Sunliner Caravans.

[Richard]

Another 1968 ad for Palmers Car Sales.

[Richard]

A 1962 Sunliner caravans ad featuring the NEW Economy Release, Sunliner Thriftmaster.

[Richard]

As of yet I have not been able to work out the relationship of the Australian Sunliner caravan and the New Zealand Concord caravan. The body styles are far too similar not to have come out of one of Bert Tickners moulds, as the photo shows below.

I have found the history of the New Zealand Concord caravans which are still in production, which states that the moulds were built by Rudy Mueller.


The History of Concord Caravans.

The original Concord Caravan shape was made by Rudy Mueller at his home factory in Tauranga in one 13 foot size only. Rudy sold the shells to K. F Atkins Ltd who made the chassis in Hastings and would take three chassis at a time to Tauranga on a truck and then attach each chassis to a shell and tow them back to the factory in Hastings where they were then fitted out. In these early stages K.F Atkins was producing one caravan a week.
In 1969 Keith and his brother Colin decided to approach Rudy Mueller with an offer to buy his Fibreglass business and caravans and that year Atkins Fibreglass Ltd was created and began making 13 foot and 16 foot shells from the moulds.

The Caravans low weight and aerodynamic rounded shape made them phenomenally easy to tow and as the vans are constructed in a full one piece fibreglass body this made them leak proof which was a well highlighted selling point of these Caravans.

In 1974 Production slowed as the brothers made plans to go their separate ways. Colin focused on the manufacturing of boats and commercial fibreglass components and also took ownership of the caravan moulds and in 1976 formed Concord Fibreglass Company in his own factory in Omahu Road Hastings.

Colin started production of the Concord Caravans up again producing up to four a week, each van with the same basic fibreglass shell but internal layouts and finishes were tailored to individual customer’s requirements. The Late 1970’s saw demand decline and the Concord Caravan become a made to order product. The introduction of the sales tax in 1979 saw the 3 outstanding orders cancelled overnight.

Concord Fibreglass Company continued with work in other fields, boat building, fibreglass component manufacturing and fibreglass repairs and in 2002 after a battle with cancer sadly Colin Atkins passed away.
Today Concord Fibreglass Ltd is still operating under ownership of Philip Atkins, Donna Dinan (Colin’s children) and Brent Butterworth a faithful staff member who has been with Concord Fibreglass for over 26 years.

In 2010 while cleaning up the yard out the back of the factory Philip and his wife Carolynne decided to put the old caravan moulds back into use; the moulds were moved inside the factory for refurbishment and the redevelopment of the Concord Caravan got underway.

The whole process has been very much a family affair with Philip redesigning the chassis to fill all the requirements of the 21st century, son Ben Atkins building the basic chassis unit at his work place. Carolynne took on the interior designing, ordering of components and overseeing the build of the new prototype, a very much hands on job with a lot of time spent sourcing the latest products from new windows, light weight wood for the build of the interior cabinetry right through to upholstery. 2011 saw daughter Lisa Atkins join the family in the return of the Concord project offering support to Carolynne with the final touches, marketing and getting ready to head to the company’s first display show in Auckland.

The family is very proud of the new range we thank those who have help along the way.

Thank you to the passionate owners of earlier Concords who have shared their stories, memories and photos with us we hope that many more people will get to experience the joy of holidaying in a concord.



There are two theories of how the Concord caravan came about.

The first one is that Bert Tickner sold one of the outdated moulds to Rudy Mueller, like he did with the Gracemur and Skyline moulds, and it was shipped to New Zealand and used in the production of the first caravans.

The second one is that a Sunliner caravan was exported from Australia to New Zealand and Rudy Mueller used this caravan to construct the external and internal moulds which were then used in the production of the Concords. One thing the information above doesnt mention is when Rudy went into production with the Concord caravans, and it would be hard to believe that it was before the first Sunliners were produced.

There is one caravan that Bert Tickner didnt produce but I am sure he would have liked to come up with the idea and that is of a fibreglass Concord slide on camper, as shown below.

[griffin]

Spotted this quite attractive (with a polish) Sunliner on the northern outskirts of Scone recently. I didn't see it travelling north, but it is in plain view when travelling south, so dare say it's wanted.

George

[donricardo]

G'day Richard,

I have been staring at photos of two Sunliners shown higher up this thread. I have copied them below to allow comparison.

Both of them have the 1963+ body, but when I study them there seems to be a bit of a difference between the two in terms of the shape of the front window area. The recess for the front windows on the first van seems to be deeper than in the second, and the brow over the windows on the first van seems to be both deeper and wider than on the second. As a result, the windows on the first van seem to be more deeply recessed than on the second. What do you think?

If I'm right, does that suggest that Sunliner made some further modifications to the 1963+ body somewhere along the way? Perhaps it's an optical illusion, but it does seem to me that there is a difference, albeit not great. I am interested in your thoughts.

Here are the two vans I've been looking at:

[Richard]

Hi Don
Sorry I forgot to reply to your post.
To tell the truth I havnt noticed a difference before, but that doesnt mean there isnt one. It is a bit hard to tell from those two photos with a slightly different angle on them. The only real difference that I could see is that the first one (Daves van) looks as though it has a strip of timber over the top of each of the front windows, which could give the illusion of being more recessed. But I cant say for definate so we will have to look into it further on one of the next vintage vanners outings.

[Richard]

I have been in contact with Geoff and Chris over the last couple of weeks who just happen to own a Sunliner. Now this Sunliner isnt just your everyday run of the mill Sunliners for a couple of Reasons.
Firstly the van has been in the one family since new, as it was purchased new in the early 1960's by Chris's parents who used the van extensively including an around Australia trip. The van was then given to Chris and Geoff who have also used the van well.

The two photos above show what looks to be a fairly standard looking 1960 or 2nd model Sunliner. But on closer inspection of the draw bar the top bar of the space frame chassis is a 20 mm x 20 mm square section. Now this doesnt sound very interesting but this is the first Sunliner that I have seen with a top square section as this was a distinguishing feature of the Bundaburg built Gracemur Caravans. It is also a coincidence as I was only talking with Bob Taylor about a month ago and he mentioned he had seen a Sunliner with this type of chassis. So it looks as though my Sunliner / Gracemur chassis identification is now "out the window".

[Richard]

I have been searching for this photo for ages as it is the van that started the caravanning obsession with me. The photo was taken around March 1968 and thats me in Mums arms, with the Sunliner that Mum and Dad hired from a company from Thirroul, Mum and Dad eventually purchased their own van and several more over the years.

[boblor]

I note the Scone (green van)has different windows fitted.
Cheers boblor

[Hughdeany]

Yes,the green Sunliner has wind out Windows,must have been fitted later?
hughdeany