I was going to a festival and had spotted a cart/trolly in Asda to drag the boy around in. Weather forecast was scorching sun and/or thunderstorms! So commenced “Operation Gypsy Space Caravan”
The folding trolley, its an Ozark Folding Trolley and cost me £40 from Asda.
This is what it looks like when its folded up…
Requirements:
- Should be able to flat-pack
- Should be water proof (ish)
- Should provide sun shelter
- Should be light weight
I’ve got loads of various ply off-cuts left over from doing the van, so the cunning plan was to build a frame from ply that I could then drape silver insulation / bubble wrap over, which I also have stacks of left over!
I decided the ply frame should just slot into each other so that it can flat pack easily and any piece should go anyway around so I don’t need to label them.
This is going pretty well so far…. at this point though I realised that it also comes apart fairly easily so a few strategically drilled holes allowed me to keep everything pressed together with bungee cords.
The idea with the cover was to have it able to roll up the sides or slide the front half back over the back half. In reality it was either all on or slid back and I didn’t ever roll it up.
To fix the cover in place each end of the two strips is rolled and glued around a piece of dowel, I added some furniture tacks as well as I wasn’t convinced the glue would be enough. I then added hooks in each end of the bits of dowel (so 4 bits of dowel and eight hooks in total). I could then loop more bungy cords over the hooks and through the frame of the trolley to keep the covers in place.
In all its glory…
Flat-packed and stored in the trolly…
Seal of approval…. I ended up having a cool box in the back with his pillows leaning against the cool box. Good for water, snacks and beer 😀
It proved to be robust enough to survive with his nibbs climbing in and out of it and sitting on the the lower horizontal bars. He also loved it so much that when he wasn’t in it, he insisted on pulling it.
Downsides.
The whole thing is heavier than I would like it to be and it was a massive festival site that I was dragging him over so it ended up being quite hard work but still worth it. I will aim to reduce the weight before the next festival. I would also like to add fairy lights, a dragons head on the front and a tail at the back!