1973 York 11ft caravan Y3333

[marcel]

Hi my name is marcel ive just picked up an 11ft York aluminium framed caravan not sure of the year the gas certificate says 1980 and the gas bottle says 1978 but it seems older? ive got some photos in the camera but cant find the cable this afternoon maybe
marcel

[atouchofglass]

Gidday Marcel
Welcome to the world of Classic Caravans

Our members would love to see the photos when you get time to post them

Much work to be done on the ol dear?

Cheers
Atog

[murray]

Welcome also

It is good to see everybody's pride and joy and follow along with their renos and adventures
Look forward to seeing the photos
Cheers

[marcel]

ive got the photos now just have to work out how to post them on photobucket.
its pretty good the paint is very faded and has a little water dammage aroung the roof hatch I only paid $500 for it so cant really lose the fridge even works
I'll have a crack at photobucket
marcel

[marcel]

thank goodness my wife knows how to operate photobucket
what do you guys think? how old is it?
marcel

[Deleted]

Looks like you scored yourself a bit of a bargain. ;D

......and welcome from me too

[marcel]

thanks for the welcome, we really like it as well
it was for sale up the road from our house and was gone within a few hours so I thought id missed out
but some friends of ours bought it with the intentions of doing it up he was going to rip out the kitchenette to put some bunks there (what a waste!) but after a week he'd had enough and wanted to get rid of it so we got it
we have another caravan a 2002 coromal camper trailer as we have 6 kids we need the room
but ive always wanted a tiny caravan, i used to have a Keith Winsor caravan manual (bugger it but I think I lost it when we moved out here) with an 8 foot caravan being towed by a mini and have always wanted a tiny caravan
so for now we'll fix it up and build a carport off the shed and when the kids get older maybe we can go away in it just the 2 of us
marcel

[kiwijim]

Howdy Marcel,

A very big welcome to you,

You've got hold of a real bargain in that Van,
It's good to see that you managed to grab it before anyone could pull it to bits,
that would have been a crime.

By the look of your photos, it looks in A1 condition for its year,

You've come to the right Forum, if its anything you want to know about your van,
or how to go about doing some reno, all you have to do is ask, I'm sure there will be an answer coming your way pretty smartly. ;D ;D ;D

I would guess that going by the windows, your van would be in the very late 70's.

Cheers kiwijim

[Deleted]

G'day Marcel

What a great little find..

I've been looking, on and off, for over two years for one of those vans
The cheapest I've seen was $2000 and it was in poor condition.

The best was over $3000. It still needed work and was a plain aluminium model.

Definately a bargain..

Jim

[millard1399]

G'day marcel, great to have you on board with us. If you can provide a couple of bits of information about your van, I might be able to narrow down the age a bit for you (although, like kiwijim says, it appears to be a late 1970s job)...

1. Is the chassis galvanised? Both Millard and York vans started getting galvanised chassis from early 1977 onwards.

2. What is the chassis number welded on the front drawbar, probably just near the jockey wheel? It will most likely be a 'Y' followed by some numbers.

Gees, mate...$500 for that van was a BARGAIN! Now it's gonna be a toss-up between you and atog's WB panel van, to see who gets the October award for "Bargain Of The Month"! ;D ;D

cheers,
Al.

[marcel]

its does not have a galvanised frame the frame number is y3333
the number plate holder which is aluminium and rivited to the van has Castle caravans wharoonga on it

I thought it was worth easily $500 but not $2-3000?

we sold our registered 14ft cabana last year for $1850 to upgrade to the Coromal which even though is only 7 years old, I have had to fix the winding mechanism twice already
marcel

[kiwijim]

G'day Marcel,

Having a problem with the winding mechanism in a camper is nothing new,

It is a very real problem for most Campers especially where they have roll-out awnings attached to the roof section.

A common fault is the spreader plate twisting,
this plate is located at the end of the winch cable in the front of the van,
it is centered in the plate that has the 4 puller cables attached coming from the riser legs which raise the roof.

If this fault is not corrected by welding small skid legs to the base of the plate to stop it twisting,
the next step is usually replacing broken winch cables,

this can be a real laugh when its the cable the furtherest from the winch, some furniture removal may be required to access the pulleys in each corner of the van,
then the whole cable ( only about 4mt longer than the length of the van ) has to come out for replacement.

Should this happen, I suggest you get a professional to do the work, it's a lot easier than skinning your knuckles.

cheers kiwijim

[millard1399]

G'day again marcel,

A chassis number of Y3333 puts your van around 1972. I can just see in one of your photos that the hatch cover on top is the old box lid type. The starlight hatches were introduced into the caravan industry in late 1974, so your van is before that. (The starlight hatch is the one with the four sloping sides that can open independent of each other.)

The other thing that can help date a van is whether the windows are wind-out or not. Looking at your internal photos, the windows seem to be a push-out type. Is that correct?

Castle Caravans had just started being a Millard/York caravan agent around 1972, so your van could have been sold by them new (...but it could also have been second hand when sold by them).

The York logo/sticker on the front and back of your van would have looked like this when new...




Quite a tidy little van for being as old as it is. It appears to have been well looked after throughout its life.

cheers,
Al.

[marcel]

thanks for that
jim ive already had the pleasure of fixing the broken winder cables i had to unscrew all the backs of the cupboards to get access. it was the night before we were leaving to go camping and i was winding it down and a cable snapped lots of swearing ensued as we had only just paid $16k for it
i patched the cable with some thicker cable i had
then 6 months later one side started to sag and i pulled the back of the cupboards off again and discovered the pulleys in the corners were buggered and were fraying the cable so i tried to get an original one but got mucked around for a month so i went to the hardware shop and bought a similar pulley and its worked fine since

on the York the window rubbers have all shrunk and pulled out of the frames can you still buy this?
and some of the paint has faded down to the aluminium whats the best way to restore this without looking crappy?
marcel

[Deleted]

,WElcome marcel. We hope you enjoy your stay here and that you will learn and share a lot of info from us and with us. Your little York looks good and your neighbouors lack of fortitude is your fortune.

Hi kiwijim,
I'd be interested in knowing how to strip and repaint as well for when I get to that job on the Viscount. I'll put another post regarding this in Members' Hall or Fame.

Cheers,
Ross.

[millard1399]

Hey marcel, I want to rename your thread "1972 York 11ft caravan" and transfer it over to the Hall Of Fame section. That way when you do any further work and post progress shots, it will be in the right section of the forum for people to find and follow.

Ok?

cheers,
Al.

[marcel]

no problem
marcel

[dazzahd]

hi i have a1976 little YORK looks the same thanks dazza

[romanmaz]

marcel - we bought our 1976 17' york in 2004 for $3,000. It was to be our fishing/camping van for when we camped with our friends locally. (we got tired of putting up a tent). The first weekend it rained 3" and no leaks. (we live in the southern riverina) Since then it has been up the east coast to Rockhampton, inland to Bacaldine QLD, across the Nullarbor to south coast of WA. We're planning another trip soon & we don't intend on updating to another van. Only done a couple of minor modifications to our reliable ol fishing van.

[romanmaz]

hi marcel - I'm new to all this stuff. just wanted to let you know we bought a 1976 17' york in 2004. for fishing/camping locally with our friends.(got tired of putting up the tent) first time we used it we had 3" of rain & had no leaks. Since then we have only made a few minor modifications. We've taken the old fishing van up the east coast of Aust. to Rockhampton inland to Balcaldine. Last year we went across the Nullarbor & did the south coast of WA. This year we're off to the Bedourie camel races. In our travels we hav'nt seen many other Yorks. We're going to update our tow vehicle but we're not parting with our most lovable YORK !!!

[Deleted]

Some more very satisfied York owners.

[lisa]

I was going to say early 70's as my 1971 chesney had the exact same tiles on the floor as yours - sweet little van and a great deal.

[sean]

Hi, does your york have the bunks at the front and double bed at the back ? I am looking at one similar, also like the little baby Yorks (11ft) but thought they might be a bit small even for 2 people...but it would be easy to tow I guess and a status symbol too

[Deleted]

Gday Marcel
welcome to the site

Nice little bargain you got there well done she looks great

You have come to the right place for info there is not much there guys (sorry girls) don't know about vans or fixing them up.

Cheers Bazz

[marcel]

i'm actually looking to sell this now we havnt had the time to do anything with it and i'm wanting to buy a scooter so its on the market. I'm going to put it on ebay would consider a good offer
marcel