Aluminium frame.

dwellem · Newbie

Aluminium frame.

Greg 1 · Guru

Most Viscounts of that era had aluminum frames and were very sturdy vans. You wouldn't believe where we took them back then.

Joda · Senior Member

I had a York with alloy frame, sometimes its written on the van somewhere, mr google can help maybe?

madaboutled · Guru

Millard used Aluminum frames in the 70's & 80's, I believe York caravans came out of the same factory also with an Aluminum frame. Windsor where mostly Timber Frames.

patrol03 · Senior Member

Yes.my old 1974 16ft Millard had an aluminium frame but the biggest downside was that often you needed to replace rivets that held the sheets to the frame after a period of time as they did work loose.In modern times there are more sophisticated glues about that more than adequately replace pop rivets.The biggest downside of the old Millards was their Chassis construction..75mm X35mm with flat welded sporadically along the length to form the box section. Over time and usage stress fractures would begin to appear in the product between the spring hangers and just behind the rear hanger where breaks were frequent. After 35 years I had to build a complete new chassis for mine ,but used 100 X 50..Springs were also a problem.Very narrow and certainly not forgiving.There is more thought put into modern vans.

dwellem · Newbie

Thanks for the information so far,anyone else with comments.

Hylife · Guru

Had a 78 millard with an aluminium frame. 18'x8'. Tared at 1100kg.
Did approx. 40,000km towing that thing with a late 80s Mitsubishi Lancer 1.5 hatchback.
Can't do that now of course, but back then you could tow up to one and a half times the cars GVM.
The Lancer weighed 1500kg so other than being a little under powered with a head wind, it towed it just fine.
Of course, back then you could only tow at a maximum speed of 80kph regardless of vehicle, once your trailer was over 500kg in weight, except for Vic and NT.
Suspension on those old vans was sh!t though so they all wagged. It is why the truckies of the day coined the term 'wobblies' for us caravanners.