Budget Camper Trailer - What to do?

Hi! from a fellow Toowoombarian.

It's obviously very horses for courses, and I have to confess to not making the show and not seeing the campers you asked about.

I would suggest trying a few different styles of campers before jumping in the deep end. There are a few local hire places plus you can borrow people's campers if you ask nicely :)

My parents had a standard flip-over-fold-out camper and I think they are a good substitute for the canvas 12-man freestanding tent with tarp-covered kitchen. What they aren't is quick to set up or pull down.

I have a modified Chesney Kampa (from 1974) which has been fine for us but is a little more work then newer wind-up campers. The advantage of the wind-up, beds-out-the-end campers is that everything can be ready to use with only a few minutes of setup and packdown. I think my parents had concern about the rock-and-roll potential of the beds out the ends. Just make sure the stabilisers are down and you'll be fine.

A good, cheap, option was how Dad got their camper: he separately commissioned the trailer and the tent from different firms. That way he got the price/feature balance he wanted not someone else's compromise. The tent was custom-made for the trailer.

But I do think that second hand can be very good value as few people give hard use to their camper.

i'm with IVAN i have a semi off road CASTLE CAMPER, mine was a shade over $8k enough room in the main tent for 4-6 people and then there is the annex that comes with it that is as wide and long as the main tent (with floor) plus you can buy an extra room for the back.
mine has the water tank, full kitchen (on tailgate) with paper towel holder and dish drainer, gas bottle holder, jerry can holder, choice of 2 sizes of tool box on the front drawbar which is a long bar for ease of reversing (i used to drive truck with dog trailers behind and this is a great feature and there is still room to put stuff on the trailer like an on board battery (i'm looking into this myself)
they are based in cleveland
have a look on the web site castlecampers.com.au

The most important things on an offroad camper are the axle, springs, ans spring hanger and shackles, the drawer bar and hitch, these must be heavy duty.

Minimum offroad set up;

Drawer bar must be 75mm X 50mm, chassis 50mm X 50mm

Springs must be 7 leaf offroad rebound, heavy duty spring hangers and shackles EYE TO EYE set up

45mm square offroad axle, Ford heavy duty bearings.

Override brakes.

My 2 cents

My offroad camper came standard with this set up above (except my drawer bar is 100mm X 50mm) it took 6yrs of continueous offroad and outback travel before I had to replace the leaf springs, it is now fitted with 9 leaf rebound offroad springs, I have only replaced the bearings once in 6 1/2yrs.

Unfortunately most (not all) so called off road campers offered for sale new in Australia today are junk.

What's worse is often now local manufacturers who used to build high quality units have had to meet the market price wise and lower their standards so as to compete against the imported junk or go bust.

Most of the new imported campers look nice and in theory have all the good gear but wouldn't make it across a well used football pitch let alone through the outback.

cheers,
Terry

Our approach to camping trips is a little different, being budget aware, and we bought the smallest Oztrail camper trailer tent and bolted it to our 6X4 box trailer and went to Cape York last year and then down south in comfort with absolutely no problems.

The same outfit is sold by Kangaroo Products - Trailers, Camper Trailers, Box Trailers, Cooking Trailers, Off Road Camper Trailers, On Road Camper Trailers
at what seems to be a somewhat inflated price.

It's waterproof, it keeps the flies & mossies out, it has a floor....but it doesn't have a masterchef kitchen :o, or a sink or battery system, although you could easily add electrics if you wanted to. There is all the trailer space under the tent available either via the trailer end-gates or a hatch built-in to the camper floor.

It is imported from China, it is lighter weight fabric, but it is cheap and does appear so far that it will do us for longer trips into the foreseeable future - we remove it and store it out of the weather when it is not being used for camping - and then our trailer is available to be used for the usual trailer purposes.

I'll worry about a replacement when and if the sun and rain cause the fabric to die but if there's only $1k tied up in it there really is no worry I reckon.

Cheap unbraked trailer rego as well :D (less wear & tear and better economy than a full size job too)

May I add much of what was said before, cheap is exactly that.
I looked at plenty before I bought mine 2nd hand.
I bought a true off road camper with a army canvas and is brilliant.
I used a few times and since its not new, never was worried about wear and tear.
Also, when camping and having fires, the smell will quickly make a new camper smell 10 years old.

Depending where you are, its often cheaper to hire one than its to buy and have it sit for most of the year for that easter holiday.

Also, try Sar Major, they are Ozzie made and very tough quality. ;)

Here's the importer's site

OZTRAIL LEISURE PRODUCTS - Online Catalog

At the end of the day you get what you pay for. The GIC campers had some well publicised problems such as shoddy welds and fit and finish at first which have been largely rectified over time. They are cheap but they seem to do the job and i have read a lot of positive reviews of them. The footage i have seen has them on some pretty hairy tracks without going bang either. They use decent trailers with decent suspension and i love their 18ft tent layout. Its the sort of thing that the owner can customise to suit them over time.
If i get a camper i will be going down that track so that i have something decent for less than $5000. Sure i would love a top shelf model but i think its bloody silly to spend $50,000 on a camper. If you are that crazy just get a caravan.

http://giccampertrailers.com.au/ulti...t-camper-tent/

http://giccampertrailers.com.au/semi...amper-trailer/

A couple of thoughts for your situation. Start with something cheap & second hand. We got ours (5 x 7 full gal trailer + real canvas tent & annex) from the trading post under $3k. No kitchen and strictly light off road but as a starting point it is great. We are trying to get out as much as possible in it to learn the things we like & don't like and will probably ugrade in future. At this price though we will not lose money when we sell.

I had similiar thoughts about using the campers box trailer for dump runs etc when you start thinking about scratching up the gal/poweder coat and putting dirt and other crap where you store your clothes/food etc.... well I find our trailer is now very good storage for all the camping gear instead:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DiscoCam

I had similiar thoughts about using the campers box trailer for dump runs etc when you start thinking about scratching up the gal/poweder coat and putting dirt and other crap where you store your clothes/food etc.... well I find our trailer is now very good storage for all the camping gear instead:)

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I totally agree with these comments.

cheers,
Terry