Behind The Adventures: Our Wheelchair Accessible Caravan
A look inside our wheelchair accessible caravan. The things we love, the things we’d change, and the modifications we’ve made.
Why a Wheelchair Accessible Caravan?
Living with a physical disability, I’ve got my fair share of horror stories when it comes to travel accommodation. A lot of places do make an effort, but you’d be surprised by the number of times Stephen and I have arrived at a hotel to find that the accessible room has been double booked or is up a flight of stairs (yes, really).
You just never know what you’re going to get.
And so a plan was formed — We’d buy a caravan and modify it to suit our needs, removing the stress of finding suitable accommodation altogether!
Choosing a Caravan to Adapt
Working to a tight budget, we browsed the second-hand market for suitable caravans. We knew that we’d need to make changes to it regardless, but the less modifications the better. This meant choosing a caravan that, for example, wouldn’t require us to move a window to extend the door width.
While there were a couple of different options that fitted our criteria, we settled on a 2011 Bailey Unicorn Valencia. The rear washroom, French bed, front lounge layout was something we could work with, with fairly minimal adaptations. We also chose this model because it’s equipped with Alde wet central heating, rather than a blown-air system. As someone with a sensitive respiratory system and who feels the cold, this was important to us — especially as we planned on using the caravan all throughout the year!
Making Our Caravan Wheelchair Accessible
We’d chosen our caravan, found one for sale and purchased it. Total freedom was almost in reach… We just had to make it accessible for my wheelchair.
Wanting to save pennies wherever possible, Stephen began by taking apart the lounge himself, making space for my wheelchair to turn around inside. Thankfully the caravan was way past its warranty period by then, so I didn’t panic too much when he took a saw to the internal woodwork (although it was definitely nerve-wracking!)
We began by turning the parallel lounge into an ‘L’ shaped one, with a bit of help from Stephen’s seamstress Mum, who reconfigured the cushions. Then we removed an overhead locker that would intrude on where the new, wider door would be.
This is when we handed it over to a local caravan workshop. They moved the fuse box and rewired it, creating more space in the lounge, before fitting a door wide enough to get my wheelchair through.
After a few finishing touches — like installing a small ramp on the inside of the door and creating a little cubbyhole for my ventilator under the bed — Our new caravan was wheelchair accessible and ready to hit the road!
Other Caravan Modifications
Aside from the accessibility modifications, we’ve gradually changed a couple of other things to further enhance our caravanning experience. Most notably (for me, anyway) is adding a Duvalay mattress topper, which takes caravan comfort to the next level. We’ve also fitted a solar-power system so that we can camp off-grid in some of the most remote places. And most recently, we fitted an Avtex 5G antenna, so we can continue working while at said remote places.
All of these things combined, make our caravan a real home-from home.
While we could definitely benefit from some more substantial adaptations — like a wet room, for example — our priority was just getting it liveable. As long as I could get my wheelchair in, we were good to go. And we have certainly done that! Our caravan has enabled us to experience so many places across the UK and Europe, without the hassle and stress that comes with finding accessible accommodation. We don’t know where we’d be without it.
