Cargill Caravanette

Hi DanaBabes, I bought a new Cargill in 1973, factory colour then was a light blue, it had a 20 oz canvas roof on the trailer and annex with and 10 oz sides all green. The only contrasting colour was the white hub caps on the wheels.
Sorry no photos, but we had lots of fun for many years until we started into caravans.

Dana,
As far as I know "Cargills"are still in business in Perth.
They no longer make the famed caravanette but are still involved in canvas and camping gear.

They are or were located in Burswood Road (the old Gt Eastern Hwy Vic Park, not far from the Casino.

If you travel from Perth on the Gt Eastern Hwy just past the Casino and turn right just before the overhead footway that should lead into Burswood Rd. Cargills were on the left a fair way down.

Sorry if this sounds convoluted but I'm trying to describe how to get there, something I can do, no sweat, but describing how is another thing .

Hope this helps

Disco.

Wow!
Thanks for the fast responses Wayne & Bob :D

Wayne: Nice trailer! Thx for the pic and your patience in getting the link to work. I havent managed to set mine up yet. Its a case of figuring out which pole goes where on the annexe and then me running out of patience lol. I think I got an absolute bargain here, got this trailer for a little over $300 on a certain online selling place (dont know if Im allowed to say, so I wont), and was surprised to find its a camper as well as a trailer. It's unregistered, so I had it pitted to find out what needs to be done - only tyres, a plate light and reflectors...I'm a happy camper (or will be lol). BTW I tow it with a F-Fo-Ford lol.

Bob: You mention weights in ounces..is this the weight/metre of canvas? I ask because as I was driving to the pit inspection on Friday some of the stitching came apart so I removed the canvas cover and was really surprised at how heavy it is, I think at least 10 kilos (and very awkward to carry). My Cargill trailer is green (on orange on blue) and the entire canvas is green (Waynes appears to have brown canvas as well), and the wheels are white (not the hubs)..very chunky wheels.

I took photos and then went to a trimmer's in Wangara who quoted $30 to restitch the entire front and back seams. I decided to hand-stitch to save me a trip to the trimmers - I dunno if this was a wise choice yet or not.

Thx again!

DanaBabes,

Here's a photo I dug up from the archives,



That's me on the right. I think the trailer was blue from memory.

Cheers
Alan

Great photo equinox thx!

I had a bit of a mishap while driving up the highway to my first pit-inspection with the canvas cover on the trailer...stitching came apart on a seam line from side to side and it was flapping around back there like a big green bird lol. I took the canvas to a trimmers who restitched all the seams for $50 (absolute bargain in my opinion).

While I waited for the canvas to come home again I finally figured out which pole was missing and had one cut (they're thicker than the tent poles in camping shops). Silly me trying to assemble this camper in the dark - had I done it in daylight I'd have realised the poles were colour-coded (tho the paint is only just there after years of use).

So on Friday afternoon I took the trailer over to a friend's house and assembled it..it still took me just under 2hrs - tho next time it's gotta be quicker now that I know how it goes. And we slept in it all week-end. The first night was the learning curve night: remember to wear bed sox, beanie and winter woollies coz all that metal gets very cold (plus the draft skirt to the trailer which joins the annexe walls and floor wasnt supplied). brrrrr!

I went to the Caravan and Camping show in Perth this weekend and had a look at a load of campers and asked questions. They all had guy ropes to hold the upright poles of the annexe in place and even if you buy the optional walls/side screens, they still need guy ropes. I decided that I like mine better, as when the poles are connected the tension between all the joints holds up the canvas without guy ropes. Seems the oldies are the goodies. (Tho I was fascinated by a TVAN which is a modern version of the old teardrop camper trailers, but at 44k...well..)

btw equinox..I see in the photo you're busy bashing in a tent peg, it was quite windy on saturday night and tho I saw the holes in the door end of the annexe and had some pegs I decided to do without and nothing moved or collapsed during the night - did you always use the pegs whenever you took your cargill camping?