RV FEATURE
A Crusader roof almost ready to be fitted .
Obviously there is a lot more to the construction of a Crusader caravan . But as our tour came to a close , I was left with a favourable impression . I could not fault the strength of the panels or the method by which the floor , roof and walls were locked together . I even noticed that the floor vinyl on a Chameleon under construction had been perfectly sized and adhered to the floor panel – Crusader doesn ’ t ‘ float ’ the vinyl as some manufacturers do .
While production isn ’ t automated – caravans are still largely handbuilt items – the precision of the CNC-cut fibreglass panels removes practically all potential for human error in terms of construction of the outer shell . Anyone who thinks these vans are slapped together should probably take a factory tour too .
TOURING CREATIVE COMPOSITES
Following our visit to Crusader , I was shown through Creative Composites . Having always been intrigued by how fibreglass sandwich panels were made , I was looking forward to this part .
Unsure what to expect , the first thing I noticed was the tidy presentation of the factory . Everything had its place . I was shown 60m rolls of fibreglass skins imported from Italy , and neat stacks of the closed-cell structural foam that would become the core of each sandwich panel , imported from Germany .
Crusader makes its own screws , which are used to ensure a tight fit of the panels as the adhesive cures .
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