Hyking

[mgandwartz]

1960 HYKING

I'll load some pics later, but has anyone heard of a Hyking caravan I guess its about 11 or 12 foot. All clad in aluminium with porthole windows both sides and built to what looks like a high standard.
don.

[mgandwartz]

Pics



Regards Don

[surfingyogini]

Beautiful shape! Dunno about that paint job tho...

[mgandwartz]

Dunno why some pics are ocasionally upside down, they are both the right way up in photobucket. any ideas?
some interior pics.

[Don Ricardo]

G'day Mgandwartz,

The name Hyking doesn't mean anything to me, but it looks like quite a good little van. The front styling suggests early 60's, so a date of 1960 sounds right.

The aluminium cladding on the sides has been added later by the look of it, so I would think that underneath there would be bondwood.

At this point nothing springs to mind about who may have made it (apart from Hyking that is), except that it has a little shelf above the sink which is a Franklin feature. Maybe it has a Franklin origin?

Where did the name Hyking come from? Is it on the van somewhere or the rego sticker?

Anyway, let's see if Franklin1 or Hughdeani can tell us anything.

Don Ricardo

[Don Ricardo]

Hi all,

Back in October 2011, Mgandwartz posted some photos of a 1950's style Hyking bondwood caravan (see higher up this thread). At that stage we knew nothing about Hyking, and nothing has come to light since. However, in February 2015 the following photos of a Hyking pop-top were listed on Gumtree:







While this van is evidently post-1969 (and therefore not vintage), the purpose of posting the pics is to indicate that the Hyking brand survived at least into the 70's, and maybe later. One other possibility is that the caravan that Mgandwartz saw in 2011 was in fact built by somebody else, and was sold with a Hyking sticker or logo on it at a later point.

Does anybody have any other info about Hyking?

Don Ricardo

[Deleted]

Hi all,
Hy King was a manufacturer from the mid 70s,nothing to do with the older company.
They were made in Clayton or Huntingdale from memory,and only made small to medium pop tops
Cheers
hughdeani

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Hughdeani - or should that be Hy Hughdeani in this case?

Thanks for posting the info about Hyking. So that means the two vans are unrelated.

You comment:

Feb 24, 2015 16:23:15 GMT 10 @hughdeani said:

Hy King was a manufacturer from the mid 70s,nothing to do with the older company.

Are you meaning by this that you know that there were two different caravan manufacturers - Hy King and Hyking?

Coming from another angle, it has occurred to me that the van shown to us by Mgandwartz has a number of similarities to some of the smaller vans built by King Caravans in what I think was the early 60's. For example the general shape of the van, the shape of the wheel arch, which is quite distinctive on the smaller King vans, and the placement of various fittings. Another example of a King van which has a very similar shape and front panel set up can be seen in the following video clip:



So what I am thinking is that the van seen by Mgandwartz may have been a 'King' van rather than a 'Hyking'. Any thoughts?

Don Ricardo

[Deleted]

Hi Don,
What I meant was Hy King from the 70s was not related to the older company.
I had reason to deal with them in the 70s.
Cheers
hughdeani

[Don Ricardo]

Hi Hughdeani,

Thanks for clarifying. I'm with you now.

What do you think about the van Mgandwartz posted about and the King caravans. Do you think they might be from the same stable?

Don Ricardo

[bruceb]

Feb 24, 2015 14:50:49 GMT 10 Don Ricardo said:

Hi all,

Back in October 2011, Mgandwartz posted some photos of a 1950's style Hyking bondwood caravan (see higher up this thread). At that stage we knew nothing about Hyking, and nothing has come to light since. However, in February 2015 the following photos of a Hyking pop-top were listed on Gumtree:







While this van is evidently post-1969 (and therefore not vintage), the purpose of posting the pics is to indicate that the Hyking brand survived at least into the 70's, and maybe later. One other possibility is that the caravan that Mgandwartz saw in 2011 was in fact built by somebody else, and was sold with a Hyking sticker or logo on it at a later point.

Does anybody have any other info about Hyking?

Don Ricardo

[bruceb]

Hi All,
Just found this thread.
I own a HyKing Caravan similar to these pics.
Mine is a 1988 HyKing. Has a HyKing sticker front and back.

[Deleted]

Hi Bruce,
Sorry to tell you ,you can't have a 1988 HyKing caravan,they stopped building in 1978.

It was probably re registered at some stage after 1988 and rego re jogged to show a later date,happens all the time with older vans.
Cheers
hughdeani

[Don Ricardo]

Oct 21, 2011 10:04:06 GMT 10 mgandwartz said:

1960 HYKING

I'll load some pics later, but has anyone heard of a Hyking caravan I guess its about 11 or 12 foot. All clad in aluminium with porthole windows both sides and built to what looks like a high standard.
don.

Pics



Regards Don

In 2011 Mgandwartz commenced this thread with the above question and photos. At the time the name Hyking didn't mean anything to us and we couldn't identify the van. Since then we have learnt a little more about Hyking and their activities in the 70's, but that hasn't helped us work out the identity of the van Mgandwartz photographed.

Looking back at Mgandwartz's posts today, it suddenly hit what the van was that he had seen. It's a King caravan. The shape of the van, the roofline, and the shape of the wheel arch are actually pretty distinctive - we just didn't make the connection earlier on.

So it turns out that Mgandwartz was pretty close to the mark when he said it was a Hyking - just delete the 'Hy'!  And 1960 is around the right date as well I think.

Thanks to Bruceb for his question about his Hyking earlier today because it led me to re-read this thread. 

Don Ricardo