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Post by alanjb07 on Apr 29, 2011 17:54:07 GMT 10
Hi everyone. In the late 50s my father bought this caravan and has owned it in Perth ever since. He loved it so much he built a brick garage to store it. I have great memories as a kid in the 60’s of travelling around WA, SA and NT with Mum and Dad, firstly with a Ford Consul, then Dad upgraded to an XP falcon. Dad took hundreds of slides of our regular caravan holidays. This photo is from the early 60s at the WA/SA border, with Mum Dad and I And on the old Sturt Highway between Kingoonya and Coober Pedy. I have now inherited the Van. I have lived in Melbourne for 10 years, so with the caravan in Perth it set us up for the perfect road trip across Australia. The Van hadn’t moved from Dads garage for over 20 years, but with a good clean and repacking of the wheel bearings (I love that old vans are simple), we were ready to go. We spent a lazy 3 weeks in January travelling around the southwest coast, this picture is of my family at Lucky Bay near Esperance. The van never missed a beat. I can’t say the same for the 93 commodore that towed it. We took her away for Easter, camping on a friend’s farm, with everyone else in tents. Unlike tents the old girl was very comfortable and warm. I was hoping other members might be able to help with a couple of questions. I don’t know the maker of the van. There is no chassis plate to identify it and the registration papers have the maker as “unknown”. Does anyone recognise this van type? This recent photo gives a good profile view of the Van Now we are in Melbourne, I have found the van will not fit in our garage, and I don’t want to leave it outside. Can anyone recommend undercover caravan storage services available around Melbourne, or close to town? Thanks Alan
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Post by surfingyogini on Apr 29, 2011 18:59:50 GMT 10
What a beautiful van!! Do you have any shots of the interior Alan?
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Post by kingy on Apr 29, 2011 19:58:24 GMT 10
Great story and photos Alan, the three windows across front and rear of van may help with ID of van, not many were made that way. Our van has the same window layout, as well ours had the same eyebrow over the windows (now gone).......MAYBE yours is a later model ''Supalite'' having alloy side window surrounds. Have you any photo's of the front, i see a makers logo in one of the photo's. - from a distance, it sure looks similar to the supalite logo. The hatch is unusual, opening at the front.....not common The one thing that does not gel is that supalites were made in NSW. Great van Guy's, ENJOY Kingy
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Post by firefighter on Apr 29, 2011 20:51:58 GMT 10
G,day Alan Welcome to the forum Nice story ......also nice van ...for storage of your van send forum member hughdeani a P M...... he might be able to help you out Good to see you got it out of Perth before Mark T found it ;D ;D What part of Melbourne are you in ?? f/f ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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HAD708
Junior Member
Posts: 67
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Post by HAD708 on Apr 29, 2011 21:56:16 GMT 10
Alan i have been waiting for you to post some photos up for us all to see and dicuss! I have viewed this van and a lovely little original van it is!!! Good luck with it Alan Brett
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Post by seeshell on Apr 29, 2011 22:43:44 GMT 10
Hi Alanjb07 What a lovely van - and how nice that you have a family history for it. There only a few people who are lucky enough to have a van that has passed down and given so much pleasure over generations. In the original picture of your van, is that wings painted over the wheels, or just a bit of SA Dust? Glad to see the old girl is out and about and continuing her journeys. Cheers Seeshell
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Post by Don Ricardo on Apr 30, 2011 22:16:52 GMT 10
G'day Alanjb07, Thanks for telling us the story of your van and showing us the pics. I can tell from what you've told us that the van holds lots and lots of happy memories for you. I am in the same position with our van (which also belonged to my parents) and everytime I go inside a whole lot of memories flood back. My wife and I have now added a whole lot of additional memories from the holidays we've had in the van with our three children, and are looking forward to adding some more with our grandchildren in due course. No doubt you will create a whole set of new memories in the van with your own family. Regarding the identity of your van, I agree with Kingy - it is definitely a Supalite. As Kingy has said the triple front window, the little 'monobrow' over the front window, and the hatch all say "Supalite". However, the conclusive piece of evidence is the little set of wings painted over the wheel arch which Seeshell referred to. If you have a look at the Supalite thread in the Down History Lane section here and look at the vans shown in Reply #7 & #9, you will see that they have the little wings painted in exactly the same place as your van did. And if you look through the various posts on the Supalite thread you will see that almost all the Supalites had wings painted somewhere around the wheel arch. Supalite is the only manufacturer that used those little wings as an insignia. I am not sure from what you wrote whether your father bought the van in Perth, or bought it in, say, NSW, and took it to Perth. In any case NSW is where it was built. If your father bought it in Perth, maybe Supalite had an agent there? Don Ricardo
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Post by Roehm3108 on Apr 30, 2011 22:30:09 GMT 10
It looks like the van may have had its sides reclad at some stage. The first pics show the wings, but then there is a strip of beading about a foot up from the bottom. Would that be right?
Really love them old pics!! And they tell such stories!!!
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Post by kingy on May 1, 2011 9:42:34 GMT 10
Hi Don Ricardo, you learn something everyday ;D..... i had never picked up on the fact that supalites had little wings as a insignia on their vans.......maybe i was absent that day ;D. No doubt my wings had been painted over at some stage alanjb07......have you any interior shots Kingy
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Post by Don Ricardo on May 1, 2011 17:05:36 GMT 10
Hi Kingy,
Maybe your van didn't ever have them? I think you've told me that your van was purchased by the original owner as a shell - is my memory correct? If so, it may have been bare wood or only primed when he got it...
Don Ricardo
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Post by alanjb07 on May 1, 2011 19:09:18 GMT 10
Thanks for all the replies everyone, I have looked through Dads Photos and you are right, she is a Supalite. Here are the answers to a couple of your questions. Below are the interior photos. It originally had a double bed in the back, but Mum and Dad couldn’t stop arguing about who had to sleep against the wall, so Dad replaced the double with 2 bunk beds The tow hitch is like nothing else I have seen, I think these photos say it all. Its very secure as we effectively bolt the caravan to the car. Ahh the hatch! Dad modified it so it opened forward. This was to keep dust out of the van on dirt roads (something eastern staters of the time didn’t experience!). By opening the hatch forward it acted like an air scoop, collecting dust free air and pressurised the van, stopping the dust from entering the van. Worked very well. Its interesting that Supalites were made in NSW. Dad definitely bought it in WA. Maybe there was an agent in Perth at the time? The sides haven’t been reclad, but we did lose a wheel in the North West. It damaged the timber arch, so Dad had the lower part of the panel replaced. Have great photos of Van on red dusty road with an ugly lean and no smile on my Fathers face!
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Post by seeshell on May 1, 2011 19:27:21 GMT 10
Hi Alan Your dad sure did a nice job of the bunks - and they got an extra cupboard out of it and noone had to sleep against the wall. No bad thing at all, saves getting woken for every loo run in the middle of the night. Love the cooker/oven combo, and what a lovely little old fridge! I'm jealous! Thanks for showing off your van - a little gem. Cheers Seeshell
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Post by kingy on May 4, 2011 10:03:26 GMT 10
Thanks Al for confirming your van is a supalite........not many around, it's also good to see one thats had the internal factory fitout, it's the only one i've seen for memory........ours was purchased as a ''rolling shell'' as DR mentioned, hope to see it one day Kingy
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Post by No longer vanless on Sept 26, 2015 21:52:32 GMT 10
Hello!
Bumping into this old thread.
We just bought a 1959 Supalite Viking. We can't find any information about the Viking model. Can anyone shed any light?
Thank you!
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