I have just been watching a Wheeler Dealers were they rebuild a Traveller. I always assumed the wood (ash?) was fixed to a rigid rear metal bodywork - WRONG. The wood is a frame, to which the individual metal panels are fixed with self tappers, with an alloy roof panel, meeting the front roof at the rear of the cabin.
Yup - it's a load bearing frame. Which is why they didn't offer an alternative without wood - like other makers did.
Didn't realise the roof was ally, though.
Yup. In the 70's when a mate and I were buying our first houses, I was dealing with dry rot in the house while he had it in the car.
a silly bit of trivia but 60/70s Dennis fire engines were built the same way on top of a ladder chassis
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It was the traditional way of building a car body once. But an internal frame with the panels on the outside. Certainly lasted after WW2 with some
- and not surprised it lasted longer with limited production vehicles like a fire engine.
So Edna Everage's comment about "There's a half-timbered car!" really is true.
The Moggy 1000 van was the same. The front was held in place by the bolt on rear.
Yes, I saw it on a program about cars some years back. It seemed like an archaic approach but, I think, Morgan got a mention as still using wood in their cars for structural parts.
I believe a Traveller could fail its MOT if certain parts of the wood weren't sound.
While you see Morris Minors fairly often, I've not seen a Traveller in years.
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