Drifta Off Road Camper Trailer

**Tank** · 12th December 2014, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by Yorkie

Is that the *** model?

???, Regards Frank.

**Tank** · 12th December 2014, 02:30 PM

No it isn't a *** model wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.
I just finished typing for nearly an hour a description of the pros and cons of my C/T and the mods I made to it to make it more user friendly.
When I hit the Submit button a warning saying because of a security problem my post could not be loaded, well I was a bit more than ****ed off, I'd rather poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick than have this happen, not the first time though, but this time it was different whoever it is out there in the ether that gathers all this info sent the message saying what supposedly happened.
Anyway if anyone wants the info that just disappeared into outer space/Mongolia or down the street, PM me, Regards Frank.

**Fluids** · 17th December 2014, 09:00 PM

If you have any questions about the Drifta offering I can ask my son for you as he works at Drifta.

Send me a PM

Luke has AFAIK all the info you should need up on the web site.

Cheers

Sent from my iPhone using two tin cans and a length of twine

stewie110 · 16th November 2015, 07:52 AM

Originally Posted by jimb

Hey AULRO'ers

Anyone had a look at the Drifta Touring Trailer?

My family currently use a tent etc but must admit the whole unpacking the entire car on trips is starting to wear me down. I put an extra two seats in the rear of the Defender and just means heaps of stuff on roof rack.

I was really loving the look of the smallish trailers like Daniel is selling from Mission, price wise it isn't apples & apples because Mission includes basically everything including the fridge- but even then a fair bit cheaper. Also, $25 k is a truck load of money ( for me anyway).

The overall length of the trailer. How important is this? 90% of the time I'll use it fairly tame stuff like Fraser, Moerton but I do want to do Cape York this coming year and hopefully a big trip for 4 months in 3 years time (exact route is up for debate!)
So basically my reluctance in a camper trailer is I don't want to think- gee wish I could get up that creek or that crossing but this camper trailer I'm hauling will prevent those possible excitement trails.

I have read heaps of your comments and would appreciate your thoughts on
- what length and off road capabilities does an off road trailer need?

Probably cannot purchase for a whole and think I'm dreaming if I get it before the Cape in 2015, but with all purchases the hours of dreaming and thinking is part of the journey.

Thanks
Jim

I have been looking at various camper trailers recently and have decided on the DOT trailer for the following reasons.

1. It's very simple in design and manufacture. That to me is a major win because it's more likely to be easily fixable in the sticks if something does break. That is not to say that the design lacks any functionality that we feel we need. They have a number of nice features that really work well in the Australian bush.
- The bench space behind the "canopy" which is gives a nice place to work if you need to do something mechanical away from the dusy of the ground.
- They changed the wheels and stud pattern to suit the defender so we do not have to carry a crazy number of spares. This actually saved us $200 off the trailer price (1 steel wheels and 2 land rover stud pattern). Other vendors we looked at either would not do this or it was a crazy expensive option.
- It has electrical pumps and mechanical hand pumps for the water. That gives me a good feeling having had pumps fail in the past having the option to always get to the water was a major win.
- You can do anything you want custom. We have put additional storage space to suit the family size etc which is not something that was possible on some of the other trailers that we saw.
- The kitchen is very modular and can be easily changed.
2. Australian made and manufactured, I will pay a (small) premium to keep manufacturing in Australia. I know that puts me at odds with many people but I feel very strongly about this point. It's particularly important for me to support rural manufacutring in Australia.

For interest sake after spending considerable time looking at the various options (about 3-4months and inspecting at least 20 different models all up and down the east coast). In the end our selection came down to the mission and the drifta dot 6.

**Cammo** · 26th November 2015, 11:37 AM

Stewie,

Where's all the pics?

**debruiser** · 26th November 2015, 12:42 PM

stewie110 · 26th November 2015, 03:33 PM

Originally Posted by Cammo

Stewie,

Where's all the pics?

PIC's and a full review will come after a few months of usage.

stewie110 · 14th March 2016, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by debruiser

As promised I thought that now would be a good time to write a report on owning the drifta camper trailer for a while and having done 7 nights camping with it. So while it is not an extended length of usage it is getting used.

The original concerns that I had with the DRIFA was that it was a trailer. Having always been traveling on the lighter end of the scale it was a big step up. However something had to give now that we have kids and all that it entails.

Size.
The overall size of our version is great. We have the DOT 6 equip customised to suit our requirements (we already had our own tent). It is rather short compared to many of the other camper trailers that we looked at (mission excluded). However what it lacks in length it makes up for in space utilization. The kitchen and storage drawers all fit nicely and we have been able to easily fit all of our food, water, drinks, etc in without any issues for 7 nights continual no side trip camping. The ease of access to various area's of the storage also make it ideal to "figure out" the routine in. I've always found that it takes a few trips to get into a routine of where to pack items so that you can find them again. With the DOT 6 it's been really easy to fit into and find a pattern.
The ground clearance of the unit is pretty good and it rides level with a stock 110 defender.

Build Quality.
The build quality was what drew us to the DOT originally. Owning one now and the attention to detail is superb. As I have seen other earlier models you can see directly the improvements that they have made to the manufacture and detailing. Small items like increased checker plating in area's prone to stone damage, optional additional boxes, the quality of the electrical work is all flawless.
One area of particular interest to me was the quality of the dust seals keeping everything as dust free as possible. Having spent some time in beach area's with the camper it's remained dust free inside. Later in the year I will provide an update of how well it keeps the bull dust out.
The overall balance of the DOT is very good, it is easy for a single person to move around on the flat ground even with semi soft sand under the wheels when it is loaded. However when the sand was soft the front dumb wheel would get stuck and require some additional motivation. Solution was to slightly lift the weight off and it was not a back breaking exercise. This is a huge win, we saw a few guys with a massive twin wheel caravan get stuck in the soft sand and had no way to get it out without extra vehicle assistance.

Kitchen.
The kitchen takes at max 2 minutes to setup and be ready cooking dinner. The lighting provided by the under roof top tent floor lighting is bright and clear. Access to the fridge is easy. I am 6ft4 and the height of the benches are superb. No more back breaking chopping up of vege's etc. The only downside is that the sink drawer comes out into the path of the storage boxes. I would also like to see some magnetic fly screen nets over the shelves that fold out from the main unit (just a nit pick). Overall the kitchen is really built well. It has clearly been well thought out and the fixtures are excellent quality. We got the optional EvaCool fridge which is a big step up from the ARB unit that we had fitted in our car previously. The internal usable space is much better, it also has a nifty cover so that when you open the lid the freezer remains covered. However it is still relatively small in size, it would be nicer to have a larger model fridge (even if it is just an optional upgrade).
The awning that covers the kitchen and goes around to the side awning is easy to setup and adjust for someone that is 6ft4 tall. My wife had a go and found that even with the actuators at the lowest setting (reduce the height of the RTT) it was a little difficult to juggle the awnings. Having said that it's not different from any of the other products we looked at when it came to awnings as there is no substitute for height when doing things up-high. We will likely buy a small one step "ladder" to make it easier for her when I am doing other tasks.

Hitching.
Hitching up with the ozhitch is so easy compared to previous trailers I have used... I don't want to ever see a towball again..

Future Mods.
Getting some fold out solar panels and an additional 120ah battery are the two big items that I will be looking to change or add soon. Apart from that the spec's are just what we wanted.

Pics.
drifta-offroad-tourer-1.jpg

drifta-offroad-tourer-2.jpg

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