camperfanatic

        Celebrating 60 years of the Rootes Commer 3/4 ton FC For owners and enthusiasts of the Rootes Commer 3/4 ton light commercial, this year marks a special anniversary; 60 years since the launch. Light commercial chassis in 1960 Britain was limited to the Bedford CA, Austin-Morris 152/J2, Ford Thames, Standard Atlas, Morris J-type, and the Austin-Morris J4 (also launched in 1960). Let us not forget the iconic split-screen VW, popular not only in the UK, but around the world.The vehicle of choice, and certainly the most popular in the UK in 1960, was the Vauxhall-Bedford CA, which had been introduced in 1952, and would continue in production until 1969 (when the CF was released). As with most light commercials, the Commer was available a basic delivery van, pickup, minibus, gown van, milk float, with many other configurations made available by specialist coachbuilders, such as a camera vehicle for film and tv work, and tv detector van. My main focus of int...

Those who have followed my camper-related blogs will know about the 1964 Commer Maidstone which both me and my father owned, and the story of how my father came to own the camper three times! Well talk about history repeating itself, this really was a case of deja vu, but this times the tables were turned on me, not my father... We had purchased the Fiat camper, and were indeed getting great enjoyment from it, but as we were heavily involved in the UK classic vehicle scene, we did feel like a couple of frauds using a 1988 model when our friends were all camping in vehicles built in the 60s and 70s. By coincidence around this time, we had a letter from the owners of our old Commer Car-Camper informing us that they were going to sell it, and did we know of anyone who might be interested? By now readers, you are already one step ahead of me aren't you! Yes, of course, we took all of several minutes to decide, we wanted the lovely old blue girl back in our lives, even if it was a...

"I can't remember the last time I saw one of those" , sound familiar? It's a saying we hear often in relation to once popular vehicles, and I've said it myself on more than one occasion. Camper vans and motorhomes were produced in even smaller numbers than family cars, so the survival of examples from the 1950's and 60's is even more remarkable today. Those of a certain age will recall those light commercial vans of the 50's which were converted to campers, such as the Austin-Morris J2/152, Ford Thames 400E, Bedford CA and Standard Atlas; but what became of the thousands of examples that were produced on those base vehicles? Well, they have survived with varying degrees of success, but in the case of the Standard Atlas, I doubt more than a handful still exist, ands I have not seen one in use in the UK since the 1990's. The two pictures above, show the Dormobile camper van conversion based on the Standard Atlas van. First released in 1958, the ...