Norman Wilkinson-Cox was the proprietor of Service Garage in Ravenscourt
Park, West London. Like many of the pioneer caravan constructors
he started out by building an outfit for his own use. The idea
of a self-propelled house-on-wheels for free and easy touring,
faster too than a horse-drawn rig, appealed and with his motor
engineering background he had all the necessary knowledge and
skills.
Although Ford’s ‘Tonner’ with its extendedwheelbase
and greater load capacity was available, and would have been a
more suitable basis for a motor caravan, Mr Wilkinson-Cox chose
to use a Model-T 12 cwt van chassis for his creation. Probably
the chassis was secondhand and our picture shows that the standard
artillery-style rear wheels with pneumatics had been replaced
by disc wheels with solid tyres. Maybe there were other alterations
to help the rear axle cope with the weight of the caravan body.
For example, from the extensive list of proprietary ‘improvements
advertised for the ‘T’ he might have picked the ‘Truss
Rod’ marketed by S Smith & Sons to beef up the rear end.
The Ford ‘T’ van shared the same mechanical specification
as the car. Its wheelbase was 100 inches (against 126in. for the
Tonner). The 2.9-litre side-valve engine, with bore and stroke
of 95mm by 101.5mm, developed just 20 bhp at 1600 rpm but a more
useful looking maximum torque of 80 lb.f.ft. at 850 rpm. Drive
was via a two-speeds-and-reverse epicyclic gearbox operated by
foot pedals and bevel gear rear differential. The overall gearing
gave 11mph on low ratio and 24 mph per 1000 rpm on high. For normal
braking use a pedal operated transmission brake was employed,
this being supplemented by lever operated drum brakes on the rear
wheels only in case of “emergencies’.
The ‘Raven’ motor caravan first took to the road in
1923, when, according to a feature on ‘Raven History’
in ‘The Caravan’ in March 1936, Mr and Mrs Wilkinson-Cox
had many enjoyable weekends in it. The ’van was also let
out on hire at £10 per week but this proved to be less than
rewarding for it often came back damaged. Trailer caravans, concluded
Norman Wilkinson-Cox, would be a better bet and his company went
on to become one of the leading, and innovative, producers. They
were among the early exponents of streamlining and in the mid-1930s
introduced vacuum-servo brakes and improvements such as effective
insulation and heating systems and mains electric’s to give
the caravan not just a warm-seasons role but the make it viable
all year round. In 1947 the control of the company passed to Bruno
Jablonski. |
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