1976 Franklin Snipe poptop X2882

[Deleted]

Gday All, due to me 'scoring' an old caravan off my brother in law I have become a new member. i have been lurking for a while and reading as many posts as possible. from what i read on here my caravan is a Franklin Snipe 14ft pop top with a chassis no of X2882, i believe this says its a 1976 model??

the van had been up on blocks in his shed for the last 20yr give or take, the inside is like new and the outside needs a little work

where is the best place to source some bits and pieces for it..eg scissor stuts for the pop top...any info on the van would be appreciated, like the weight of it?

anyway at work at the moment so sorry if the post sound a bit rushed, looking forward to getting into the site some more

cheers
Kimba

[murray]

Kimba,
I have always found this business good to source parts.

caravansplus.com.au/catalog/index.php?cPath=35_70&osCsid=o73hi2vvoi7tj93opc96tsaaa6

At least by browsing you get an idea as to whats available/prices etc
Cheers
Murray

[ForumMod]

G'day kimba, and welcome to the forum!

I keep changing my mind about whether the X-series of chassis numbers is from 1976 or 1977. I will lean one way, and then somebody comes on the forum with some more information and I'll start leaning the other way. I really wish I could find definite information about the Franklin chassis numbers for 1973 and 1974, and then I'd know for sure what year the X-series belonged to. As it is at the moment, toss a coin and choose either '76 or '77.

The Tare weight of a 14ft van is somewhere in the vicinity of 800 - 850kgs. By the time you add all the water, food, and clothing into a van, there's another 300kgs on top of the Tare weight.

cheers,
Al.

[Rattles]

For the jacks about halfway down the page:

caravansplus.com.au/catalog/index.php?cPath=34_71_57

Rattles

[Deleted]

Hey Thanks Guys on the info and links, i am a newbie to owning a caravan so i appreciate it

cheers, talk soon i reckon!!

Kimba

[Deleted]

Hi All, I am about to embark on a reno of my Franklin poptop, does anyone have any pics of work in progress of the interior? I did find some photos and info from Gman on here, he did one very similar to mine and it looked fantastic but there wasnt any detail around the poptop.
this is mine:




any pics of your renos particularly around the interior and poptop would be great.

thanks in advance
Kimba

[ForumMod]

G'day Kimba,

I reckon you and butchermartin should get together and compare notes. His van has the chassis number of X2863, only 20 vans before yours. (Click here: 1977 Franklin Snipe poptop X2863 )

I can only find a few examples of the Snipe on the forum, and none show any detail about fixing/repairing/refurbishing the poptop area. What do you need to do in this area?

cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

thanks Al, not sure what the extent of the work is as yet, the van is great for its age but in the back corner there is some panelling with water damage, further inspection revealled that the structual corner has some water damage too, this will require me to strip it out as I doubt the pannelling would no longer be available. the pop top lid needs replacing which isnt a problem but the roof of the van seems to leaning in towards the pop top opening, does this make sense!! the tops of the cupboards are not level.

thanks for the info and i will make contact with buthchermartin

cheers
Kimba

[ForumMod]

Kimba, the design of these poptop roofs is pretty similar no matter what the brand. The supporting timbers around the poptop opening in the caravan ceiling can often become rotted with leaking water, and eventually lose their strength and start sagging.

Back in 2008 to 2010, I restored a 1977 Millard poptop. If you've got some spare time on your hands, you might like to have a read through some of my thread about that van. There are far too many pages to go through all of it, but if you skim through the photos in first three pages, and then skip to Page 11, you'll see some of the work I did to restore the poptop area: 1977 Millard poptop MM1399 14ft

I'm not saying your Franklin will be built the same way as this Millard was. It's more a case of looking at the similarities in the design of the poptop section, and seeing if your van is likely to have been affected in the same way as the Millard was.

cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

cool, thanks Al, i will have squiz over the weekend