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Post by marshy74 on Jun 19, 2013 19:29:30 GMT 10
Some of you may have seen this van when we took it to Mildura in 2010
We have owned it since January 2007
I have heard from the previous owner (although I don't have evidence of this) that is was made by Sopru as a trial to make a 'right hand drive' version - ie door on the left side. Apparently they bought a normal version over also. As a result it has original Eriba tow hitch, running gear etc.
The longest trips we have made were from Adelaide to Mildura for the Vintage Caravan Show and another trip from Adelaide to The Grampians. Several other camping trips closer to home.
Since purchase we have bought new tires, had the poor home job paint soda blasted off, and had a new pop top liner professionally made and installed by Roadmaster Caravans at Lonsdale - using new orange Sopru material. The pic below shows the old roof and white paint and was taken at the trip to Mildura.
This little beauty would obviously look amazing behind a split window kombi painted in 2 tone to match the tow vehicle or even with the metal polished.
Will be sold with 3 months South Australian rego.
Was featured in a book "Kiss My Horse" as it was towed by Clydesdale around SA and Victoria. A copy of the book will be included with the sale.
Further pictures can be taken for interested purchases.
There is probably an old thread on here about it too but I can't find it.
$5,000
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Post by marshy74 on Jun 19, 2013 19:37:13 GMT 10
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Post by marshy74 on Jun 19, 2013 19:39:34 GMT 10
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Post by cobber on Jun 19, 2013 19:49:30 GMT 10
G'day Marshy, A rare little van in Oz, I hope it goes to a good home. The previous post you might be referring to can be found HereCobber.
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Post by Don Ricardo on Jun 19, 2013 22:05:50 GMT 10
Hi Marshy,
That's an interesting bit of history you've referred to in your post about the van having been brought out to Australia - I presume to test the market with a nearside door version.
You mention 'Sopru' - was that the manufacturer? I did a bit of googling and came up with 'Soplair' who appear to be making a contemporary and larger version of the Puck. I am guessing by the model name that the Puck may have been the 'baby' Eriba model...
Anyway, I hope that your little van goes to somebody who appreciates what a neat little van it is, as well as its history.
I remember looking at it in wonderment and awe at Mildura!
Don Ricardo
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2013 22:37:20 GMT 10
Hi Don, Sopru were the "factory approved"Volkswagen Kombi converters in Melbourne in the 70s if my memory serves me correctly. Cheers hughdeani
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Post by penny61 on Jun 20, 2013 10:53:19 GMT 10
Hi Don, Sopru were the "factory approved"Volkswagen Kombi converters in Melbourne in the 70s if my memory serves me correctly. Cheers hughdeani They were one of the companies doing the conversions, the Campmobile I think they called it, which then became the "factory" conversion in 1973(?) when the existing company was taken over... Dormobile were another one... Eriba made more than one sized van but the Puck was the little one. Kombi's (especially Splits and Lowlights) traditionally being underpowered meant little is best for towing so the Puck became popular in Europe/UK.There's meant to be only a couple in Australia, one's here in Adelaide somewhere. There's meant to be one of the larger Eriba models here somewhere too. I think they guy who designed them was an aircraft engineer? Eriba is still around I think. I have a model somewhere of a Kombi towing an Eriba Puck and I thought the caravan was made-up. They do't quite look real.... Was qute suprised one day to discover that they are! Vanessa
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Post by cobber on Jun 20, 2013 13:33:09 GMT 10
Below is the description of an Eriba that was for sale on eBay, in the UK, in 2008. You probably remember it Marshy And anybody who looked at my hyperlink above has maybe read it But I thought it might help Marshy sell their Eriba if it was posted here . The important bit is in italics...below the preamble ... which is 7 paragraphs long SO WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT AN ERIBA?If you don't already know then read on because there are Caravans and there are Caravans and then there is the Eriba, totally different, totally superior. If you are an Eriba fan then you already know how different the Eriba is but in case your not then first take a look at the pictures and compare then with all the other vans you will see here on bay. Right away you will notice something, the Eriba looks different, its more 'curved' less boxy looking, has fewer joins and angles. That visual difference is more than just cosmetic, its to do with the way the Eriba is constructed which, with the exception of the American Airstream, is totally different from every other van on the market. To understand this difference you need to know how other Caravans are made. The basic construction method uses a very simple principle. Each of the 'walls' consists of a flat panel constructed rather like an egg box made of expanded polystyrene or alternativly, with some Caravans, a wooden frame with an insulating material between the struts. On to one side of the polystyrene or wooden frame is glued an aluminium sheet, on the other a thin laminate These' flat' panels are fixed upright around the edges of the Caravan floor, glued together to form a rectangle and the roof is then placed on top. Some more recent vans have a fibre glass moulded front section and some have the same on the back. But the side walls and usually the roof are still flat panels which are fixed to these front and / or back moulded sections by gluing the edges together. What you get is a lightweight fairly rigid 'box' but it doesn't take much working out to realise that this design, simple and lightweight as it is, has inherent built in weaknesses. For a start the four edges of the box, where the joins are made, are subject to 'flexing' every time the van is moved. These edges are also very prone to slight knocks and so on when parking or manoeuvring the van etc. They are also the points at which most stress is going to be placed whenever the van is turned or subject to high winds etc etc. When the van is new this is OK because the glue used to join the four panels together is non setting and simply moves with the van and is able recover its initial position. As time goes on however the glue starts to dry out and at this point movement of the joins begins to allow water into the van. Worse still if the panels are on a 'wooden' framework once the damp has got in the wood will also start to rot. If the walls are made in the 'egg box' fashion the internal spaces simply soak up water like a sponge. The result,the average life of a Caravan is about 15 years. Yes there are a few that last longer than this but there are also those that leak from the very start. Look on any caravan owners web site and you will find reams of letters from people who have had damp problems even with brand new vans. Almost all vans will, if they do survive beyond the 15 year period, have had at some time, or still have problems with water ingress and dampeness Then there's the weight. The timber frame needs to be strong enough to support the side walls and all the internal fittings and the stronger it is then the more its going to weigh. Manufacturers usually make a compromise between strength and weight, often this will involve cutting down on the quality of materials used on internal fittings so that the frame can be made heavy enough to do all the tasks its required to do. However the Eriba is different, completely different. Designed by an Aircraft engineer the Eriba uses the same construction techniques that are used in the building of planes. A tubular steel frame is welded to the floor pan and the aluminium skin is then formed more or less in one piece around this frame. The results are plain to see. To begin with the Eriba is not simply a 'box' on wheels' its curved and streamlined. Then there aren't any joins on vulnerable corners, instead the few joins that are needed are placed away from points of stress or areas where water might ingress, in other words exactly as a modern Aircraft is built.
The tubular framework is much lighter, more rigid and far stronger than any wooden frame can ever be. Lets face it they stopped making Aircraft with wooden frames 50 years ago so its difficult to understand why the Caravan industry, with the exception of Eriba and Airstream, hasn't made the same transition. If you thought your next trip on a Jumbo was going to be in an aircraft made of balsa wood, paper and compressed cardboard then you'd be just a bit worried, so why settle for a caravan using these construction methods which went out with Manfred Von Richthofen?
With its lightweight Steel Alloy frame the Eriba is much lighter than a conventional Caravan. The lightweight construction allows for the internal fittings to be more robust than an ordinary van, the furniture inside the van is made of real solid wood, not balsa wood and cardboard which so many conventional vans use to save weight.
There are many benefits of this construction technique, for example because the van is more or less one piece there's nowhere for water to get in and even if it did the galvanised steel frame cannot rot. The result? there are Eriba vans on the road that are 40 years old and still going strong. The use of an steel frame allows the overall shape of the van to be 'curved' and this aerodynamic shape coupled with a lower profile than other caravans means that the Eriba has a much lower drag coefficient than even larger vans made in the traditional shape. The entire structure is far more robust whilst at the same time much lighter and these are just a few of the many advantages.
So you don't need a tank to tow an Eriba. Won't please the Chancellor or course, but then you can't please everyone can you? With an Eriba, if you want, you can wave your 20 miles to the gallon 4 x 4 goodbye, and get yourself a smaller car which should make your bank balance healthier as well as save the planet when you start to spend half as much on petrol, road tax and insurance. In fact we tow an Eriba Triton with our Skoda 1.4 Automatic which averages 38 mpg and is more than some of the cars needed to pull an ordinary caravan will return even when they are not being used to tow. The Puck advertised here will make little if any difference in fuel consumption to almost any car.
I have seen the Eriba described as the 'Rolls Royce' of Caravans and that description is probably reflective of the build and finish quality. However there is a better description. The first Eriba's were designed from a commission by Volkswagen. The remit was to build a caravan that reflected the build quality, the looks and the famed reliability of the early Beetles. At the same time the Caravan needed to be light enough to tow behind a Beetle, which at that time had quite a modest power output, it needed to be compact and finally it was required that two Skiers and all their gear could spend a weekend in the Alps without freezing to death! All in all quiet a tall order and one which most Caravans today would fail miserably. So personally I think that the VW of Caravans is a more apt description than the 'Rolls Royce'
Finally there is one other major advantage to the Eriba. We've all been there, you arrive on a camp site proud owner of a lovely caravan. Then next to you Mr Mumpty arrives in the latest model, satellite dishes, motor movers, microwaves, judging by the size of his van he's probably got a swimming pool in the back. Suddenly your van looks 'cheap' 'run' down and even downright shabby.
Well the Eriba doesn't even go there to begin with. Its unique, its different and no matter how 'posh' Mr Mumpty's van is, its still going to be just a dolls house on wheels. Chances are Mr Mumpty's huge great brand new shoe box will look silly besides an aerodynamic streamlined Eriba even if its a 40 year old Eriba. Eriba's don't change, they are more or less the same now as they were when they were first made 40 years ago. That's not to say they haven't moved with the times, they have on the inside but on the outside the perfect aircraft design remains the same and apart from a few extra vents to allow for fridges and gas heaters etc there's not a lot of difference between an old one and a new one.
Eriba's are not a 'fashion statement' they don't age simply because some trendy designer decided to change this years colour, the size of the windows or where the door is placed. An Eriba never looks dated and it never looks like the latest trendy gimmick. An Eriba looks like an Eriba and nothing else, unique, different, perfect
So lightweight, robust, timeless design and long lived the Eriba is not just another egg box on wheels its a Caravan in its own league. If you haven't owned one yet now is your chance to get your hands on the best designed Caravan in the World, only the American Airstream, which uses similar design techniques comes close to this, the perfect Caravan. We say only the Airstream comes close because the Airstream was designed for US roads, US fuel prices and US size vehicles to tow it so its not really suitable for narrow European roads and smaller European cars. The Eriba on the other hand was designed in Europe, its smaller, more maneuverable and better suited all round to European conditions.
Cobber.
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halps
Full Member
Get out and enjoy your van man!
Posts: 229
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Post by halps on Jun 20, 2013 21:10:30 GMT 10
Did someone mention VW & vintage vans...? This looks awesome. PM sent. Halps
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Post by shesgotthelook on Jun 21, 2013 20:48:27 GMT 10
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Post by penny61 on Jun 21, 2013 23:24:14 GMT 10
It's very believable. ;D I have one somewhere. You can buy them here in Australia, most good shops that sell Volkswagen/car models have them. Toystores have them occaisionally. I think I bought mine at a car show here in Adelaide.... I thought the caravan was "made up" when I bought it, Pucks don't quite seem real to me. I'd love to have the full sized version one day, It'd be great behind my boyfriends 2L Microbus..... Wishfull thiking in the finance department I think. Vanessa
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Post by marshy74 on Jun 22, 2013 20:43:53 GMT 10
We have had a few requests for interior pics - have sent emails to those who asked. Here are a few taken today.
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Post by marshy74 on Jun 22, 2013 20:44:32 GMT 10
rego papers show weight of 400kg - but we have not checked this.
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Post by marshy74 on Jun 22, 2013 20:45:29 GMT 10
and another showing the new pop top
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Post by marshy74 on Jun 22, 2013 20:46:33 GMT 10
left hand side - door to the kerb!
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Post by marshy74 on Jun 22, 2013 20:48:27 GMT 10
mechanism works well
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Post by marshy74 on Jun 25, 2013 12:37:25 GMT 10
Well after a long absence off the board we joined again to advertise this cool little van to your members. It is now sold as a result of the ad here and I will leave the new owner to reveal themselves if they so choose. Thanks to all of you we met at Mildura. We really admire the passion that you all have and I know this is something we will regret down the track - but this is what we need to do today. Dare to be different.
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Post by Don Ricardo on Jun 25, 2013 22:34:06 GMT 10
Hi Marshy, Congratulations on the sale of your little Puck. While it seems that you're leaving the V V scene at this point, we do hope that you'll come back to us at some stage. At least you know you'll receive a warm welcome if and when you do. And in the meantime, after the discussion on this thread about the Eriba Puck/VW Kombi connection, I'm hoping that your van has gone to one of the Kombi afficianados on the forum... Even if it hasn't, I'm sure that it has gone to somebody who will appreciate it. It's a wonderful little van that proves the rule that some very good things come in (very) small packages. Don Ricardo
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