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Post by grumpy48 on Sept 21, 2015 21:36:43 GMT 10
franklin chassis number A191-0
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manxie
Junior Member
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Post by manxie on Oct 1, 2015 19:48:59 GMT 10
Hi, i'm not sure if my van can be added to this list as its a Korong branded Franklin? the number is 977 C unsure of the date, but its bond wood with aluminium sides and top. here is a pic (if it works) Does it count as a Franklin?  thank Manxie |
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Post by Don Ricardo on Oct 4, 2015 15:07:22 GMT 10
Hi Manxie, The serial number of 977C on your van confirms that it is a Franklin and that it belongs here. The Korong name on the van just indicates that at some stage in its life it was sold - probably second-hand - by Korong Caravans in Bendigo who then put their name on it, as was their custom irrespective of the actual manufacturer. My interpretation of the data we have on Franklin serial numbers is that prior to 1965, the digits represent the number of the caravan in a particular year, and the alphabet letter the year it was produced. So 'A' represents 1960 and 'C' would therefore represent 1962. On that basis your van would be the 977th caravan produced by Franklin in 1962. The above interpretation fits the schema set out by Franklin1 in the post commencing this thread, except for the van listed as 965C. However, based on its design that van is fairly clearly later than 1962, and I wonder if the serial number has been misread and is actually 965E. I am sure that Franklin1 will set me straight if he thinks I am leading you up the garden path.  Don Ricardo |
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manxie
Junior Member
Posts: 73
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Post by manxie on Oct 4, 2015 15:24:26 GMT 10
Great, its good to have a date! good to know i belong in the Franklin gang!
Thanks Don Ricardo.
Manxie
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Post by helenwa on Nov 6, 2015 20:02:54 GMT 10
I recently purchased a 14 ft bondwood van which I think is a late 1950s Franklin - I'm hoping someone can help confirm that for me! It has a chassis number of 825, but no identifying branding except for a faint "Wanda" on the front roof line. A plate near the door reads: Supplied by Heidelberg Caravans, 66 Bell St, Heidelberg, Victoria. It is in really good condition, complete with original Falks enamel cooker/grill and tin-lined icebox. I tried to attach a photo, but it won't let me, even though I have resized it to under 1MB. It's pretty much identical to the photo posted by Manxie further up this thread.
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Post by shesgotthelook on Nov 6, 2015 20:42:37 GMT 10
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Post by helenwa on Nov 8, 2015 19:16:47 GMT 10
Thanks so much, this looks very helpful (I'm not very techno savvy, so will challenge myself this week!)
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Post by helenwa on Nov 8, 2015 19:37:40 GMT 10
 My first attempt at attaching pic from photobucket, not sure if it will work! YAY IT WORKED!!! As per previous post, my guess as a late 1950s Franklin, chassis number 825 |
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Post by Don Ricardo on Nov 8, 2015 19:55:28 GMT 10
Hi Helenwa, Great to hear about your caravan. The reason you couldn't post photos is that the 'Add Attachment' button isn't active at the moment, so it isn't related to the size of your photo as such. The alternative - and in fact more satisfactory way - as Shesgotthelook has indicated, is uploading photos to Photobucket and posting them on this forum from there. And I see you've worked out how to do it and posted a photo while I've been typing this post. Well done. I was interested to read that your van is branded Wanda. I'm not sure whether you've found it, but there's a thread on Wanda caravans, also in the Down History Lane section - click here. Wanda was a caravan retailer in Melbourne who appears to have put their own brand on the vans they sold. All the ones we've seen from before 1970 are Franklin-built, so that seems to fit with what you've already surmised about your van. Don Ricardo |
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manxie
Junior Member
Posts: 73
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Post by manxie on Nov 9, 2015 5:09:10 GMT 10
yep that looks very very like my van, i would love to see some inside pics, my money is on a 62 franklin lol
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Post by Don Ricardo on Dec 10, 2015 20:40:27 GMT 10
Hi again Helenwa,
Hopefully you've seen my post higher up this thread about your van and the info about Wanda branded caravans? As I said there, while Wanda appears to have been a Melbourne-based caravan dealer that branded the vans they sold with their own brandname, the only vans we've seen with the Wanda name on them were built by Franklin. Your van definitely looks like a Franklin, so it fits the "Wanda pattern". We don't know yet whether Wanda sold new caravans, or only second-hand ones, or both.
Who was behind Wanda caravans we don't know. The only reference we have about location is that at one stage they were based in Pascoe Vale which is a northern suburb of Melbourne. You mention Heidelberg Caravans in Heidelberg, which is north-eastern suburb of Melbourne. Maybe Heidelberg Caravans had something to do with Wanda, or maybe they sold the van second hand at some point? I don't know the answer to that at this point, but the fact that the plate on your van says 'supplied by' may suggest that Heidelberg Caravans were linked to Wanda in some way.
Regarding the build date of your van, I realise I didn't comment on that earlier, although I meant to. Sorry.
I gather from the info you've provided that the serial number is just 825 without any letter following (eg A, B or C). Is that correct? Working on this assumption, you have probably seen a Franklin caravan at the beginning of this thread with the serial number 891, which indicates that it is a bit younger than your van. At the point that Franklin1 posted the info about number 891 it was thought to have been built in 1960. Since then we have recorded some more info about Franklin's numbering system, and we are hypothesising from the evidence we have that 1960 Franklin introduced an alphanumeric numbering system in 1960 with vans built in that year being given a serial number ending with an A, eg 123A. If our hypothesis is correct, then that would mean that a van with a purely numeric serial number like yours would have been built prior to 1960. How many vans Franklin built before they started the alphanumberic serial number system we don't know, so where van numbers 825 and 891 fit in we can't precisely say. However, your van and 891 look very like the vans built in 1960 with an 'A' serial number, so it's probably reasonable to guess that your van was built not too much earlier. I reckon 1959 is a reasonable guess, and seems to be along the lines of what you are thinking.
So, in summary, what have we worked out about your van? I think we can be reasonably certain that your van was built by Franklin in the late 1950's (quite possibly 1959) and was either sold new, branded as a Wanda, or maybe sold as a Wanda second hand.
Hope that helps answer some of your questions, at least to some extent? Hopefully over time we'll get some more info on the forum about Wanda and about Franklin serial numbers, so maybe keep an eye on the forum for that.
Don Ricardo
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Post by helenwa on Dec 23, 2015 13:51:47 GMT 10
Hi Don,
Somehow I managed to miss your post and have only just seen it! Thank you so much for your valuable knowledge and confirming what I had already suspected, based on what I had previously read about the chassis numbering system. Yes, you have it correct, it is just 825 with no letter suffix. As you say, there would be no easy way of telling the year of manufacture before they introduced the suffix lettering system etc. but 1959 seems likely. Do you know what year Franklin began manufacture? That probably doesn't actually help us anyway if there is no way of differentiating year of manufacture prior to 1960.
We are lucky the van is in very good condition for it's age. It still needs new gas lines installed and the electrics checked, but other than that, it really just needs paint. Getting it licensed also means installing a new stove with flame-stop safety function. We were very disappointed about that, as the original stove was still in working order and looked so good. We are aiming to keep it as original as possible where we can. It has given us a challenge and opened up a whole new and interesting world for us!
Cheers,
Helen
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Post by shesgotthelook on Jan 7, 2016 11:25:46 GMT 10
 Drawbar weld on our 1966 Franklin Caravelle.  |
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Post by katieej on Jan 7, 2016 16:39:37 GMT 10
G'day Folks, I just purchased a Franklin Regent van. It is approx 10 foot long and has the numbers 760-0 on it. Any chance someone could tell me a little more about it?
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Post by Don Ricardo on Jan 8, 2016 12:28:26 GMT 10
G'day Katieej, Congratulations on your acquisition and welcome to the forum. The serial number of your van 760-0 indicates that it was built in 1970 and was the 760th Franklin built in that year. Being from 1970 means that your van is just outside the cut-off for vintage vans and just inside the period for classic vans. But never fear, we are still interested in hearing about your van, as will be the folks at the Classic Caravans forum. You can find out a bit more about the Franklin Regent model by working your way through the Franklin history thread - click here. As it happens, on the page I have given you a link for, there is a review of a 10ft Franklin Mini Regent from a year or two after yours. Although yours is a bit earlier I think it may be basically the same van. Have a look and let us know. Don Ricardo |
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chop
New Member
Posts: 1
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Post by chop on Jan 9, 2016 14:52:42 GMT 10
Hi! Our Franklin is not quite vintage
I Have what we think is a 1977-1978 van which we have been working on for the past 18months and now want to get it registered. It has a chassis number of x8276. It has passed the pit inspection but this chassis number confused the inspector and we were told we will have to have a plate check and apply for a VIN number (which could take weeks!) we were hoping to take her ASAP. can anyone help as to what our number means and any other advice for registering a van?
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Post by franklin65 on Jan 13, 2016 12:54:24 GMT 10
Found this one in a barn in Manilla, Northern NSW Chassis No. 938-5 Now home in Melbourne   |
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Post by breaker1791 on Feb 27, 2016 8:27:58 GMT 10
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Post by Don Ricardo on Feb 27, 2016 15:51:38 GMT 10
G'day Breaker1791, Welcome to the forum. As you have no doubt read on this thread, from 1965 onwards Franklin numbered their vans sequentially starting at '1' each year followed by a hyphen and a digit indicating the year of manufacture. Your van is number 471 indicating that it is the 471st caravan produced in the particular year, but unfortunately the year digit is under the bracket welded on to the A-frame, which is a bit frustrating. But the fact that there is a hyphen (dash) after 471 indicates that the van must have been built in 1965 or later. Comparing your van to the others on this thread, and also those shown in this post on the Franklin History thread, I'm thinking that yours is probably 1965 because of the shape of the front of the caravan, the profile (ie the ridge pattern) of the side and front & rear cladding, and the shape of the coloured panel on the sides. If that's the case your serial number would be 471-5. That means that your van would be the same year as Franklin65's van shown in the post immediately before yours on this thread. I don't know what specific model of Franklin yours is. Somebody else might be able to help you with that, or you can compare the fittings and furnishings of your van with others shown on the the couple of threads you've posted on to try and work it out. One thing that is very interesting about your caravan though, is that the same ridged cladding below the front and back windows of the van is also used for the entire roof. Any of the other Franklins from the same era that I've looked at to answer your questions have plain cladding (ie no ridges) for the roof. I'm not sure what the significance of that is, but it is something that may tell you something (eg model) and is worth remembering for future reference. Hope that helps. Don Ricardo |
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Post by breaker1791 on Feb 27, 2016 16:50:12 GMT 10
Thank you very much for your informative reply Don, it's very much appreciated!
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Post by shesgotthelook on Feb 27, 2016 19:55:26 GMT 10
The roof of my 66 Caravelle is ridged |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2016 10:04:51 GMT 10
Hi all,
Breakers van is a Franklin Premier,as to the ridged aluminium,I would say they ran out of flat diamond Ali and used what they had in stock.
You sometimes notice other Franklins have different profile aluminium top and bottom on the sides,same deal,they ran out of one profile!
Bremer,your van looks like it has a donor door,as that's not a Franklin one,was it an on site van? Often happens the door is removed and disposed of,and a substitute has to be found to fill the gap!
Cheers
hughdeani
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gtick
New Member
Posts: 23
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Post by gtick on Feb 29, 2016 12:17:36 GMT 10
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Post by Don Ricardo on Mar 1, 2016 22:11:28 GMT 10
Hi Gtick,
The -7 at the end of the serial number of your Franklin van indicates the year of manufacture. So that does indeed tell you that your van was built in 1967, not 1968.
Franklin is one of the few manfucturers that did give an unequivocal indication of the date of manufacture. And thumbs up to them for that! For a lot of other manufacturers we have to guess and/or estimate in most cases, unless the owner is fortunate enough to have the original receipt.
Don Ricardo
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gtick
New Member
Posts: 23
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Post by gtick on Mar 2, 2016 15:46:04 GMT 10
Thanks Don,
Any insight into the other numbers here?
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