First trip with the gypsy wagon

 This was taken at the kangaroo valley folk festival

 This is the hampton bridge in the valley

 Solar lighs work a treat at night.

 This shows the shadow from one of the solar lights on the roof it looks like a kookaburra just before an attack.

Yes we do have gypsy caravans in Australia the red one is forty years old.

My gypsy wagon

The corrugated iron imparts massive strength to a very light weight structure.
The main frames are 20 mm x 20 mm square tube with a one mm wall thickness.

Gypsy wagon

Small houses and gypsy wagons and small boats have something in common! Strength! Yes strength If one were to have a beam of say twenty feet long made from soft wood of say 3"x2" and it was supported at the ends it would bend under its own weight. This is fact. If the same piece of timber was cut to  1feet long supported also at the ends it would support a large weight. Look don't take my word for it go and do it for your selves.
This is why small is cheaper not only for the less materials smaller sizes are required as well. With this comes less maintenance because of surface area. Lets use our 3'x2' again.
Simple maths 3"x12"= 36" square inches  3 being the width and 12 being the length
Now multiply the length by 20  to to make it the original 20 feet long.
  Simple maths again  3x 12x 20=720 square inches to maintain.
 Or 720sq inches compared to  36sq inches.
This is only on one surface and there is six sides to a cube and hollow the cube and you have 12 surfaces to look after
36 becomes 432
720 becomes 8,640
There's the difference in area only and it goes across the board with everything including money.
Houses also have a cost not associated with the boat and the gypsy wagon.
 Foundations and councils. This is another story.

Moving huts are better than fixed huts? Gypsy wagon

 My son bought me some proper insulation and I have installed it.

 The finished rear of the wagon
The mind wanders and the thoughts of being on the road conger up where to stay. On the last trip I was fixated in looking for safe spots on the road to stay for various lengths of time. The thought of a prefab picket fence with gate to make the place look like it is there to stay and has been there for some time gives the impression of ownership. Then wait and see how long it takes for the owners or the authorities take to make you move on. Bluff is the game to play. Has anyone else done this with any success? Maybe I have the wrong type of hut as people are weary of gypsies.

 I painted the back today the paint didn't have much body this is with three coats.

 This is for traveling with and will be for carrying bee hives from site to site.

Run out of paint will have to get more. The window is a plate that came down the Murrumbidgee river in the March floods it was still in its box with polystyrene packaging.
The inside will be started in the next few days door lock is to be installed.

gypsy wagon

The door is on and some decorations from me old mate Les Warner 91 young and going strong and chasing the ladies. He came up with the door knocker and the other bits from his collection. The stove is there to be placed into the wagon. If I were to go the horse way it can be lifted and put on a dray. Might even make a four wheel wagon to pull behind a tractor.

gypsy wagon

 Led lights have been installed along with the number plate. The trailer is registered as a bulk carry trailer and the box is the load.part of the floor has been laid, it is second hand flooring Australian hardwood.

 Vapor barrier installed

  Expanding foam seals the gaps.

More of the vapor barrier.

gypsy type wagon 3

 This shows the end wall being screwed and glued into position. These are tongue and grove cypress pine flooring from an old house.

 The wall has been trimmed to shape.

 The final shaping has been done to this wall

 The stove in its relative position in the wagon.

These are recycled hardwood tongue and grove floor boards from a old dismantled house.

gypsy type wagon 2

 The main frame is from 20mm square tube and is mig welded the trailer is what is termed as a bulk carry trailer and the tube is just the load. It is cheaper to register than a caravan by 200 dollars a year.

The boys a Bomaderry engineering did a great job straight and true. The type of wagon is called a bow top wagon. As I said before I am not a gypsy so it is not a gypsy wagon unless I sell it to a gypsy.

gypsy type wagon1

All good wagons that are lived in need a stove for cooking and I have experimented with various degrees of failure;)  I have finally come up with a beauty I called the Gundy stove. Simple to make 120mm x 800mm  the exhaust is 50mm So you can work it out from there. This is the start of a series on making a gypsy type wagon. Not being a gypsy I cannot call it a gypsy wagon.