Tinnie in Australind WA

[Deleted]

Coupla weeks ago, I was given a lead on an old van that has spent many many years sitting in a backyard near Australind, near Bunbury WA.
So last weekend whilst down that way, I called in to have a looksee :

Yay !! ......a little 10 foot ali, sitting quietly awaiting rescue by some V V nutter .

It has no id, and appears to homemade, ply internals and flat (no pattern) ali for the outta skin :













The "heavy duty" homemade drawbar is bit of an overkill, and has been extended at some stage




quite a neat profile




Holden 13" wheels
















It'd been there that long, a granny flat had been added to the property, effectively blocking access to get the little caravan out. The only way to get it out of the yard, was via removing part of the fence.





So, yesterday, I fired up the vintage caravan retrieval truck ;D, .....packed all my fence removal gear (a shovel ;D), ..........picked up uncle Brian from Mandurah (forum member 'noblesgarage') ......and headed south ....... another V V retrieval mission was underway .....

Mark

to be continued ...............

[davenq]

ooooh ooooh ooohh........ super sixty six...(shush my mouth)...I see nothing...

.
.but the Midnite Oil song ..."Blue Sky Mining " is ringing in my ears.......

[bobt]

hey mark

Did the fence survive?

[Deleted]

sorry guys ....has been a busy week ......forgot to tell the rest of the story ....................................

The retrieval turned out to be one of the trickiest I've done, with fruit trees (one had to be totally removed), clothes line and the house eaves all in the way ........

Not only that, the jockey wheel had seized , and the lawn very soft after all the rain we've had, sooo ......with the jockey wheel wanting to dig into the lawn, we had to use the truck's jockey wheel ramp to guide the caravan outta the yard

I was thinking .....is it all worth it , the lil caravan is nothing special ........but yeah, of course its worth it , this is what we do ......isn't it

1st job was to remove 3 sheets of fencing:



Look ........vintage tin




Not often you'll see me "on the shovel" on a Sat arv ;D ................












The photo doesn't really show, but the problem was there was about a foot difference in the levels on either side of the fence




Reversed the truck up being careful to not get the rear wheels of the truck into the trench




There was no way we could push the lil van, so luckily the truck's winch cabe extended 25 metres into the backyard, with the last 3 metres needed being attached to the cable via a tow rope




the cable running thru the backyard




Slowly slowly past a hills hoist that was in the way, plus manouvre thru a fruit tree as to avoid hitting the eaves of the house ...... this pic also shows the use of the jockey wheel ramp to stop the jockey wheel just digging into the soft lawn





We used the truck's ramps to get the caravan accross our trench, but coz of the angle we were on, the caravan kept wanting to fall off the ramps into the trench .......at this stage, I was ready to abort the mission, ...... I could see us getting a little caravan bogged in a trench half way through a fence, and making a 'ell of a mess .....Brian did a great job guideing the caravan whilst I drove the truck to tow it out ...........








Yay ......its out ......fortunately there was no one waiting at the bus stop ......they would've been bemused


and finally safely loaded on the truck ............








and great excitement over the whitewall tyre


Interior pics to come ..............

Jenni wasn't very complimentry when I got it home ......she said it looked like it'd been dragged from the bottom of a dam

Mark

[Surf Tragic]

Hi Mark

:)There's nuthin like a bit of sweat & effort on a recovery, all the more fun .... a pretty straight foreward resto at first glimpse, wonder what's inside

The truck would be the ultimate for any recovery that's for sure with such a long winch cable ;D

Great stuff, interersting read !

ST

[bobt]

thank the heavens for a long wich cable.... ;D

Mighty nice score there... and generous neighbours too. you certainly go the jackpot with this one.

Now come on show us the inside


_please

[Deleted]

.....inside, the lil tinnie is quite tidy, and compact .......


original Eloctrolux fridge, and stove
















S E C inspected it on the 16th June 1965 ..........








original vinyl throughout




its a steel framed caravan, including the frame for the wardrobe door ......usually ply




and insulated throughout







3 berth ....double bed at the rear, diner folds down into a single bed ........




Mark

[bobt]

Gee Mark

Looks to me like all you need to do is give it a wash and a "hoover" then park it the shed.

How good a find is this one...

[Deleted]

The caravan sat on the back of the truck out the front of our house for a few days, then eventually made its way up to Beverley .........




unloaded it from the truck, and towed it down to the weighbridge at the wheat silo bins, to check its vital statistics ;D














Weight ..............780 kgs

Towbar weight ......100 kgs .....not surprising , considering an over engineered drawbar, plus twin gas bottles


Mark

[Deleted]

Hey Mark good work there! I see earlier on you wrote "nothing special" ....... yeah right! on the outside it doesn't look any different to any other van you would find abandoned but inside this thing looks realy, really good!

Weigh in was interesting as well, looks like to get it to it's optimum it will require a new lighter "A" frame with 1 or no gas bottles at all. Also is that hd yours? looks like a really nice example

Keep us posted with the pics!

[Deleted]

G'day Andrew,
ta for your comments on the little tin van ......by "nothing special",... I meant its nothing special, insofar as ................

but, ......yep, the Heavy Duty .....that's definately a "special" ;D .........a low mileage one owner example I bought about 8 year ago for a song

Mark

[noblesgarage]

Told you Mr T that thing was heavy ahhh we'll just wheel it out over the lawn around the trees it should be easy ;D ;D It weighs almost as much as the Heavy Duty And look at that its almost the same colour . Backs getting better arms are almost back in there sockets ;D ;D so whens the next exciting episode of Taylors Caravan Retrieval Show hitting the road

[Deleted]

noblesgarage says: so whens the next exciting episode of Taylors Caravan Retrieval Show hitting the road

you shouldn't have asked uncle Brian ......Bencubbin is next ;D ;D ......so when your body is fully recovered, we're off

......this one will be an overnite stay at the Cubby pub ......

























Mark ;D

[JBJ]

Hi Mark,

How could you pick a build date on a van like that one??

Its very much in character & style with a lot of the vans in bobt's 37 & 38 caravan club rallies.

You could safely assume that a 1937 picture could include vans 10 years or more old( but not neccessarily so I suppose)


So could it be as old as the late 20's/early 1930's???

Its a shame we dont have more deatails & records on our older vans.

JBJ

[noblesgarage]

Body in fine shape ;D ;D not sure how elbow will behave on an overnighter should be ok though with the right type of lubricant Give us a tinkle and we'll work out a date ;D and do it all over again