|
Post by Don Ricardo on Feb 18, 2007 23:18:52 GMT 10
Hello everyone, A couple of weeks ago, Mark posted a photo of his Don Cadet as part of a discussion about late model Dons. vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=forsale2&action=display&thread=1166612480The photo rang a bell with me and I went digging through my bits and pieces. Sure enough I found some pictures of Mark’s Cadet in an article in the November 1993 edition of “Caravan World”. It was the RACV Caravan Club flag on the side and the front blind that gave it away. Mark expressed interest in seeing the article, and I thought other people also might be interested if I posted it. As well as giving some of the history of Mark’s Cadet, the article also provides some information about the history and development of Don caravans. Mark told us a bit about purchasing the Cadet in the thread: vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1132112802By the way, if you're wondering - no my memory is not that good. I didn’t remember the picture from 1993. I was looking through the magazine again in January! Regards to all you V V'ers, Don Ricardo
|
|
|
Post by firefighter on Feb 19, 2007 6:16:03 GMT 10
Thanks Don for puting the article on the site for everybody to read, interesting to read Franklins assembly line was the start of puting don out of business Geoff ;D ;D
|
|
|
Post by cobber on Feb 19, 2007 7:11:37 GMT 10
Don,
Thanks for taking the trouble to copy that article from "Caravan World" 1993 for us all to see, great nostalgia there.
And it's good to look back on those links you provided regarding Marks acquisition of his Dons.
Good stuff....THAT'S what it's all about, vintage vans....vintage memories.
Cobber.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2007 22:31:09 GMT 10
thanks Don. The Don Cadet is now stored in my shed in Beverley WA. I've researched its build No and believe it to be a 1960 build, or possibly 59. A fresh coat of paint is planned down the track for the Cadet (after all the other projects : Where can I find the Walsh's 1936 Don Mark
|
|
|
Post by Don Ricardo on Feb 22, 2007 21:55:06 GMT 10
Thanks Cobber.
I agree with your comments. The value and power of the website is that I can contribute one piece of information, you can contribute another bit, somebody else adds something else, and together we can put together the whole picture - a bit like a jigsaw. It may take a while, but over time it happens.
Mark
I'm sure we would all like to know where the Walsh's Don is. What a find that would be - a real piece of history! I've tried trying to locate Neil Walsh in a couple of ways, but haven't got any leads. Maybe somebody needs to visit Five Ways to find someone who knows where he's moved to or where his family now is? Five Ways is still rural fringe territory so I reckon there'd be someone around that knows something.
Maybe even somebody out there in V V land knows the Walsh family or knows the location of the '36 van. The Walshes obviously treasured the van and understood the significance of its history and lineage, so I'm guessing that it may be tucked away safely somewhere. I can't imagine that one day somebody just decided to leave it out in the rain to rot. By the same token, sometimes a new generation doesn't appreciate what is sitting in front of them, so who knows.
On past history you may have better luck finding the van working from WA than those of us in Victoria! Maybe your truckie mate will have another pickup to do!
Don Ricardo
|
|
|
Post by cobber on Feb 23, 2007 10:06:30 GMT 10
Don..Mark, Wouldn't it be nice to imagine this is Mrs Harvey Walsh on her way to a caravan rally in 1938.
|
|
|
Post by firefighter on Feb 23, 2007 11:46:33 GMT 10
|
|
|
Post by cobber on Feb 23, 2007 17:34:13 GMT 10
G'day Geoff,
From little things big things grow, maybe.
There is absolutely nothing to indicate this photo has anything to do with the Walsh family but it could be interesting to see what you are able to turn up regarding the "Rugby" connection.
What a great site this is, eh?
Cobber.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2007 18:10:29 GMT 10
I actually already own the little 10' Don caravan outta that photo: but I'm still trying to find the woman & the Rugby ;D ;D ;D and of course the Walsh's Don ....... Mark
|
|
|
Post by firefighter on Feb 23, 2007 18:40:20 GMT 10
|
|
|
Post by cobber on Feb 23, 2007 18:47:21 GMT 10
Mark ! Tis different, look at the door handles, ones in the smart position...t'others in the stupid position (why did they change that ?). Do we (you ) know what other differences there were between the '36 Don and the '38 ? Cobber.
|
|
|
Post by Don Ricardo on Feb 24, 2007 9:39:47 GMT 10
News Flash
There were reports of a serious traffic jam at Five Ways in Victoria this morning caused by wild-eyed men driving classic cars. All the men claimed to be named 'Walsh' and to be looking for their long lost 'Uncle Neil' and 'cousin Don'. Bill Smith, owner of the Five Ways General Store, told reporters that he hadn't seen so much activity for years, but that the five-way intersection seemed to be causing a lot of confusion for the members of the Walsh family. Police are now in control of the situation and the traffic is returning to normal, but Constable Taylor warned motorists towing caravans to avoid the area because there had been as yet unsourced threats of van-jacking.
Earlier today an earth tremor had been reported in the area, but it is now thought that the vibrations were caused by the rumble of the exhausts of so many classic cars driving in the locality at once. Scientists have predicted a similar phenomenon in Mount Gambier in March next year.
AAP Newsagency report
|
|
|
Post by fbmad on Feb 24, 2007 16:09:34 GMT 10
Mark, re Woman and Rugby...............
That womans now wrinkley and the rugby's now rusty!
Terry.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2007 20:10:43 GMT 10
Hi there Don I love your sense of humour..... still giggling ;D can just see it now... every man and his dog racing to the 5 ways like the movie... "Its a Mad, Mad world".. and the big dubblya Dunno how old you are but an extremely funny movie from the 60s... Phill silvers, Johnathan winters, Jimmy Geranti and a cast of complete looneys... funny as ;D Oooooops getting out of line here...stick to the vintage caravan script Reddo.......... has anyone sorted out the issue about the arse about door handles between '36 and '38 Dons or was it because someone stuck the shaft through the mechanism 180 degrees out. . Please reply tonight ... i am gunna loose sleep over this one . All the more reason to find the Walshs.eh?? Once again ... Love your work Don ....with the Don. Reddo
|
|
|
Post by Don Ricardo on Feb 24, 2007 20:44:40 GMT 10
On a more serious note than my last post... CobberWhat a great photo! Thanks for posting it. It says so much about the era. Where did you find it? Are there any other caravan photos available from the same place? One of the interesting things about it is the colour scheme, particularly the use of the contrasting colour around the door. Pity the photo can't be in colour so we can see what colours were used. Regarding your comment on the change from left hand hinged doors to right hand hinged doors, I know there has been a raging debate on the forum. However, my theory based on experience from our right hand hinged Don is that: - A right hand hinged door gives quicker access to the battery cupboard to the right of the doorway and therefore is safer in an emergency situation. [If a fire breaks out in the cupboard it can be put out more quickly.]
- Because there is a bank of cupboards very close to the right of the door opening, and the seat and table are on the left, a right hand hinged door provides more room for people to enter and leave the caravan.
- On the smaller vans such as Mark's 110 model, a left hand hinged door would interfere with an annexe, and it is easier to have the door opening the one way across all the models.
Of course when these vans were produced, suicide doors were very common on cars (at least British and European cars), so right hand hinged doors on vans probably didn't seem that strange or out of place. Do you have any theories? (Apart from the fact that the early van builders didn't have a clue!) MarkCobber's photo and the photo of your 110 raise some interesting questions. You may know some of the answers (or all of them): 1. Do we have any ideas about when Don changed from doors hinged on the left to doors hinged on the right (what Cobber so politely terms 'the stupid side')?The van in Cobber's photo and the Walsh's van both have doors hinged on the left, while the photos of all the other Dons I have on file are hinged on the right. 2. Do we have any information about what paint schemes Don used and when?The majority of Dons currently in existence that I have seen photos of are painted cream or white with green pin-striping. The impression I have from my parents is that the van's produced in the late 40's and early 50's all used this colour scheme. However the van in Cobber's photo clearly uses a different colour scheme and there are some line drawings in the Don sales brochure which also suggest a two-colour scheme. I also note that when you posted photos of Doug and Vicki's van a while ago, they said that their van's original colour was grey. vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=photo&action=display&thread=11351217023. Have you got any closer to dating your 110 model Don?When you first posted information I think you said it was 'circa build no 250' and that you thought it was pre-WWII. It seems to be unlined inside but in other respects it seems to have more similarities with the post-war vans such as ours rather than the pre-war vans in Cobber's photo or the Walsh's. 4. Would it be possible to post some more detailed photos of the mechanism for raising and lowering the caster wheel on you 110 model? It looks really intriguing and quite different to the mechanism on our van. The sales brochure seems to imply that the smaller and larger vans used different systems so maybe that's the explanation, or does it just reflect developmental changes? Sorry to ask so many questions, but it is intriguing to see the incremental changes in a basic design which was in production for something like 20 years. Regards, Don Ricardo
|
|
|
Post by Don Ricardo on Feb 24, 2007 20:52:26 GMT 10
Thanks Reddo. I had the 'race to Five Ways' running through my head all night last night, and I just had to get up and post it this morning...
As for the question about the left and right opening doors, maybe we'll never know the answer, but I just put up my theory in a post answering Cobber's comment about smart and stupid doors.
I'd be interested to know if you think any of my ideas hold water.
Don Ricardo
|
|
|
Post by cobber on Feb 25, 2007 8:32:58 GMT 10
G'day Don, Just yesterday I fitted an Annex to my ol' 36 (hinged on the right hand side). My other van "Driftwood" is hinged on the smart side. Ol'36 has a window beside the door toward the front of the van...driftwood doesn't. This has been cited as one of the most logical reasons why the hinges are placed where they are, and this may be so.....however, it became apparent to me yesterday that had ol' 36 been hinged on the left, and due to the sharp dip in the roof line at the front of the van, the top of the door would have torn a hole in the canvas in short time. Driftwood's door does rub the canvas but not to the same extent and it does have a little wheel fitted to the top of the door that overcomes the problem to some extent. So, the third theory you propose Don, together with the placement of the window sound as though they could have been prime considerations when deciding which side to place the hinges. Don, you must stop referring to the photo as "Cobber's photo". That one belongs to all of us (Australian Tax payers). It, and some of the others I have posted, are in various state libraries collections and can be accessed via www.pictureaustralia.org/ I wouldn't like to say how complete this data base is, I suspect a personal visit to the library might turn up even more photos, and I don't think all libraries are on this centralized "picturesaustralia" data base. Your question # 4 to Mark is something often overlooked by people taking photos, or doing artwork of vintage caravans. Jockey wheels and couplings are things that evolved quite a bit in the early days.The one I have on ol' 36 is English and had it's patent granted in 1932. The one on earlee's van, assuming it is earlier is very interesting, and I haven't seen what style of jockey wheel it had fitted originally...assuming it had one, did all very early caravans have a "jockey wheel" Cobber
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2007 15:22:18 GMT 10
here's a picture from a 1938 Broadbent Caravanning magazine picturing a Don caravan: The colour scheme is like the one in 'Cobber's' photo. I heard (read) somewhere that Don caravans did paint some caravans grey for government issue (public works etc) of which Doug & Vicki's 12' Don caravan is one of these. I also note that the van in 'Cobbers' photo doesn't have handles for manourving the caravan mounted at the front, whereas my '110' has. As for whether mine is prewar or not, its unlikely. My van is only four build Nos from Doug & Vicki's, (their's No 257, mine No 261), an antique shop owner who supposedly knew all about Don caravans told them that their caravan is prewar. As for other differences, I don't know until I find a genuine prewar model (as per the Walsh's) and do some more research on prewar build Nos (but I'm out of info ) I have a large 1938 hardware catalogue and can confirm that the fittings in my '110' (catches, cupboard handles, hinges etc) are typical of 1930's designs, but that doesn't really tell us alot, as hardware designs can be used for years & years. As for the jockey wheel and A frame, I will photograph it next time I'm in Beverley and post a pic. cheers Mark
|
|
|
Post by Don Ricardo on Feb 27, 2007 6:58:31 GMT 10
CobberSo maybe it's the 'interfering with the annex' theory that's the front runner at the moment in explaining why doors were often hinged on the right! I might add however that the slope on the roof of the old annex we had for our van when I was a kid was such that the corner of the door scraped on the roof unless the guy ropes were kept very tight. One of those little wheels you mention on the Driftwood would have solved the problem but I wonder if they might have been an after-market item? I'm still a bit attracted by the 'safety' and 'ease of entry' theories and will try and collect info pro and con whenever I'm looking at vans (both old and new) from now on. Your comment about the couplings and jockey wheels is an interesting one, and it would good to get others to contribute some photos of the arrangement on their vans. As you are probably aware, Don vans (at least late 40's, early 50's) are a bit unusual on the coupling side of things - the ball is actually a permanent part of the A frame and the bolt part of the ball is bolted onto the car's tow bar each time. This raises a whole lot of interesting questions about why Don chose to do it that way, and whether any other make used a similar method. I am looking forward to seeing the jockey wheel arrangement on Mark's model 110 Don. Would you like to post some pictures of ol' 36's coupling and jockey wheel arrangements at some stage? I would be interested and I'm sure others would be interested in checking it out too. Finally, apologies for referring to the photo you posted as "Cobber's photo". I guess I was using that label as shorthand for "the photo Cobber posted" because I was aware that it wasn't your photo as such. Perhaps I should have referred to it as the 'Drouin photo' or some such. MarkThanks for your response to my questions - very informative. Thanks especially for posting the photo from the Broadbent magazine which is really interesting, and seems to suggest that the colour on the bottom half was quite dark. It puts me in mind of the photo that Jim posted a couple of years ago, where the bottom half was painted royal blue: vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1112393509When I saw that photo I assumed that it was a non-standard colour scheme, but maybe not? The darker colour in the 'Drouin photo' doesn't seem to be nearly as dark as in the Broadbent's photo. A couple of years ago in Croydon (eastern suburbs of Melbourne) I saw a beautifully restored Don 140 being towed behind a late 50's Chrysler Royal. The bottom half of the van was painted a very light khaki or sage green colour, and the top was painted cream. Very stylish and similar in toning at least to the Drouin van. (Two minutes after the van disappeared from sight I started kicking myself - and have continued ever since - that I didn't do a u-turn and flag the driver down to find out more about his van! If anybody in the Croydon area knows where this van lives...) You mention that Doug and Vicki's van was one of the caravans Don produced for government use. I knew that some vans were produced for this purpose, but I wasn't aware that they were the ordinary 'domestic' model. However, that would explain the grey colour of their van! The Victorian government had a penchant for grey at the time - school rooms, government offices, etc... Do you have any information about the history of Doug and Vicki's van - what department owned it, etc? I've got a little bit of information about some of Don's 'government vans' which I might use to start another thread, because I imagine that there were other makes used for this purpose as well. Don Ricardo
|
|
|
Post by cobber on Feb 27, 2007 7:21:14 GMT 10
|
|
|
Post by fbmad on Feb 27, 2007 9:02:32 GMT 10
Interesting to see an ad for the Sands Kerosene Stove in 1938. T.W. Sands are still in business ( they are in the phone directory) and still sell kerosene lamps, stoves etc and from memory are still at the same address in Melbourne. Don't try ringing them on their phone number MU 4301...... its been changed Terry.
|
|
|
Post by fbmad on Feb 27, 2007 9:22:16 GMT 10
Now at 508 Swanston street, Melbourne phone 03 9347 2804.
Business was established in 1918.
They have a website but the link thingy didn't work (sorry I'm computer illiterate ) but just type in T W Sands in the browser and click on T W Sands and Co and it will bring the site up.
Maybe they still can supply parts or repair our Vintage Van stoves/kero lamps/ pressure lamps/heaters etc.
I'll give 'em a call this arvo.
Terry.
|
|
|
Post by aussietanker on Feb 27, 2007 14:14:33 GMT 10
Hi All ...
mark said earlier ...
i am looking at a Don (hopefully) in a few days time ... it would be helpful to know where this information is found when looking at a Don ... or any other van for that matter .....
thanks A|T
|
|
|
Post by firefighter on Feb 27, 2007 15:10:36 GMT 10
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2007 21:43:38 GMT 10
|
|