Fleetwind caravans

[Franklin1]

FLEETWIND HISTORY

Fleetwind were made in Sydney until they closed shop in the latter part of the 1960s. Their factory was near Canterbury Rd and King Georges Rd. They were an alloy clad timber frame van and generally 6'6" wide instead of the customary 7' of the day, and also a little longer than equivalent models by other makers.
(source: forum member groovy , 28 Jan 2006)



Year: Late 1950s/ early 1960s. The stove and table leg are from that period, although the sail slide on the stove counter top is late sixties. (source: forum member groovy, 28 Jan 2006)
Model: Unknown
Construction material: Aluminium
Dimensions: Unknown
Weight: Unknown

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Addendum - September 2021: Photos of a very similar Fleetwind caravan listed on an online auction site in August 2020 and showing some additional aspects of the van.  Don Ricardo

[Franklin1]

Year: 1962
Model: Unknown
Construction material: Aluminium
Dimensions: Unknown
Weight: Unknown

[willyn]

Great pictures and a great post keep up the terrific work
Franklin 1
the site is going from strength to strength
with this kind of input
Will and Lyn

[Don Ricardo]

(Source: posted by rtcruiser, 20 November 2006)

Year: 1960
Model:
Construction material: Aluminium
Dimensions: 9 ft
Weight:

For more information on this caravan, including photos of the interior, see here

[mad]

We have a "Fleetwind Gazelle" does anyone know what the Gazelle would mean It also has 3 stars before the Gazelle name.
Thanks Mad.
P.s. trying to insert a photo can anyone tell me how? pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee

[mad]

Thought i might as well add to the collection of "Fleetwinds" this is a bit different it's a "Fleetwind Gazelle".

 

Our grandson Talen came to help!

[Don Ricardo]

Some additional photos of Mad's Fleetwind Gazelle posted on 7 April 2009, including some "after shots" (the last two):

Hi everyone
This is a few of the photos of the Fleetwind before we started, inside and outside. We got it on the 9th March 2009.


And a month on this is the updated photos:


Our grandson came to help! She's comin up real good. Painted the cupboards the same colour. But not before they had a good scrub and all stripped down, taking all the door handles and hinges off and cleaned. You know what they say 'if a jobs worth doing' could here my dad telln me that one. Were giving her a beachy theme from back in the 1960's. Mark surfs we spend a lot of time at the beach! So that's why we decided to stay with the blue have picked out the curtains but havn't done them yet. Still a lot more painting to do and some.

---

...and 9 April 2009:

We have decided to do the same colour as the inside around the middle of the van. The seat cushions are original, had to scrub them really well to see what they looked like. There was no rips only the buttons need replacing a few have been lost but not too bad for the age. I have been collection a bit of memoribilla. Have had every one I know on the look out. Thankyou so much for your comments on the van will keep you posted.
Cheers Mad.

[DC3Td]

Friend of mine acquired this some time ago:




Since owning it, it has been to a bead blaster to clean the A frame & chassis then to a resto paint shop for dent repair & the painting of the old side flashes to 2 tone FC Pastel Green.More pics & info as made available to me.
gordon

[Swellwillys]

Thats way kool Gordon.
I love it's lines !
Thanks for the share!

Swellwillys

[DC3Td]

Hi Swellwillys. Not too shabby eh. Used to belong to my council at one time (see old signage) & is still local. Ironically i used to pedal past Fleetwinds factory all those years ago on my way to work. gordon

[rustyracer]

Hi,

Long time reader... not much of a poster, BUT I bought my first VV over the weekend. It's actually the 17ft Fleetwind shown in the photos by Gordon.

Thought photos of the inside might be of interest. As mentioned it was owned by Liverpool Council Park Rangers (you can still see some of the branding on the sides and back) but it also has the original sign!?

We're going to give her some love and you'll see her on the again road soon!

[rustyracer]

Oh, and she's still going to be local! She now lives 30min from where she was made

[DC3Td]

Great score Rustyracer. And Eric even gave you the sign too. Sweet. Happy renos.

[seeshell]

Hi Rustyracer -

Welcome and what a way to get out of the gate! Your new van looks lovely inside with the original harlequin colours and all that storeage! The whole van seems to be in very good condition (including the cushions!) - I'm sure a good clean will be most of what it needs inside.

The exterior decoration is really unique and gives it a look of movement even standing still. Wonderful too that it has a documented history that you can add to.

What a score - can't wait to see how you put your mark on it.

Cheers
Seeshell

[mezmo]

What a classy looking Caravan - even in its unrestored state !

I hope you keep the tri-color and the graphic looks it gives. It has a
distinctive profile, in itself - it does seem to be in motion, almost-
and that color scheme just really does it justice.

Good luck restoring...

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[Don Ricardo]

10 ft Fleetwind Minor caravan listed on Ebuy, September 2014:











In a bit of a sad condition unfortunately.

[Don Ricardo]

10 ft Fleetwind Minor van listed on Ebay, November 2015

This van is similar to the Fleetwind Minor shown in the post above, and is in better condition having been refurbished.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

A little bit of extra info about Fleetwind...

Photos of this van were posted higher up on this thread by DC3Td and Rustyracer (the van is owned by Rustyracer):



As it happens, this model Fleetwind was also branded and sold as a Hunter caravan, most likely for sale by Carapark after that company ceased production of its own caravans:



The Hunter in the photo is owned by Bozhunter, and more photos of the van, as well as discussion about Hunter caravans, can be found here.

The serial number on Bozhunter's caravan is 'F210'.  My working assumption is that 'F' stands for 'Fleetwind' and that the digits indicate the build number rather than a date.

Interesingly, the February/March 2018 edition of Roam magazine (edition no 31) contains photos of quite a large tandem Fleetwind of the same design/model, which has the serial number 'F217', so it was built fairly soon after Bozhunter's van.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Nice period photo of a Fleetwind caravan on holiday:


(Source unrecorded, August 2018)

Nice to see the Chrysler Plainsman tow vehicle and the near new Valiant caravan next door.

The lady on the lounge looks very relaxed. Hope she enjoyed her holiday.

Don Ricardo

[markclarkson62]

Nov 13, 2007 20:59:30 GMT 10 Franklin1 said:

FLEETWIND HISTORY

Fleetwind were made in Sydney until they closed shop in the latter part of the 1960s. Their factory was near Canterbury Rd and King Georges Rd. They were an alloy clad timber frame van and generally 6'6" wide instead of the customary 7' of the day, and also a little longer than equivalent models by other makers.
(source: forum member groovy , 28 Jan 2006)



Year: Late 1950s/ early 1960s. The stove and table leg are from that period, although the sail slide on the stove counter top is late sixties. (source: forum member groovy, 28 Jan 2006)
Model: Unknown
Construction material: Aluminium
Dimensions: Unknown
Weight: Unknown

---

Addendum - September 2021: Photos of a very similar Fleetwind caravan listed on an online auction site in August 2020 and showing some additional aspects of the van.  Don Ricardo

[markclarkson62]

Hey guys! I’m really impressed with what you’re doing!

My name is Mark Clarkson, my fathers name was John Clarkson and he owned Fleetwind caravans in the early Sixties!

I didn’t start thinking about Dad’s caravans until I was in my late teens. I started looking around then but, try as I might, I never saw a single one. I actually thought there were none left! Now here you guys are, restoring them!

It gave me a warm feeling to see all these vans.

Thank you. My Dad passed on in ‘99, and seeing these vans that lived on after him and the people who’re caring for them, I gotta think it brings a smile to his face as he looks down; I know it does me.

God bless, guys.
Mark.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Markclarkson62,

Welcome to the forum. It’s wonderful to hear from you, and to learn that your father John was the owner of Fleetwind. Bits of information like that are so valuable in filling out the story we have of the vintage era manufacturers, especially those like Fleetwind that were smaller and are now less well known.

Can you tell us any more about your father and his activities? For example, what was his background and how did he get into building caravans, do you know? Also do you know when Fleetwind started and how and when it finished up? It would be so interesting to hear.

Don Ricardo

[markclarkson62]

Oct 28, 2021 19:33:50 GMT 10 Don Ricardo said:

Hi Markclarkson62,

Welcome to the forum. It’s wonderful to hear from you, and to learn that your father John was the owner of Fleetwind. Bits of information like that are so valuable in filling out the story we have of the vintage era manufacturers, especially those like Fleetwind that were smaller and are now less well known.

Can you tell us any more about your father and his activities? For example, what was his background and how did he get into building caravans, do you know? Also do you know when Fleetwind started and how and when it finished up? It would be so interesting to hear.

Don Ricardo

Hi Don, nice to meet you.
Dad didn’t talk a lot about his earlier life and I don’t know how he started the company, or whether he had any partners - if he did he never mentioned them.

Dad was born in 1935 in Kandos NSW. After he left school he started out as a carpenter by trade and worked his apprenticeship as a ship’s joiner for the navy at Garden Island in Sydney.

I don’t know when he started the business. My earliest memories were off our house in Newport in Sydney’s north, when I was two years old. There were few houses there then.

Dad didn’t tell me much about his business. I know one of his workers died in mishandling electrical equipment, which affected Dad terribly (I heard this story over and over, every time I wasn’t careful as I should have been with electrical things).

He also told me he took one of the vans in the (1964? I think) Ampol Trials, with an EH Holden (you know, one of those ones with hamburger shaped lights). He wasn’t trying to win anything, he just wanted to show everyone that Fleetwind caravans could ‘take it’ in all conditions.
During the race, he had to leave and come back to Sydney for some crisis an HD he left it in the hands of his co-driver. His co-driver drove the car and caravan off a cliff (I don’t know how high) which wrote off the car and bent the draw-bar all up, but apparently the van was still good! So I guess he proved his point.

Dad, at least in those days was a fair-minded, trusting sort of man, which would prove to cost him the company. An American con-man got him to invest heavily in some venture or something and he swindled him out of all his money, causing him to go bankrupt. They ended up catching the guy but he never got his money back. After that we moved to Coff’s Hatbour to live with my Nanna. I think I was four or five at the time. I think Dad told me the business was bought up by Viscount or Valiant, but I’m not sure of that.

After that Dad went from idea to idea (he still had big dreams) but was never able ‘make it’. For a while he was the Head Gardener at John Enevoldson’s Big Banana and later bought the rights to the new garden nursery he built up behind the gift shop where they used to grow pineapples.

A bit later when we were stoney broke and Dad only had a part-time job as a First Aid Officer at a brewery in Grafton Dad picked up a trailer chassis at the dump and, with bits and pieces he scrounged, proceeded to build the first ‘pop top’ caravan I ever saw (though I was later learn that there were others made in the US before this). We had that van for years.

But Dad’s heart was in gardening and growing things. He was a completely self-taught Horticulturalist (so, no credentials) purely from magazines and books. In the mid 70’s he worked for a while as the Head Gardener at the Chevron Hotel in Surfers until the National Trust, after visiting the hotel, offered him the job as Head Gardener at the Currumbin Bird Sanctuary, where he stayed until 1981.

Wanting to have his own business again, he heard that taxi licenses were inexpensive in Townsville, so we moved up there so he could buy a cab. Unfortunately, they increased in price too much by the time we got there and he couldn’t afford one. So he started driving cabs, which he continued until angina forced an early retirement in ‘83.

Dad passed away in 1999 sadly before he saw his grandchildren. Of course, he’s probably looking down from heaven right now with that big beaming grin of his and that twinkle in his eye I remember so well.

Sorry I TLDR-ed you, but I enjoyed talking about him.

Regards,
Mark.

[dj18]

Hello,
I have loved reading this forum, thank you for your contributions.
It may have been a little lockdown madness, but we purchased a lovely old fleetwind during lockdown last year. She's a beauty. I'll post some photos (when I work out how to). I'd love any information on fleetwind - this site seems to be the only place I can find anything about the company.
Thanks again to you all.

[tammyvella]

Hi everyone,

My husband (Joe) and I recently purchased a Fleetwind Gazelle, we are not sure of the year, we were told she was 1950-1960, hoping someone maybe able to help out. By the look of her she has been painted a few times, we would love to bring her back to her former glory, love to see some photos of other Fleetwinds Gazelle if possible.

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