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Post by doublechevron on Oct 6, 2015 10:23:10 GMT 10
my folks use to tow a 14' foot franklin from Melbourne to Rockhampton December January every year, each year it was a different car but they were mostly holdens FC, EJ, EH, HD the last time I went with them was in the VC Valiant.. 3 were autos. We always got there and back ok.. Were they powergluides though? I'm just wondering how you go moving off the line if you have to come to a stop on a steep hill....... Are they a 2spd with a 3rd idler gear just to get you moving ? seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Oct 6, 2015 9:23:02 GMT 10
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Post by doublechevron on Oct 6, 2015 9:12:19 GMT 10
Is it Time to Roam magazine? They did that story a few months ago. Cheers hughdeani That'll be it ... looks like a magazine liftout. I'll grab it tonight and scan it. |
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Post by doublechevron on Oct 5, 2015 22:31:53 GMT 10
i'll double check. I meant to bring it home with me to scan but left it there. it look like the liftout magazine from a newspaper quality wise. The detailed information is brilliant. they actually talked to the guy that made them.
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Post by doublechevron on Oct 5, 2015 18:50:08 GMT 10
Looks like te HWS is a success !!! Nice work..... I'm 3/4 through sealing the roof. (Geez I'm over that job !!!!!!)I will have a go at strengthening the front cladding when I rip out the ply etc. I'm wondering if I can use 2 pieces of an MDF or similar shaped to to the cladding, and somehow screw it to the inner wood frame ? I reckon I can patch/disguise the cracks, and paint, but it needs to be strengthened/stable, otherwise I'm wasting my time. I don't really wanna have to replace it. That's hilarious .... That's all I've done every spare second I could find for the last 5 months  On the bright side, I'm almost done ... just the water tank filler and power plug to go from what I can tell  seeya Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Oct 5, 2015 13:41:47 GMT 10
My father has a really good article on franklin caravans in magazine he's come across. What is the legality of me posting it here ? ( I can't imagine there being a copywrite?).
seeya,
Shane L.
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Post by doublechevron on Oct 5, 2015 13:12:52 GMT 10
How would you go towing with a 2spd powerglide? I could just see me driving to the top of the hill at the end of my street.... 1 ton'ish of caravan swing off the back .... foot to the floor, tranny in it's amazingly high 1st gear unable to get the car and caravan moving off the line ... I have never driven one though, I know there good for huge power, the old 186 isn't going to put out large capacity V8 like torque at idle speeds to get you moving though... Does the powergluide have a idler gear to initially get you moving if your heavy? It's the weight hanging down the hill that gets you .... when I tow my car trailer, I drop the old 4wd into low range at the top of the hill so I can get all the mass moving without burning the clutch out. seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Oct 5, 2015 12:19:22 GMT 10
Have you searched online for help? I was considering fitting a small access door to the front of the caravan here (so I could slide the annex poles in under the front seating rather than fitting a pole holder). www.caravanworld.com.au/features/1112/tech-how-to-fit-an-external-access-door/check this out ........... How many uprights do they cut through  They hack through the uprights, don't box opening to support the wall uprights, and stick a plastic frame in there. They will have weakened the hell out that caravans structure. seeya, shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Oct 3, 2015 12:54:11 GMT 10
Hmmm.... This roof hatch wasn't leaking by the looks of this. Only the back one was damp when I collected the caravan. This roof hatch is actually sealed up really well and I doubt it would have ever leaked (I'd never have removed it if I'd known).  there is some water staining in a corner ...   I was wrong, it was sealed in at the factory with silicon around the bottom then mastic over the top... However in the last 10years someone went over the housing with white silicon .... and were pretty effective at making this water proof.   whoever siliconed the hatch up did a pretty good job, every rivet head, every corner where water could get under (as the plastic probably shrunk slightly over the years allowing the hatch flaps to weep in heavy rain.  No sign of it ever leaking. Very clean, no signs of water tracking anywhere.    this is the flap that had blown out .... Notice the dirt down under the hinge area.... Now that's a guide to catch any water than gets past the hinge and guide it over the corners and down the edges so it can't get inside. Notice they have been silicon'd closed, these will flood eventually and allow water to drip straight intot he caravan in heavy downpours. I'll remove the silicon from here.   The flap that had blown out... it slots in nice and snugly............ But falls straight back out again. I couldn't see how on earth it was supposed to stay in place. So removed one of the flaps that didn't blow out.   Wow.... How dodgy, that's bloody hilarious..... How did the factory stop the 4season flaps falling out ? The deliberatly slightly buckled the flap so it has to be flexed along it's length to slot in in/out.  The bent one that doesn't fall out.  Nice and straight .... looks perfect... This is the one that had blown out. I just need to put a bend into it so it won't fall out. Oh yeah, note the plastic clips, you just use a screwdriver to separate them as shown so the wire that opens the flaps will pop off. seeya, shane L. well I thought I better get back to the 4seasons hatches. To remove the rear one I gave up on trying to cut it out... and just hammered a screwdriver underneath and all the way around the base of it with a panel hammer. You have to be really careful not to hammer a hole through the cladding. It made getting the 4seasons hatch out far easier. than the last one.  I gave them a quick wash and decided to fix the one that already had the flaps off first.   This is the leaky one ... I've sat it back in the hole on in the caravans roof so mice and rats can't get back in for now. Silicon everywhere, the flaps are even glued shut with silicon. note: it would still be leaking around this lower edge I'm sure.   I started by removing the flaps and cleaning off the old silicon. Most was applied over dirt so wasn't sealing anything either way.  The drains were all siliconed shut. I dont' understand this. Just looking at the 4seasons hatch you can see these drain the hinge area down the corners ... with them siliconed shut the only thing that can happen is that area will eventually fill with water and overflow into the caravan.  I got the silicon ready to apply and as I was about to squirt it on I decided this was as stupid a way of sealing something as pushing a little bit of silicon around the edges of windows and J-molds with your finger and calling it "sealed"............ So I decided to pull it apart and see if there was a better way of doing this. Note: The only thing that holds the whole 4seasons hatch together is that frail plastic corner piece and 6 pop rivets.  the top part appears to have been sealed with a smear of silicon at the factory.  The bottom part is sealed with something hard ... that doesn't seal (well it might have for 5minutes 30years ago... maybe a tiny smear of mastic?). Either way the only way to clean it off is with a sharp blade.  Heaps of sealer ....   curse and yell at it 'cos you can't get the holes to line up to insert the pop rivets..... and make one hell of a bloody mess.  It squeezes right through, so I imagine should be nice and water tight. You have to turn the 4season vent over and quickly try and clean up the mess ... as this is visible inside the caravan.  1 corner done .... 7 to go.  double check we haven't blocked the hinge drain.  I stripped the top back. The way the top is siliconed was fine. It would never leak, so I'll leave this area of the other one alone.  the silicon was pushed down into the recess all the way around.... so it would never have leaked.  I just taped it up and re-siliconed it.   I'm not at all happy with the flaps. It doesn't seem to matter how you twist or bend the hinge area, within a dozen open/close operations, the flap falls out again. What an absolute nuts of a setup. I put too big blobs of silicon at each end of the track hoping to encourage them to stay in. Is this why the flaps on the back one are siliconed together?? to hold them in ? It can't understand how this ever worked from the factory.  Anyway, in frustration I chucked the front 4seasons hatch back into the caravans roof for now and started on the other one........... I cut the silicon that holds the flaps together and opened them ............................................. I DON'T BLOODY BELIEVE IT ..... DAMN IT ALL, LOOK AT THAT. The flaps hinge INTO THE SLOT ABOVE THE GUTTER. From the post a few months back..... SOMEONE HAD ASSEMBLED ALL THE FLAPS IN THE FRONT 4 SEASONS HATCH INTO THE HINGE DRAIN .... So I had tried to copy this when I re-assemlbed it. No wonder the caravan arrived with one of the flaps already blown out.  OK, back to that front 4seasons hatch ... remove all the flaps again, clean off the silicon I added, clean up the drains and REFIT THE BLOODY FLAPS INTO THE HINGE SLOT NOT THE DRAIN. You know, I reckon they'll stay in place now! This thing should now work well and not leak or fall apart. Now to dismantle and re-seal the 2nd 4seasons hatch and refit them both. Hopefully I'm then close to done. seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Oct 1, 2015 9:39:45 GMT 10
Yeah, it's wired for both 12 and 240volts inside the same light housing (like most caravans of it's era). The 2 way fridge works well. I already have 6 batteries to upkeep, no-way do I want another to upkeep on the caravan ( 5 x cars, 1 x mower). I've put a 2nd battery in the tug that can run the caravan (that I'll just pull from one of the other cars when we use the caravan). I'm going to wire the caravan with an anderson plug, and put a 12volt power point for TV etc. seeya, Shane L. Should be an easy job then, replace globes with LED's, find where lighting wire joins into trailer plug loom (mine was in the cupboard under the sink, just aft of the fridge) and redirect to anderson plug. Careful when you buy the globes, most older vans use a now hard to find bayonet BA15D. You'll find that SORTACHEAP and other auto shops will stock BA15S, which wont fit/work. Also make sure they're 12v, for some reason Aldi were selling 240v versions of this size. Never worked out what runs these, but if I ever do I've got 4 spare globes  Hope this helps. Planner. Oh .. globes, it's just 12volts DC, I was going to simply remove the wiring from the existing light housing and fit a big useful LED globe in there The old bayonet housing can stay in position unused (if someone wants to put it back to standard in the future, they can just screw the wires back to the bayonet housing!). seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Oct 1, 2015 9:34:09 GMT 10
How are you guys getting your loaded weights. As far as I know, the older caravans only have an empty weight specified. I'd have thought any reasonable additional loading would be legal as there is no maximum weight specified. eg: what would the loaded weight for my caravan be ? The tar is about 1600kg..... I'm guessing 2tons max so I don't require break away brakes. realistically, so long as it's safe I don't really care what the final weight is I'm sure the structure and suspension would happily handle 2.5tons .................... seeya, Shane L.
Shane Hi.
The loaded weight is the maximum weight each item can carry -- ie. my new springs can take 1640kg. the tyres can take 850 + 850 = 1700kg, rims are rated at 890 +890 = 1780kg, axle & brakes are rated at 2000kg.
This means that legally the loaded weight of the van must not exceed 1640kg and this is what the guy who made the springs stated & the weighbridge guy confirmed this.
You have to be careful as the RTA are blitzing over weight caravans & have mini scales on the side of the road to test vans.
Ted
Yes But us guys with pre-89 caravans don't have a maximum weight. No doubt they just add the tire capacities together and call that the maximum. I can't tell what the weight carrying capacity of the suspension or wheel bearings is, so how could they life's easy, when you choose it to be  It really would be one in a million chance that you would get checked. the caravans been happily cruising the roads in it's current guise for 30years, so the idea it's suddenly unsafe to use as designed is ludicrous! seeya Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 30, 2015 19:19:48 GMT 10
I like that laminex in the table!!! If you like the laminex, you should see the 80's splash guard beside the stove  |
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 30, 2015 16:41:52 GMT 10
Yeah, it's wired for both 12 and 240volts inside the same light housing (like most caravans of it's era). The 2 way fridge works well. I already have 6 batteries to upkeep, no-way do I want another to upkeep on the caravan ( 5 x cars, 1 x mower).
I've put a 2nd battery in the tug that can run the caravan (that I'll just pull from one of the other cars when we use the caravan). I'm going to wire the caravan with an anderson plug, and put a 12volt power point for TV etc.
seeya,
Shane L.
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 30, 2015 15:04:57 GMT 10
This sort of stuff is always fun.... I remember assembling a nice wooden baby cot in the loungeroom a few years back so we could admire it .......... Yep, that was a great practice.... I quickly realised it was slightly to large to fit through a doorway, so the whole bloody thing had to be completely dismantled again ... and re-assembled in the bedroom. I try to make sure I dont' do that sort of frustrating crap more than 3times before I remember ................... seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 30, 2015 14:35:07 GMT 10
Hi Guys, has anyone retro-fitted some decent lighting in place of the feeble little 12volt incandescent globes in there old caravans ... I have no intention of upgrading the caravan lighting to 12volts. But having usable 12volt lighting for free camping using the existing caravan lighting would be great. I was thinking of setup up something like these around the standard 240globe in the existing light housing www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-x-G4-24-SMD-3528-LED-Light-Bulb-Globe-Lamp-12v-Caravan-Camper-3000K-WARM-WHITE-/301637850657?hash=item463b045621Has anyone else done anything similar? I don't want to convert to 12volt lighting, as then I'd need to fit batteries, 240V AC -> 12volt dc inverters for 12volt DC when plugged into 240volts. Which would get expensive quickly seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 30, 2015 13:58:24 GMT 10
How are you guys getting your loaded weights. As far as I know, the older caravans only have an empty weight specified. I'd have thought any reasonable additional loading would be legal as there is no maximum weight specified. eg: what would the loaded weight for my caravan be ? The tar is about 1600kg..... I'm guessing 2tons max so I don't require break away brakes. realistically, so long as it's safe I don't really care what the final weight is I'm sure the structure and suspension would happily handle 2.5tons .................... seeya, Shane L. Hi Shane
Each State in Australia has different rules re towing and vehicle weights, plus something to keep in mind as well is if you cross in another state you have to be legal with their requirements as well. In Qld the transport department lists a caravans Tare and ATM on the rego papers, get stopped and checked and be overloaded and you could have to get a tilt tray to take the van away + a money penalty (fine). The other problem that seems to have a lot worried is your insurance - it will have some type of clause about the vehicle must be in a roadworthy condition, have an accident and the police deem the caravan is overloaded and your insurance company has the perfect escape clause - un roadworthy. So it is not a case that you can load your caravan to the max and not worry but we should all know what our vans can carry and how much do they weigh when loaded.
Cheers - Which state are you in Shane ??
I'm in Victoria. I'm not really concerned. with tandem axles we'll be at least 2ton rated regardless of state I'd imagine. The only reason I say 2ton is I know anything greater than that requires break away brakes (which wouldn't be difficult given we have twin axle electric brakes.... I'd just have to fit a battery to the 'van and fit a break-away controller... this is money I don't have and have no intension of spending though!). I might roll it over a local weigh bridge just to see what weights we really are (with a gas bottle fitted, and empty water tank). Our old caravans are generally very lightweight compared to the massively heavy modern 'vans. I think mine has a 1560kg tare. If you look at the spec's of a Jayco Silverline for example.... same size as the old windsor ... the tare weight is 2715 -> 2800kgs .... Bugger me, you'd want medium rigid truck to tow that sort of mass The idea of a grey nomad that's never towed, hooking something that mass to a v8 turbo diesel cruiser and setting the cruise control to 110km/h and heading down the roads sure does scare me. The old tug has a 4ton tow capacity. It would be very doubtful we would be illegal no matter how stupid the local states rules are seeya Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 30, 2015 13:27:46 GMT 10
Yikes! In theory, if it's already been registered in Tassie.... it should be fine. Why don't you front up with a pocket full of stick on reflectors, and if they demand any .... stick them on while they watch.
seeya,
Shane L.
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 30, 2015 12:06:05 GMT 10
How are you guys getting your loaded weights. As far as I know, the older caravans only have an empty weight specified. I'd have thought any reasonable additional loading would be legal as there is no maximum weight specified. eg: what would the loaded weight for my caravan be ? The tar is about 1600kg..... I'm guessing 2tons max so I don't require break away brakes. realistically, so long as it's safe I don't really care what the final weight is I'm sure the structure and suspension would happily handle 2.5tons .................... seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 30, 2015 10:50:41 GMT 10
Well all the windows are back in, the other side tru-mold is done, the fridge vents are done. I've got the 4seasons hatches to go and we can start using it. Obviously I'll pull the wheels and regrease the bearings and check the brakes first. I still need to paint underneath and the rear bar ... but it'll be nice to have a break from it for a bit Anyway, the front window, I sealed it up and screwed it in .... As I screwed the last screw down ..... I thought DAMN IT ... the bloody bits of wood for the front cover to be screwed too.... there still in the bloody shed. So I removed the window 5minutes after it was fitted (just as well I didn't use silicon or sikaflex right ?) and glued in the bits of wood above the window frame for the front cover....  But look what I found when I removed the window. The lip in the cladding profile shows no squeeze through of sealer ... It's holding the window frame out to much. So I put a 2nd massive thick bead of sealer across the body of the caravan as well as the window and screwed it back in. You know, I reckon that window would have leaked if I hadn't been stupid enough to forget the bits of frame for the front window cover.  Look at the squeeze through I got the 2nd time around  The caravan while I work is my little helpers favorite spot. The kids are obsessed with it... Now it's warmer they want to go outside and read books in the bunks and do jigsaws while I'm working on it. Just imagine how much more they'll enjoy it... if the caravan is somewhere other than there own backyard seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 30, 2015 10:11:26 GMT 10
Had to move the van to get my new project into the garage - project is a 1977 Range Rover Classic 2 Door Anyway, took some pics and I though "Damn, aint that a sexy combination!"  It's funny how opinions vary. I've never liked the look of a disco .... but the range rover classic and series look I like Where the picture of the two door towing it  seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 24, 2015 16:57:12 GMT 10
I haven't renovated a single thing .... I reckon I've put at least 60hours into simply resealing the caravan here so far  seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 24, 2015 14:37:59 GMT 10
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 22, 2015 17:04:17 GMT 10
Does it look like it has a jockey wheel type handle to wind it up and down and a "knob" that you screw down onto a friction pack. If so it's the anti-sway for the ALKO chassis fitted the 1980's viscount ultralights.
seeya,
Shane L.
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 17, 2015 10:00:32 GMT 10
Why don't you run a length of double sided sail rail down it.
You'd only need a tiny length. Here is it fitted to the old Chesney I had. You would cover the back with silicon so it "squeezes out", that way all those holes would fill with sealer and it would never leak. Note: It's already paint/power coated for you.
You have done an amazing job of getting that strip to match the profile of the cladding. I would have thought that an impossible task!
seeya,
shane L.
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Post by doublechevron on Sept 11, 2015 15:20:11 GMT 10
That won't work, you will just dig holes. The only thing that will work unless it's level sealed concrete is the "caravan movers" most pommy 'vans are fitted with ... eg: www.ebay.com.au/itm/Purple-Line-Enduro-Single-Axle-Caravan-Mover-Remote-Controlled-12-V-/261229819412?hash=item3cd282b614I'll repeat that again ... THEY WILL NOT WORK ON GRAVEL, SAND OR GRASS. Trust me ... I know this. You are wasting your time trying to find one Would an offset front mounted towbar on your car allow you to push it into position ? Failing that your looking at a small hand winch attached to "something". seeya, Shane L. |
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On the bright side, I'm almost done ... just the water tank filler and power plug to go from what I can tell 
It really would be one in a million chance that you would get checked. the caravans been happily cruising the roads in it's current guise for 30years, so the idea it's suddenly unsafe to use as designed is ludicrous!
