Thread: Basic vs fancy camper trailers

Originally Posted by Poida4x4

It would be really great to have a trailer sooner that we can go out on adventures with much sooner than waiting until we can wrangle a Camprite somehow. What are your thoughts and experiences of fancy vs basic camper trailers?

If I were to ask the question of you - What are your thoughts and experiences of fancy vs basic camper trailers?

I know that you have already thought it through and provided your answer in the post. However you say you are 'planning the trip in a few years' but what to buy it and sort it out straight away so you're obviously champing at the bit. Camprite campers do come up for sale regularly and there have been a few here in the NT over the last couple of years.

Hence it then becomes your time-frame and budget. Take the work you have already done in choosing the Camprite as your Gold Medal model (it it the Olympics isn't it ) and also choose Silver and Bronze options to suit both time-frame and budget if the desired Camprite doesn't turn up in time or price range. That's what we did when we chose our current Kimberley. When it was time to buy as the previous camper had sold, we were going to get 'Silver' and buy a Pioneer Onyx of similar vintage but at the last minute the 'Gold' Kimberley fell into our laps.

Certainly hope your victory lap ends up being in the perfect 'Gold' Camprite.

I wouldn’t buy a soft floor camper, you will soon be thinking about a hard floor camper. They are ok but on the ground when raining and set up/take town time are negatives especially if moving everyday.

Ive had a Chinese made hard floor camper. It was quite solid, ordinary build quality, very heavy, but reasonable value for money.

We currently have a 2007 TVan. Two adults/teenagers (using bunk stretchers) do fit. But my teenage son is more likely to sleep outside on a stretcher. It is quick to set up and well made. Prices have gone up lately, like everything.

If your handy I would consider buying a 1980s era windup camper/caravan, and renovating. These are less than a tonne, can be very good value, can be modified for moderate off road work and are spacious and quick to set up. For example:

caravancampingsales.com.au

Or maybe an older rear fold Cub, like this:

caravancampingsales.com.au

We are still set up to go camping without towing. My next tent will be an oztent.

Originally Posted by Poida4x4

I’m pretty set on a Camprite. They seem like a pretty great design for 4 people with a fast setup in a solid trailer. They’re expensive though (totally worth it) and pretty much all the used ones are in WA, and we’re now in TAS. Yesterday, a nice solid TruBlu offroad trailer came up for sale nearby that looks like a great setup. It’s much more basic than the Camprite. The kids would need to sleep on a bunk or swags on the (covered) ground instead of the Camprite’s single beds.

I came across the Camprites a year or so ago and they are a really good design - but as you say, they have no stockists in the Eastern states! And at the moment I could probably more easily get to the UK or Japan than WA.

my only suggestion is make sure that if leaf springs are fitted, they are eye to eye and not slippers...

i had a camper trailer with high end independant suspension and the difference was night and day to a std leaf sprung trailer

the big IF is, if it does not go well when remote, you can get leaf springs just about anywhere... not so easy to get bits for a flash suspension..

I've had three Camper trailers. A kanga, a t van and another unnamed jobbie. We also have a caravan as our kids are young.

We are contplating a trip to Alice next year (covid pending of course) and will try to buy another Kanga before we go.

The tvan was fancy but expensive. The kanga doesn't even have a battery and is a soft floor. The kanga was quicker to set up than the t van though and the awning only needed 3 poles and ropes.

The Kanga big red has a hard top which keeps the dust out but is still a soft floor as mentioned. Not heavy, a basic kitchen that extends forwards towards the back of the car which compliments the fridge in the boot. Uses the Alko rubber torsion suspension. Not fancy but bombproof. I enjoyed it's simplicity while we had it.

As an aside I replaced the drum brakes with some drilled for LR wheels. Tracked the same width as my old defender too.

You can pick one up for around $5k now too which is a bargain.

I reckon go for something that is basic, solid that has a decent bed for the adults and has conveniences like a water tank, kitchen, cooker, gas bottles, lighting all included. Something that you can potentially modify or add to to keep up with your requirements as kids get older (eg bike carriers etc, extra tarp/poles). Personally if I was starting over again with kids yet to arrive I would go straight for a decent hard floor off-road camper like the Aussie swag or camp-o-matic (are they still around?) styles. Only drawback with canvas is opening it out to dry when you get home after packing up wet.

We've had 2 camper trailers over the years. 1st one was an old 1980's camp-o-matic hard floor. Extremely basic but very small to store and light to tow. Drawback was no storage. Stuff on the bed before folding up and then more stuff in tubs etc on it's roof rack when folded up. I loved that camper but it was not easy for quick overnighters. Anyone still use their kerosene pressure lamps?

Then we upgraded to a track-about off road jobby that we dubbed "the tardis". Basically a big tent that folded out sideways with a soft floor and zip-on annex. It was solid as but rather heavy. Had a drifta kitchen on the tailgate, water tank, grease-able shackles on the leaf springs, heavy-duty al-ko running gear and a real bastard of an at35 hitch! The canvas excellent but super heavy and I really struggled unfolding and packing it away as it was a bit too high in places to grab hold of the canvas.

We had many excellent adventures in both of these campers with 2 young kids. Started out with bunk beds for the kiddies in the old camper and progressed to self inflating mattresses and and sleeping bags on the floor while the missus and I had queen size inner spring mattresses on both.

After selling the Tardis we went hiking with all light weight back packing gear and then bought an oz-tent rv-4 for the vehicle trips. The oz-tent weighed about 25kg packed up in its bag and was a heavy lift onto the roof racks of our D2. It was quick to set up for a very basic overnighter but adding on all the extra panels is not so quick.

Now the kids are grown up we have a caravan. If they want to join us then it's swags in the annex.

Originally Posted by Poida4x4

I quite like the idea of keeping things as simple as possible and just going and having a good time. It would be really great to have a trailer sooner that we can go out on adventures with much sooner than waiting until we can wrangle a Camprite somehow. What are your thoughts and experiences of fancy vs basic camper trailers?

Here's one brand you may not have come across...
VistaRV - Australia's Leading Off-Road Camper Trailer

Set-up is five minutes, a little longer with the shade sail, no wet canvas to deal with, built incredibly well in Melbourne and a breeze to tow. The kids would have to be in swags for now but they'll be grown and gone well before you need to upgrade/replace a Vista. You can hire then from
Camper Trailer Hire - Desert Oak Camping Supply Co.
and pick up solid secondhand ones from devotees upgrading.
No commercial links - just a convert who's done the 6 month circuit in one.
fullsizeoutput_569e.jpg
(No judgement about the bad park here - it was a LONG day!)

Our first camper was an old 1980's Jayco Dove.
Fairly basic with a small 3 way fridge, cooktop and sink, under floor water tank, 2x small double beds ( an extra bed was available using the seating area) with a small table and seats.
It came with a massive heavy canvas annex which was a royal PITA to put up But once up it was fantastic.

Setup (without the annex) took about 5 min which consisted of winding up the roof and pulling out the beds and placing the bed struts under them.

Easy to tow because they weigh bugger all and although they are Not designed as a true offroader we took that little bugger into some pretty remote/rugged spots whithout any problems.

Not the flashest camper to drag arround But they do the job well and there are still a few around for sale at bargan basement prices