In order to provide sleeping accommodation in the field for very senior officers - Brigadiers and Generals - the British Army had used converted trailers which were deployed with the appropriate formation headquarters including HQ I (BR) Corps. However, in the mid-seventies a motor caravan based on the Land Rover 109 was developed. Searle Ltd of Sunbury on Thames was both a Land Rover dealer and a specialist conversion company offering a range of conversions of basic Land Rovers including a motor caravan based on the Land Rover 109 and known as the Carawagon De Luxe. It had an elevating roof for extra headroom, a roof rack over the cab, and interior space for up to four beds as well as a refrigerator, cooker and toilet. The elevating roof was novel in that as it collapsed the curved ends folded in and the vertical side pieces folded out, taking the natural curve out of the aluminium sheet which formed the roof and allowing it to lie flat. By 1977 a prototype had been built on a military spec Land Rover 109 (62GF86) using the existing Carawagon bodywork including the roof rack. The elevating roof provided standing headroom of a little over 6ft (1.9m) over the full length of the living area. The roof rack over the cab provided space for stowage of camouflage nets and a 9x7ft (2.75x2.13m) tent that could be fitted over the rear door. The internal arrangement was rather different to the civilian version. Along the right-hand side was a fitted cabinet providing a working area for up to three people which had cupboards and drawers below. Above was a vertical map board together with a drop-down table.
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