Silver Turret Caravans (Sydney, NSW)

[Don Ricardo]

SILVER TURRET CARAVANS

Manufactured by Trailer Caravan Company
19 O'Connell Street, Sydney NSW

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Hi all,

Yet another pre-WW II caravan manufacturer in Sydney has turned up via http://www.newspapers.com  A few adverts for Silver Turret caravans were published in the Sydney Morning Herald in January 1938:


(Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, 8 January 1938, page 9 )

Unfortunately there are no photos at this stage, but the advert suggests the Silver Turret had some interesting features: American V-front with close coupling to the car, telescopic roof, 'no draught' ventilation and shipshape interior.  The fact that the vans had a V-front, and apparently a very short A-frame, suggests that it may have been a coach-style caravan.

The other adverts were briefer:


(Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, 22 January 1938, page 28)

The adverts only appeared during the one month of 1938, suggesting that Trailer Caravan Company's venture into caravan manufacturing may not have been terribly successful.

We don't know anything more about the company's activities at this point.

Don Ricardo

[Roehm3108]

Sounds fascinating DonR, especially appearing on the day when one was found near Scotland!!

www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-37691283

[Don Ricardo]

G'day R3108,

Silver turret - tick
V-front - tick
Low centre of gravity - tick (on the seabed, can't get much lower than that)
Stormproof telescopic roof - tick (otherwise known as a periscope?)
No draught ventilation - tick (but does it leak?)
Spacious, well-lit interior - not sure about that!
Shipshape interior plan - definitely ship shape

Yep, must be one of those caravans! Wonder how it got over there?

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

On a recent visit to Moparman's house, he showed me a book called A Time to Remember by Peter Luck. The book is a photographic history of Australia, which includes a page or two of photos of caravans, including this one:


(Source: Peter Luck, A Time to Remember, page 311)

It is evident from the photo that the van is a coach-style van, with a V-shaped front.  The author doesn't tell us what brand the caravan is, but the manufacturer has very kindly placed a sign in the window to tell us that it was built by the Trailer Caravan Co.

Trailer Caravan Co was the manufacturers of Silver Turret caravans in the 1930's, and the photo appears to show a telescopic section of the roof, which was one of the features of the Silver Turret vans, together with a V-front and 'more tail clearance than modern car' (see adverts above). The latter may refer to the upswept floorline at the rear.

So...it appears that this is most likely a photo of a Silver Turret caravan. 

Thanks to Moparman for this discovery.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

Below is an article about a caravan built by Mr and Mrs Neville Anderson printed in the Sydney Sun on Tuesday. 14 September 1937 (page 11).   One of the features of the van is that it incorporated a telescopic roof which could be raised by 8 inches to provide an internal head height of 6 ft 3 in.  The roof is described as a 'telescopic turret top':


(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229442381
The layout of the original article has been altered to provide maximum readability.)

Looking at the photo in the article it seems likely to me that the Andersons' van was a prototype for the Silver Turret caravan introduced in 1938 and shown higher up this thread. The over all shape and profile of the Andersons' van and the Silver Turret is almost identical, and the shape of the Silver Turret's telescopic roof is the same as the Andersons' van, although perhaps a little smaller.  The fact that the roof in both vans is described as a 'turret' seems to a further indication that the two are linked.  It may even be that the lady on the right in the photo of the Silver Turret is Mrs Anderson?

One feature of the Andersons' van which does not appear to have been carried over to the Silver Turret is the wrap around front windows, which would have been very unusual for the time. It would be interesting to know how that shape was accomplished.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Evening all,

Below is a panoramic photo used to illustrate an article titled 'Lure of the Great Outdoors: Holidays with Car and Caravan' published in the Sydney Daily Telegraph on Friday, 19 November 1937 (page 20).  The van to the right of centre of the photo appears to be the caravan owned by Mr and Mrs Neville Anderson depicted in the newspaper article in the post immediately above this one.  The evidence seems to indicate that the van is a Silver Turret:

(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247327767 )

Don Ricardo