Help identifying manufacturer, model and year of my new van

[richyhaze]

Hi Everyone,

Picked up a new caravan yesterday and hoping for some help identifying it. There are no traces of the manufacturer's name.  It looks to have had second (amateur) paint job with a red strip over top of a blue-green "lightning flash" design that I thought from reading the threads might make it a Viscount Ambassador.

The interior layout is similar to a pic of a Viscount Ambassador on the forum.  However the chassis number doesn't compute  - it's MS 8180-2 and is letters welded into the side of the draw bar. The trailing hyphen on the chassis number made me think Franklin (I think I read they used hyphen to show the year) maybe 1972 - but the rest of the chassis number doesn't suggest so.  I had thought the "S" in MS might be a 5 but it is hard to see it as other than an "S"

I've looked under tables and in cupboards but so far no handwritten clues as to the date of fabrication.  The front exterior at the top seems to have traces of a centrally placed decal but I can't make out any letters.  The rear has a centrally placed light between the 2 tail lights that I think I saw on a Viscount Ambassador pic but I don't know enough to know if this is a discriminating factor.

Grateful for suggestions or leads - happy to post more pics of any other features. 

Thanks so much!

Attachments:

[shesgotthelook]

Hello & welcome. I'm thinking you may have a Murrumba Star van there.

vintagecaravans.proboards.com/thread/2612/murrumba-star-caravans-caboolture-qld

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Richyhaze,

Great to see the photos of your van.

Shesgotthelook has identified your van for you. Most of the first page of the link she gave you is about the fibreglass LindaStar, but if you go to the bottom of the page, and then on to the second page, you'll find more about your design of caravan. You should be able to work out the model by measuring the cabin and checking it against the info on the thread in the link/

Murrumba Star only started production in 1967 and then went broke at the end of 1969, so that means that your van is late 1960's.

Don Ricardo

[richyhaze]

Thanks so much SGTL and DonR - that's so helpful! I've been poring over the thread and it's great to start to piece together the picture. The cabin is 15'3" so I assume a Venus. I guess I'll post the pics in that thread for the MS aficionados. The van is in pretty good nick with very minimal rot in a couple of places - it's a real time capsule.

Thanks again!