After 20 years of tent-camping, we switched to camping with a caravan in 1998 with the usual excuses. Very deliberately a small and light caravan. Mainly to avoid having to buy another car. But also to be able to reach a lot of places that are not or difficult to reach for larger models. And finally: more space and you will take more with you……. The biggest advantage has turned out to be the extended camping season. With a heater and a guaranteed dry place, the number of suitable camping weekends and holidays suddenly becomes much higher. To take advantage of this, but also to force ourselves to be on the road more often, we have also been a member of the NCC (Dutch Caravan Club) for a few years. In 2008, the Kompakt got a worthy successor: the Kip Vision T41. Slightly larger, but still a pop-up roof because of the ideal indoor climate and it is slightly wider (2 x 10cm) but still an ‘adventurous’ caravan.
The KIP Kompakt 37 EK (1990 version) is a very light, yet fully equipped caravan. The empty weight is 550 kg (!) and the load capacity is 300 kg! This brings the maximum permissible weight to 850 kg. No problem for most mid-range cars.
The weight savings, but also the low air resistance, are achieved to a large extent by using a pop-up roof . An additional advantage of such a pop-up roof is the climate in the caravan. After all, the vertical part of the pop-up roof is made of tent cloth, in short, this is really a ‘breathable’ caravan…. The disadvantage can be that more noise comes in… Because there are only two – very spacious – sleeping places, the children usually sleep in a small dome tent. Under extreme conditions, of course, many tame sheep fit in a pen! And yes, we also have a refrigerator, a heater and a (cassette) toilet…… And that within an length of 415 cm: the total length, width and height of 525 x 182 x 209 cm….. Often no extra side mirrors are needed.
After a few years I switched to the KIP Vision 41T. Retaining most of the previously mentioned advantages and slightly larger.
