Reo Motors (South Brisbane, Qld)

[cobber]

REO MOTORS LTD

Queensland agents for Brindle Caravans
Grey Street, South Brisbane Qld

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Reo Caravans, almost certainly built by Albert Brindle, Ashfield NSW.

It has been a long search to determine if “Reo caravans”
existed in Australia (and if they were made in Australia)
beyond this one example photographed in Brisbane in 1937.



The “Reo Club of America”and the “R.E.Olds
Transportation Museum” in America ... after
a long search... found no evidence of a connection
with the manufacturers of Reo Cars or Trucks..... but
as they said "we would never say never" .

This advertisement in “The Melbourne Argus” Saturday
5th May 1928 indicates maybe there was another
“Reo Caravan” but we are still no closer to saying
“Made in Australia”.



I am inclined to think the above ad. is not referring to the photo above.... more likely a "motor caravan" based on a Reo truck chassis.
Cobber.

[cobber]

Having an interest in English caravans ( as I do) I can't say why I haven't tumbled to this before (suggestions are not welcome)
The "Rice" caravan was designed in 1925 (patent GB 252590 (A) ) but was not commercially produced until 1928, production then ceased in 1938.

The similarities between the "Reo" caravan and the "Rice" caravan are pretty obvious aye ?

There is further reference to the "Reo" caravan here suggesting it was made by Brindle caravans in Ashfield NSW with an intention to export them to England might have been a bit risky me thinks





Cobber.

[cobber]

It has now been determined that the system of ropes and pulleys and the general design of this trailer caravan were patented in Australia by Albert Brindle in 1934.
So it is more than likely he went on to use the design in the construction of the "Reo" van between then and 1937 when the above photo was taken.

To see more about the patent application go to the Brindle caravan thread

A very similar design was patented in England by "Rice caravans" in 1931

Cobber.

[Don Ricardo]

Oct 17, 2009 14:05:30 GMT 10 cobber said:

Reo Caravans, almost certainly built by Albert Brindle, Ashfield NSW.

It has been a long search to determine if “Reo caravans”
existed in Australia (and if they were made in Australia)
beyond this one example photographed in Brisbane in 1937.

Hi Cobber,

I think you are most probably right about the Reo folding caravans having been built by Albert Brindle, but I think I may have unearthed another snippet or two to add to the history of Reo caravans...while I was looking for something else on Trove as usually happens!

The following advert appeared in the Brisbane Courier-Mail on Friday, 4 March 1938 (page 10)...


(Source:  National Library of Australia  nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39752195 )

...which indicates that Reo Motors in South Brisbane up until that date had been selling caravans.

And what else did Reo Motors sell?  Well I can enlighten you on that score as well - trucks as you hypothesised above!  This advert was published on the same date and in the same place and page:



Ah, yes - so now we know that Reo Motors sold caravans, but were they folding caravans.  Yes they were, or at least some were.  This next advert was printed in the Courier-Mail on Tuesday, 4 April 1939 (page 14):


(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39021637 ).

This advert was published more than 12 months after the one announcing that Reo Motors was selling out their caravans, and could indicate that they had sold out of one line of product but were now selling some other form of caravan.  However, the fact that the 'collapsible caravan' was being sold with 'no reasonable offer refused' suggests to me that this van was probably one last remaining one that had not been sold after their adverts in 1938.  Nevertheless, we now have evidence that Reo Motors sold collapsible caravans in the late 30's, and the fact that they indicated that they were 'relinquishing the agency' implies that they were selling caravans built by someone else. Was that Albert Brindle? Based on the evidence you presented above about the folding mechanism, etc, you'd have to think that that was very likely.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

One of the little mysteries on the forum has been whether the collapsible caravans sold by Reo Motors in South Brisbane were actually built by Brindle caravans, as proposed by Cobber above. The following newspaper clippings confirm that this was indeed the case.

The first item published in the Brisbane Telegraph on Tuesday, 17 August 1937 (page 25) indicates that the van sold by Reo was 'the patented Brindle's caravan' which was 'Built in the South', presumably referring to New South Wales:

(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article183534563 )

The advertisement referred to in the last line can be seen here.

The second item is a Reo advert published in the Brisbane Truth newspaper on Sunday, 19 September 1937 (page 13). The advert confirms that Reo Motors was the Queensland agent for Brindle:

(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205735567 )

Don Ricardo