Records

[AntMan232]

Sorry to start a new thread if this has been asked before, but I couldn't see one anywhere. Did Martin Walter keep any records as to when they converted vehicles, and what was carried out? It's just I have a suspicion that my one was requested to be resprayed white, and I was intrigued to know...

[overlander]

The main man who could answer your question is PKR , the owner of BEA, which is one of the earliest MW Dormobile conversions on a Land Rover chassis, but he has not been about for over a year now. He has investigated the history of the Land Rover Dormobile and has a wealth of information on and experience of the marque. However there are other experts who may come along to answer your question. The Dormobile Club is also a source of useful information.

cheers

John H

[Jabbawocky]

As John has said, Phil did a lot of research to try and figure out how many Land Rover Dormobiles were produced. Unfortunately, all Martin Walters records have been lost, so Phil went to Gaydon and worked through all Land Rover's records to see how many were sold to Martin Walters. Martin Walters converted brand new vehicles and they sold through main dealers and caravan agents.

Martin Walters were a mass producer of Camper vans and made a batch of Bedford CA's, a batch of VW's and a batch of Land Rovers, etc. They were mainly built as standard models to be sent to dealerships to be sold. Some were built/changed to order, but this was normally only to add the toilet or swap the wardrobe for a fridge. All Station Wagons were built on the export chassis, we think because the Export SW came with the standard roof, not the tropical roof.

If you want to know what colour your truck came out of Solihull, Gaydon is probably a good place to start.

Mick

[AntMan232]

Thanks for the replies, it's a shame to hear the records have gone, as they often do. I am pretty confident it came from Solihull in marine blue, as that is the bottom layer of paint, and was then painted white. The first owner indicated something to the next owner that it had been resprayed as a special, so the thought was that it might have been carried out by Dormobile, although in light of your information, probably wasn't. I shall have a look at its chassis number at Gaydon some time, though, just to make sure!

As a side question, are export chassis technically any different to home ones, or was it just a numbering thing?

Thanks very much,

Ant

[Bea]

The main man who could answer your question is PKR , the owner of BEA, which is one of the earliest MW Dormobile conversions on a Land Rover chassis, but he has not been about for over a year now. He has investigated the history of the Land Rover Dormobile and has a wealth of information on and experience of the marque.

Ah ha I'm back ashore John, been at sea for a while but back on dry land near Thirsk now

As Mick stated I did a search of all the Series factory Records at Gaydon over a few days a few years ago and built a register of all the Land Rover that went to MW between 1958 and the end of the Series 3, I have kept the register up to date as much as possible from owners contacting me and eBay and other sales sites. I did post the results of my MW Dormobile research somewhere, possibly the Dormobile Forum but it was a while ago so I will stick it up here later.

Ant if you would like to PM your chassis number I'll let you know what is in the factory records and anything else I know about it.

Kind regards
Phil

[RMS]

Good to hear you're back Phil - we were worried you'd gone off somewhere and forgotten all about us and Dormobiles

Cheers,
Robin.

[Bea]

Thanks Robin, nicely settled out in the cuds now with plenty of Land Rover space and Bea is in regular use around the Howardian Hills and Herriot Country. Just contemplating a chassis change on 'George' over the winter!

Kind regards
Phil

[Bea]

Right, found it;

In 2007 I spent 3 days down in the Reading Room at Gaydon working with Richard to document all the Series 2 and 2A production that were despatched to Martin Walter Ltd. This was to my simple mind probably the best way to get a reasonably accurate idea of how many Dormobiles were produced. All of the records were faithfully transcribed onto an Excel Spreadsheet laid out as in the factory records and containing the same information.

Since then I have received requests to check most of the 'usual suspects' plus a few others against the spreadsheet and I maintain a few basic details as a register if an owner is happy for me to hold it, I also keep an eye on eBay etc and if a chassis number is given I take note just to keep a rough idea of how many may still be in use etc. I am not particularly rigorous about this though as I do not wish to start having to worry about data protection etc.
We were very thorough on the original data collection checking and rechecking across all chassis ledgers but as you know 99.9% of production was on Export Chassis.

As stated my aim was to trace Series 2 and 2A production but I did continue a few days later with Series 3s for the sake of completeness, I stopped looking at Feb 75 as supply to MW dried up in Jan 74, ie there were no Land Rovers of any chassis variation supplied to MW between the end of Jan 74 and Feb 75. However it is probable that there was the odd one off between that period and thereafter, I am aware of three private purchases 1 2A and 2 3s Home Market Station Wagons that were converted that way and I suspect there were a few more plus a small number of 3 door conversions.

Without further ado; from the Land Rover Factory records at Gaydon I postulate:

Series 2
RH Drive Export Chassis Petrol x 29
LH Drive Export Chassis Petrol x 2

Series 2A
RH Drive Home Chassis Petrol x 1
RH Drive Export Chassis Petrol x 264
LH Drive Export Chassis Petrol x 143
RH Drive Export Chassis Diesel x 38
LH Drive Export Chassis Diesel x 26
RH Drive Export Chassis 2.6 6 Cyl x 220
LH Drive Export Chassis 2.6 6 Cyl x 6

Series 3
RH Drive Export Chassis 2.6 6 Cyl x 89
LH Drive Export Chassis 2.6 6 Cyl x 4

So 822 Land Rover Dormobiles in total, 31 Series 2, 698 Series 2A and 93 Series 3s.

These are the Land Rovers that are documented as being despatched to Martin Walter Ltd, this is the best indication we have of Dormobile Production in the absence of the Folkestone Factory records and In the absence of the Martin Walter Factory Records this methodology is probably the only way to get a reasonable idea of production.

Kind regards
Phil

[RMS]

Wow, well done for spending so long with those records!

I wonder if we'll get a volunteer to check the records for Searle vehicles

Do you know if MW also sold 'standard' Land Rovers? I know Searle/Carawagon International sold non-Carawagons! Eg. Patrick's SWB was supplied by Searle, though it has never been a Carawagon or Safari Sleeper - just has a "Supplied by Searle" badge on the back

Cheers,
Robin.

[overlander]

My God you're back, the rumours were unfounded!! I keep getting grilled by a couple of former neighbours of yours, names unknown, who turn up at the Classic Car meets at Ripon and Ripley from time to time.. Hope you can join us 'camping it up' one weekend.

cheers

John H

One time Gay Adventurer turned Saga Lout