Tuesday, Apr 30, 2013 at 08:35
Have you ever built a camper trailer? I looked at buying one, and for a soft floored trailer the prices went from about $3K to upwards of $40K. The low-end ones were absolute rubbish, in some cases simply poorly made and in other cases breaking all the rules for trailer design with welds across the top of structural members etc. - one of the dangers of advice such as "look for complete welds not stitch welds" is that companies actually weaken the structure with too much welding to "look like quality" to the uninformed. Some of the higher price ones were only marginally better, and many had luxury features I didn't need. I wanted a basic (no TV!) but tough off-road trailer, so I decided to design my own and build it at my local engineering company to be certain that everything was done correctly.
I decided to use an off-the-shelf independent
suspension system with twin shocks. That's the first $2.5K spent. Then an OzHitch adds another $400, Hella LED lighting perhaps the same again. Secondhand Prado wheels $600 for 3, Cooper AT3's $1050. I wanted an Australian tent, but these were upwards of $7K for the basic tent without awnings, close on $10K in the configuration that I wanted. I settled for an imported tent but it still cost me $3.5K. So the very basic components were $8.5K or so, but nearly double that with Australian canvas.
The trailer took a week or so to build, but this would obviously be reduced in a "production" environment, and then painted before final assembly with lights,
suspension adjustment etc. If we assume $50 an hour for labour and perhaps 80 man-hours, that adds $4K. I have no idea what the steel cost, so I'll add a random $500. Water tanks, jockey wheels, stabilising legs, jerry cans, jerry can holders, gas bottles and holders add at least another $1.25K, a front toolbox is $800 ($1.7K for the nice "Johnno's" one!). A Drifta kitchen and storage box is a further $2K. A Redarc DC-DC +MPPT battery charger, battery and a handful of sockets is another $600 (though I went with LiFePO batteries which cost a bit more but weigh less).
Without allowing for incidentals (or things I have forgotten), the above tots up to about $18K, or >$25K with Australian canvas. Whilst I would assume that a camper trailer company would buy some components at trade price, it gives an idea of what it costs to build an off-road camper trailer. As some of the "luxury" trailers have fridges (I prefer
mine in the towing vehicle), TV's and sound systems (god forbid we have peace and quiet or worse still "bird noises"), boat carriers, heaters, air conditioners etc. etc. the prices get even higher. Finally, of course, I doubt that most trailer companies sell too many units, so they need to make enough profit per unit to stay in business as
well as cover the costs of premises, power, staff etc. and ongoing R&D.
I'm still happy I built my own, and would do it again - I also went to the show and didn't see anything there that I though was significantly better (overall) than
mine - but I no longer think that >$30k is excessive for a really
well built off-road soft-floor!
AnswerID:
510019