Arrow Caravans.

[Richard]

Arrow Caravans.
Built by G.K. Harris.
Gympie Rd
Aspley
Queensland.

See also Clipper Caravans that were also built by G.K.Harris.

20' Arrow Supreme

1952 Arrow article.

1955 Arrow Ad.

[NAC]

Arrow Caravans are still trading today in Radley Street Virginia.
They sell Golf Caravans & will custom build. Neil

[Richard]

Hi Neil.
Thanks for that bit of info, I rang them today and had a quick chat to the son, whose father started Arrow caravans in 1953 in Gympie Rd Aspley.
Mr Harris started building caravans under his house and on the 23rd June 1953 Arrow Caravans was officially started. They stayed at that address till 1988 when they moved to their present address in Virginia.

Richard.

[Richard]

A 1954 article on the Arrow Caravan range,including the 15' Royal and the 10' 6" Airlite. Its interesting to see that they also made a caravanette.

[Richard]

A 1959 photo of an Arrow caravan fitted with a Jones' Dolly Wheel.

[Richard]

A 1959 ad for a huge 25 foot long by 8 foot wide Arrow. I wonder what the weight of this little beauty would have been ?

[donricardo]

A 1959 ad for a huge 25 foot long by 8 foot wide Arrow. I wonder what the weight of this little beauty would have been ?

Hi Richard,

Can't find the weight of the Supreme 25 footer in my records, but the narrower Arrow Royal 18 footer of the day weighed in at 22 cwt or around 2.1 tonnes, so by extension I would think you would be looking at 3+ tonnes for the Supreme...

You'd need something more than your average Holden to tow it.

Don Ricardo

[Richard]

A 1953 ad for the Luxurious Arrow.

[griffin]

Nice style vans, especially that big 25 footer.

Re-reading the previous post though I think Don Rs forgotten his old weights and measures, and that's a wonder they were drummed into our generation till you knew them backwards

He said 22cwt (hundredweight for the young ones) equated to 2.2 tonne. A metric ton is 1000kg so his converted weight of the 18 footer is 2200kg

Unless I'm mistaken there were (are) 20cwt, each of 112lbs (pounds), in an Imperial ton for a total of 2,240lb. So 22cwt is one ton, two hundredweight or 2464 lbs

Everybody following so far

The conversion to metric based on 1kg = 2.2046lbs (from an old metric conversion chart) converts 2464 lbs to 1117.66kg or 1.118 metric tonne for the weight of the 18 footer. Whew

And for those keeping an eye on the ball you will notice that 2240lbs converts to 1016kg, only 16kg more than a metric tonne so that generally for automotive stuff the Imperial ton is considered to be equal to a metric tonne, unless you were talking in hundreds or thousands or millions of tons, when all those little 16kgs add up to something

So, to quickly recalculate the 25 footer. The 18 footer works out to 1.22 cwt/ft x 25 = 30.55cwt or 3421.6lbs which converts to 1552kg or 1.52 metric tonne This might have been a bit more manageable for the time.

When you get to check this out Don R I expect at least a 10 out of 10 for my cyphering if I'm right, and if I'm not then I'm sure you will give me a big dose of 'egg on face' and I'll delete the whole business

Mind you I couldn't work this stuff out at school for exams when I had to

QED

George

[donricardo]

Hi Griffin,

Oops!

You are correct. I must have been suffering from brain fade! 1.118 tonnes is correct! Glad you checked!

Don Ricardo