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NEWS
Floating caravan expands your options
New, Queensland-built trailerable houseboat features caravan-style slide-out for extra space on land and waterA caravan that can also float is nothing unusual, with various local examples like the
Caraboat and
Drifta hitting the roads (and water) in recent times.
However, Queensland-based mechanical engineer and fitter and turner, Claudia Moffat, has come up with something a bit different with the Transformis Inspire, a large, trailerable houseboat with a caravan-style slide-outs.
"It's a cross between a pop-out caravan and a houseboat," Moffat told the Sunshine Coast Daily.
"It took me three months to design and research, about a year to build and another six months to tweak it once it was on the water," she said.
The German-born Moffat came up with the expandable houseboat idea after undertaking a nine-month motorhome tour around Australia in 2007 with her then four-year-old son.
"As we travelled around, we saw trailerable houseboats, but the biggest issue was their weight, and that limited the towing vehicles you could use," she said. "Also, they seemed very small inside."
"Then we came up with an idea based on the Transformer toys my son had."
To fit on a trailer the prototype measures 2.4m wide by 8.4m (27ft 6in) long, with the main body constructed from MonoPan polypropylene composite, glued and riveted to the aluminum frame.
A local build builder constructed the pontoons and centre hull from 3mm high tensile aluminium, while the system that slides out the pontoons and boxes is powered by an air compressor.
“A friend of mine builds 5th wheelers with slide-outs and we adapted that design for our prototype,” explained Moffat on the
The slide-out boxes run most of the length of the body and increase overall width to 3.6m when expanded. The Transformer can also be pushed out when strapped on the trailer so the boat can be used as a caravan.
Inside, there's no lack of caravan-style space or features including a separate toilet and shower cubicle, two ‘click-clack’ couch beds, a kitchen with large fridge/freezer and pull-out pantry, 12V system including 360Ah batteries and roof-top solar panels, 450 litres of fresh water and 150 litres of grey water storage, a 60 litre fuel tank and 60hp Honda 4 stroke engine.
All up, the whole package including trailer weighs 3100kg and the prototype has reached speeds of around 15 knots (28km/h) on the water.
Moffat said the plan is to produce a slightly smaller production version with a price tag of around $160,000.
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Written byCaravancampingsales Staff
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Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
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