A Tale of 8 Caravans - Part 4 – The big, green Swift Rapide

Growing teenagers and the thought that we might like mains prompted us to change vans again, in April 1991.  This one was a Swift Rapide 450/4.  In some ways it was a very good choice, in others it was the worst caravan we ever had.

The good bit was the layout, a decent sized dinette at the front, and an L-shaped one converting to 2 bunks at the back – space for the kids to amuse themselves.  There were two main bad aspects.  The first was towability – the balance was all wrong and though it had noseweight when you hitched up, it could suddenly tip backwards if you lifted the hitch a few inches (the gas bottles were right over the wheel).  It was also very prone to crosswinds unless you kept it very nose heavy.  The other problem was water ingress, as you will read if you are still with me when we come to trade it in.

It had a busy first year, Low Manesty in May and October, Whitby Folk Festival, Hemel Hempstead for a family party and the holiday trek to Anglesey via Carnarvon.  Records are a bit more sparse after 1991, but the main holiday in 1992 was at Freshwater East – the red cavalier broke down on the M62 and we later got stuck on the Welsh country roads behind all manner of slow vehicles.  In 1993 we went to Dulverton in the summer (we liked it, the kids called it DULLverton).  We went to Low Manesty in October in spite of our son having a broken leg.  In 1994 we had a break from caravanning and Eurocamped in the Black Forest ( a few disasters, but outside my present scope). In 1995 our main summer holiday was to Coniston and then Low Manesty, with just our son, daughter joining us for her 18^th birthday.  Then they declared, we don’t want to go on holiday with you any more.  So, before they changed their minds, we switched to a 2-berth.  Oh yes, there was the water ingress – the ceiling had dropped, some of the wall board had turned to porridge and Goodalls knocked £1000 off the part exchange.  A miracle we kept caravanning, really!