1978 Millard Mini Sunrader poptop - 77156 - 16ft

[Deleted]

Hello to all,
I have recently become the owner of what I beleive is a "Millard Mini Poptop".
The cost of which was the petrol money for an overnight trip to Junee.

Does anyone have any info on my new beast?
This is what I do know:
It is a tandem.
It's a 16ft.
It's plate No. is 77156.
And it tows like a dream.

I've never come across another tandem like this before. Is it rare?
Any info would be great.

[ForumMod]

G'day tandemmillardmini, and welcome to the forum!

I've never come across another tandem like this before. Is it rare?

Without seeing a picture or two, it's hard to say if there's anything rare or unusual about your model. If the "plate No." relates to the chassis number, then your van is from the later part of 1978, when Millard changed their chassis numbering system. Viscount took over the building of only the "Series 80" Millards when Millard went belly up in mid-1979, so your van would have to be built in the dying stages of the Millard business.

As a side-note, it does seem rather silly to call a 16ft van a "Mini", but that name is a legacy of when Millard started building poptops in 1976 at 12ft length. Then they added a 14ft model, and  then a year after that they started building 16 and 17 footer models as well.

If you click on this search result you'll see a list of threads on the forum relating to Millard poptops. Look down the list, and down near the bottom is a thread about a 12ft Millard Mini with the chassis number of 79392. Does your van look like a longer version of this van?

cheers,
Al.

[Deleted]

Brilliant! That's great info!
Here are some Photo's....


Quick bit of family History (Of the van).
Dad purchased the van on about 1984-85. My brother has had it since early 90's. and now it's been passed to me. I believe it only had one owner before that.
 
Thanks again and looking forward to reading what you make of the "Mini" 16ft.
Cheers.

[ForumMod]

Yep, that looks pretty much how the typical Millard poptops looked like from that time period. I see it has the Sunrader model sticker on it, which we understand to have been a budget model in the Millard range (and that doesn't mean your van is worth any less than any other Millard ).

Just out of curiosity, what is the serial number stamped on the bottom of the oval RVMAA badge just above the door handle? I'm thinking the number would be up around the 20,000 mark, but it could be anything really. If you want to know more about these badges, click on this thread: RVMAA Badge

I'll change the heading of this thread to include the year and chassis number details, ok?

cheers,
Al.

ps. I meant to add that we don't see a lot of these larger Millard tandem poptops, but they do show up on ebay, etc, from time to time. I think the largest (longest) size I've seen was an advertised 17-footer, but it may have actually only been 16ft like yours.

[Deleted]

An absolute torrent of information. Thank-you.

As requested a photo of the RVMAA badge.

Now I'm looking for some new paneling.the outside aluminium Panels near the rear window is dammaged. Where do we find that.
Suggestions are would be great. I'm in North Western Sydney.

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forgot to add badge photo. DOH!

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Aug 21, 2014 11:54:00 GMT 10 @tandemmillardmini said:

Brilliant! That's great info!
Here are some Photo's....


Quick bit of family History (Of the van).
Dad purchased the van on about 1984-85. My brother has had it since early 90's. and now it's been passed to me. I believe it only had one owner before that.
 
Thanks again and looking forward to reading what you make of the "Mini" 16ft.
Cheers.

Hi all...

I just bought a van .. a Millard - a 16 foot pop top - now here is the weird bit:

serial number 77168

tandemmillardmini has a van with serial number 77156. Are these vans related? Cousins perhaps? Mine has a single axle - have to fix it up a bit.