An agonising wait of another month ensued before I could get down there to pick it up, and the seller was fine with that before I bought it. I had intended to pick it up with the Velox, but the longer it went the more I thought that might be unwise as the weight was unknown, but it was known that it had nothing in the brake department other than a handbrake. My son in law had offered his 4 x 4 Toyota 3 litre diesel ute if I ever needed it to tow a van so I put him to the test and booked it up for early in August.
With an assortment of tools, big bits of wood, little bits of wood, screws, cable ties, jacks, 2 x 16” spare wheels, yards of rope and what seemed to be a host of odds and sods we set off for Whittlesea, Victoria. We stayed with the Good Samaritan assessors in Whittlesea, Ian and Robyn, and I hoped I’d be able to get a look at the van on the afternoon we arrived. That wasn’t to be as the seller was otherwise occupied with his business, but he would tow it to his workshop in the morning for 9.30.
At 8.30am the phone rang and the van was on site, but of course we weren’t ready and it was still 9.30 before we finally saw it in the flesh. I must say I was pleased with what I saw and Barbara even more so, she couldn’t see the need for a second van with the perfectly good Olympic showing us good times.
I paid up the balance of the deal and set about checking a few things out, tyres were good and solid despite their age (unknown) a quick jack up and the wheel bearings were fine, I secured a bit of low hanging wire underneath, checked the windows and hatches all stayed shut and then set about applying some Earls Wood Hardener to the front where some paint had flaked off and exposed some ply. Plugged in the electrics and brakes, blinker and parkers were all fine so it was just a matter of getting an unregistered vehicle permit and we were done. The van was staying put in the workshop for a couple more days while I went to see my son and some friends in Melbourne which was great, I didn’t have to leave it in the open.
The hardest part was getting the UVP from Vic. Roads, not because they make you jump through hoops, just the opposite, you can even get it on line, but because their offices are few and far between, and no one I subsequently asked could tell me where there was one. Sorted in due course and back to pick it up on the Friday morning, 5 degrees in Melbourne and pouring rain as we headed back to Whittlesea. Fortunately the rain eased off to the lightest possible mist when we picked it up and headed back to the Hume Highway.
Absolutely no traffic on the connecting roads and the Hume was quiet as we set off for Benalla to get it weighed, to satisfy my curiosity. It seemed easy to manoeuvre in the workshop, despite the small metal dolly wheel and I was hoping it might fit the old formula quoted for vans, 1ft = 1cwt, but that was soon dashed when it weighed in at 1.3tonne with 100kg on the tow ball. I wasn’t really surprised as nothing about it looks lightweight. It towed well and easily behind the Toyota and after checking the tyres a couple of times we completed the trip on cruise control travelling between 100 and 110kph with absolutely no sign of misbehaviour. I’m spoilt now for a tow vehicle now though and I’m wondering if I can graft a Velox body onto a Toyota ute.
George
That made a little more sense, I guess because there is no 240 volt inlet connection on it and just a bit of cable running up through the chassis, with no plug on it, then the seller assumed it was all just 12volt. So I quickly connected a plug to the bit of 240v cable which appears to be a 7/029 tinned wire, and good for far more amps than the van would ever need, with two core pvc with bare earth, but the outer covering is black Indian Rubber. I started an electrical apprenticeship in 1966 and never saw household cable with Indian Rubber cover!! Anyway, I was probably too hasty as I never checked the various bits of wire that are all twisted together with alligator clips for the battery, and it seems there might be a 240v one in there 
a bit of a pause then, “but I did live in one for a while when I was first married, 58 years ago, big heavy thing, belonged to my father in law, he used to take it to Bright” Well I nearly fell off the chair, what are the chances; the only paperwork in the van apart from some newspapers was tourist information sheets from Bright! We chatted for a while and she told me the van was cream with a darker stripe on the side, it had a hand pump and a radio in the cupboard and a spirit stove, a draw in the end of the table, and red/maroon cushions on the seats. Things were sounding promising, but she couldn’t remember the two port holes or much else and said they had never actually used it on a trip, just to live in for six months. 
bearing in mind back then I think vans were restricted to 45mph. The stripe on the side was originally dark brown, and it did have a water tank originally, so I’ll have to look harder for signs of where it was fitted, but I was right about the gas bottle and stove being fitted at a later stage. He wasn’t aware of the draw bar modification.