Wooden caravans

You (& your Family) have got some Bloody nice toys there '49...

I remember the Propert advertisements. I couldn't work out how the folding kept clear of the kitchen bench and table, but it does. There is a lot available by googling, including this video clip:


Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Hi Roderick,the Propert folding process doesn't miss anything by too much, fingers included . Just found this pic of our first timber van in the hands of the original owner/builders....

.....when we got it from those folks it was still housed in the garage they built it in. It had numerous layers of paint applied over the years and it was starting to lift in many places , so we sanded it back down to the original primer and prepped the few bare spots that showed up , then painted it as shown below.....

....later on we added another spare and mounted them side by side on a steel bumper in an effort to balance out the heavy drawbar weight....worked too , which was good!

....got loads more old van pics if you want them, cheers, Col.

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I'll do my last couple for a while in the morning. That van is surprisingly modern for its era: lots of windows, and the move from an elliptic profile to squared. Was it one with the kitchen across the front, and not along the right-hand side? Small vans had to have very standardised layouts, to juggle around the wheel arches and weight distribution.
In various lengths, the classics were table or settee at the front (balanced by settee or table at the rear), then the door and a cupboard (over the arch) middle left, and the kitchen middle right (half over an arch).
A micro version was kitchen across the front, cupboard opposite the door, and table at the rear, with its seats over the wheel arch.
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

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....?....if you're trying to tell me something,it ain't working. Try English...

Enlish we iz good @

LOL

Wot U missed twaz this boat topper

Cya

Hi Swishy ,nope...spotted that ,bottom half of a '52/4 Cusso with a wood'n boat lid.....but still dunno what the other Gent meant....

Scanning is suspended for a few weeks, so have three which were posted first to the 'Events' section: taken at the Clunes HCVC Ballarat rally on Sun.10.3.13. I place the style as early 1960s.
One shows a 12 ft (3.6 m). The other two show a 10 ft (3 m). There were two layouts for those: dinette for two at the front, double settee at the back (ie three berth), or settee at the front making a two tier bunk (cutting some locker space), and a four-seat dinette at the rear. The mid section was door and cupboard opposite kitchen. They weren't common: by this era, most people preferred the more-spacious 12 ft, and cars which could handle a 10 could handle a 12 just as easily.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor