Hi-Lite caravan - Country Campers

[lockyer]

My wife and I went and saw this little van today, I have search the internet for no results, the owner claimed it was a 1988 model camper, my wife says she saw 1978 on the comp plate.

I didn't have my glasses with me so I saw a blurry silver thing on the tow hinch

The van is in a bit of a state but I love giving things a new life so if anyone can share any info about this van, before I make the owner an offer, that would be great thanks

Cheers Lockyer

[kiwijim]

Howdy lockyer

Welcome aboard, If you could post some photos of the possible Purchase, I am sure some-one could advise you either way.

Any info will be handy, like Make, confirmed year, size, and the all-important Chassis number, will help to get a picture of the van.

It's great to hear of another keen renovator amongst us,
Once you have this photobucket thinge sorted out for posting pictures, we hope to see all the gear as it's fitted.

Any problems, just give a shout, I'm sure there will be an answer around here some-where.

cheers, kiwijim

[lockyer]

Thanks Jim

I will get some pic's & measurements next time I go past but have told the owner will not make an offer till after Xmas as hoping to find some info on it, stay tuned

Cheers

[millard1399]

G'day lockyer, and welcome to the forum from me too! ;D

I've shifted this thread over from the History section, so you can keep adding information about your van in this thread. The "Hall Of Fame" section is for people to show the wonderful things they do when fixing up their van.

As far as the Hi-Lite vans go, I don't have very much information about them at all. There were quite a few small players making small poptop vans in the mid-to-late 1970s. Betta, Duncan, Wartz, Futura, and Hi-Lite, were all brands of small vans.

I have information from 1976 that says Country Campers was a business based in Mentone, Vic. Their advertisements included the Cabana, Topagee, and Sunwagon campers, so I presume they were manufacturing all three. How they became involved with Hi-Lites is a bit of a mystery. I have no idea whether they were actually building them, or were just marketing them for somebody else who was building them.

About a year ago, we had a new member come on the forum asking the following question:

"I,m after some info on a siddons van (Hi Lite) Built by Jack siddons of the sidchrome spanners fame"


In a 1975 caravan magazine I have, the following information about Hi-Lite is given:
"HiLite, 31 Frankston Rd., Dandenong Vic.
An excellent minivan that has found ready acceptance. Ideal for small car towing yet will sleep up to four people in comfort."

I have a few examples of Hi-Lite vans in my collection of photos. This first one is an 11ft van from the early 1970s...




And then there's a 10ft, 12ft, and what looks like a 14ft van, all from after 1973 when wind-out windows were introduced into the caravan market...







And that's all I can tell you about Hi-Lites.

cheers,
Al.

[lockyer]

Hi Al

Thank you, very much.

Of the photo's you have shown, the top picture would be the closest to the van we looked at, and the van would be 11ft but will measure plus get some photo's of her soon I hope.
The "Hi-Lite" sticker is identical to the one in the photo, when I get some pic's will show you the other name on the van IE "Country Campers"
Now hold on to your hats he's asking 3.5K ono, it's in an OK condition for it's age, IF I went ahead with buying (at about a 1/3 of asking price) it will be conditional on a full inspection but at my property/workshop.
The first hurdle has been jumped - the darling wife loved the little camper and wanted it straight away.
Al, would that be a timber framed van or Ally ?

Many Thanks again
Lawrence

[kiwijim]

Howdy lockyer,

Now that Al has posted some photos of the Hi-lite,
it sure rings a bell with me.

The company I worked for, had one of these vans on the hire fleet, it was an older early 70s 14ft model.

This van was wooden framed and there were some issues with corner leakage, plus the roof was another problem,

Because of the pop-top design, the roof was sagging front and back in the middle, a close examination for water staining of the ceiling around the edges of the interior is a must.

These vans had a rather heavy roof and as the second picture shows the spring loaded stay arms did become weak after several years and had to be replaced or propped up,

One other place to examine closely for signs of movement is at the top of the door frame, this is the weakest point of the van,
if there is any separation of the frame at this point, it will be seen at the rivets on the small piece of Ally covering the top of the door frame.

One other complaint we had from Hirers was the dripping of rain drops off the pop-top onto the main roof at both ends,
this was easily fixed by running an Ally channel strip across both ends of the pop-top, extending it out just wider than the width of the van.

All in all they were a good light weight van, and looked after should last for a long time,

I say.... go for it, and grab it as cheap as you can. ;D

Best of luck kiwijim

[lockyer]

Thanks for that info Jim

Will play the waiting game with the offer, there may be someone out there who will be parted easily with there money and if it sells before hand well that's life.

I don't mind working with steel or ally but I've never liked timber, cut it to short and you can't weld a bit on....!

Some years back I help restore an old ferry and it went from a 3 month project to over 8 because of wood rot and the guy's I was helping lost alot of hair over it.
Cheers Lawrence

[kiwijim]

Yep Lawrence, I know what you mean about cutting timber just that little bit short,

Can be a real pain, but when I was repairing Caravans, we always found that the short timber came in handy for the next job.

There is one bloke on this forum that you should ask about using a measuring stick,

Seems this fella gave up in the end and has covered his embarrassment with canvas and is blaming the weather.

[bobt]

blaming the weather.... who would that be? ;D

[mobilebarney]

Of several problems I need to overcome, one is that a previous owner cut out all the insect screens from the wind out windows. From an observation, it appears the insect screens were welded(?) to the inside window gasket. Anyone got some ideas on retro fitting insect screens ( there are 3 windows). BTW the Hi-Lite is a 12 footer post 1973, H104 welded on drawbar. Has massive WESCO brakes. Currently using the handbrake as o'ride brakes.

[Deleted]

You will find the wind out window flywires are available from any caravan accesory place.
Just take of the grey moulded nylon rubber from the track around the open window(it pushes on and pulls off with a little bit of effort!)New flywires are now black including surrounds.
Hope you can understand this!
Cheers
hughdeani

[kiwijim]

Howdy mobilebarney,

The fly wire screens you refer to were made from flat metal and the fly wire was also light metal.

They were held in place by screws protruding from the window frame, the screw head went through the fly wire surround, which held them in place.

I have great doubt if you will find any still available now.

I had a similar problem with my Thomson some years back,
firstly, the Thomson which came from Scotland, never had any fly screens at all, apparently there isn't any flies over there, !!

When I got the van, someone had stuck fly screens to the windows with Velcro tape, this had started to come off due to the heat, So the only alternative was to make some new screens.....



Everything you require to do this is available at Bunnings,
The only two tools you require, is a good mitre saw to cut the corners at a precise 45% and the other tool is a spline roller, ( available at Bunnies ($2-$3) this tool is used to roll the spline into the groove which holds the fly wire in place.

The screens I fitted have small brass hinges riveted to the top and screwed to the wall.....


The lower part of the screen is held against the window frame using these swivel catches, ( available Bunnings & camac )



Sorry about the picture quality....Da*n Photobucket play silly B#**ers again.

Hope this is some help.

Cheers kiwijim

[Deleted]

Hello there Lockyer, I have just spent 5hrs searching for possibilities as to what our van maybe also.
I have a thread in the hall of fame called "The undecided 1974 Franklin"
After my exhaustive search it makes me laugh that I came across
Millard 1399's response to you in Google images.

Anyway take a look at my pics, I am now thinking that pic of the first Hi-Lite is the closest thing I've seen to our van yet.
The only thing being that the roof and top half of the back and front of ours is bond wood and not aluminium.
Fingers crossed we're both onto something
It would be interesting to find out what the numbers on the draw bar are???

[malrv1]

Hi
I have been reading with interest about he Hilites. My wife and I bought a Hilite near new in 1975 and travelled Australia for 12 months in it. Setting out from Melbourne and going right up the east coast and then across to Darwin and back down through The Centre. Lots of dirt roads in those days. We towed with a short wheelbase Series 2 Land Rover. The only real trouble we had with the van was a broken draw bar which we had welded and reinforced in Rockhamptom and a broken spring eye neat Kingoonya on the Old Stuart Highway. I was able to patch that up and get home. It was a great little van and we still have fond memories. I sold it when we returned from the trip. However it had whetted our apatite for caravaning and a few years later we set off again with a 25 ft Viscount and Toyota Landcruiser. I have attached so old photos of our Hilite. I added the blue strip myself too brighten it up a bit.
Mal





Read more: ditzygypsy.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=photos&thread=858&page=1#ixzz1CBnyQfJR

[Deleted]

hi Malrv1,
thanks for posting those pics. Love the rig. but then i have a soft spot for old Landy's. My old LWB series 2A gave me many fond memories, I'll have to find some period pics as i built a home made camper back in it. that was in 1976.

[lockyer]

Wow....what great information..

Unfortunately in early January the area where I live (Lockyer) had a little water influx...well a lot really..!
Our house is fine but the yard and driveway needed some work, so I've been busy sorting out and cleaning up my workshop (2 inches of mud). Well by the time we got our act into gear and went to make an offer on the van - and unknown to me, it was sold a week earlier for $3000..with so many people loosing there homes or having them badly damaged the second van market here in SE Qld has gone thru the roof.

So I have now decided (and started) to upgrade our early cub camper - campertrailer, with a lift up bed, an ezy open and close system and 12 volt wiring.

Thank you all for your great advise and help and I hope to see you on the road somewhere one day ,
Cheers Lawrence

[bobt]

oooh bugga

wet feet not nice.

Bad luck on missing out on the caravan. Might have been a blessing in disguise.

BUt do tell us about cub camper. Would like to see a picture of it. If it is what I think it is I think I might be jealous.

But SWMBO says I cannot have everything

[kiwijim]

But SWMBO says I cannot have everything [/quote]

Not until Ya have finished...... Ugly As Sin

[lockyer]

Feb 3, 2011 20:39:47 GMT 10 bobt said:

oooh bugga

wet feet not nice.

Bad luck on missing out on the caravan. Might have been a blessing in disguise.

BUt do tell us about cub camper. Would like to see a picture of it. If it is what I think it is I think I might be jealous.

But SWMBO says I cannot have everything

It is a classic it just is not a caravan...!
We bought it 6 or 7 years ago from an older guy south of Brisbane and it was totally orginal, which was a problem, on either side of the the camper (inside) were two storage area's that were slightly wider and a bit higher then the wheel aches. This made the area in between a little narrow and for 2 people to sleep was just to tight. So as soon as it came home I measured it up and made a raised floor that fitted in between the storage boxes and we used an airbed to sleep on and lately we now use a self inflatting mattress.

Attachments:

[lockyer]

Approx 4 years ago I repainted the camper and we had a new top put on it and a new piece of rubber in the front, I couldn't get the original cub camper stickers so took what I could get.

Attachments:

[bobt]

Hey lockyer

Now that poses an interesting question. I don't know if it has been raised on here before or if it is just assumed.

What is the definition of a caravan? ;D

Don't be shy about telling about your classic. No one on here is going to object.

It does not look like the one I thought. BUt looks to be in good condition. They do have some distinct advantages over other caravans. I take it it survived that little influx of water you experienced a little while back.

We sure are having some really strange weather at the moment.

exactly 2 years ago, us down here in mexico were sweltering after our 3 day in the mid 40's and starting to worry about where our next glass of water was coming from. Today I had to anchor the boat in the back yard so it did not float away...

Is the canvas original? Does it have a solid roof? What sort of cooking, food keeping di it come with?

bobt

[James Gill]

Hi Lockyer , did you buy the van? I have just purchased one, it is in need of a little TLC. However it appears a great little van. The one I have is a ? 1973 model. The gas bottle was made then! I have a caravan book produced in 75 which shows a skightly later model, the poptop windows are different. Hope this finds you.

Rergards
James

[Deleted]

Hi! I know this is an old thread, but we have just purchased a Siddons Hi-Lite 1981 according to the Regi sticker, but I am questioning the year as the rego sticker info has some other irregularities (such as the RVMA membership number being listed as the chassis number), which makes me think that the rego info was thrown together. The only other numbe I can find is a H2-008 number welded into the Pull arm, I'm wondering if this is the vin number? It does look very similar to some of the photos that were posted earlier in this thread.
Thanks, Jo

[Vandy]

H

[skye Radcliffe scott]

Jun 13, 2011 17:09:49 GMT 10 James Gill said:

Hi Lockyer , did you buy the van? I have just purchased one, it is in need of a little TLC. However it appears a great little van. The one I have is a ? 1973 model. The gas bottle was made then! I have a caravan book produced in 75 which shows a skightly later model, the poptop windows are different. Hope this finds you.

Rergards
James

Hi James, 
About to embark on a Reno of my parents 1975ish Hi-Lite pop top. How have you gone with yours? I am keen to see how the pop top connects to the roof as ours flew off while transporting it home!
regards, Skye