Once I get organised I will download some photos and the story that goes with the van as well.
Cheers.
Richard
Little 10 ft Van.
Little 10 ft Van.
The OTP rescue team has been busy over the Easter break, we traveled nearly 2000 kms to save a very rare little 10 ft caravan that had been in a bitter dispute.
Once I get organised I will download some photos and the story that goes with the van as well.
Cheers.
Richard
Once I get organised I will download some photos and the story that goes with the van as well.
Cheers.
Richard
ourtouringpast.com THE vintage caravan restoration website
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
Re: Little 10 ft Van.
We left Wollongong on Friday morning and we spent our first night at Wangaratta. Saturday morning was a great day for travelling, not too hot with clear skies.
ourtouringpast.com THE vintage caravan restoration website
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
Re: Little 10 ft Van.
Well continuing on as we travelled towards Melbourne the Easter weekend traffic started to build up , but luckily for us we were travelling into Melbourne and not out of Melbourne.
We eventually reached our destination and met a very friendly Adam and his son Mark and the rest of their extended family, and this is the little 10 foot van that we had come to pick up.
Now there is a bit of a story, and I suppose a lesson as well, as to how Adam and Mark ended up donating the Don to the ourtouringpast.com Caravan Museum.
Some of you that watch ebay may have seen this little van there a couple of months ago, well it ended up selling for what I thought was a very good price for the seller. The new owner of the Don had organised a trucking company ( that will remain nameless ) to pick up the Don and transport it to Sydney, Adam had gone to the trouble to fit some newer rims and tyres for the trip to make moving the old van easier. The Don does have some rotten ply on one side at the bottom as well as around the top of the door, so once the driver saw the condition of the van he requested more money to cover the cost of his time to make the van secure in its travels, which the new owner flatly refused, so the van sat where it was.
So anyway after some "discussion" back and forth and some very untrue stories about the condition of the van the ebay purchase fell through. Very disgruntled with the outcome Adam felt like taking the van to the tip, but he knew that it was worth more than just rubbish. So after a little research from Mark they contacted me through the website and said that if the Don was any use to the Museum I could come and collect it, but they didnt want the hassles of me organising to have the van picked up, which I assured them wasnt a problem as I personally pick up most of the rescued vans.
The little 10 foot Don loaded on the ourtouringpast.com trailer.
I just love to get out and use the old Historic Caravans and meet old friends and making new friends, but I also get great pleasure out of meeting and talking to the people that owned the caravans that I pick up, they always have wonderful stories about their memories of the caravan, and Adam and Mark were no exception. ( me with Adam below.)
We eventually reached our destination and met a very friendly Adam and his son Mark and the rest of their extended family, and this is the little 10 foot van that we had come to pick up.
Some of you that watch ebay may have seen this little van there a couple of months ago, well it ended up selling for what I thought was a very good price for the seller. The new owner of the Don had organised a trucking company ( that will remain nameless ) to pick up the Don and transport it to Sydney, Adam had gone to the trouble to fit some newer rims and tyres for the trip to make moving the old van easier. The Don does have some rotten ply on one side at the bottom as well as around the top of the door, so once the driver saw the condition of the van he requested more money to cover the cost of his time to make the van secure in its travels, which the new owner flatly refused, so the van sat where it was.
So anyway after some "discussion" back and forth and some very untrue stories about the condition of the van the ebay purchase fell through. Very disgruntled with the outcome Adam felt like taking the van to the tip, but he knew that it was worth more than just rubbish. So after a little research from Mark they contacted me through the website and said that if the Don was any use to the Museum I could come and collect it, but they didnt want the hassles of me organising to have the van picked up, which I assured them wasnt a problem as I personally pick up most of the rescued vans.
The little 10 foot Don loaded on the ourtouringpast.com trailer.
ourtouringpast.com THE vintage caravan restoration website
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
Re: Little 10 ft Van.
A few photos of the little Don after it had been loaded onto the trailer.
All strapped down ready for the trip back home.
ourtouringpast.com THE vintage caravan restoration website
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
Re: Little 10 ft Van.
Hi Richard
Looks like another nice little project to add to the collection, dibs on the next one that comes along, I missed out on the Don on eBay just before Christmas, a nice size for my old 14hp Vauxhall
That extra charge from the transporter sounds a bit dodgey, no doubt it was to cover insurance to replace or repair it if it fell to bits, yeah right
Hopefully it looks the same now that it's home
If it didn't stand up too well to the travel it would be a good size to convert to a cubby house for the little bloke 
George
Looks like another nice little project to add to the collection, dibs on the next one that comes along, I missed out on the Don on eBay just before Christmas, a nice size for my old 14hp Vauxhall
That extra charge from the transporter sounds a bit dodgey, no doubt it was to cover insurance to replace or repair it if it fell to bits, yeah right
Hopefully it looks the same now that it's home
If it didn't stand up too well to the travel it would be a good size to convert to a cubby house for the little bloke George
Re: Little 10 ft Van.
Hi George.
The rotten ply is only cosmetic as it only seems to be in the outer skin and not into the frame work. We travelled nearly 1000 kms with the little Don on the trailer and the only damage it suffered was some rub marks from the straps running over the roof. ( I always put these on just to make sure the body doesnt come off the chassis. )
Continuing on. Travelling out of Melbourne we struck some very heavy traffic and came to a stand still along the express way as everyone slowed down to have a look at the Police that had pulled 2 trucks over.
We eventually stopped for lunch at a servo about an hour later,
and I could not believe all of the people that stopped just to have a look at the DON.
Well maybe they were only stopping for petrol and lunch as well.
The rotten ply is only cosmetic as it only seems to be in the outer skin and not into the frame work. We travelled nearly 1000 kms with the little Don on the trailer and the only damage it suffered was some rub marks from the straps running over the roof. ( I always put these on just to make sure the body doesnt come off the chassis. )
Continuing on. Travelling out of Melbourne we struck some very heavy traffic and came to a stand still along the express way as everyone slowed down to have a look at the Police that had pulled 2 trucks over.
We eventually stopped for lunch at a servo about an hour later, ourtouringpast.com THE vintage caravan restoration website
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
Re: Little 10 ft Van.
Well the Don is now safely at the ourtouringpast.com Caravan Museum.
I forgot to mention that after I asked Adam if he could email me the history of the little caravan, he came wondering out of the house with a little book, which he was reluctant to give away but he could tell that I was genuinly interested in the history of the van.
The little book turned out to be a Herald Touring Club log book that has a record of all the expences of the car and caravan from when the van was first purchased.
It also has this great little ad for Don Caravans on the second page.
The first page in the log, Iam not sure what it was all for, as he was Polish, but I can guess that the benzyna would be petrol.
I forgot to mention that after I asked Adam if he could email me the history of the little caravan, he came wondering out of the house with a little book, which he was reluctant to give away but he could tell that I was genuinly interested in the history of the van.
The little book turned out to be a Herald Touring Club log book that has a record of all the expences of the car and caravan from when the van was first purchased.
ourtouringpast.com THE vintage caravan restoration website
and home of The National Caravan Museum.
and home of The National Caravan Museum.