LRCC

Well Im Terje from Norway, new to the forum and new to Land Rover Classic Camper, but Im not new to Land/Range Rover which I have a couple of, at the moment too many someone mentions...We have resently drove 4600 kilometers with our Defender with roof tent and foxwing, 4 people and a dog, for almost 2 weeks from south of Norway to Lofoten...wonderful trip, splendid car!!
I bought a pretty special series 2 from 1959 with a Calthorpe Elevating Roof on, best known to fit VW camper from late 50s and forward, a couple of days ago. How and where it has been fitted I have at the moment no idea about, but I will try to figure out. Whats been told by the last owner which had it in a barn for almost 25 years, is that it is buildt for a Norwegian photographer which was in the need of windows to open on each side of the car.
The car is in very good shape in the interior and exterior, but needs a lot of tlc underside, on the brake-line and on the driveline. How to fix Im not quite shure about right now. Need to sleep on it for a couple of nights I guess.
As found

Hi Terge,

Glad you made it over here - that's a very interesting conversion!

Hope you manage to get some more pictures on here.

Cheers,
Robin.

Hei

Holder på med en Dormobile ombygging selv, velkommen.
Welcome Terje

mvh Jan/Klusenhusen

saw this on facebook looked nice when cleaned up. good luck with it

Nice, never seen or heard about this kind of camper.
Interesting layout.

Jan

The lifting roof does look similar, in principle, to the Carawagon.

It looks like the 'flexible' central panel hinges about 6"-8" (15-20cm) or so at each end, so when the roof comes down the end sections hinge out so the whole lot goes flat.
When up, the wooden side sections hinge up to fill the gap at each side.

That is very similar to the way the Carawagon roof works, though this one curves front to back whereas the Carawagon curves from one side to the other.

Also, the use of wood for the furniture and the sides of the roof does give it a warm, classic, look.

I must say though, that I do prefer the windows on this one - it makes it look very light and airy

From what I've found out about Calthorpe, they were converting vehicles before Searle (Carawagon) started, I think.
Perhaps Searle took some design tips from Calthorpe

Cheers,
Robin.

I do wonder though, why the front of the box section is squared off.

Looking at other vehicles Calthorpe converted, the box is usually more streamlined.

Perhaps they thought the top speed of a Land Rover wouldn't be fast enough to need streamlining?

Here's a 1958 VW camper with the Calthorpe conversion:

(Courtesy vwheritage.com)

And a 1961 Bedford:

(Courtesy classic-campers.co.uk)

Although, looking at those pictures, it might be that the curved section is added on to the box - you can see the joint.
Perhaps Terje's has been removed

Cheers,
Robin.

RMS wrote:Perhaps they thought the top speed of a Land Rover wouldn't be fast enough to need streamlining?

So you recon a VW splitty or a Bedford CA might be faster than a L/R !?

Have to say that window arrangement is almost beautiful from the inside, much nicer than a Carawagon (Sorry, Robin).

Ian
P.S. welcome Terje.

Dormy wrote: Have to say that window arrangement is almost beautiful from the inside, much nicer than a Carawagon (Sorry, Robin).

No problem Ian - I did say in my earlier post that I preferred these windows

Cheers,
Robin.