The first is a 1958 Station Wagon that has been prepared in a 1950’s holiday car theme (an early version of the famous Kingswood Vacationer wagon maybe?), and is the period tow car for “Joker II”.

It is been prepared specifically to tow “Joker II”, a caravan weighing 1060 kgs.

With “Joker II” being a larger old caravan, and my preference for GMH cars, my first choice for a tow car was a Chev, preferably a 1957 “green & cream” one, but 57 Chevs are extremely expensive, so I decided to prepare the Holden for the job, and the total cost was about a third of the cost of a Chev.

Towing modifications include a three core radiator, level ride “helper” springs manufactured by “Lovell Springs” to the original specification, vacuum brake fittings to operate the caravan’s vacuum brakes (applied by an original steering column lever), a towbar with stabiliser bar fittings, a heavy duty clutch plate and two genuine NASCO extension towing mirrors.

The engine is a red motor coupled to the original three-speed gearbox.
The old Holden “grey” motor would have sufficient torque to tow a caravan the size of “Joker II’, and indeed many a grey motor did tow full size caravans back in the fifties & sixties. But in those days, the accepted speed for cruising with a caravan was about 40 mph (65 kmh).
On roads of the day, travelling any faster with a caravan in tow would have been outright dangerous, and most engines wouldn’t have been capable of towing a caravan much faster anyway.

The FC cruises comfortably at 90 to 95 kmh with “Joker II” in tow, and slows to about 70 kmh on steep grades. I can enjoy my vintage caravanning cruising to & from destinations at a reasonable speed, and in safety.

Holiday accessories include a water bag, bug screen across the grille (an original FC accessory), wire headlight covers and a period spotlight.

The car has many other accessories including spats to compliment the spats on the caravan.

The car towing the old caravan has proved to be an excellent package. I use a simple modern stabiliser bar arrangement consisting of a couple of torsion bars & chains, consequently the caravan sits behind the car without any swaying effect.
A complex stabiliser arrangement engineered by the caravan’s previous owner, Arthur Pullin in the 1950’s, using a car leaf spring and other bits & pieces came with the caravan, but to date I have not adopted this system.

The caravan’s vacuum brakes are so effective they can be relied on to stop the whole show, without the need to use the car’s brakes!

HD
The HD was recently purchased from the original owner and has clocked a little over 100,000 miles.

It was purchased from the house where it was garaged when brand new and came with its original 149 engine, logbook, purchase receipt and a NASCO accessory brochure. Do they come any more original than that?

48-215
This car I purchased from Castlemaine in Victoria in 2002. It is a June 1949 model which underwent restoration in the mid eighties.
I am very familiar with the early 48 series Holden after owning the car with body No 316 (as featured in Don Loffler’s book “She’s a Beauty”) for 18 years.

The colour is Convoy Grey, one of the only four colours available in the early Holdens.
The car retains many of its early features including the rear door locks, knee action rear shock absorbers, original style diff and 6 volt power.

It has a few early accessories including a tow bar and a rare amps gauge that incorporates the temp & oil ‘monkey’ lights, and fits in the dash in place of the oil, temp & amp lights.

It has an interesting old 6-volt aftermarket radio made by “Kingsley”. The radio stations on the dial are Victorian only. It has white bakelite knobs that match the dash knobs, one being the on-off switch and the other is the volume control. What is definitely different is the tone control knob which is mounted separate to the radio on the lower part of the dash. I have never seen this arrangement before.