Thread: camper trailer or jaco camper

Bro-in-law bought a brand new Jayco a couple of years back.

Looked nice and shiny on the outside, but that didn't last long.

We took it up to Glen Innes for a week, and within a couple of days of sitting in the caravan park, the bed bases were disintegrating, and falling through the frames, and the interior trim had gaps opening up.

I can't say I was overly impressed.


We on the other hand had an old camper, and I think it was one of the first Cavaliers (almost prototype, that old) mounted to a really old and crappy 6x4 trailer. We bought it second hand, and we dragged that thing absolutely everywhere. Through dunes, scrub and even up rocky riverbeds in the Flinders Ranges. It was rough and ready, but did the job admirably. and only set us back a grand.

We recently bought an Austral camper trailer as an upgrade. It's nice, has a large living area, it was sub $5000, but takes longer to set up and pack (due to more poles required), and requires 2 people to handle.

When we went from a tent we looked at several wind-up campers, Jayco, Coromal, Roadstar and Goldstream and settled for a Goldstream as they had a better fit, better fittings and better allround finish.
Coromal was very badly finished inside the cupboards and drawers which I pointed out to the salesman who just shrugged his shoulders in a couldn't care less way.
Roadstar stitching on the canvas was coming apart in the dealers yard..... what would come apart on or off the road?
Jayco had wind-up rope about 2/3rds the diameter of the Goldstreams plus things like curtain fittings were crap and the Cook notices things like that. I had a mate whose Dad had the cable break on his Jayco when down in Augusta and had to get it to Bunbury where it took a week to fix.
He was not impressed at having his holiday ruined like that with a brand new camper.
The Goldstream was good with no warranty probs. that I can remember, but frightened the pants off us when it nearly blew over one night during a short storm.
Probably being an off roader and higher than the road type had something to do with that.
So that went and we had a Windsor Rapid purely for road travel but that's now gone and we've had a Pioneer camper for 3 years.
Good camper, not cheap but quick to set up and we've had improvements done like a winch to assist when taking down especially in windy conditions (it acts like a sail when the winds blowing!) and we thinking now of a small but tough off road van for a bit more comfort in our old age.
Seems to be a never ending search for the perfect way to go camping.... and it ain't cheap!
Alan.

We had the Jayco Eagle- good and roomy but found we spent most of the time outside, under a tarp- including cooking. It was an expensive boudouire on wheels; when wet had to put it up at home to dry!

Oz-tent and a tarp. Great for what you describe. Maybe a 6 x 4 to cart the extras. Go anywhere.

We had a number of camper trailers until we came across the Swagman off road campers of WA.

Arranged for a video to be sent over and we purchased after seeing the video.

Check out their site at Swagman Offroad Camper Co. - Home Page

They are good campers five berth - light at 600kg

We have an O'briens camper trailer made in Dandenong Vic). Tough as nails. We've dragged it into places over rock shelves, through creeks and rivers and apart from cracking a spring hanger, it's never missed a beat.
We have a full slide-out stainless kitchen and all the storage is provided in drawers so no need to lift the bed to get to the stuff in the trailer. Best thing we've ever camped in and second hand it was about $6,000. Oh by the way, friends of ours have a Kimberley and have needed to repair suspension twice, chassis cracks x3, broken runner on the slide out kitchen........ and they've NEVER been on more than a badly (not extreme) corrugated dirt road and a couple of mild fire trails with us. His $37k, mine $6k......laughing here
I agree with the idea of hiring both, see which does it for your family but if you're used to tent camping, I reckon you'll appreciate the extra space in a tent type camper too.