Travel Home Caravans (Kilsyth, Vic)

[Don Ricardo]

Travel Home Caravans

Travel Home Caravans Pty Ltd,
568-570 Doncaster Road, Doncaster
and later Canterbury Road, Kilsyth, Vic

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Based upon their design and livery, most Travel Home caravans appear to have been built in the 1970's and therefore fit into the Classic Caravans category. However, on 22 January 2013, Roofless posted the following photos of his Travel Home which - again based on design and livery - appears to be pre-1970's and therefore from the Vintage Caravans era:

The serial number for this van is TH752.





Note the overall shape, the profile of the aluminium cladding and the flashes on the side, all of which suggest to me a pre-70's van, and most likely a pre-1967 van. (1967 was the date when aluminium cladding with a painted acrylic finish began to be widely used.)

There are more pics of Roofless' caravan here.

There are some photos of post-1970 Travel Home caravans to be seen on the Classic Caravans forum here.

According to Franklin1/Millard1399 on the Classic Caravans forum. Travel Home used the following logo in 1970...



...but then changed to this logo in mid-1971:



However, I see that Roofless' caravan used the 'mid-1971' logo, so that either means that it is a 1971+ caravan, or more likely that Travel Home were using the second logo earlier on their vans than in their advertising.

Thanks to Franklin1 for his research on Travel Home caravans. If anyone has further information on this caravan brand or on the date of Roofless' van it will be interesting to hear.

Don Ricardo

[roofless]

I can safely say mine is definitely pre 70 van after reading this as it's missing a few of the features mentioned in the above ad.
1, Pop up hatch not wind up.
2, Rear wind up stabilizers only, 4 sided stands for front.
3, Rear window is fixed, ie non opening.
4, Vinyl interior "what was left of it" instead of polyester.

Other than the ally finish everything else is the same as the ad states.
However it would be nice to obtain a copy of the 12 month written warranty...

ETA, It may be a bit immature of me to say this but this would make our van a 69??? What a great year... Hahaha

[overlanda]

I was told by my old boss that the bean counter (accountant) from Wayfarer started Travel Home Caravans after Wayfarer closed .I also used to work with a couple of ex Travel Home and Wayfarer employees in the mid seventies and they said something similar, in which case it was started in 1969.
Regards Gerald

[mel12]

My travel home is 16ft..has same features and is a 1978 model. 

[Don Ricardo]

G'day Mel12,

Welcome to the forum.

Interesting to read about your van. It suggests that Travel Home adopted a design and stuck to it over quite a period.

Is your van clad in unpainted aluminium or does it have an acrylic (painted) finish?

Don Ricardo

[firefighter]

Apr 1, 2014 21:53:33 GMT 10 mel12 said:

My travel home is 16ft..has same features and is a 1978 model. 

 

 G'day Mel

 Vintage caravans.com is pre December 1969 ...we have a sister forum Classic caravans that caters for vans in the 70s

ditzygypsy.proboards.com/

cheers

f/f

[mel12]

No worries..thought I was replying to a question from travel homes. Cheers.

[stillgotit]

Hi  guys  our travelhome   van is also 15 ft.  with an earler chassie no to roofless.s  vv.  Our  Chassie no. is  TH708  with some differances  side light &no front cnr windows.

[Don Ricardo]

Apr 1, 2014 22:21:15 GMT 10 Don Ricardo said:

G'day Mel12,

Welcome to the forum.

Interesting to read about your van. It suggests that Travel Home adopted a design and stuck to it over quite a period.

Is your van clad in unpainted aluminium or does it have an acrylic (painted) finish?

Don Ricardo

Reply from Mel12 via PM:

Hi Don. Mel 12 here. It has acrilic paint finish. Sorry having quite worked out how to post things in the right places yet haha. The couch covering g is fabric material not viynal.



Hi Mel12,

Acrylic? That certainly fits with a 70's build date. Some manufacturers started using an acrylic painted finish in 1967 or a little earlier, but others took a bit longer to pick up on it. Based on the photos of Roofless' van, it looks as if Travel Home were still using unpainted aluminium cladding in the very late 60's, but must have adopted the acrylic finish some time after that.

Every little bit of info helps put the jigsaw puzzle together, so thanks for telling us about your van.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

One of the questions that has been discussed on this thread is when Travel Home commenced producing caravans - before 1970 (and therefore in the 'vintage era'), or in 1970 or later (and in the 'classic era'). Based on information from ex-Wayfarer work colleagues, Overlanda stated his belief above that Travel Home were in operation as early as 1969.

Below is an advert for an 'as new' (meaning second hand) 14 ft Travel Home caravan placed in the Melbourne Age on 6 December 1969 by Rambler Caravans:


(Source: The Age, Saturday, 6 December 1969, page 50)

Even if the van was only a few months old when it was advertised, this confirms that Travel Home was producing vans at least as early as 1969.

However, looking through newspaper classifieds via www.newspapers.com reveals that Travel Home was around for a few years even before that. Travel Home caravans were first advertised in the Melbourne Age on November 1966.  The advert doesn't tell us much, apart from their address in Doncaster, Victoria:


(Source: The Age, Saturday, 19 November 1966, page 40)

So that indicates that Travel Home was operating in 1966.  It isn't clear from this advert whether Travel Home was building caravans at that stage, or just selling them, although the advert does mention that its premises included a factory.  However, the majority of the adverts that appeared in The Age through the rest of the 60's and into the 70's for Travel Home were for cabinet makers and carpenters (not caravans for sale), suggesting that it was building its own caravans.  The following is a typical example:


(Source:  The Age, Saturday, 22 April 1967, page 25)

An advert published in the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) in March 1968 tells us that by that point Travel Home had begun to sell their products ranging from 12 to 25 feet in Sydney through Sefton Caravans in Cabramatta:


(Source:  SMH, Saturday, 9 March 1968, page 39)

It is clear that Travel Home must have made an impact on the Sydney caravan market.  Pushing a bit beyond the boundary of the vintage caravan era (ie beyond 31 December 1969), this article and advert for Travel Home appeared in the SMH in March 1971:


(Source for both items:  SMH, Sunday, 7 March 1971, page 115)

And this further article and advert in May 1971:


(Source:  SMH, Sunday, 20 May 1971, page 142)

The fact that we now know that Travel Home had started production at least as early as 1966 helps to explain why some of the Travel Home caravans that we've seen on the forum, including this thread have a mid-sixties style. We had previously thought that Travel Home had built caravans in the very late 60's and early 70's using an older, more dated style and materials, however it appears that those caravans most probably were built in the mid-60's using a quite contemporary style for that period.

Don Ricardo

[tricky]

I can’t find anywhere whether the frames are wood or aluminium?

[hughdeany]

Hi Tricky,
The frames are wood.
Cheers
hughdeany