for a highspec toy hauler unit.
Speaking of their largest MStar project to date, business owner Paul Angove says this 6.5m x 2.5m trailer is not your typical caravan.
“This one’s quite something. We first met its owners on the roadside opposite the lake in Taupo. We were delivering a new MStar racecar trailer of identical size to a customer who was racing at McLaren Park. The prospective buyers travelled down from Tauranga to view the racecar trailer before we delivered it to the track. At that time we figured we’d be building them something similar, only with a few beds and a cooker. It ended up being significantly more involved.” It’s taken a fair few months and some head scratching here and there, but the resulting toy-hauler caravan project is now only six weeks from completion. Paul says.
“This camper-trailer was designed to satisfy two major purposes — the first the transportation of a 3.5m Zodiac boat on its own trailer. Winched in through the backdoor on the trailer’s underfloor ramps, it is secured in place for transit. Transporting a boat means the trailer must be solidly built, which equates to weight, an arch enemy in trailer building. The second purpose is to make it a modern, comfortable and livable caravan when the boat is removed.
The first part of the equation was nothing out of the ordinary for the team, given its motorsport trailer background. The second aspect was newer for them.
“While we’ve installed many appliances and a lot of cabinetry to our trailers and horse floats over the years, this trailer is another level in terms of how much is going on with it. A very cool job!”
The trailer sleeps five people in custom-fabricated fold-down bunk beds, it has a fold-down shelf and a fold down seat. The owners love hunting and fishing, so it’s equipped with a built-in gun safe and fishing rod holders. For entertainment they’ve got a fold-down LED television fed by a satellite dish, and audio comes from a built-in marine grade bluetooth stereo unit.There’s a full-sized shower unit, bathroom basin and cassette toilet. The kitchen boasts a 190L three-way fridge, a sink with hot and cold running water and a combination hob, grill and oven unit.
Certified self-contained, underfloor there are three fresh and two grey water tanks monitored for fluid levels.
Water and air heating comes