Seeking the identity of this van

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

Pmandlm has sent me the following photos of a very interesting van which he received from a contact. There are no visible indications of a brandname or who it was built by. Does anybody have any ideas about its origins - manufacturer, etc?





















To my eye the indications are that it is a South Australian built van because of: the overall shape, the canvas roof, the tudor ceiling (although a bit unusual being apparently pine lined), and what appears to be a Treg-style coupling. In addition the van is located in South Australia, which is often an indicator of the state of origin when the van has been in storage for a long period, as this van has. I am also surmising that the van was built in the latter part of the 50's because of the aluminium framed windows which seem to be original.

So any ideas about who may have built it?

Don Ricardo

[Deleted]

Hi Don,I have no idea who built it,but agree that it's SA built.
Whoever built it did a good job though!
Cheers
hughdeani

[sportsman 1]

Home made mid to late fifties for mine.

Leigh.

[kingswood308]

The LPG bottle would have been one of the long greenish blue tall cylinders.

No idea on its make, but with a wash it looks to be a well preserved 1950s caravan.

A very good find

[ena]

What a beauty.
SA was founded by the Germans, maybe it is why they are built differently. Just a thought.

[don]

Hi I wonder if the porthole windows have been fitted later?. If you look hard they have been fitted with Phillips head screws..... Don

[kingswood308]

It looks like it may have had a paint job Don, maybe the paint job was done and they had to remove a few things and couldn't replace the original slot head screws..

[pmandlm]

Sorry - the phillips head screw theory doesn't hold up. I can zoom in on the original photo, and they are all slot heads apart from possibly the one under the light fitting (at about 13 minutes past the hour). PM

[shaunosborn]

Hey Don Ricardo. Did you end up finding out anymore about this caravan? I believe i have just bought the exact type!

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Shaunosborn,

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for your PM as well.

The van shown in this thread is still a mystery unfortunately. I listed it in the ‘Caravans yet to be identified’ thread here in 2017 as well, but no further information has been posted. I’m still of the view that it is a South Australian van, and possibly built by a manufacturer that we don’t know much about at this stage, such as Regent or Ritter.

It would be fabulous to see the photos of the van you have. Sometimes a comparison of a couple of vans reveals some identifying features. For example does yours have Treg coupling and the pine board ceiling lining? Also if you found your van in South Australia, that would add some weight to the suggestion that it is an SA-built caravan.

There are instructions on how to post photos in the ‘Forum Guidelines & Helpful Hints’ section of the forum. If you have any problems posting the photos, or would prefer, you can email some photos to me at [e-mail] and I’ll happily post them for you.

Don Ricardo