Joytime Caravans (Auburn, Vic)

[Don Ricardo]

JOYTIME CARAVANS

Manufactured or supplied by Joytime Caravans
Factory:  586 Burwood Road, Auburn  Vic

Showroom:  387 Canterbury Road, Forest Hill  Vic

and later at 10 Aristoc Road, Glen Waverley  Vic

---

Photos of a Joytime caravan advertised on Gumtree in April 2019









Looks like the rear window has been replaced at some point:

---

The caravan above looks a lot like an early 60's Franklin, and a lot like Manxie's Korong branded Franklin which she told us about here. However, the Joytime doesn't have the 'Franklin shelf' with the central support in the galley.  The Joytime could also be said to look similar to a Huntsman.

Putting that question aside for a moment, Joytime appears to be a caravan company which was established in the first half of the 60's but didn't stay around for long. The first information I can find about Joytime is an advert published in the Melbourne Age on Saturday, 6 April 1963 (page 9). The advertisement was seeking a clutch of cabinet makers experienced in caravan building:



Joytime continued to advertise for tradesmen at intervals through the rest of 1963 into 1964, but it wasn't until April 1964 that they advertised caravans for sale.  This advert appeared in the Age on Saturday 11 April 1964 (page 44) and offered 'new release' caravans ranging in size from 12 ft 6 in to 25 ft:



A few months later this advert was printed in the Age on Saturday, 20 June 1964 (page 41) offering to repaint customers existing caravans, as well as promoting their caravan range:



My observation is that caravan manufacturers only start to offer a range of services other than sales when their caravans aren't selling very well. Perhaps this was the case with Joytime?

Joytime continued to advertise their caravans into 1965. This advert appeared in the Age on Saturday, 20 February 1965 (page 13) and told potential customers 'don't buy in the dark' because they could visit the factory to see their caravan being built, and could choose from several designs:



This last advert appeared in the Age on Saturday, 27 March 1965 (page 13), and seems to indicate a change of address from Forest Hill to Glen Waverley:

The change of address may have indicated that the business was unravelling, because this is the final advertisement for Joytime that appeared in the Age.

This history seems to indicate that Joytime did build its own vans, at least for a year or two.  But the caravan advertised on Gumtree still looks like a Franklin or a Huntsman.  Perhaps Joytime acquired rolling shells from another manufacturer and the cabinet makers were required to do the internal fitout?

Another vintage caravan mystery to solve!

All newspaper clippings from www.newspapers.com

Don Ricardo

[bleiner]

Thanks for the information Don. This is my van, I bought it after seeing that Gumtree ad last year.

I also recently stripped back the drawbar, which revealed a couple of numbers, these being ‘M14’ (possibly ‘M114’) next to the coupling and ‘112’ on the draw bar itself.




Add that to the records 😂.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Bleiner,

Welcome to the forum, and thanks to Hughdeany for pointing you in this direction. It's great to know that you've got the Joytime in your care.

I am interested to hear about the serial number. I think that what you've told us puts paid to my speculation that the van may have been built (at least to rolling shell stage) by Franklin or Huntsman in Ballarat. Neither the format of the Joytime serial number nor the method used to engrave it on the drawbar matches what either of those other two companies used. That's interesting because your van does look very similar in some respects to Manxie's van which was definitely built by Franklin.

We've found over time that, even when we come across a low volume, little known caravan manufacturer like Joytime, other examples turn up sooner or later. Sometimes sooner because a person with the same brand van comes on the forum tells us that they have one the same. Let's see what happens in this case.

Would you like to post the photos of your serial number on this thread so other people can see what we've been talking about? Or I can copy the photos from your Facebook post if your ok with that.

Don Ricardo

[shesgotthelook]

My first thoughts were Phoenix, (who were caught up with Huntsman & Franklin back in the day.) My Phoenix had V51 on the drawbar although this was very un professionally done.

[hughdeany]

Hi all,
I agree the van was not made by Huntsman,it’s a different shape when you have a close look,the front window is higher instead of being made as a look through and the interior is totally different.
Another one to sleuth out! Maybe it’s a one off home made that had the owners wife’s name on it!
Cheers
hughdeany

[bleiner]

Photos have now been added, showing the numbers on the drawbar and next to the coupling.

I’ve also just remembered that I have an old registration paper for the van, which certainly agrees with it being a Joytime (‘J Time’ on the paperwork).

This also lists a serial number, however this number is nowhere to be seen on the van. Not sure if that sheds any further light.

[roomum]

My father was the owner of Joytime Caravans. I used to fit the inside of the vans out. I cannot believe that I found this.

[roomum]

Jul 29, 2020 22:25:58 GMT 10 Don Ricardo said:

JOYTIME CARAVANS

Manufactured or supplied by Joytime Caravans
Factory:  586 Burwood Road, Auburn  Vic

Showroom:  387 Canterbury Road, Forest Hill  Vic

and later at 10 Aristoc Road, Glen Waverley  Vic

---

Photos of a Joytime caravan advertised on Gumtree in April 2019









Looks like the rear window has been replaced at some point:

---

The caravan above looks a lot like an early 60's Franklin, and a lot like Manxie's Korong branded Franklin which she told us about here. However, the Joytime doesn't have the 'Franklin shelf' with the central support in the galley.  The Joytime could also be said to look similar to a Huntsman.

Putting that question aside for a moment, Joytime appears to be a caravan company which was established in the first half of the 60's but didn't stay around for long. The first information I can find about Joytime is an advert published in the Melbourne Age on Saturday, 6 April 1963 (page 9). The advertisement was seeking a clutch of cabinet makers experienced in caravan building:



Joytime continued to advertise for tradesmen at intervals through the rest of 1963 into 1964, but it wasn't until April 1964 that they advertised caravans for sale.  This advert appeared in the Age on Saturday 11 April 1964 (page 44) and offered 'new release' caravans ranging in size from 12 ft 6 in to 25 ft:



A few months later this advert was printed in the Age on Saturday, 20 June 1964 (page 41) offering to repaint customers existing caravans, as well as promoting their caravan range:



My observation is that caravan manufacturers only start to offer a range of services other than sales when their caravans aren't selling very well. Perhaps this was the case with Joytime?

Joytime continued to advertise their caravans into 1965. This advert appeared in the Age on Saturday, 20 February 1965 (page 13) and told potential customers 'don't buy in the dark' because they could visit the factory to see their caravan being built, and could choose from several designs:



This last advert appeared in the Age on Saturday, 27 March 1965 (page 13), and seems to indicate a change of address from Forest Hill to Glen Waverley:

The change of address may have indicated that the business was unravelling, because this is the final advertisement for Joytime that appeared in the Age.

This history seems to indicate that Joytime did build its own vans, at least for a year or two.  But the caravan advertised on Gumtree still looks like a Franklin or a Huntsman.  Perhaps Joytime acquired rolling shells from another manufacturer and the cabinet makers were required to do the internal fitout?

Another vintage caravan mystery to solve!

All newspaper clippings from www.newspapers.com

Don Ricardo

[roomum]

I am sorry but this is not a Joytime caravan. My father was the manufacter. Our vans had a roll on the front.

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Roomum,

Welcome to the Forum. I'm really pleased that you've found this thread about Joytime Caravans and posted that it was your father who was the manufacturer. We are always delighted when we are contacted by the descendants
of the people who built caravans in what we term the 'Vintage era', ie pre-1970, and in this case you were actually involved in building the vans yourself, so that's a bonus for us.

It would be great if you could tell us about the history of Joytime and your father, and how and when he got involved in the caravan industry. Perhaps you have some photos of Joytime vans you would be willing to share with us too?

As you can see I've tried to write up something about Joytime based on the adverts published in the newspapers, but that's always like trying to see a jigsaw picture when you've only got a few of the pieces to work with. As a result there's a fair bit of supposition in what I wrote, so it would be wonderful if you can tell us the real story, and correct me where my guesses were in error.

You refer to the photos of the caravan that led to this thread being created, and have commented that it wasn't built by Joytime. As noted in the various posts above, we had come to that conclusion. It was probably built by Franklin in around 1960, but it has been registered in the past as a Joytime and appears to have Joytime signage above the front window. We know that Franklin in Ballarat produced caravans in the 50's and 60's which were then supplied to smaller firms that then placed their own brandname on them. Is it possible that's what's happened with the caravan in the photos? We'd love to hear what you think about that.

It will be great to hear about your father and his activities in the caravan industry.

Don Ricardo