Searle Ltd (Carawagon)

R. J. Searle Ltd traded from Sunbury-on-Thames in Middlesex and was, by enthusiast accounts, principally a boatbuilding firm; the Carawagon camper conversion business ran from the 1960s until the mid 1980s. No reliable published founding date for the company has been found, and it no longer trades — this entry records what can be established from marque histories and owners' archives rather than from company records.

The Carawagon's distinguishing feature was its roof. A full-length sheet of flexible aluminium over a marine-plywood and timber structure lay almost flat when stowed, adding only a few inches to the vehicle's height, and bowed up into a tall cathedral-like arch when raised, giving around 6 ft 2 in of headroom the whole length of the body, with hinged end panels folding away inside. Interior panels, cabinets and the roof mechanism were designed and built in-house. Conversions were offered under names including Ultimate, Continental, Ulysses and Safari 88, in two- to four-berth layouts, chiefly on the 109-inch Station Wagon but also on the 88-inch and on the two-door Range Rover, as well as on ordinary vans; medical-treatment variants were built for use in developing countries. Estimates put the number of Land Rovers converted at around 2,500, though the attrition rate among expedition-used vehicles was high.

Searle's best-documented military work is the Military Carawagon: about 34 Series III 109s converted from around 1978 as tactical command and control vehicles for commanders in the British Army of the Rhine, with at least four more following in 1984. These differed from civilian Carawagons in having no roof skylights, blackout curtains in aluminium channels, a single dark-glazed side window, and a large roof rack over the cab for the camouflage nets needed to hide the Carawagon's unmistakable raised roofline. Surviving Carawagons of either kind are among the rarer and more sought-after Land Rover conversions.