Descrizione
A unique opportunity to acquire a part of caravanning history, this Eccles Model 16c 10 foot collapsible caravan was built in Stirchley, Birmingham in 1930. Yes its 93 years old! This model is the ONLY known 10ft Eccles collapsible in existence. This Model was only produced in 1929 and 1930. The Serial number of this van's body tells me this was made in 1930 and the 1283rd item they produced whereas the chassis axle is dated December 1929. It was probably made in Q1 1930 to be ready for the summer season that year.
It was owned by an RAF Squadron Leader who we believe died in 1963. It was always kept in a shed and his widow kept it until she died in 2004. It was kept unrestored by a close by neighbour and we bought it in 2010 to restore and use within our club as it was so complete and unmolested. By May 2016 it was finished after a great deal of work and cost. It is a 4 berth but realistically its okay for two. It has proved to be perfectly workable as long as we used its cloth canopy (included in this sale) and an en suite utility tent for all the extras you somehow need for weekends away.
It weighs 780Kg [0. 78 Ton] and comes with a genuine Dunlop spare 21” wheel to match the other 21" wheels. These Dunlop LP45 21" solid disc wheels are very rare indeed and it took me 7 years to find the spare. I have some left & right handed spare wheel nuts included in this sale though I have not had any troubles with them or the wheels. This original pin hitch and car coupling are included as are the wheel nut brace and hub nut spanner. It tows behind our Passat at 50 mph okay but due to not having a stabilizer that’s about the limit before wander sets in. Due to its great age I should say thats a sensible top speed. The van collapsing method is by integral chain driven by bevel gearbox and a hand crank. 82 turns raise / lower the van for use and towing. It is 6ft tall when lowered (8ft raised) so will go into a car garage which is a huge bonus for storage and preservation. The support legs are original and the cast bronze adjustment rings superb. A support leg and tipping loop timber have been replaced in oak underneath. The rear road lighting set is built-in on hinges so that you can swing them up out of the way when showing the van. The rear door step is hinged and shows the car registration number when raised. A clipped on LED number plate light plugs into a small socket behind the rear barge board. The Flickr link below will take you to over 2, 200 photographs of all the work it took to restore, it was a real labour of love carried out with care. All of the roof and cupboards had to be disassembled and made good before re-assembly. The solid oak roof components had to be re-steam shaped back to as they were and that took a LOT of careful work to do including making bespoke moulds to shape them. I have added some forged iron roof loops to the curved roof timbers to help keep their shape and are mostly unseen. ALL of the oak roof timbers are original. One topside cupboard door had to have its plywood replaced due to extensive woodworm. Its frame and edging strips were saved and used in its reconstruction. We had a retired Carpenter friend reproduce the oak side windows in old oak copying the joinery and shaping beautifully along with the sills, top rails and a frame stanchion. All of the old wood has been kept and included if you want it. ALL of the old ripple glazing is original and if removed were put back in their original positions. The original Valor 62 paraffin stove (extremely rare) was restored using a donor expensively acquired and imported from Ohio. The cupboards very rarely had quite a few original items including a set of plates, tea & dinner, cups, saucers, egg cups, kettle, containers, cruet set which are normally lost in a van of this age. It has been re- wired for 12V lighting using LEDS for low consumption and a small external battery feed. A long lead is included. The original light switch operates an LED light over the stove and the centre roof light is switched by hand on the restored light fitting. All of the window catches & stays were restored and re-plated in copper or nickel as originally done. Some brass hinge plates were re-made by myself as some of the originals were broken up long ago. We had the couches re-upholstered in two layer foam as the original hair, spring and wadding were spoilt by past damp. Please look at the Flickr photos to appreciate the quality and uniqueness of this van, Eccles were the very high quality manufacturers back in the day and it shows. I used a gallon of button polish restoring the interior solid and cupboard plywood oak finish. You won’t find another like this for sale especially one so original and unmolested. We are selling as we are both getting a bit too old to handle it these days and have another, later van to holiday in.
