Any advise for a first time camp trailer buyer?

[Biggun]

Hi guys, I'm looking to buy my first camper trailer and I was wondering if anyone could give me a few pointers?

I have been looking around for a few weeks online trying to find some reviews on various makes and models without much success. From what I gather so far I'm best to stick to an established Australian made brand.

I have a budget of around 10k and I want to get a hard floor camp trailer.
Recently I have found 2 trailers that have caught my eye, a 1996 campomatic explorer and a 2005 cub supamatic. Both in good condition and just under 10k.

Does anyone have any experience with either brand/camper or could maybe suggest something else?

Cheers
Mick.

[Yorkie]

no experience with either of them but main bit of advice whatever you get make sure it has the least poles to set up for a quick stop. awnings you cannot get away from the need to have poles but those that need 50 poles just so you can sleep should be avoided.
trying to sell mine now but it is a soft floor complete campsite, pm if interested. :)

[Biggun]

Yeah that's why I'm looking at the hard floor camp trailers that just flip open and your tent pretty much pops straight out. all you need to do is set a couple of internal pols and you're done.

I think that type of tent would be best for just the me and the missus as we can even pop it open to have a sleep at a rest area during our travels when we get tired.

Mick.

[Yorkie]

check myswag classifieds, there was a hard floor listed for around what you want to pay. :cool:

[Vern]

I have the cub supamatic, whilst its not the build quality of say an Aussie swag or Kimberly, its a hell of a lot cheaper and roomier. It ticks all the boxes for us as a family. This is our 4th camper, first 3 were soft floors, which we will never own again, love the hard floor for ease of setup and pack up. We plan to sell our supamatic later this year and buy a new one, probably the brumby model this time:)

[130man]

HI , friends of mine have recently moved up from a soft floor to a hard floor, Cub Supermatic and are very pleased to have done so. It has chopped over 30 minutes of set up and dismantle time, apparently. It looks very neat and tidy. They bought a basic model and have added several extras that they already owned. Cheers, 130man.

[Biggun]

Thanks for the replies.

I like how roomy the cub supermatic looks inside but the only thing I can say about the internal layout that I don't like is having the fridge and storage boxes right at the foot of the bed as I am rather tall at 6 ft 4in and the bed in this particular one I was looking at only had a double bed in it with some storage down either side. My feet would be hanging out the end of a double and the fridge and storage box would be in the way.

Are all supermatics like this with only a double mattress?


Mick.

[Vern]

Mick, that must be the Regal, the Escape and the Drover don't have this. I have the Regal Off road, I removed the fridge and cupboard and installed a queen sized bed running long ways (6'5" tall), works for me:)

[DiscoMick]

We have a relatively simple Aussieswag Classic hardtop and love it. My advice, for what its worth includes:

Get something with a solid chassis and axles or you'll be leaving it on the side of the road one day. And LT tyres.
Ensure the canvas is top quality and doesn't leak. Set it up and then water it down to check for leaks.
Bed must be comfortable, but that doesn't have to mean a massively thick mattress.
Stove should be at least two burners and the kitchen should be stainless steel.
Need at least a 50 litre water tank.
Spare should be stowed out of the way and not stuck up on the drawbar.
Basic electrics - 12 volt battery for fridge and lights plus built in 12 volt and 240 volt chargers.

Finally, don't go crazy over-specifying the camper and driving up the price. Get the basics right and you can add stuff later.

Hope that helps.

[DiscoTDI]

HI , friends of mine have recently moved up from a soft floor to a hard floor, Cub Supermatic and are very pleased to have done so. It has chopped over 30 minutes of set up and dismantle time, apparently. It looks very neat and tidy. They bought a basic model and have added several extras that they already owned. Cheers, 130man.

Saved them 30mins on setup, I had a camel camper with a soft floor and I set it up with awning, esky out stove hooked up Kettle boiling in 18 minutes on a bad day, if I just wanted to stop for a night it would be 5 minutes at the most, I think they are about 8k new.
They must have had an absolute jigsaw puzzle if you saved 30 mins by going to a hard floor:eek:

[Vern]

Agree, I think it takes me about 5 min to set my hard floor up, beds out, awning on, kitchen out, chairs done, stubby in hand:D

[Biggun]

Agree, I think it takes me about 5 min to set my hard floor up, beds out, awning on, kitchen out, chairs done, stubby in hand:D

Exactly the sort of set up I'm after. Especially the stubby in hand part :p

[Biggun]

Just picked up a campomatic hard floor camp trailer.
Takes me about 2 Min to set up.
Can't wait to get out in it now :D

[Vern]

To early for a stubby?:D

[PhilipA]

Just picked up a campomatic hard floor camp trailer.


Congratulations.
I have had a 1997 Camp'o'matic basic "Weekender" for 7 years now and could not be happier. Apart from wearing zips and a few popped rivets it has been faultless and has endured some of the roughest roads in Australia, including the GRR and Kalumburu. Mine only weighs around 550Kgs so I don't need brakes.

A few hints. Buy some expanded nylon airflow stuff for under the bed , to eliminate having to lift the mattress to clear the inevitable condensation.

If you don't have a gas fridge a single 4.5Kg gas bottle should last about 6 weeks for stove only so a second cylinder is really redundant.

If it has ALKO parallel bearing hubs with electric brakes the bearings are Ford Falcon rears. I use marine seals on mine to ensure minimum dust and water intrusion.

I understand that from 2005 onwards they were fabricated in China and assembled in Australia. Up to 2004 they were built in Yatala by the original builder who was a fanatic for quality. Unfortunately all the records of parts used were lost so it is a bit of a hassle finding out what bits were fitted eg I have never been able to find out who made the suspension and what bushes and springs are in it. My springs are rock blasted and rusting but that should not be such a deal. I checked the bushes and they are still OK.

If you have any questions I can help with just send a PM. There is a dealer in Sydney at Silverwater who is just as much in the dark as I am re parts! LOL

Regards Philip A

[Biggun]

The model I ended up getting is the campomatic converter. From what I was told the converter was a hard top camping module that you could buy and attach it to the back of a tray top ute or a box trailer of your choice. At the time campomatic were also manufacturing heavy duty box trailers that they sold to amongst others the army and council. So what they decided to do was put one of their campomatic converters on top of one of their heavy duty box trailers and it's fantastic. The trailer itself is bomb proof fully gal dipped, independent suspension with king springs and koni adjustable shocks. It has alko electric brakes and uses land cruiser 60 series suspension bushes with parallel wheel bearing running on land cruiser rims. The best part about it though is that because the kitchen swings out from the side of the trailer where it stows above the wheel arch, it leaves the entire inside of the box trailer empty which has a swing open door on the back that opens out to the side to reveal a massive roller draw the full size of the trailer. It's also accessible from inside the tent when it's opened up too which is handy. Good thing about the whole set up is that all our gear can just live in the trailer, the only thing I need to put in the back of the disco is the 70L fridge and a bag of clothes on the back seat. Only downside to the trailer really is the weight. The trailer alone minus the converter module on top weighs in at 700kg and with the converter unit on it plus gear water etc it comes in at 1200-1300 kgs which gives the disco a workout. All in all I'm very happy with it so far and I've done a trip down the south coast plus a few weekends away and it's worked great. Looking forward to many more!

[Tank]

Hi guys, I'm looking to buy my first camper trailer and I was wondering if anyone could give me a few pointers?

I have been looking around for a few weeks online trying to find some reviews on various makes and models without much success. From what I gather so far I'm best to stick to an established Australian made brand.

I have a budget of around 10k and I want to get a hard floor camp trailer.
Recently I have found 2 trailers that have caught my eye, a 1996 campomatic explorer and a 2005 cub supamatic. Both in good condition and just under 10k.

Does anyone have any experience with either brand/camper or could maybe suggest something else?

Cheers
Mick.
Mick, here is a copy of an earlier post on a similar topic to yours, a point I would like to make, there are a heap of trailers on the market purporting to be Australian made, most of them are Chinese made and assembled here in Australia. Saying that the C/T described by me in the following post is just that, but I didn't pay $20,000+ for it, a good one like mine should not cost more than $8,000 for a Hard Floor like mine, best of luck, Regards Frank.
Copy of previous post:
I bought a brand new C/T for $5200 from a mob in Melb. they normally sell for around $7/8K it was their showroom model.
This is a Chinese built trailer and assembled here in Australia.
I figured I would have a look and see how badly they were built (Chinese that is) and was surprised to see good welding, good fittings and fully galvanised chassis, seven leaf military style springs, shocks, 10" electric brakes, water tank and pump.
Body panels were 2 layer aluminium panels with insulation between all alloy doors and cam over locks with auto type pinch rubber seals (have had no leaks of dust or water).
Large utility box on A frame with gas struts, Brand new spare rim and tyre, rock guard and Treg off road hitch, handbrake and drop down wheel.
Canvas is rip stop type and seems strong enough, camper is hard floor fold down (to rear) and has winch on drawbar to wind floor back up. Takes about 5 mins. to setup (with out annex, which comes with walls and floor), once floor is folded out you go inside and push up the centre and end poles and it's ready to sleep in, floor area has ample room to set up bunks for kids, bed is queen size and innerspring, I found this mattress to wide and heavy so replaced it with lighter and narrower dunlopillo bed.
Slide out kitchen (stainless steel) has 4 burner gas stove and sink with swivel tap and drain. Draw on drivers side has battery and charger in a slide out s/s draw, I transferred the battery and charger to utility box on drawbar, lights are LED. The quality build of this trailer is so much better than trailers I have seen (GIC for instance) costing 2 to 4 times more, I have made a few mods costing under $500 but I am still way ahead.
A friend has a C/T the same as mine, except for some better battery and charging set up and a fancy set of side decals and nice alloy wheels and he paid $26,000, so if you want Australian make sure it was actually built here and not put together here and some fancy stuff added to pad out the price, Regards Frank.
Did it again, forgot to look at the original post date, too late for advice I suppose, Regards (again) Frank.
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