From 'skilpad' to Avalon

JURGENS AND THE AUTOVILLA The story of the motorhome industry in South Africa opens in 1974, when the Jurgens Caravan factory in Kempton Park launched the Autovilla, built on a Volkswagen Kombi chassis which was specially reinforced in Germany before being shipped to SA as a chassis cab.

The Autovilla was nicknamed “skilpad” because of its rounded shape and its rather slow progress up hills.

The motorhome body on this chassis was very similar to the Jurgens caravans of the time, with the same white and grey colours outside, and a dinette/ double bed in the rear.

In 1977, the Autovilla underwent a change, with Jurgens adding an additional small double bed over the cab, called a Luton bed. The outside colours changed to all white with green striping on the side, a plastic orange insert in the waist and roofline beadings.

These vehicles had 1800cc engines, and a few had automatic gearboxes - which, because of the vehicle weight, became problematic and were discontinued.

In 1979, Volkswagen launched the all-new T3 shape Kombi, this time with a 2000cc engine. Now the motorhome bodywork became bolder and more spacious inside, and some had a small