Foldavan: World's smallest DIY bicycle caravan

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The world's smallest DIY bicycle caravan is the Foldavan - a lightweight design that collapses for easy storage and towing.

Wooden Widget produces a range of collapsible boats and sailing dinghies that can be towed behind a bicycle and the Foldavan shares many of the same design principles.

Built from wood, carbon fibre and reinforced PVC cloth, the teardrop-shaped Foldavan has three modes. When being stored, or transported on a car roof rack, it collapses flat. While being towed by a bicycle, it opens to 60 cm - about the same as the width as most handlebars. Once at its destination, it takes less than five minutes to transform the Foldavan into camping mode. Fully-extended, the caravan measures 1.2 m wide and offers over one metre of headroom.

The Foldavan weighs only 30 kg and has a low centre of gravity, which means it can negotiate even quite rough terrain – in high winds, the sides can be unzipped to let the wind pass through.

https://youtu.be/wJtde3xz5Tc

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The Foldavan trailer is available as a set of plans for £30. The tiny caravan takes about 50 hours to build with materials easy to find in varying qualities to suit any budget - a Foldavan can be built for next to nothing using reclaimed timber and secondhand parts.

The carbon footprint of the build is small because all the materials can be found locally or salvaged. Furthermore, the company plants five trees every time it sells a set of plans.

Win plans to build your own Foldavan

We have a set of plans to build the Foldavan to give away. Leave a comment at the bottom of this page and let us know what you'd use yours for and we will pick a name.

Cycle Insurance

Cycle insurance from the ETA includes new-for-old, third party insurance (in the case of an accident you may need to seek compensation or even deal with a claim by someone else), personal accident cover, race event cover and if you suffer a mechanical breakdown, we will come out and recover you and your bike. Electric bicycles can also be covered. Includes 90 days’ worldwide cover. Get a quote