1940s Caravans

[vernon]

Thank you all for your responses, in particular we would like to make an extra special thank you to the amazing Don who went to just soooooo much trouble to show us his set up. Where else would you find someone like that?. ;D.

We'll wait to see if any other examples come up Des is very fussy about putting his cord into any old or middle aged socket. .

If we could get the parts no. and year, and if there were any others B4 that would be fantastic Brian thank you. We were thinking we might get two as we require a vent for the stove and to have two matching would probably look the best.


Cheers Des and Kel

[Don Ricardo]

Cobber, Cobber, Cobber,

How could you do it?

You know that the words "crappy" and "Don" should never be placed in the same sentence, let alone following one another... ;D ;D ;D

Seriously though, I only provided an explanation of the Don system because of your comment that it might make an interesting thread to collect information about the different power inlets used on vans over time. I thought that was a great idea.

I think you are right that most manufacturers in the 40's would have used a more sophisticated approach than Don Robinson did in his vans. Truth be told, I suspect that Don's approach goes back to the 30's since he didn't change much in his design from the 30's through to the mid-50's. However, delving through the forum suggests that many caravan manufacturers even in the 30's used a bakelite or plastic power socket set high up on the wall of the van, much like the examples you provided from the 50's and 60's.

Although you have to squint a bit, I offer the following as evidence for my proposition. Each of these has a round power inlet visible up near the roof line.

Mark T's 1937 Paramount:



Cruz's Runlite based on a 1938 design (which I must say looks a whole lot better now that it's in her shed and cleaned up a bit!):



Humpty2's late 30's/early 40's "Janorma" (before it was refurbished):



By doing this research I've also discovered an inconvenient truth! Most people take more photos of the near/door side of their van than the off/non-door side, which is generally where the power inlet is to be found. That includes me! The exception which proves this rule of the vintage caravan universe is Kaybee's 1940's lantern roof van, where the power inlet is adjacent to the door:



You've got to win some!

Don Ricardo

[vernon]

We were thinking ;D. If it seems an idea to do a thread for inlets could it be extend to include vents as well?. This is something which is also a requirement if you wish to have a gas stove which will pass todays standards, which is a must for us. Then the other is a roof hatch latch we also only have a broken one of them, it would once again be great to see what other vans of this age had. This is the sad part of not having a van with hardly any interior you just don't really know what they had. Lucky for us the wonderful part of this Forum, people are happy and proud of their vans and love to share, and help us brain storm.

Thinking about brain storming and trying to think outside of the square we went for a drive to Linvelle last weekend and checked out the old trains. It became a thought that these were of a similar age and we could possibly use ex railway bits and pieces seeing we're not having luck in the caravan department. They had wonderful vents which we thought we could use for the stove area, and even the lighting was pretty much on the mark when you compare them to a caravans of the 40"s. Just wondering does anyone else have ideas as to where we could pull materials from to fit our a van of this age. A aircraft had also crossed our minds, however we thought it could possibly be just as hard as trying to source van bits and pieces. Cheers Des and Kel

[minor man]

hi
the black uncovered one's are
cli435a for the 10amp
cli435bk for the 15amp
there are two with covers both 15amp one is a flush mount and one sits on the surface
cli435vf15 flush mount
cli435vfs15 surface mount
will get the rep to do some research and find out dates for you
brian

[cobber]

A series of articles appeared in the Perth “Western Mail” in January/ February 1946 (I think it was a re-print of a 1940 article) showing how to build this caravan.

It was named the “Rover” caravan and if you click HERE you can find on TROVE the list of articles regarding the build.



It would appear that the articles were popular in their day so, maybe the W.A. mob could keep an eye out for one sitting in a shed somewhere

Cobber.

[penny61]

Hi...
Hi,

I must admit to being a bit surprised that vans were wired for electricity so long ago.... but then Properts as far as I know were never originally wired for power.... Penny still isn't (she has one 12v light and that's it.....) and the only other one that I've seen in real life is in the Birdwood Motor Museum.... That one is, but it's either a later adition or was updated at some stage. It has the (rather old looking) inlet pins in a box behind a hinged wooden flap at the bottom, at the front of the "trailer" on the road side, and the wire simply goes up the wall to a rather modern looking double socket above the sink.

There was one other van in the museum, a bigger home made one complete with chimney for the stove.... but I don't remember if it was wired for power or not.

I really must find the time to go back and have a beter look at their Propert, and how it's set up....

Vanessa and Penny.

[cobber]

Caravan adapted as an ABC mobile studio to be used for concerts presented by the ABC at army camps and other locations. Equipped with a recording unit and recording and pick-up amplifiers. Could also provide accommodation for one person.
Date 26 February 1940



Cobber.

---

Editorial note: It was later established that the ABC caravan is parked outside the factory of Windsor Caravans in Windsor, Vic, and was therefore presumably built by Windsor. Don Ricardo

[seeshell]

Hi Cobber

Well it wouldn't want to be more than one would it? Otherwise you'd have to call it sanctioned workplace fraternisation!

Cheers!
Seeshell

[Surf Tragic]

Also, there are some who think two is a crowd

ST

[stephen&Julie]

You will need a confined space ticket for that one
Cheers S&J

[cobber]

Why I haven't posted this collection of photos in this thread previously I can't say... they were originally posted on the 'Memorabilia' board, back in 2006.
Anyway.... they're here now 

Photos from the forties.

On the last day of Reddo’s East Coast Spring Tour 2006 as we were leaving “Swansea Gardens Holiday Park” (top spot, highly recommended) the convoy pulled up at the office.
KB1 & KB 2 drew my attention to this collection of original old photos stuck to the wall of the office with sticky tape. I got highly excited and asked the owner if there was any chance of him posting them on our forum site.He said he was thinking of
giving them to me (pays to get highly excited...sometimes).
We came to an arrangement whereby I cut ‘em off the wall with a knife..borrow ‘em...do whatever with ‘em... and return ‘em to him...nice bloke..
So here they are:-

“Afternoon tea on the road between Greenvale (I think) & Charters Towers”.



“In the main street at Clermont”



“Gogango Ranges”



So you can see they were travelling along what is now known as the “Gregory Development Road”...pretty rough going in the 40’s.

I thought they could be a group of workers but this looks like a family eh?


Could this be the “back up” truck following the vans?





“Waltzing Matilda”







The only one with a date on it “Mc Evoys Caravan @ Tuncurry Park Jan 1943” (written in a different hand to the captions on the back of the other photos and this van was not shown in any of the other photos.)



Nor was this one. (note the dog pinching some of the horse’s feed)



And here are the ones I just found recently....22 April 2007 .
The camp stove is a bit on the bulky side, hence the need for a truck in the convoy to
carry such equipment.



Bush camping in the forties.
Note the young lady in the hat, washing the dishes?
Also in the background is the toilet block



Cobber.

[hilldweller]

Interesting photos Cobber. Thanks for posting. I'm surprised how many lantern roof designs there are among that lot.

[Deleted]

Thanks Cobber,
great photos,love looking at how caravanning life was way back when.
Cheers
hughdeani

[Don Ricardo]

G'day all,

Back in 2011 - higher up this thread - I posted a photo Boblor emailed me in 2008 of a caravan which he had seen locked in a compound on the Sunshine Coast:



My reason for posting the pic in 2011 was that I found a photo on the 'net of the rear of the same van taken in 2009:


bondwood caravan by Beno @ Foundry Tattoo, on Flickr

(The second photo is copyright so I haven't copied it, just provided a link to its location.)

The encouraging thing about the second photo was that it showed that the van was still registered and in good condition. Hopefully it still is, wherever it might be.

Incredibly, I now have another instalment to add to the story of this van...

Checking my Facebook newsfeed last night, I came across a post by Murray Adams on the History of Dromana to Portsea Facebook page here. Murray's post included three postcards of the camping ground at Sorrento in Victoria from the State Library of Victoria archive, including this one:


(Source: State Library of Victoria handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/58178 )

If you take a close look at the caravan on the left (behind the power pole), you'll see that it's the same caravan that was photographed in Queensland in 2008 and 2009. It is identifiable by a number of features: configuration of windows, leadlight pattern in the windows, lantern roof plus two roof hatches, and shape of the wheel arch. Amazingly, the postcard also shows the two aerials mounted on the front of the van, which one might have thought were a somewhat later addition. (If you click on the Facebook link, then click on the double headed arrow on the top right hand corner of the photo, an enlarged version of the photo will appear and you can see some of these features more clearly.)

Some of these features are pretty unique, and taken together I think indicate that it is one and the same van. Of course it's possible that whoever put the van together built more than one. However, the van looks like a home build and I think the possibility that there are or were several of them seems pretty unlikely.

The Standard 8 or 10 car that can be seen in the photo was introduced in 1953, so that means that the postcard photo was taken in the 50's, no earlier than 1953. I think that adds extra weight to the idea proposed above that the caravan we have been looking at was probably built sometime in the 1940's.

Isn't it amazing what turns up when you least expect it?

Don Ricardo

[boblor]

Hi dr
I think I sent you this photograph, I found the van in a storage yard at Maroochydore/ Alexander Headland area.
Cheers boblor

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Boblor,

Thanks for letting me know it was you who sent me the photo in the storage yard. I've amended my post accordingly.  Sorry for not keeping track of where the photo came from. I wasn't able to track down its origins because it was via an old email setup that I no longer have access to.

It's amazing how that van turns up from time to time, isn't it. And even more amazing that we have a photo of it on a Victorian postcard taken 50+ years before you saw it in Queensland! I love it when those little coincidences occur.

Hopefully a forum member will see it on the road, or beside the road, or in a backyard sometime and we can find out more about it. I'd love to see some inside photos. I'm guessing the furniture will be varnished wood. I've got no basis for that other than just a hunch mind you!

Glad to read that you got through your op OK last week. Hope the rest of the treatment and recovery goes really well.

Don Ricardo

[shesgotthelook]

1947 homebuilt. Built by Keith Ryan in Bendigo. Photo taken 1958




Pre restoration




And now

[Don Ricardo]

Photo of a lantern roofed caravan built for Mr & Mrs H R Brindle of Waratah, Newcastle published in the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate on Saturday, 13 July 1946 (page 5):


(Source National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133169885 )

It is not stated who built the van for H R Brindle, and we do not know of any connection between him and Albert Brindle who built Brindle caravans.

Don Ricardo

[Mustang]

One can only imagine the roads this van & the Brindles travelled on, the dust, the mud, the petrol rationing, it could have been a book in itself.