Friday 5 November 2010




after seeing a pic of little China the dog living in it's owners caravan on their experimental money saving experiment - i thought i would post a pic of a couple of my dogs. No wonder i dont get much done on the laptop! Our life in a caravan are blooging about their adventures living in a caravan on blogger and look like they are having a great time being at one with nature.
At the moment the dogs are hiding indoors barking whenever a firework goes off.

Monday 1 November 2010

Teardrop Trailer hire



We are now hiring our trailers out for a great holiday. Be warned though, don't hire one if you don't want people coming up to you admiring the trailer or just being curious about what is inside as the Diddyvan always seems to attract admirers.
Think about holidaying in style in a cute gleaming teardrop and the freedom of the open road. We supply almost everything you need though you will have to bring your own guitar if you want to serenade that someone special. See the website for further details (of the trailer hire, not the someone special, i am afraid we don't provide that, but if you hire it and travel alone then...who knows what may happen?).

Wednesday 6 October 2010



Not in a tent but camping all the same....

For backpacking and family camping a tent serves it's purpose, but there are some times when it might be an attractive proposition not to have to pitch and dismantle a tent. This may be if you are travelling from campsite to campsite or if there are two of you then it may be more practical to have a bed ready to hand (and don't think you have stumbled onto the "love in a tent" blog by mistake, i am keeping it clean here).
A perfect solution might be a teardrop trailer. Teardrop trailers are like mini caravans and are sturdy but usually light enough to be pulled by a car with a smaller engine. They have been around since the early 1940's and come in many shapes and materials. For a retro and classic vintage feel there is not much that compares to a Diddyvan. These little cuties are made to order in the UK, Coventry to be exact.
So what is it like in a Diddyvan?http://www.diddyvans.co.uk We took the show van out for a spin to Norfolk and took some pictures with a model who looks the part, staying at Breck Farm campsite in Weybourne. http://www.breckfarm.co.uk/ The campsite suited the individuality of the Diddyvan, there are no set pitches as such as the site is part of a farm and it is a case of pitch where you want in the fields available. The biggest attraction for most people is the ability to have a campfire and they even have logs that you can buy so you don't have to spend your time foraging or space on bringing logs with you. All too few campsites now allow fires and it is great to be able to sit out when the nights are that bit chilly or even when they aren't as it seems to fulfil a primeval need for the men in the party.
As usual the Diddyvan and the accompanying volkswagen camper van drew an audience - this sort of camping is not for you if you don't like to draw an admiring crowd, asking what it is and letting them look inside where they will invariably exclaim; - "OO there is more room in there than i thought" as they see the 4 foot wide and 6 foot long polka dot covered mattress through the porthole windows.
The hatch at the back lifts up to reveal space for cooking and storage for the leisure battery that runs the lights and cigarette lighter (handy to charge that mobile). Inside the Diddyvan deluxe model are cupboards and shelves to store bits and bobs to keep things in order - we always say that "a tidy camp is a happy camp" (that annoys the children) but part of the beauty of having a place to store things and a Diddyvan is that camping is simple. This was demonstrated as we saw a couple opposite in the final stages of striking camp in their tent - she was heavily pregnant and we weren't sure what they had come camping with (possibly lots of coal or some strange craving items for her) as their car was full to the brim with camping gear - they looked enviously across, as our answer to camping was to open a door and hop in.

After an evening spent chilling around the fire, the peace only interrupted by various people from the campsite who hadnt had the courage to come and ask about the Diddyvan whilst sober but after a few pints of Dutch courage came and satisfied their curiosity, we retired to a comfy double bed. In the morning we popped to Cromer for a photoshoot on the cliffs - again causing a bit of a stir and making many new acquaintances, and then took the dogs for a walk on the beach at Wells-Next- The- Sea. The car park isn't really supposed to be for caravans but they made an exception for the Diddyvan as i dont think they knew how to classify it - we returned to find more admirers - and apologise to the parents whose little girls were saying - "why can't I have a Diddyvan mummy?". Wells is a great little seaside town, and the beach to the left of the car park backs onto Holkham beach - even when car parking is difficult you can usually find a less crowded piece of beach, but make sure you take account of the tides. Wells has some lovely beach huts which probably cost more than the national debt, though i think you can hire some too. The harbour website has a live webcam. http://www.wellsharbour.co.uk/ and in the summer a little train takes people from the town to the beach where you can find toilets, a cafe with basic but good picnic fare and cakes, a boating lake and mini golf. Pinewoods holiday camp is a great place for camping as although it is a large site with static holiday homes as well as a campsite, it's position next to the beach is very handy indeed.

After the obligatory chips we hitched up the Diddyvan and drove back home along the coast road, the Diddyvan has a chassis made especially for it by Al-ko so towing even along those winding narrow roads is a breeze though watch out for stunned drivers who wonder what that shining aluminium trailer is and take their eyes off the road. For more information look at the website :http://www.diddyvans.co.uk

Wednesday 25 August 2010

what to do..?



a great designer, inkblot who has a shop on etsy.com has been drawing up some designs for us - bless her though as we keep changing our minds! We had a retro design in our thoughts until we had the photoshoot and now, we are wondering whether to use the photos from there for our flyers instead? Flyer is the bottom design of these two. Inkblot has also designed us a backdrop for our website (top pic) but is it retro enough or too retro? Decisions, decisions, with the fabulous photos taken by retromotoring and jsm graphics the other week we just have TOO much choice. opinions on these designs please!? We just can't choose.

Thursday 19 August 2010



the website is now updated with some new photos though it would be great to find a website designer who wants to help us out a bit - we are so busy building and sourcing retro parts that it takes all our time - we are getting so much interest from people so thanks to everyone for that - and to our French following since our time at the hotrod supernationals. A petit diddyvan is going to be going overseas soon.

Saturday 14 August 2010



we had a brilliant time last week with some great photographers and a lovely 50's model, Sparky. We stayed at Breck Farm in Norfolk and then wandered along to Cromer and Wells. Everywhere we go the little diddyvan attracts an admiring crowd - we parked up at Wells beach car park to take the dogs to the beach. We left some business cards on the diddyvan and they had all gone when we came back to another group of people admiring it with big grins on their faces, saying - "0000 its SOOO cute". We must update the website with the new pics soon - if we ever get the time.

Tuesday 13 July 2010


We had a great time at santa pod and couldnt stop the Girls N dubs crew from having a rest in the teardrop. We arrived home to find that the Sunday Mirror had featured an article on retro caravans and that our website was named as one where you could buy a teardrop trailer - so many people had looked at the site that it temporarily crashed - apologies there but it is back and running now.
Thanks to Chris and Jane from "my cool caravan" for writing their book in the first place as this was the article and to the Sunday Mirror for putting our website link in.

Friday 9 July 2010

VAGFEST santa pod


we will be at vagfest at santa pod raceway this Sunday 11th July with our deluxe trailer. hope to see people there to look at that and the VWs and associated group cars on display.

Tuesday 22 June 2010

new pic


I have been playing about with the flickr picnik editing tools - i just love them. i hope i have managed to make this picture very retro in it's feel.
we are trying to figure out how to increase our profile in the mysterious almost masonic world that is "search engine optimisation". Many have fallen by the wayside it appears and everyone we talk to has different suggestions - some more to add to the (possible) myths and/or realities are welcome please! thanks

Sunday 20 June 2010


Welcome to our blog. We take high quality raw materials and turn them into a teardop trailer that just oozes vintage style. Our design is based on a 1940's teardrop trailer - the Cub. It has more refinements than that model though as I am pretty sure that the Cub didn't have space for a stereo and Led lighting to light your way to bed. At the back we have built a hatch to store those bits and bobs you don't want cluttering up the sleeping area. Inside there is a cosy sleeping area with a 6 foot 3 foam small double mattress which gives plenty of room for tall campers and couples.
We are based in Coventry and welcome visitors to our workshop - we hand build each one of our trailers to your specifications so each trailer is unique and attracts attention wherever it goes. We just came back from a hot rod and vw show where it drew many admiring glances. It is just the thing for camping in style. With vintage being so popular you had better get your order in soon.