Re-lax caravans

[dp3011]

Hi all,

I'm new to this game so please be patient

I'm inquiring about a caravan my parents use to have when I was a kid, it was a plywood Re-lax 4 birth caravan, colour was blue and white.

There was a thread on the 7/9/2008 (RE-LAX Caravans - Wentworthville NSW) by Franklin1 Legend with the same caravan I am describing (not sure if you check this thread or not).

Is there a web site where vintage caravans like these are for sale? If so can anyone shed some light please.

Or does anyone know of one of these caravans for sale, to restore or already restored?

Thanks in advance

Darrell

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Dp3011,

Welcome to the forum. I’m glad that you found the Re-Lax thread in our ‘Down History Lane’ section.  And how good is it that it includes photos of a caravan like your parents?  I’m sure those photos bring back lots of great memories for you.

As you’ve no doubt read, Re-Lax was only a small volume manufacturer operating in the late 50’s and the 60’s. It seems to have stopped building vans in the early 60’s, after which they hired out vans and also may have put their Re-Lax badge on vans built by other companies, before becoming a dealer for Franklin. The reason I mention that, is that there are not heaps of Re-Lax caravans around. We’ve only seen three or four on the forum over the last seventeen years. (I’ve found one other that’s not referred to on the Down History Lane thread. I’ll add that to the thread when I’ve finished this post. I think it’s an earlier model than the one you remember.)

Because there are not a lot of Re-Lax caravans around, there is no specific place where any for sale will be advertised, nor is there a Facebook page dedicated to Re-Lax caravans as there are for some of the better known/more common makes. The best I can suggest is that you regularly visit Gumtree where quite a lot of vintage caravans get listed for sale (and I think you can set up an alert there so that you get informed when an item matching what you want gets listed). The other place where a lot of vintage and classic caravans get advertised these days is Facebook. There are quite a lot of Facebook pages dedicated to Vintage Caravans - just put ‘vintage caravan’ into the Facebook search tool and they’ll come up. When I say ‘ check regularly’ I mean that you need to check Gumtree at least weekly, and the Facebook pages daily or every couple of days. Sometimes caravans listed there are sold within hours. If you’re wanting to buy, say, a Viscount another one will come up quickly, but another Re-lax won’t come up very soon.

A couple of other things you could do is set up your own ‘Re-Lax Caravan’ Facebook page and indicate that you’re interested in talking to other owners or sellers, and also put a post in our forum ‘Wanted to Buy/Sell’ section.

You mentioned patience in your post, and you’ll need a fair big of patience in your quest I think. It may take months (or even years) for a Re-Lax to come up for sale because there are very few around.

Hope the above helps and isn’t too discouraging?  Do keep in contact with us. Maybe you’d like to tell us about some of your memories of holidays in your parents’ van? Do you have any photos you would like to share with us?

Don Ricardo

[dp3011]

Hi Don,

Thanks for the reply, I have been looking on Gumtree and Ebay with no luck as yet. I am not on Facebook but I might have to join up and try my luck there. I thought there might be a different website that I couldn't find in my searching that might sell vintage caravans and parts etc.

The thread I mentioned before sounded very similar to my parents caravan, after my father died my mother asked me did I want the van to which I said no as I didn't have any use for it and nowhere to store it and I told her to advertise it (it would've been around that time too and sounds very similar), now I'm kicking myself as I have an old EJ Holden (the same colour scheme) that the van would look great behind (oh well who would've known).

Thanks for your advice and info, I'll continue to look.

Darrell