"Safetee" Trailing Units. Mentone / Parkdale, Vic

[cobber]

From the 1951/52 Caravan & Touring Year book.

The advertisement states that they also build Caravans... does anybody have information regarding the caravans ?



Cobber.

[Don Ricardo]

1956 Safetee advert:





(Source: Keith Winser, Australian Caravan & Touring Manual for 1956, p 127 & 83)

Note that the address for Safetee is now Parkdale, Victoria

[sportsman 1]

Pictures of Safetee Minor saved by Winterwood, now to be restored by Humpyboy.

---

Editorial comment - February 2023: Photos of the restoration of this caravanette and the finished result can be seen here. Don Ricardo

[humpyboy]

Well I have just got home from my meeting with my local car club where I spoke of my new acquisition and you wouldn't read about it, one of the wives got all excited and spoke of her father whom was hired to lay the concrete floor in the Safetee Trailing units factory in Mentone, from her recollection as a child she thinks there was some sort of problem with payment for the work done and so her father requested that they build him a Caravanette as payment, being a large man it was larger than most and had a wardrobe fitted inside and the kitchen area was very similar to mine except for the icebox that was fitted, she told me that she would go through the family photos to see if there were any of their trailer and pass them on to me for scanning.

[Don Ricardo]

Safetee 'Sports Minor' advertised on Ebay, March 2010:









There are a number of differences between this 'Sports Minor' and Humpyboy's Safetee T/D, shown in Reply #2 above. If I can see it correctly the name on Humpyboy's van is 'Safetee Minor', so some of the differences may be due to the fact that the 'Minor' is a different model to the 'Sports Minor'. However, the Sports Minor pictured in this post has obviously been well spruced up, so some of the differences may also be due to the fact that some modifications have been made during the sprucing up.

Don Ricardo

[humpyboy]

Hi Richard, although the differences are easy to see I am of the belief/thinking that the sports minor is an original design, if you look at the adverts posted by cobber and yourself all three that are shown are of a different design which leads me to think that the sports minor was just another shape they put out there, the one thing I do find interesting is the draw bar on the sports minor, an "A" frame where as mine and the two in cobber's post all appear to have the same single tubular draw bar, another thing I noticed in cobber's advert post is the van on the right appears to me to be a Safetee minor like mine but the windows are square where as mine have rounded corners at the bottom but this could have been a simple thing like using what was available at the time.
Derk.

[beetlesbailey]

My mate has had for many years a luxalite (or luxalight) I'm not sure of the spelling.
This is on a cast bage like a "sportsman", but on a brass 3"x2" is "made by SAFTEE TRAILING UNIT" wait a minute the old brain box is a bit confused, it may be the other way around as in "SAFTEE TRAILING UNIT made by luxalight" however way it does match the 2 names.
This van is shown on the Adelaide caravan and camping show thread from 2009 and is attached to
a maroon 1935 De Soto sedan.
cheers Beetles

[cobber]

Thanks for that info Beetles.... it backs up what is indicated
in the advertisement above that Don R posted.

I have stolen a photo of both the Saftee Trailer and the
De Soto from the Chrysler site... I hope that's OK if
not say so and I'll remove it.

[Don Ricardo]

Announcement of the release of the Safetee 11 caravan to be shown for the first time at the Melbourne Motor Show in March 1953:


(Source: Australian Monthly Motor Manual, March 1953, p 826)

1953 advertisement for the Safetee "Luxelite" caravanette:


(Source: Australian Monthly Motor Manual, March 1953, p 861)

Note that this Luxelite has a different window in the door compared to the Luxelite in the previous post. The latter appears to have a Bosse & Eunson style window which may indicate that it is a later model.

[Don Ricardo]

G'day all,

I came across this Crowded House film clip the other day, which includes some shots of a Safetee Trailing Unit 'Sports Minor' being towed by a Fiat Multiplia 600:



Good to see the band were fans of vintage caravanning! ;D ;D ;D

Don Ricardo

[cobber]

A copy of a copy (hence the quality) of an article in the 1953 'Wheels' magazine of the 'safetee' caravan's display at the Melbourne Motor show, mostly doing a sales pitch for the canvas annex which I imagine was an optional extra.



Cobber.

[Don Ricardo]

Safetee Trailing Unit "Sports Minor" from around 1956 belonging to Stan and photographed at the 2014 Vintage Caravan Nationals at Broken Hill:







Note that the wire wheels are not original but have been added to match the wheels on Stan's A model Ford.

[Don Ricardo]

Safetee Trailing Unit 'Safetee Eleven' 11 ft caravan listed on Ebuy, November 2014:

















It's quite exciting to see an actual example of a caravan that we've only previously seen in a magazine article (see the earlier post on this thread). Interesting to see that the van is single skin throughout, including the ceiling. The roof was covered with canvas, a small amount of which can still be seen in one of the external photos.

It looks as if the van may have been modified a little - note the squared off wheel arches. The front and rear windows are aluminium framed and different in shape and construction to those shown the magazine article, and different to the side windows in the van. These may or may not have been added later in the van's life.

Don Ricardo

[JBJ]

Hi All,

I believe this van is clad with Masonite, not ply. My Deejay is the same.
Ply would not weather & sag in all directions like is evident in the photos.

Its funny, I would never have thought Masonite to be an external cladding, but I guess in the old days
a decent couple of coats of enamel paint would have sealed the Masonite from moisture.

It should be pretty easy to replace the vertical panels on this van, as it appears very
simply built.

JBJ

[shesgotthelook]

I'm pretty sure my Phoenix is masonite. Not clad, but 10mm single skin

[Don Ricardo]

Hi JBJ,

That's an interesting observation about the Safetee van.

I'd wondered about the ripples in the cladding, and what you say makes perfect sense.

Don Ricardo

[akeepsake]

1952 ad

[atefooterz]

Just a question from a VV clueless newbie, is the cladding Burnieboard? When my old 1940-50s office was refurbed in 1986, the builder was raving about all the old Burnieboard and wanted most of it. He explained it was better than fibro for many applications such as tool vans & structures that have to survive flex and temperature extremes, when new just lay over a frame pinned at the top only,wet it on one side then nail it in place, after it had dried it would tighten onto what it was nailed/stapled to then painted layers of oil based primer then enamel would make it weather proof, just maintain the edges & any scratches and of course over the fasteners. He used it for a tool van and *shed near the snowies that had to survive high 20-30c in summer then snow  and brr temps in winter, all still being used almost 30 years later! I grabbed the lovely old cedar frames that later went into a few resto & replica boats.
*Unlike loved bondwood devices, it would be silly to have a shed to keep your shed from the elements.. but i have seen a few corregated iron/steel structures over old timber ones.

[mysafetee]

Oct 17, 2008 9:04:49 GMT 10 Don Ricardo said:

1956 Safetee advert:





(Source: Keith Winser, Australian Caravan & Touring Manual for 1956, p 127 & 83)

Note that the address for Safetee is now Parkdale, Victoria

[mysafetee]

Don’t think it is a 1956 advert because Safetee moved from Parkdale sometime after march 1951 and they were in Mentone from Sept 1951 as per other adverts in other publications. If anyone has the original caravan and touring manual can they please check the dates.

[shesgotthelook]

Hello & welcome mysafetee,

I have checked my 1956 Caravan & touring manual & the advertisements are indeed from that publication. A bit of a mystery!

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Mysafetee and SGTL,

Thanks for checking your 1956 Winser, SGTL. I don’t have access to that edition now, however, I was 120% certain the advert came out of that edition because I was lent a copy of the 1956 Winser manual and posted a lot of the adverts for different types of caravans from the same edition back in October 2008. I am also quite careful to reference items like that when I post them.

However, based on what Mysafetee says, that may leave a mystery about Safetee TU’s location at that time.

Mysafetee, it sounds as if you might have some inside knowledge about Safetee Trailing Units. Are you able to elaborate any further?

Don Ricardo

[mysafetee]

Jan 9, 2019 15:43:12 GMT 10 Don Ricardo said:

Hi Mysafetee and SGTL,

Thanks for checking your 1956 Winser, SGTL. I don’t have access to that edition now, however, I was 120% certain the advert came out of that edition because I was lent a copy of the 1956 Winser manual and posted a lot of the adverts for different types of caravans from the same edition back in October 2008. I am also quite careful to reference items like that when I post them.

However, based on what Mysafetee says, that may leave a mystery about Safetee TU’s location at that time.

Mysafetee, it sounds as if you might have some inside knowledge about Safetee Trailing Units. Are you able to elaborate any further?

Don Ricardo

Hi, Shesgotthelook and Don Ricardo,


Thanks for looking up the 1956 Winser Caravan and Touring manual and clarifying this for me.


I have a Sports Minor that states on the rego papers that it is a 1948 build. I have been looking into the history of the Safetee Trailing Units to try and verify this.


I have found ads in newspapers via Trove newspapers online, (Melbourne Argus, The Herald & The Age) There are 123 newspaper adverts over 4 years.


I have various magazines, (Motor Manual & Wheels Magazine) that also contain ads.

Then there are the items from Caravan & Touring Manuals on this forum, I would love to get my own copy of these but seem as rare as hens teeth.


The earliest thing I can find is from Sat 27th May 1950 page 35 - The Age, a job advert for a Lad to work in the company, address 34 Marriot st Parkdale. There are a few ads for this address.


Then 21st March 1951 Balcombe rd Mentone – The Age (Melbourne) page 23, so they have moved from Parkdale.


The Australian Monthly Motor Manual – April 1951 page 27 has an ad with 118 Balcombe PDE Mentone so they must have moved to new premises but this ad also has 34 Marriott St Parkdale as the after-hours address. This makes me wonder if Parkdale was the home residence and they outgrew the space and moved to bigger premises.


26th Sept 1953 Balcombe rd Mentone – The Age (Melbourne) page 39 … So still there.

7th Nov 1953 Alvena st Mentone - The Age (Melbourne) page 28 … Another new address

18th Dec 1954 Alvena st Mentone - The Age (Melbourne) page 53… Last newspaper advert.


The March 1955 Victorian Motor Manual page 19 has a paragraph saying Safetee will be at the 1955 Melbourne Motor Show.


Then there is the Australian Caravan & Touring Manual for 1956, p 127 & 83 which has the address back at Parkdale. I wonder if they were down-sizing by this time and had moved back to the digs at home.


All of this still does not answer my original question as to when they started selling caravannettes, and is mine from 1948, but still interesting.


MySafetee

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Mysafetee,

That’s some great detective work you’ve been doing there.

I reckon you might be right that Safetee Trailing Units may have started in the backyard of the builder’s home, then moved to a factory or similar, before moving back to their home. Or maybe they had a factory in one place and a showroom in another. Both scenarios applied to other manufacturers, so quite possibly to Safetee Trailing Units also. As more info comes to hand we may be able to work out the story.

It’s an interesting question about when the company began building caravanettes and vans. I won’t have a chance to look for a few days, but when I get an opportunity I’ll have a look and see when they started appearing in the Winser manuals, and in particular the pre-1950’s ones. I think there’s a caravanette in one of the early Winsers, but it may be a Sportsman rather than an STU.

Don Ricardo

[mysafetee]

Thanks Don that would be great.