They do cross over,,
some campers are just big enough to haul around the tent big enough for a family,,

I think with kids nothing beats a tent,,,

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Given you have kids it is far easier to setup camp and stay a while. A good quality canvas tent or off-road trailer will do the job and depending on how much you are willing to spend on a trailer, it can be setup as quickly as a tent, and in most cases, quicker. Have a look at Kimberly Kampers or Ultimate (they are the best of the best I have been told).

I rented a trailer and found that for us (young couple with a 3yr old) a tent was the better option. Also take in to account space. If it were to rain on your holiday you do not want to be cramped up in a small space for a couple of days. Kids will go berserk. My tent is 3 x 4.8m and you can get some large campers...

I found that moving from spot to spot with young ones is hard and time consuming. Time you would much rather spend with them relaxing

Let us know what you decide.....

Cheers
Caine

edit: Just had a look at Cape York off-road trailers as recommended by JC.....they look the goods. Be well worth seeing if you can hire one. You can also hire tents from Anaconda. They have the Black Wolf range which some consider to be the fastest to setup.

We have always used a tent (until recently) as we don't like towing...have seen too many accidents with people towing campers/caravans...and we travel extensively around Australia..ours is an Oz Tent.

But in saying all of that we now have a slide on camper and occasionally take the tent when we want to do more serious 4wding

Mrs ho har

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03 RED 130
78 S3 88 'zara'
78 101 FC 'herc' 30-260
63 88 GS 'bessie' 112-290
66 S2a 88 'claire'
69 S2a 109 'jack'
68 109 'charles' 172-447
60 W/shop 'dio' 111-372
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and more to be sold
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As several others have said, it depends a lot on what you want to do and where you want to go.

For a couple of decades I had a LWB Series III and we did a lot of trips including NSW to Darwin and across the Cobbler Desert with a centrepole tourist tent for my wife, two children and me. My wife and I also did a diagonal crossing of Australia from Point Hicks to Broome with the same tent which we erected and pulled down almost every day for 100 days.

That system worked well for us and the advantages of that style of tent were that there was plenty of room with a 2.7 x2.7 metre floor to stand up and even when our son was in Primary School, he could erect the tent in the time that it took me to get the stove, table, sleeping bags etc from the back of the Land Rover. In fact I had to help him with the last little bit because he could only lift the centrepole about three quarters of the way because then the weight of the walls became too much for him.

It was so quick to erect. On the way back from Darwin on another trip, my wife and I stopped in a caravan park somewhere on the Stuart Highway. We pulled up at the same time as a normal on road caravan. We had the tent erected, the sleeping bags rolled out and were enjoying a cup of tea and the caravan owner still hadn't finished getting his van level, putting his bucket under the sink overflow and whatever other jobs caravan and camper trailer owners have to do to set up.

While I am by no means as adventurous as a lot of members here, there are still a lot of places I want to go where I just could not imagine towing any sort of trailer. I would never have even contempleted a camper trailer instead of a tent.

Like the Ho Hars, my wife and I have progressed to a slide on camper. I realise that is not an option for you. However the slide on camper I have does not restrict where I can go. While I don't make a habit of it, if I need to I can still go places like the photos below. Others may be able to do it, but I would not want to take a trailer there, but I could manage it with a tent in the back.

Hiring or borrowing, as someone has already said, is a good idea before you buy. I did that with the tent and with the slide on camper. I was lucky that friends were able to lend me the items I was interested in.

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1973 Series III LWB 1983 - 2006
1998 300 Tdi Defender Trayback 2006 -
- often fitted with a Trayon slide-on camper.

I know it is considered acceptable for women to change their outfits several times a day and it is common for them to change their minds for no apparent reason, but could I ask, Fifi, have many times have you changed your Avatar? I just can't keep up.

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1973 Series III LWB 1983 - 2006
1998 300 Tdi Defender Trayback 2006 -
- often fitted with a Trayon slide-on camper.

Our Kimberley taks all of about 2 minutes to put up and about 5 minutes to pack up. It never ceased to amuse me when we were traveling how long some people take. Some of the worst are the "camper trailers" consisting of a box trailer with an eBay slide on tent. Poles and ropes everywhere
Not to say some of the cheap ones aren't good, some where excellent. As for the caravaners:
Step 1. Set up Satellite dish (or two)
Step 2. Un-hitch van
Step 3. Erect picket fence
Step 4....

And I'm not joking eiher, we did see this more than once.

Quick set up and ease of disassembly is important in a camper trailer, tent or anything actually.

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I want Fifi to post a big picture of her avatar as they appear very interesting.

Wow - pop in here after a busy day with the boys and look at all these posts. This is great! Thanks for taking the time to respond everyone.

To answer a couple of the recurring questions:

I am hoping we will be going off road ultimately, to find some of those out of the way places many of you have described in your reports within this sub-forum. But probably not really hard-core off road as would be worried we might damage the Disco I suspect.

As for how long, we would not be the kind of people who would pack up and move again after one night. Shortest stay might be 2 nights (say over the weekend - Fri/Sat/home Sunday), longest, well a week or more.

I understand it is very much a personal choice gleaned from experience, but all opinions help to prepare us to focus on the different aspects that might affect that choice.

We will probably start slowly - I have been telling my DH (Dear Husband) about some of the write-ups on Mt Barney and the eco-camping ground there where you can hire a C-T already set up. Sounds like the perfect way to start.

Then we might rent a C-T for a weekend and take it somewhere but once again a camping ground.

I didn't know you could lease tents from Anaconda - that is a bloody good idea - so we will probably try that too.

I can't see us camping out in the wilderness for a while yet (although DH is kean to do it straight away!). I need the kids and I to get used to it too and to know we can trust them to do what we ask, etc.

So thank you - each one of you has added another piece to the jigsaw and I will probably refer back to this thread time and time again. Might even list the +'s and -'s for each argument so I can get the pro's and con's straight when crunch time comes.

vnx205: I didn't know anyone was taking any notice of my avatars! Yes, I change them according to my mood. That way DH knows when to avoid me . Is that a problem here? Do you guys like things to be consistent?

Slug_Burner: A big picture? Hmm I will try and oblige but I'm not sure my technical skills will stretch that far, LOL. (Also I think they are avatar sized to start with.) You'll just have to get that magnifying glass out and better resolution on your monitor .

OK, gotta get the kids bathed and to bed - 4 1/2 hours today in the sun and water followed by another 2 hours mucking around with friends at home has completely worn them out . Catch you all later.

ETA: Just for you vnx205 I will put up my special Halloween Avatar

Not a prob fifi anytime we usually help...ignore those boys

they like to stir sometimes


Mrs ho har

__________________
03 RED 130
78 S3 88 'zara'
78 101 FC 'herc' 30-260
63 88 GS 'bessie' 112-290
66 S2a 88 'claire'
69 S2a 109 'jack'
68 109 'charles' 172-447
60 W/shop 'dio' 111-372
78 FFR 29-755
and more to be sold
REMLR 270
SLOw 6 & 7
GCLRO 71

there are so many options and so much information that you are probably more confused, so i will just tell our story

we started off with a disco and a 2 year old who is used to traveling.
dome 4 man tent and a woping big silver tarp, some extra pegs pols and rope.

the dome tent is good to set up quickly for when you pull in late sort of thing, and putting the tarp up was good if we were hanging around for a few days.

then we went to the county, we tried sleeping in that but it was easier to use the tent by the time you unload and load etc etc. but the tent was to small and you couldn't stand up so we got a proper tent 8 X 10 with anex etc. takes a bit longer to put up but is invaluable if its wet and we still have the Tarp ether tied to the tent and some trees or the county or poles. infract we have 2 tarps now, on hot days i use the other tarp to cover the tent, keeps it much cooler. but we still carry the small tent for when we pull in late and want to move out in the morning.

Long trips or when we are going to set up a base we just use a normal trailer and dump every thing in that, so much easier to pack and you end up taking so much more. so that is close to the camping trailer.

but i really like the slide on jobs, double cab with a slide on camper, bloody ideal i think.


the down side. and this is personal. with camping trailers is that they cost so much and they remove so much of the driving experience that personally i doubt the advantages are all there. Having said that, rather tow a camping trailer than a caravan.

Cave creek last month, camping trailer behind a toymotor ( we like cave creek) solar panels generator and a bloody TV blaring away until 12pm, they had more furniture than we have at home etc etc.