Budget Camper Trailer - What to do?

I just ordered a Pinnacle off road camper should be delivered friday , They are made in Balarat in vic Seems the goods and a good price to match :cool:

For what its worth i had a good look at the Market Direct Campers at the shooting and outdoor show last weekend. For $4999 you get a semi offroad trailer with 18 foot tent essentially the same as the GIC except a thousand bucks cheaper with the 'extras' GIC lists included as standard ie. kitchen, water tank and double tool box at the front. A couple of weak points i observed were the bolt on A frame of the trailer. It is also welded but i would take it down and get more welding done. The water tank is held in with tec screws and i would reinforce this with a metal guard to provide some additional support and safety.
Other than that they were not too bad. The plastic ends on the spreader bars would probably break over time but they are easily replaced.
I am strongly considering buying one.
Very similar to the 18ft GIC but cheaper and local in Brissy its definately an import job but then you get what you pay for.

http://www.marketdirectcampertrailer...d=9&Itemid=122

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Originally Posted by rangieman

I just ordered a Pinnacle off road camper should be delivered friday , They are made in Balarat in vic Seems the goods and a good price to match :cool:

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Those CTs look pretty good, but out of my price range unfortunately.

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Originally Posted by Mick-Kelly

... its definately an import job but then you get what you pay for.

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Too true. I might sound like my father in-law, but I prefer to buy local where possible, and if that means I have to spend a little extra to support local business & potentially get better quality, it's worth it.

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To recap, we like the Mad Camper 12 for the tent mostly, but were unsure about the trailers. GIC seemed to be the next best thing, with similar prices; not too happy with the tent, but pleased with the trailer. Similar story for Castle Campers.

Anyways, Mad About Campers got back to me with some info on their trailers:

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We would be happy to mount a Camper 12 onto an off road trailer for you at $6250 +$350 for S/R floor. Total price $6600.

Economy Trailers at Goodna make our trailers. They have been making trailers for over 30 years and stand by their product. Our trailers come with a free
12 month warranty as do our Oz Trail tops.

Attached are photos of our off road trailer with a camper 12 deluxe (same
size) mounted. We have since redone our company stickers so please disregard the ones on the photos as we no longer do them so big or on the front as seen.

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Economy Trailers (I'm pretty sure its the "big foot" trailer):Box Trailers by Economy Trailers of Quee

I think this looks pretty good for the price. Both tent & trailer have 12 month warranty and the trailer makers and CT guys are local (relatively). It's a bit over what i wanted to spend, but I think it's worth it. It also means I can have another look at the the CT before ordering, pick it up personally when ready, & inspect the goods should anything be out of place.

How important is a off road hitch? (using it for light/medium off road work)

In reality there is not much point spending the extra to buy a serious off road hitch if your not going to get a serious off road trailer. It just might tempt you into thinking you can take it safely to places that you may end up regretting.

cheers,
Terry

with the economy trailers or for any camper trailer in fact is make sure you have a long draw bar. you might not think it of great importance BUT from one who has backed a short draw bar and a long draw bar it is by far the easiest to reverse and IMHO more stable going forward.
granted the (dog) trailers i was towing could take a loaded 20ft container :o but the principal is the same.
the long draw bar comes in handy as well to locate tool boxex and spare tyres on

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Originally Posted by TerryO

In reality there is not much point spending the extra to buy a serious off road hitch if your not going to get a serious off road trailer. It just might tempt you into thinking you can take it safely to places that you may end up regretting.

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Please forgive my naivete, but as I understand it, two of the major aspects restricting off road travel with a trailer are clearance (incl. approach/departure angle) and articulation. If I can improve that articulation, aren't I improving the trailer's off road ability?

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Originally Posted by funkyfedaykin

Please forgive my naivete, but as I understand it, two of the major aspects restricting off road travel with a trailer are clearance (incl. approach/departure angle) and articulation. If I can improve that articulation, aren't I improving the trailer's off road ability?

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Yes you are, I'd go the offroad hitch, there are a lot of places that you would be better off with it and these places are not that hard to get too.

Erosion humps are one of the obsticals that your better off tackling with an offroad hitch.

In reality unless your tackling roads like the Gunbarrel, gibb River, the Cape and roads like this, a light offroad trailer will be fine, it's thousands of Ks of corrigations and rough rutted and potholed hard to negosiate tracks that kill trailers, your average venture offroad now and again will not.

I have a designated heavy duty offroad camper, because we do a lot of long outback trips on roads that punish the car and the trailer, this is the only reason we have the trailer we have.

Baz.

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Originally Posted by funkyfedaykin

My wife & I have been looking around, weighing up the options for camping and buying trailers for home use. Basically, we came to the agreement that by the time you buy a nice tent, and a reasonably sized box trailer, you may as well combine the two to get a camper trailer. It's also easier to set up, more comfortable etc.

With that in mind, we headed off to the Toowoomba Outdoor Adventure & Motoring Expo. After we were shocked at the prices of the campers near the front gate, we were relieved to find some better priced campers down the back. There were basically 3 companies with off road products more suited to our price range and preferences. After much thought we came to the following conclusions, and yes, they are in preference order:

1. Mad camper 12 (madaboutcampers)
These guys looked to be the most quality of the lower end trailers, and therefore are more exy than other options. They use brand name (Oz trail) tents (for whom they were full of praise), that look much better from the outset, quick to set up and are also a bit taller (I'm 6'5"). The trailers look pretty sturdy, come with new wheels, and the tent easy to remove for other trailer uses. The downsides included the need to buy the annexe floor separately, no kitchenette/toolbox/water tank incl., and no good show deals. They do include a foam matress & gas struts, as well as offer 3 month lay-by.

2. GIC 12 Ft camper with Off road or Semi off road trailer (giccampertrailers)
GIC looked reasonable. The trailers especially look pretty good quality, sturdy & nice looking. The trailer even had a spot where you can attach bike racks (tongue & pin style) that also doubles as a recovery point. The quality didn't follow through to the tent though. What we saw on the ground and in pictures is a short, somewhat saggy tent that looked a little on the flimsy side, but on paper still sounded quality. While there was no mattress, the show special meant the extras (tool box/water tank/kitchenette/gas struts) would be thrown in for a song, plus you can lock in the price for 6 months with no obligation. It's a little more complicated to remove the tent off the top, with riveted piano hinge that you would need to have all the rivets replaced with screws. Still means you have lots more screws to remove than the other campers. If you want to get the off road trailer & the extras, you'd be looking at the same price as the Mad camper 12. 18 ft camper tent looks way to complicated and time consuming to set up.

3. Market Direct Campers - off road model (12' Tent I assume)
(Market Direct - Importers Wholesalers Retailers Brisbane)
Dodgy & cheap. Sums up these guys pretty well. While it seemed that MDC had the best bang for your buck, it also looked like it would blow over at the first sign of wind (or at least cave in the roof). The show specials seemed to good to be true (almost 50% of i think), and the only extra was a kitchenette. We didn't stick around long enough to really evaluate much more, but i can tell you there was no mattress included & both trailer & tent didn't look like they'd last long. A quick look at their website shows no information on camper trailers, and reinforces the likelihood that it's all imported from the cheapest manufacturer.

While this thread is a little old, it confirmed my views on the options 2 & 3: http://www.aulro.com/afvb/camping-tu...k-these-2.html

All of the above trailers had holding spots for gas bottles and jerry cans, spots for tool boxes and i think they all had a spare. All the trailers had a member across the top of the gate at the rear, which would restrict loading. I think i would cut that and put it screwed brackets to hold it so it can be removed with the tent. I'd probably add a little strengthening on the outside at the back to compensate for any forces that would normally be applied on the member.

With all this in mind, i was just wondering what your thoughts were, and if you had other suggestions for sourcing a budget camper trailer in South East Qld?

(p.s. second hand campers start in a similar price range to those mentioned above)

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You could consider a Roof Top tent.. The 2m ones huge..

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Originally Posted by juddy

You could consider a Roof Top tent.. The 2m ones huge..

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See:

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Originally Posted by funkyfedaykin

At the moment the tent is for two, but we're buying in anticipation of a few children to come, or camping with mates. So lets say 2-8.

Camper trailer is better suited to us because,

A ) we can lend it to friends/family with ease.
B ) will often be setting up a "base" for a few days, but can still be rolled out relatively quickly for overnight stops. (leaving annex folded over top of tent)
C ) can't fit 8 in a roof top :D

I had imagined taking a leisurely 2 day trip to a camping location, set up base for a few days running around in the car (sight seeing, 4x4 action), and then maybe 2 day trip home. so this calls for relative ease for 1 night set up & also ability to live in for a couple days.

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Originally Posted by funkyfedaykin

Please forgive my naivete, but as I understand it, two of the major aspects restricting off road travel with a trailer are clearance (incl. approach/departure angle) and articulation. If I can improve that articulation, aren't I improving the trailer's off road ability?

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As Barry has said yes you are improving the camper for off road use if you fit a decent hitch. My advice for what it is worth is first off figure out extactly what you really are going to use it for rather then what kind of camping you expect you are going to do and then decide what is the best camper to buy based on that.

I know there are lots of these new often cheap camper tents that are massive things and they look attractive at first glance because of the large amount of room, but there is a down side to them in how hard they usually are to set up and then what is usually much worse, which is, then having to pack them up. A camper that is easy to set up and then pack away is worth its wait in gold.

Unfortunately most people end up buying the wrong camping set up first up and then end up needing to sell up and start again, I know plenty of people who have done this myself included.

Good luck with what ever set up you end up getting.

cheers,
Terry