Our Touring Past

Last weekend was the CMC Eastern Creek Classic (21 Aug.) and as usual it was a great display of a huge range of cars. For the first time in the many years I've been attending though a classic van made it's appearance, that I remember at least, a Sunliner.
The owners it turned out had spoken to us at GM Day last year when we took the Velox and Debonair and were in the process of rebuilding a fiberglass van and that they certainly have. It has an entirely new chassis and running gear and the interior has been rebuilt in modern style woodgrain. The owners are fans of '57 Chevvies and have a bumper bar and trim on the van to match the car
They are not members of either on line Forums but through Vintage Caravan Magazine they have signed up for the Nationals at Cowra in 2012 and intend to be there with the Sunliner behind their 57 Chev Station Wagon.
And all the brightwork on the van and car is really excellent, he runs a moulding repair and polishing business! George

These two Sunliner advertisements were published in the 1962-3 edition of the N.R.M.A. Camping and Caravanning Guide. Looks like a V dub could even pull the 16 footer! George

Hi George.
Sunliner ads like these are so hard to come by ( thanks for posting George ) may be that was part of their downfall, the lack of advertising their new product.
It is amazing what an ad can imply just by having something shown, the driver of the VW in the photo would have his work cut out for him towing the 16 footer.

Richard

The Sunliner Story.

In the early to mid 1950’s caravan hire businessman BR ( Bert ) Tickner was on a search in Australia to find a modern, light yet strong caravan for four that would be tough enough for the Australian roads. After a fruitless search he decided to go into the business himself, using a comparatively new material, fibreglass reinforced plastic.

In 1956 while preparing moulds and patterns for Australia’s first fully reinforced plastic caravan, a lightweight suspension unit and numerous other fittings were designed for the caravan. While all this was under way Mr Tickner purchased land in bushland on The Lakes Way, Forster to build the factory.

The four berth caravan which passed all tests with flying colours, measured 13 ft by 7 ft, was of ultra modern design and featured full wrap around moulded windows front and back and also a moulded wardrobe, sink and cupboards inside.

Estimated cost of production of the first caravan was around 30,000 pounds, with the keys to the first produced Sunliner caravan being handed over to the new owner in early February 1958. Even in these early days the Mid North Coast Moulded Products factory was the largest reinforced plastics factory in the Southern hemisphere, and were producing 2 caravans per week, with plans to produce 2 caravans per day.

The factory was later extended to cope with the growing demand, and the original staff of 20, overtime expanded to 50, although the estimate to produce 2 caravans per day was never reached.

The factory remained in operation until sometime in the early 1970’s when, partly due to the growing competiveness of the industry, production ceased and the factory closed. It was later sold to Berry Haddon and became a second hand goods store.

The factory was sold again in 1983 and sadly burnt down in November 2003.

For those that own a Sunliner caravan and are interested in the history of Sunliner Caravans, I have had a sticker made of Bert Tickners signature with his name and Mid North Coast Moulded Products name below.
Now the signature is a genuine copy of Berts signature that came from a letter with the Mid North Coast Moulded Products letterhead.
If anyone is interested in one they are $15.00 plus postage, and are made from quality sticker material.

My research on Sunliner caravans continues, and since we have had our Sunliner out over the Christmas break, it has given me a chance to take a few photos to compare with. This time Iam concentrating on the

Sunliner Super 16.

From the outside you would think that the Sunliner Super 16 model would have been made from a standard 13 ft model mould with 3 foot joined in the middle somewhere.
Which would give you room to add the horizontal kitchen window.
Well there are some more significant differences other than those two.

To start, at the front, the "brow" over the front window is much larger on the Super 16 ( pic 1 ) than that of the 13 ft model ( pic 2 )
Now to the rear, the Super 16 has a very curvaceous rear ( pic 1 ) compared to the "straight up and down rear" of the 13 ft model. ( pic 2 )
The side vent, to the rear of the kitchen window, has been moulded into the van, but has not been cut out to make it operational.
And finally as one would suspect the Super 16 has a much larger roof hatch.
Now to the inside, which on this van offers two twin beds at the rear and a dinette that folds down to another double at the front. Which out of all of the 16 ft models that I have seen seems to be the common layout for these vans.

1966 Sunliner ad.

This next bit of Sunliner information was a bit of a combined effort, with the patent information from Bob Taylor and how to apply for the patent information from Griffin. We have found the patent specification for the Improved Suspension for Caravans which was the independent suspension that was used on the early Sunliner Caravans.

The inventor of the suspension was Norman Lawence Milligan, and it is interesting to see that the application was lodged in June 1957, but the complete specification wasnt accepted till july 1959.

1968 Sunliner ad for Palmers Car Sales. Ashfield.

While at Cowra a few weeks ago I came across an original repeipt for a Sunliner purchased from the Orange Caravan Company.
Now the receipt itself is interesting but it also has a fair bit of information on it about the Sunliner that was purchased on the 25 March 1964. The Sunliner supplied had a chassis No of 6312 # 349 making it built in 1963 in December and it was the 349th Sunliner built, it also shows the rego number for that year as well.