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Post by doublechevron on Jun 23, 2015 16:21:26 GMT 10
Interesting, it's always good to hear from owners rather than the rumors everyone likes to spread. I asked about these at the local sales/service place a few years back when I was buying service items for something else. They seemed to think they were ok'ish, so long as you didn't try heavy offroading in them.... Or fit bullbars. They had some arrive with cracked chassis after the heavy local bullbars fatigue cracked them ... and they hadn't figured out a simple repair for this yet. Do they have leaf springs? It's seems to have no axle articulation like an old leaf sprung land rover. Not that there's anything wrong with that, leaf springs are strong and are great at carrying loads. seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on Jun 14, 2015 23:22:07 GMT 10
I'm not sure why your surprised.... Citroens have won the european tow car of the year awards since the 70's ... (or as far back as I've found the awards). FWD seem more stable to me, you pulling from the front, rather than the middle. awd is obviously the best of the lot. Also see your picture above ..... I've towed with one of these old citroens for decades  Look at the distance on the european cars between the rear axle and towbar .... the towbar is almost over the axle. Next time your in a carpark have a look at one of the modern twin cab utes. The towbar is so far behind the rear axle it's just insane. The leverage effect would be incredible. Citroens all self level too... so you drop a loaded car trailer on them, the front lowers back to the right height, and the rear lifts back up regardless of the weight placed on it. I've retired my old Citroens from towing to take the pressure off them... I used an old range rover now, that is full time 4wd and has a boge load leveller on the rear axle. So it "pumps" itself back to the correct height as you move along. Pretty nifty really (if you ever see an old range rover, look under it, the rear axle has a coil spring each side, but the middle of the axle has what appears to be a 3rd spring, it's actually a hydraulic ram that lifts the rear back up from the central pivot point, but still allows the car to ride really nicely on soft springs). I'd go front wheel drive everytime for towing if I could. Way, superior to trying to drive the vehicle from the center. You only issue will be moving off on slippery ground on a steep slope. I reckon the ultimate setup is ute/twin cab ute with a 5th wheeler, the ball is slightly forward of the rear axle in the tub.... so it'll tow like a semi trailer and spread the weight over the both axles. |
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Post by doublechevron on Jun 5, 2015 10:44:45 GMT 10
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Post by doublechevron on Jun 5, 2015 10:30:48 GMT 10
How the hell do you find time for all this stuff?  Vincent alone takes all my time!!  The car in 1963 compared to an EJ Holden must have been something very exotic. Just ask my wife, everything is half done, never working and dodgy LOL..... Oneday I'll find the time and money to fix the ugly pink car properly. For now I drive it around in it's very ugly 52year old mostly original paint  There's very little time, and absolutely no money with three young kids on a single income ..... But hey, life is great |
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Post by doublechevron on Jun 4, 2015 21:28:49 GMT 10
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Post by doublechevron on Jun 4, 2015 14:43:23 GMT 10
I can't believe I'm making a post about splashing some paint on drawbar that needed absolutely no repair. It appeared to have only it's original undercoat, paint then some very, very thick grey/silver paint over the top.... Maybe the original owner had a 44gallon drum of silver paint, and repainted it with the same stuff each year. It was cracked, split and had to be stripped back to bare metal. This simple little drawbar took  Three of these  one of these  one of these  One of these  And finally one of these ... These things are particually effective. a few brands sell them, there like a nylon weave. Usually called "strip it" discs or similar. The paint was so ugly it was even melting into these (which generally strip anything without clogging up).   This took hours over a couple of weeks. So obviously by the time I was ready to paint .... it was bloody freezing cold and wet. With the distant weather forcast showing nothing over 10degrees .... sigh....  I ended up cranking up the space heater and painting it with a brush. I still need to scuff it and apply a 2nd coat. www.bunnings.com.au/white-knight-1l-rust-guard-quick-dry-advanced-enamel-satin-black-_p1560460I used this paint. White Night satin black self priming. I'm very impressed with it. I was going to wire brush and paint the rest of the chassis with one of the moisture cured urethanes (eg: POR15) but this stuff has impressed me. Not only did it apply well, it's still well stuck to my hands 24hours later. It hasn't rubbed, flaked or washed off my skin at all (great when you have to go to work right ?). seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on May 29, 2015 13:26:22 GMT 10
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Post by doublechevron on May 28, 2015 15:18:47 GMT 10
Oh ... forgot to mention .... Don't move that 'van again unless you have a brake controller and working brakes  Certainly you need to replace the tires too! As for swaying, I'm going to somehow save up and get myself an "andersen weight disbribution hitch". talk about smart, the exact opposite to the massive level rider bars and hayman reece stuff used in this country www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRoQ_yQZQwQI think I've been banned from the caravaners forum (apparently common sense is frowned upon), but have a look at the last page of this thread. Really interesting feedback: caravanersforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=55161&start=100seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on May 28, 2015 14:32:57 GMT 10
So these older large caravans were never really intended to be used for holidays, they were more of a permanent site thing even when new? It's being used as a permanent site now so I'm not concerned about whether or not it can make it around the country (I'm sure it wouldn't!), I was just curious since I've towed it behind a Ford G6E Turbo and had issues with traction (car spinning the wheels when accelerating normally) and swaying even at low speeds. It's clearly way too heavy for that car. I might be wrong, but I swear it doesn't have brakes either. It definitely doesn't have the type with a spring in the A frame, and I'm fairly sure it doesn't have electric brakes either. It's probably not very heavy as it left the factory (1.5'ish tons... some of the modern average sized twin axle caravans are getting upto 3tons ). However if it's been "renovated" with fittings from bunnings for kitchen/bathroom areas it will weigh immensely more than when it left the factory. it will certainly have electric brakes. Car tires == the cheapest things that were black and round to get it off the ground. So long as the renovation hasn't added masses of weights to the ends of it (eg: standard house MDF/chipboard kitchens/bathrooms) at the ends. If the ends are heavy, towed on half flat massively overloaded car tires, hitched to a ridiculously low modern car .... so it way nose down... yeah I imagine it's a handful to tow. Now if you fitted new light truck tires, check that it's not "end heavy", fixed up the electric brakes and towed it with just about any 4wd that brings the caravan up level, and used weight distrubution bars .... I'm sure it would tow quite well .... Well they managed to tow them around with no problems for the last 40years seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on May 28, 2015 10:20:46 GMT 10
My reno is moving along well and I'm still loving it. Have learned a few lessons along the way. The most recent was midway thru replacing my back window after some hardware and great online instructions from Caravans Plus. I have the original glass which makes the window rather heavy but I didn't foresee that those two little plastic L corners might not support the window alone. So it came crashing down, the frame breaking at those corners again and the glass unbroken on the ground, grassy luckily. So now I have more of those brackets on order and I'm trying the metal ones this time. I'll provide a bit more support this time till its fully installed. My next challenge is to find a spare wheel and I'd appreciate any guidance . I now understand that my Capricorn is more '74 or '75. There are five bolts on the wheel. My brother thought it might be a Ford rim but he's just guessing. Would anyone know this? And any suggestions on where to find one. Helen They look like HT holden, impossible to tell without measuring as described below. The ford stud pattern and HQ are visually a bit bigger than that ................ However it's always hard to tell without a tape measure |
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Post by doublechevron on May 28, 2015 8:39:26 GMT 10
hmmm I did not intend to deceive..... well not this group but I had some fun with my caravan club some members are rather funny about what is a caravan. The Tear Drop belonged to a friend and with a bit of help from him and something called photoshop they got together.  It got changed a little was used a couple of times then sold.. I guess I best go find a photo of the real deal. And atog.. A mans shed is a mans shed. She goes no where near it. My grandfather still speaks of the time my grandmother cleaned up his shed ..... many decades ago. She threw out a box of Renault Gordini engine parts ..... why would anyone need a box of car parts after all ? ........................ He was a mechanic by trade... would you go into a electricians shed a throw out a box of electrical bits |
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Post by doublechevron on May 27, 2015 12:01:14 GMT 10
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Post by doublechevron on May 27, 2015 11:19:59 GMT 10
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Post by doublechevron on May 26, 2015 16:14:32 GMT 10
poor bugger... a moderator ... I'm off to start a thread on filing down the earth pin on 15amp power leads then .... To see how quickly he can delete my posts and lock the threads like on the caravaners forum  (wow there anal over there ... common sense be damned what your doing IS AGAINST THE LAW  ).  I'm the moderator on a couple of car forums... It can be, er, "trying" at times. Check this out: How special am I ? seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on May 26, 2015 15:53:26 GMT 10
Love the layout of this van, it would have been good for us when the kids were little, now they are not and I am happy they don't come with us. Keep the pics and updates coming.. Well last weekend I whipped upto bunnings and grabbed some pine to do the frame repairs with. None of this stuff I'm repairing is structural, so we don't need exotic timbers. I also remember my father has a nice little slide saw .... Given he wasn't home at the time, to say "No your not having it, I'm sick of you breaking my stuff" ...  I took that as a "yes" to I could use it so chucked that in the back of the car too  I've been looking at envy at Mustangs new concreted, sealed garage with enough height for a caravan and 4post hoist (  ) This is how dodgy I am...  When we purchased our place it had two really crappy garages, that were obviously built using already 2nd hand materials 30+ years ago. Somehow or other they don't need permits or anything 'cos they have always been there (I dont' understand it ... but that's how it works). I have these two sheds, a modern 12 x 7.5 shed and a 10 x 7 carport ... the only thing they had in common was the old chesney wouldn't come even close to fitting under any of them ....  So I partially knocked down the shittiest one (leaving walls on for cross bracing so it wouldn't collapse in a heap).... Then slowly working my way around and around after chopping through the uprights lifted it up. I welded in new metal and that height and dug secondary foundation holes and T'd the uprights over to them as well... to make sure the foundations were plenty strong enough for the higher walls ...  Nuts right ... you can see how much higher it is from the edge flashing. Then I bought this windsor ... in the two weeks I had before it was delivered ... I realised I once again had a caravan that needs resealing, that I can't fit into any shed.  So I knocked a 4meter section of wall sheets off the back wall... cut through the horizontals with a chainsaw and ran a heap of left over top hat baton back to the other shed... so I now have a 9.5 x 4meter section in the crappy old 6 x 6meter shed. It cost nothing (and looks like it) but at least I have a waterproof area to re-seal and repair the caravan in!  seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on May 26, 2015 14:15:49 GMT 10
When we got Vincent home I had misgivings to what I had bought. But now you are home these things wont break again, so you are already going ahead, keep thinking its a great looking van with so much potential. Plenty of advice & encouragement always here at the forum. Isn't that the truth .... I'd tow that home, reseal it, clean it .... clay bar it ... paint the frame and advertise it for $10K ..... If it leaks before it's resealed and gets full of water damage ..... I'd replace the $10K, with $2800 ... 'cos it's then just like every water stained 'van out there with a huge question mark hanging over it.... as you can't tell if the frame is rotten as buggery behind the water stained walls  seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on May 25, 2015 15:12:23 GMT 10
The old Chesney is on the market now ... and I wanted to stick it back into the shed until it sells. I'm always amazed how incredibly dodgy I can be. I looked at the tired old Rangey and wandered around the shed looking at whatever offcuts and scraps of metal I could find.  I wiggled the hitch receiver out ... it tooks some getting out first time around.  I didn't have any RHS even close to the right size... but a bit of pipe that was, so I tacked it behind the recovery point. This will be invisible if I paint it bumper colour. It works perfectly though  the caravan is about an inch away from the wall. The trick is to do this after dark so the shed isn'ta "black hole". This time though I just plugged in a lead light from each truss so I could see if the caravan was about to touch the lights (if it was going to touch ... it was about to hit the wall uprights too). Nothing is harder the putting a caravan into a black hole ... you have to get light there. seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on May 24, 2015 10:24:46 GMT 10
That's amazing, I've never seen a hitch couple do that before. It must have been somehow seized.
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Post by doublechevron on May 22, 2015 14:22:37 GMT 10
With the Nautilus being shown at Sanctuary Cove & Brisbane Shows for the next two weeks, Vincent is getting a new room. (7 x 15mtrs) The southern side will be clad & the northern will be open, (for now) the front faces east. We still may need a cover to stop paint/curtain fading. Rain halted play today & wrong materials delivered will delay completion untill next week. A nice shady spot for car/caravan/camper washing & work area. Your going to need some more cars now you know ...... Can't have empty space in that shed I reckon fiat 500/citroen 2cv ... something that's the exact opposite to a Jag and Mustang ... |
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Post by doublechevron on May 22, 2015 10:54:58 GMT 10
This thread needs more piccies of the damage ... and how your fixing it. Is the olympic to "shell" type halves joined in the middle ? ie: is it a swimming pool if it gets water in it.. That would be a brilliant layout 'cos you could just pull up the decorative floor and fit a new one to the fiberglass shell.
seeya,
Shane L.
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Post by doublechevron on May 21, 2015 22:31:43 GMT 10
Hi Guys, Wendy (woowoo) has set up a facebook page for classic caravans. Lockyer will be the administrator. Note, Classic Caravans are caravans manufactured between 1/1/70 and 31/12/79. We are not interested in managing a forum or facebook page for 1980's and onwards manufactured caravans. However, commensense must prevail. If a certain model of Caravan was manufactured in June 1979, and the same design/model ran through to March 1984, then those 1980's caravans qualify, simply because they were designed in the 1970's. Same with vintage caravans, any caravan manufactured in June 1969 and ran to March 1974, these 1970's caravans qualify as vintage caravans. I hope this is clear as mud Mark Hah.... I just realised I shouldn't have my 30year old windsor caravan on this forum 'cos it's outside the date range your allowed ............ Oh well, I guess I'm one to never follow the rules |
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Post by doublechevron on May 21, 2015 22:22:59 GMT 10
From your pics, your ply seems recoverable & in good nick generally. And its a pleasant colour. THe ply is the perfect pattern that should be used in all caravans. You see it's bright so make it seem lighter inside the caravan .... and all the heavy grain printed into it hides and moisture damage very well.... it just looks like a part of the "fake grain" in the wood seeya, Shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on May 21, 2015 15:50:52 GMT 10
Hi Shane,
Is your jockey wheel removable ? If so I have seen extra long one's a couple of places, I'm not sure how they measure jockey wheels but measure your totally open and closed and seen if you can find one that is longer. Then the handle should be well above the tow hitch and save ya knuckles 
Cheers Yeah, I removed it to dismantle it. You would need a jockey wheel housing with a couple of "nipples" on it, rather than the raised ridges around the outside of it to get them to fit. The easiest fix would be to fit a standard jockey wheel to the "A" frame. This ones placement right at the end of the drawbar means you will get less lift. I'm not fussed for the moment. I'll just modify the handle and leave it alone |
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Post by doublechevron on May 21, 2015 15:26:44 GMT 10
Mine has the original centre of the A frame removable small 6" solid wheel- with 2 welded ridges to stop sliding up the clamp. Something i am discovering the last 9 months of many sites is that i adjust the fitted height a lot, so i do not have to wind out too much. The other bonus on sloping park sites is unlike the white box neighbours with a gazillion lumps of timber off cuts to jack up i just have my wheel clamped lower. Just as important as wheel size is inflateable tyres! The skiff trailers can weight close to 2000kg and we have to push them over lumpy grass due to council issues with cars, 8" pump ups become our really good friends, if short/ single handed to move the trailer. The windsor I've just bought has some weird ass jockey wheel that is a part of the coupling. It has two "blobs" on the side of it two lock it into the coupling, and a wind in clamps to lock it into place. Somoene has already modifed the handle of it poorly (I figured out why the other night.  see how it's built into the middle of the hitch housing. It was incredibly stiff, and I found after I rebuilt it, didn't lift high enough as the handle would get trapped against the hitch coupling if you dropped the wheel through far enough to get some height. You can buy replacement plastic wheels. I pulled it apart and cleaned away all the crusted, rotten old grease, regreased it all and added a bearing into the neck of it. It now works smoothly and well. But I'll need to cut 'n' weld the handle so it's raised by several inches. That way you can drop the wheel right down into it's housing to lift the caravan higher, but not end up with the handle trapped against the hitch coupling. seeya, shane L. |
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Post by doublechevron on May 21, 2015 15:20:46 GMT 10
Caravans are very difficult to move on jockey wheels... imposible if there tandem axle. My answer is to put a heavily offset towbar on the front of the car. I just recently sold my old range rover that had an offset front towbar..... So I think I'll make a hitch receiver for the replacements towbar, that way I can just move the towbar from the back to the front to move caravans and trailers around with.
seeya,
Shane L.
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Vincent alone takes all my time!! 
Just change that Baldy!!!!!
....
). 
I took that as a "yes" to I could use it so chucked that in the back of the car too 
)
