Maxjoy Caravans

[shesgotthelook]

Here's one for you to research Don Ricardo! On the last page of Keith Winser's Caravans & Touring Book 5 1953. Spendid workmanship

[Don Ricardo]

Hi SGTL,

Thanks for the challenge - and diverting me from other things I should have been doing today...

It makes you wonder how we missed this one, doesn't it? How many of us have pored through the 1953 Winser caravan manual and gone right past the Maxjoy advert?

I can only find a few references to Maxjoy caravans in the press, namely three adverts published in the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) in December 1952. That date fits with when we think the Winser caravan manuals were published, ie the 1953 Winser was most likely published at the end of 1952.

So here's the sum total of what I can find about Maxjoy vans at this point...

Advert printed in the SMH on Wednesday, 10 December 1952 (page 27):


(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18294370 )

Then on Saturday, 13 December (page 23):


(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18294815 )

And finally Saturday, 20 December (page 21):


(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18295877 )

The adverts are all about hire vans or the sale of individual 'almost new' caravans.  No mention of selling new vans on a regular or continuing basis.  Given the paucity of info, it appears that Maxjoy may not have been around long.  And note from the last advert - please don't ring for information until after 6 am!

The other thing that I notice about the photos of the vans shown in the Winser advert also, is that they bear a striking resemblance to a couple of Supalite models, most notably the Wee-Kenda and Atlas models. And the SMH adverts tell us that the furnishings of the Maxjoy caravans were French polished...just like those in the Supalites.  EXCEPT THAT two out of three of the vans in the Winser advert don't have external wheel arches, while Supalite vans always had wheel arches as far as we know.  So maybe Maxjoy acquired partially-built Supalites and then finished them off with some of their own styling flourishes.  That's all sheer speculation of course (I'm good at that, and sometimes I'm even right!).

I've been wondering about the name 'Maxjoy' as well.  Maxjoy is a legit surname on it's own I have discovered, but I note that the artwork for the Winser advert is attributed to 'Max Carr'.  So maybe Max Carr provided half of the brand name and his wife Joy provided the other half?  There I go, speculating again.  But what else can you do when you've got nothing else to go on? 

Don Ricardo

[shesgotthelook]

I too, immediately thought of the Supalites, although there is an advertisement for Supalite a couple of pages prior to the Maxjoy ad. Who knows who was copying who back then or what ever happened to Maxjoy? I agree they probably weren't around for very long. Sorry to distract you from your other tasks! Although I think this particular magazine may throw a few other conundrums at you. I just have to find time to post them

[Roehm3108]

Starting to wonder of SGTL isn't another pseudonym for Don Ricardo - she's just getting sooooooo nosey!!!!

Glad you've got an honest hobby SGTL!!!!!