Post by justanotheramy on Oct 11, 2010 23:05:11 GMT 10
THE EARLIER POSTS TELLING THE STORY OF AMY FINDING HER FAMILY'S CARAPARK SIXTEEN-TWO HAVE BEEN SPREAD OVER SEVERAL THREADS. HERE IS THE STORY SO FAR:
On 18 August 2010, Justanotheramy wrote:
Hi everyone. My name's Amy, and I hope to very soon be in possession of a Carapark van.
The caravan in the picture may or may not be the one I'm in negotiation to buy -- the photo is about 25 years old, and is of the caravan my family had when I was a kid (a Carapark with SA licence plate # 800). I think I've tracked down the same van... well, it's either the same van or the same model with the same interior layout and upholstery and a whole bunch of other coincidences... and the current owner seems willing to part with it. Very exciting!
There are a few problems, though...
1) the poor old girl has been sitting in a paddock for the last 9 years, and I'm told her tires are completely flat (and I'm guessing it will take more than air to fix the problem!)
2) she sprung a leak a couple of years ago (now sealed), but has lost some interior panels and a mattress to rot, cupboard doors are delaminating, etc
3) I wouldn't even begin to know what to look for to assess her roadworthyness (or how to handle her once she is on the road)
So, just a couple of little things! But I'm looking forward to learning and to getting her fixed up and back into shape. This site looks to be a great resource, which is making me feel a bit less at sea about the whole project.
The current owner has promised to email me photos after this weekend, so if anyone's interested I could post them once they arrive?
Fingers crossed that the deal doesn't fall through!
~amy.
Sportsman1 replied:
Welcome and good luck with the purchase.
It would be great if it was your original family van, very unusual if it is.
More pictures would be fab, we looooove pictures.
Cheers, Leigh.
Curtis wrote:
Hi Amy,
Welcome on board. I am fairly new here too, but the people are great, always willing to help out with advice etc. There is sooo much vintage van knowledge within this forum you just gotta ask. ;D ;D ;D
As Leigh said we do love photos - especially interior photos.
Regards
Dave
Jennison also responded:
Olfarts may be able to provide some advice if its still in SA and somewhere near him, or otherwise put you onto a VVer near by who can.
Give him a PM Amy I'm sure he would be of help
jennison
On 19 August 2010, Don Ricardo posted:
G'day Amy,
I'm sure we are all hoping that the van you've located is the one your family had. That would be really fantastic news.
You'll be glad to know that such miracles do happen. One of our V V'ers - Surf Tragic - found his parents' van after not having seen it for a number of decades. The last time he saw it was in Gympie, Qld, and he found it again in a backyard only about 25 kms from his home in Victoria.
He was able to identify it by a whole lot of little coincidences, relating to some modifications his father had made to the van, and a photo of an unusual feature of the upholstery. Sounds a bit like the coincidences you've referred to with the Carapark.
Good luck with all this. We will be certainly be interested in the pics and in hearing the outcome of your negotiations.
Don Ricardo
On the same day Relmhayd wrote:
Welcome Amy
I have sent you a PM re. plate #800, good luck with your van.
Bob
Then on 11 September 2010 Justanotheramy posted:
Recently, and I don't know why, I got a bee in my bonnet about tracking down the old caravan my family had when I was a kid. It was already an old van when we had it, in the 80s, but we spent pretty much every long weekend and school holidays in that thing. Dad would hook it up to the back of whichever Ford tank he was driving at the time, and we'd hit the road -- usually to my uncle's font lawn (how exotic!), but sometimes to a caravan park. And then... my brother and I were teenagers, and we moved to a house with less driveway space and... the van "retired" to my uncle's backyard as a spare room. When he died 9 years ago his widow sold it. I saved the old SA800 number plates, the bakelite-handled cutlery, and the toaster, and never expected to see the old girl again.
And then this bee landed in my bonnet.
I vaguely remembered someone saying something about the van being sold to a bloke who had a vacant block on Kangaroo Island, so I put an ad in the KI local paper's classified "Wanted" section asking about an old "Carapark" brand caravan. I didn't really expect anything to come of it.
A week later, I got a call. From a lady on KI who'd bought and old Carapark van from her neighbour, who'd inherited it from his dad a few years ago along with the empty block it was parked on. She described the van, and aside from the exterior paint colour, it sounded like a match. She wasn't sure she wanted to keep it, as she hadn't realised when she bought it that it had a leak, and that it would need work on the inside.
To cut a long story short... she just sent me some photos of the van, and it's definitely my van! And she wants to sell it: says I can have it for $100!
I'm soooo excited!
I don't really have anywhere to put it, and am not really sure how I'm going to get it back to the mainland, but... I found my caravan!
Did I mention I'm really excited about this?
This is the exterior -- someone has painted it a horrible colour, for reasons best known only to themselves.
This is apparently the worst of the damage. That's a tin bath on the left, which is under one of the single beds (that mattress has rotted and been thrown away).
Pretty self-explanatory: the kitchen, as it looks from the doorway.
Maybe interesting to no-one but me: the upholstery on the couch that runs across the front of the van, and which converts to a double bed (that black and yellow fabric is one of the details that absolutely confirms that it's the exact same van).
Bobandjacqui replied:
Congratulations ;D ;D ;D Great find , not many people are lucky enough to find the old family van altough your story would have to be up there with Surf Tragic's..
Good luck with the recovery
Cheers Bob and Jacqui.
DC3Td wrote:
Great story Amy. Better get it out from beside that tree before it grows any bigger. So first off, you have to find a place to store it (friends back yard/driveway/storage facility).Then ring a few towing companies to find out cost. Seems to me that it`s worth saving considering its history. Good luck. cheers gordon
Justanotheramy replied:
The current owner thinks that nothing crucial rusted or rotted, and that it just has a flat tire. If that is the case (it may not be, but if it is...), is there any reason I won't be able to tow it back from KI? A friend has a work vehicle that can handle the weight of the van...
Is getting it registered the tricky bit?
What sort of problems am I likely to encounter in moving it?
Drylander responded:
as a SA reg van you prob won't have too many hassles. Ring transport SA and enquire they should give you the info u need
Cheers
Pete
And DC3Td advised on 12 September 2010:
Hi Amy. As its been sitting for a while theres every chance the wheel bearings could be frozen. Does it have brakes? Something else to look into. Tyres could be perished (possible cracked side walls too) so not adviseable to tow. So, to save any grief,hire a car trailer & have your friend tow it on that.Get it to where you can store it & then go right over it. cheers gordon
On 16 September 2010, Brewer posted:
Hi Amy, that's a great story! I'm working on one as we speak and I already love it.
Be aware that it may not fit onto a standard car trailer though. I measured mine up with the intentions of doing just that, but all of the trailers I could find had sidewalls that are just a bit too tall and a bit too close together for the van to fit between them. That's not to say you won't be able to find a suitable trailer with lower sides, but it might not be as easy as just going to a local hire place. A truck with a tilt tray is a more reliable (but more expensive) option.
I got lucky, when I moved mine it had been sitting for years but the wheel bearings were well greased and perfect. I towed it home behind my Range Rover using some good wheels off of a trailer - I believe the Carapark wheels are a Chevvy pattern which happens to be the same as most modern 6-stud 4WD rims so they are quite easy to find (this was fortunate as, like Gordon said, the original tyres were cracked and perished, and even though I could have replaced the tyres, nobody could supply a tube to fit those rims any more!)
I took it easy and the trip was uneventful, except that the wind got under the rivets at the front of the roof and peeled back a section like a sardine tin. I'd suggest wrapping the thing in a tarp to prevent this if you have more than a couple of loose/missing rivets - especially if you are putting it on a truck or can't rely on the driver to keep the speed down.
Where abouts are you? Someone may be able to lend you some wheels, in which case as long as the bearings, brakes and chassis are up to the journey you should be OK to tow it.
Junstanotheramy replied on 17 September 2010:
Hi brewer,
Good to know about the trailers! That's not something I'd want to find out the hard way, especially since the ferry to Kangaroo Island charges by vehicle length
The ferry fees are looking like they might be my biggest purchase/retrieval expense, so if it's at all possible to tow the van back rather than loading it up onto a truck then that would make a big difference to things. A friend of mine who'll jump at any excuse to head over to KI and go fishing has offered to come with me to inspect the van and try to assess what would need to be done to it to get it on the road... any tips on what we should be looking at and looking for? Any information about where things are and what they should look like would be very useful.
I'm in metropolitan Adelaide. Nice to 'meet' another sixteen-two person! I've been looking at your 'before' photos, and the big similarities (layout, bath, cabinets, etc) and little differences (location of small shelves, upholstery) are very interesting.
Brewer responded:
Hi Amy, I'm reluctant to 'advise' anything other than getting a tilt tray to bring it back - you will probably be breaking the law, especially if the brakes aren't functioning which is quite likely. Having said that, if someone was insistent on towing it this is what I'd tell them.
Firstly, assume that your tyres and electrics are no good. Take with you a pair of good wheels, a trailer light board, some lengths of rope for securing things, and a vehicle that can easily control a trailer with no brakes. Don't forget to organise an unregistered trailer permit too.
Next, you want to have a look underneath the van and make sure that the chassis, axle, drawbar, coupling and safety chains are solid. A bit of surface rust is fine, but anything you can poke a screwdriver through is a deal-breaker. The shape of the van seems to direct recalcitrant water away from the chassis quite well and there isn't really anywhere for it to pool so you 'should' be OK - but be merciless with that screwdriver and have a good stab at any suspicious patches.
If the structural stuff is good, the next thing to check is the wheelbearings. The hubs need to turn smoothly with little to no side play. With a wheel mounted, if you grab the top of the tyre and rock it back and forth you might feel a slight clunk clunk, but you shouldn't actually see any movement. If your wheelbearings are not good, then you'll need to replace them. This is an hour or two of mucky work but it is pretty easy - it's actually quite satisfying and you only need basic tools. There are plenty of web pages (eg searchwarp.com/swa211385.htm) with instructions on replacing trailer bearings. Take all your bits to an auto parts place for them to identify and sell you 2 matching sets of bearings, a tub of grease and some hand cleaner ($60 should cover it). Somebody here might even be able to identify the bearings (I haven't done mine yet) in which case you could take them with you. You'll want to do them at some point anyway. Keep everything clean and free of grit (some petrol in a dish will help, and lay a sheet of something where you are working), pack as much new grease in there as you can during reassembly and you won't have to worry about them again for years.
If your chassis and wheelbearings are good, then the game is basically on. Hang your lighting board and make sure that bits aren't going to fly off / out of the van on the highway - take as much weight and loose stuff out of the van as you can (especially if there are any holes in the floor!) and put it in the car. Make sure that the doors, windows and roof hatches are secure, and tie them down if not. Take it easy and stop regularly to give everything a good look over.
Finally, good luck, and remember to take lots of photographs for us!
e38349 suggested:
i say just hire a long car trailer with no sides, that should do the job,
Cheer`s Harold
On 18 September 2010 Franklin1 wrote:
G'day Amy, here's some more info to help confuse you more...
I had problems trying to hire a trailer that would allow my little bondwood to fit in it properly. The step on the van stuck out too far. The hire trailer with the winch on it had sides that were about a foot high. The trailer without the winch had 8" sides. I ended up hiring the lower sided trailer, and taking two 4"-thick treated pine sleepers with me, and put the van up on them in the trailer. That allowed the step to be clear of the sides...
(ignore that scribble on the back of the van. Some grafitti artist has hacked into my photobucket album and 'tagged' one of my photos... 
)
So, if you've got width problems with vans and trailers, this might be an option.
cheers,
Al.
AND NOW ON 12 OCTOBER 2010 JUSTANOTHERAMY CONTINUES THE STORY:
I went over to Kangaroo Island for the weekend to have a look at the Carapark Sixteen-Two I'm probably buying.
Its condition is... worse than I was led to believe, but probably nothing that will shock most of you guys, if only because I'm sure you've seen it all before!
I took some friends with me who are more mechanically minded than I am myself, and who have building and reno experience and know-how. I just look at damage and go "eeek!", but they'll say "that's a such-and-such, and you'll need to do X, Y, and Z". The short version of their opinion is that with new tires it's towable, and that it's going to take a lot of time and work to fix it up, but that there is enough there to work with to make it doable. They think I'm mad to want it, but as inveterate fixer-uper-ers of vehicles and houses that everyone else thinks are lost causes it's a madness they can understand.
Having seen the van, I do still want it, but have adjusted my ambitions for it somewhat: it may live out its life as a granny flat in my backyard rather than ever returning to the open road. I don't know. First things first: I have to get it home from KI, and I have to fix the leaks before winter comes around again.
They say a picture's worth a thousand words, so here are some pictures.
A small forest seems to have eaten my caravan.
Font-a-licious!
They just don't make 'em this boxy any more.
Okay, down to business...
The wheels turn. That's something, right? The brakes give every indication that they might work, too (tugging on them makes the wheels stop going 'round). The tires are stuffed, but all of the moving bits of the wheels are still packed with bucket-loads of grease -- someone once loved her.
The leaf-springs (have I got that right?) seem okay, if a bit stiff, and were given a thorough spray while the wheels were off with WD40. My friend said something-something-capillary action-something, which I took to mean that marinating for a while should do them some good.
This looks about as it should, right? All things considered?
And has what I'm assuming is some kind of serial number?
Someone's bodged something onto the back end of it at some point, though (this is what it's current owner mistook for a factory original dual tow coupling).
This is the worst of the damage to the shell (aside from the leak in the roof).
And can anyone tell me what these handles at the front are for? I've always wondered.
I mentioned the roof... there are gaps and thus leaks.
Which have caused the frame to rust and swell, which has opened up the leaks even further.
Leading, fairly predictably, to this:
The frames of all of the cupboards seem salvageable, though, as do the doors of the lower kitchen cupboards and the draws between the two beds. The wardrobe isn't in the best of shape, but may be repairable, and the bed bases seem mostly intact. The laminex table (stashed under the left side bed) is perfect (small victories, right?).
I wasn't expecting her to be pristine: this hole in the water tank was there 25 years ago. The rust on the rest of the underside is just superficial (I'm told).
Except for her "feet" at the back, which are done for.
The poles and ropes for the annex are still under here, but unfortunately the canvas is gone.
Well, that's it, I think... Any opinions or advice are welcome!
On 18 August 2010, Justanotheramy wrote:
Hi everyone. My name's Amy, and I hope to very soon be in possession of a Carapark van.
The caravan in the picture may or may not be the one I'm in negotiation to buy -- the photo is about 25 years old, and is of the caravan my family had when I was a kid (a Carapark with SA licence plate # 800). I think I've tracked down the same van... well, it's either the same van or the same model with the same interior layout and upholstery and a whole bunch of other coincidences... and the current owner seems willing to part with it. Very exciting!
There are a few problems, though...
1) the poor old girl has been sitting in a paddock for the last 9 years, and I'm told her tires are completely flat (and I'm guessing it will take more than air to fix the problem!)
2) she sprung a leak a couple of years ago (now sealed), but has lost some interior panels and a mattress to rot, cupboard doors are delaminating, etc
3) I wouldn't even begin to know what to look for to assess her roadworthyness (or how to handle her once she is on the road)
So, just a couple of little things! But I'm looking forward to learning and to getting her fixed up and back into shape. This site looks to be a great resource, which is making me feel a bit less at sea about the whole project.
The current owner has promised to email me photos after this weekend, so if anyone's interested I could post them once they arrive?
Fingers crossed that the deal doesn't fall through!
~amy.
Sportsman1 replied:
Welcome and good luck with the purchase.
It would be great if it was your original family van, very unusual if it is.
More pictures would be fab, we looooove pictures.
Cheers, Leigh.
Curtis wrote:
Hi Amy,
Welcome on board. I am fairly new here too, but the people are great, always willing to help out with advice etc. There is sooo much vintage van knowledge within this forum you just gotta ask. ;D ;D ;D
As Leigh said we do love photos - especially interior photos.
Regards
Dave
Jennison also responded:
Olfarts may be able to provide some advice if its still in SA and somewhere near him, or otherwise put you onto a VVer near by who can.
Give him a PM Amy I'm sure he would be of help
jennison
On 19 August 2010, Don Ricardo posted:
G'day Amy,
I'm sure we are all hoping that the van you've located is the one your family had. That would be really fantastic news.
You'll be glad to know that such miracles do happen. One of our V V'ers - Surf Tragic - found his parents' van after not having seen it for a number of decades. The last time he saw it was in Gympie, Qld, and he found it again in a backyard only about 25 kms from his home in Victoria.
He was able to identify it by a whole lot of little coincidences, relating to some modifications his father had made to the van, and a photo of an unusual feature of the upholstery. Sounds a bit like the coincidences you've referred to with the Carapark.
Good luck with all this. We will be certainly be interested in the pics and in hearing the outcome of your negotiations.
Don Ricardo
On the same day Relmhayd wrote:
Welcome Amy
I have sent you a PM re. plate #800, good luck with your van.
Bob
Then on 11 September 2010 Justanotheramy posted:
Recently, and I don't know why, I got a bee in my bonnet about tracking down the old caravan my family had when I was a kid. It was already an old van when we had it, in the 80s, but we spent pretty much every long weekend and school holidays in that thing. Dad would hook it up to the back of whichever Ford tank he was driving at the time, and we'd hit the road -- usually to my uncle's font lawn (how exotic!), but sometimes to a caravan park. And then... my brother and I were teenagers, and we moved to a house with less driveway space and... the van "retired" to my uncle's backyard as a spare room. When he died 9 years ago his widow sold it. I saved the old SA800 number plates, the bakelite-handled cutlery, and the toaster, and never expected to see the old girl again.
And then this bee landed in my bonnet.
I vaguely remembered someone saying something about the van being sold to a bloke who had a vacant block on Kangaroo Island, so I put an ad in the KI local paper's classified "Wanted" section asking about an old "Carapark" brand caravan. I didn't really expect anything to come of it.
A week later, I got a call. From a lady on KI who'd bought and old Carapark van from her neighbour, who'd inherited it from his dad a few years ago along with the empty block it was parked on. She described the van, and aside from the exterior paint colour, it sounded like a match. She wasn't sure she wanted to keep it, as she hadn't realised when she bought it that it had a leak, and that it would need work on the inside.
To cut a long story short... she just sent me some photos of the van, and it's definitely my van! And she wants to sell it: says I can have it for $100!
I'm soooo excited!
I don't really have anywhere to put it, and am not really sure how I'm going to get it back to the mainland, but... I found my caravan!
Did I mention I'm really excited about this?
This is the exterior -- someone has painted it a horrible colour, for reasons best known only to themselves.
This is apparently the worst of the damage. That's a tin bath on the left, which is under one of the single beds (that mattress has rotted and been thrown away).
Pretty self-explanatory: the kitchen, as it looks from the doorway.
Maybe interesting to no-one but me: the upholstery on the couch that runs across the front of the van, and which converts to a double bed (that black and yellow fabric is one of the details that absolutely confirms that it's the exact same van).
Bobandjacqui replied:
Congratulations ;D ;D ;D Great find , not many people are lucky enough to find the old family van altough your story would have to be up there with Surf Tragic's..
Good luck with the recovery
Cheers Bob and Jacqui.
DC3Td wrote:
Great story Amy. Better get it out from beside that tree before it grows any bigger. So first off, you have to find a place to store it (friends back yard/driveway/storage facility).Then ring a few towing companies to find out cost. Seems to me that it`s worth saving considering its history. Good luck. cheers gordon
Justanotheramy replied:
The current owner thinks that nothing crucial rusted or rotted, and that it just has a flat tire. If that is the case (it may not be, but if it is...), is there any reason I won't be able to tow it back from KI? A friend has a work vehicle that can handle the weight of the van...
Is getting it registered the tricky bit?
What sort of problems am I likely to encounter in moving it?
Drylander responded:
as a SA reg van you prob won't have too many hassles. Ring transport SA and enquire they should give you the info u need
Cheers
Pete
And DC3Td advised on 12 September 2010:
Hi Amy. As its been sitting for a while theres every chance the wheel bearings could be frozen. Does it have brakes? Something else to look into. Tyres could be perished (possible cracked side walls too) so not adviseable to tow. So, to save any grief,hire a car trailer & have your friend tow it on that.Get it to where you can store it & then go right over it. cheers gordon
On 16 September 2010, Brewer posted:
Hi Amy, that's a great story! I'm working on one as we speak and I already love it.
Be aware that it may not fit onto a standard car trailer though. I measured mine up with the intentions of doing just that, but all of the trailers I could find had sidewalls that are just a bit too tall and a bit too close together for the van to fit between them. That's not to say you won't be able to find a suitable trailer with lower sides, but it might not be as easy as just going to a local hire place. A truck with a tilt tray is a more reliable (but more expensive) option.
I got lucky, when I moved mine it had been sitting for years but the wheel bearings were well greased and perfect. I towed it home behind my Range Rover using some good wheels off of a trailer - I believe the Carapark wheels are a Chevvy pattern which happens to be the same as most modern 6-stud 4WD rims so they are quite easy to find (this was fortunate as, like Gordon said, the original tyres were cracked and perished, and even though I could have replaced the tyres, nobody could supply a tube to fit those rims any more!)
I took it easy and the trip was uneventful, except that the wind got under the rivets at the front of the roof and peeled back a section like a sardine tin. I'd suggest wrapping the thing in a tarp to prevent this if you have more than a couple of loose/missing rivets - especially if you are putting it on a truck or can't rely on the driver to keep the speed down.
Where abouts are you? Someone may be able to lend you some wheels, in which case as long as the bearings, brakes and chassis are up to the journey you should be OK to tow it.
Junstanotheramy replied on 17 September 2010:
Hi brewer,
Good to know about the trailers! That's not something I'd want to find out the hard way, especially since the ferry to Kangaroo Island charges by vehicle length
The ferry fees are looking like they might be my biggest purchase/retrieval expense, so if it's at all possible to tow the van back rather than loading it up onto a truck then that would make a big difference to things. A friend of mine who'll jump at any excuse to head over to KI and go fishing has offered to come with me to inspect the van and try to assess what would need to be done to it to get it on the road... any tips on what we should be looking at and looking for? Any information about where things are and what they should look like would be very useful.
I'm in metropolitan Adelaide. Nice to 'meet' another sixteen-two person! I've been looking at your 'before' photos, and the big similarities (layout, bath, cabinets, etc) and little differences (location of small shelves, upholstery) are very interesting.
Brewer responded:
Hi Amy, I'm reluctant to 'advise' anything other than getting a tilt tray to bring it back - you will probably be breaking the law, especially if the brakes aren't functioning which is quite likely. Having said that, if someone was insistent on towing it this is what I'd tell them.
Firstly, assume that your tyres and electrics are no good. Take with you a pair of good wheels, a trailer light board, some lengths of rope for securing things, and a vehicle that can easily control a trailer with no brakes. Don't forget to organise an unregistered trailer permit too.
Next, you want to have a look underneath the van and make sure that the chassis, axle, drawbar, coupling and safety chains are solid. A bit of surface rust is fine, but anything you can poke a screwdriver through is a deal-breaker. The shape of the van seems to direct recalcitrant water away from the chassis quite well and there isn't really anywhere for it to pool so you 'should' be OK - but be merciless with that screwdriver and have a good stab at any suspicious patches.
If the structural stuff is good, the next thing to check is the wheelbearings. The hubs need to turn smoothly with little to no side play. With a wheel mounted, if you grab the top of the tyre and rock it back and forth you might feel a slight clunk clunk, but you shouldn't actually see any movement. If your wheelbearings are not good, then you'll need to replace them. This is an hour or two of mucky work but it is pretty easy - it's actually quite satisfying and you only need basic tools. There are plenty of web pages (eg searchwarp.com/swa211385.htm) with instructions on replacing trailer bearings. Take all your bits to an auto parts place for them to identify and sell you 2 matching sets of bearings, a tub of grease and some hand cleaner ($60 should cover it). Somebody here might even be able to identify the bearings (I haven't done mine yet) in which case you could take them with you. You'll want to do them at some point anyway. Keep everything clean and free of grit (some petrol in a dish will help, and lay a sheet of something where you are working), pack as much new grease in there as you can during reassembly and you won't have to worry about them again for years.
If your chassis and wheelbearings are good, then the game is basically on. Hang your lighting board and make sure that bits aren't going to fly off / out of the van on the highway - take as much weight and loose stuff out of the van as you can (especially if there are any holes in the floor!) and put it in the car. Make sure that the doors, windows and roof hatches are secure, and tie them down if not. Take it easy and stop regularly to give everything a good look over.
Finally, good luck, and remember to take lots of photographs for us!
e38349 suggested:
i say just hire a long car trailer with no sides, that should do the job,
Cheer`s Harold
On 18 September 2010 Franklin1 wrote:
G'day Amy, here's some more info to help confuse you more...
I had problems trying to hire a trailer that would allow my little bondwood to fit in it properly. The step on the van stuck out too far. The hire trailer with the winch on it had sides that were about a foot high. The trailer without the winch had 8" sides. I ended up hiring the lower sided trailer, and taking two 4"-thick treated pine sleepers with me, and put the van up on them in the trailer. That allowed the step to be clear of the sides...
(ignore that scribble on the back of the van. Some grafitti artist has hacked into my photobucket album and 'tagged' one of my photos...
)So, if you've got width problems with vans and trailers, this might be an option.
cheers,
Al.
AND NOW ON 12 OCTOBER 2010 JUSTANOTHERAMY CONTINUES THE STORY:
I went over to Kangaroo Island for the weekend to have a look at the Carapark Sixteen-Two I'm probably buying.
Its condition is... worse than I was led to believe, but probably nothing that will shock most of you guys, if only because I'm sure you've seen it all before!
I took some friends with me who are more mechanically minded than I am myself, and who have building and reno experience and know-how. I just look at damage and go "eeek!", but they'll say "that's a such-and-such, and you'll need to do X, Y, and Z". The short version of their opinion is that with new tires it's towable, and that it's going to take a lot of time and work to fix it up, but that there is enough there to work with to make it doable. They think I'm mad to want it, but as inveterate fixer-uper-ers of vehicles and houses that everyone else thinks are lost causes it's a madness they can understand.
Having seen the van, I do still want it, but have adjusted my ambitions for it somewhat: it may live out its life as a granny flat in my backyard rather than ever returning to the open road. I don't know. First things first: I have to get it home from KI, and I have to fix the leaks before winter comes around again.
They say a picture's worth a thousand words, so here are some pictures.
A small forest seems to have eaten my caravan.
Font-a-licious!
They just don't make 'em this boxy any more.
Okay, down to business...
The wheels turn. That's something, right? The brakes give every indication that they might work, too (tugging on them makes the wheels stop going 'round). The tires are stuffed, but all of the moving bits of the wheels are still packed with bucket-loads of grease -- someone once loved her.
The leaf-springs (have I got that right?) seem okay, if a bit stiff, and were given a thorough spray while the wheels were off with WD40. My friend said something-something-capillary action-something, which I took to mean that marinating for a while should do them some good.
This looks about as it should, right? All things considered?
And has what I'm assuming is some kind of serial number?
Someone's bodged something onto the back end of it at some point, though (this is what it's current owner mistook for a factory original dual tow coupling).
This is the worst of the damage to the shell (aside from the leak in the roof).
And can anyone tell me what these handles at the front are for? I've always wondered.
I mentioned the roof... there are gaps and thus leaks.
Which have caused the frame to rust and swell, which has opened up the leaks even further.
Leading, fairly predictably, to this:
The frames of all of the cupboards seem salvageable, though, as do the doors of the lower kitchen cupboards and the draws between the two beds. The wardrobe isn't in the best of shape, but may be repairable, and the bed bases seem mostly intact. The laminex table (stashed under the left side bed) is perfect (small victories, right?).
I wasn't expecting her to be pristine: this hole in the water tank was there 25 years ago. The rust on the rest of the underside is just superficial (I'm told).
Except for her "feet" at the back, which are done for.
The poles and ropes for the annex are still under here, but unfortunately the canvas is gone.
Well, that's it, I think... Any opinions or advice are welcome!
A good find
......maybe just seal it .... & park her up ...... as you suggest 
I'm hoping there will still be something left to salvage by the time I get it home.