Thursday, Jun 13, 2013 at 10:20
My son recently bought one from Market Direct Campers, and I must say that overall it appears reasonable value for money. I'm with Kev, I just cannot see the value in some of the local camper trailers at 20-30 (or more) thousand bucks.
MDC have a wide range of styles of trailer (powder coated, galvanized, highway, off-road etc) and also a wide range of tent layouts. My son and his wife liked one particular layout on a demo unit in the showroom, but would have preferred to have it 'the other way round', or mirrored. No problems, they ordered one in with the preferred orientation.
My son wanted the galvanized off-road trailer, which looks
well put together, but we think MDC have overlooked something there - the tent doesn't quite pull down properly to the ground around the trailer and we think it is due to the higher
suspension of the off-road trailer. It looks ok on the standard trailer. This problem is exacerbated on sloping ground if you need to raise one wheel on ramp blocks to level the trailer as that side will be even worse. I think this is my lad's greatest gripe with the unit.
There were some poorly fitted bits and pieces on my son's unit, such as the following:
* The 'T' spirit level was way off level. We set the trailer up to the level on nearly flat ground and one wheel was 2" off the ground and the trailer obviously not level. Easily fixed, but frustrating that it wasn't a lot closer.
* The locking mechanism for the swing-out rear tailgate kitchen is poorly designed and far too weak. If you leaned on the kitchen the locking bar would simply bend. I fixed that by installing a strut rod.
* The catches on the two front storage boxes were poorly constructed and aligned. The MDC sales guy said 'don't let the lids drop to close them, always lower them down and press down to lock'. Why not improve the locking catch? I did!
Overall, the quality of the 'canvas' work was very good in my opinion. I think the weight of material was higher (ie stronger) than some of the local builders. I have heard (not confirmed) that no canvas (or synthetic equiv) is made in Australia anymore - I expect all (or most) camper trailer manufacturers will be using imported (read Chinese) material. We compared the MDC product to one of the local
well known and respected manufacturers, and it compared very
well - and exceeded in some ways.
I think the MDC price for installing a 12V electrical system is too high, and we are doing our own system. However, if you don't have the time or expertise to do your own then maybe there is little choice. I expect if you took it to an Auto Electrician it would work out more expensive than MDC's price.
One thing I would pass on, and this came from the MDC salesman... some people want to install a fridge in the trailer, and MDC can sell a slide mechanism for a 12V/240V fridge. However, the fridge cannot 'breathe' inside the wrapped up and sealed trailer, and therefore cannot operate efficiently. This does not only relate to MDC's camper trailers, it would be the same for other brands. If you want/need a fridge, put it in the back of your vehicle.
So, cheaper camper trailers...
No, they are not perfect, but some can still be reasonably good value for money.
Have a good look at campers on the showroom floor, or at camping shows etc, or do the rounds of local caravan parks and talk to owners. Don't buy 'sight-unseen'.
I am in no way connected to MDC, but can make comments on what we have experienced and seen. They definitely have their faults, but I expect that will be the case with most manufacturers. Even manufacturers of $70,000 caravans have their problems. You just need to balance what you get against what you pay for it, and determine if you are happy with the balance.
My son and his family will get a lot of enjoyment out of their relatively modest investment. They may have been able to buy a better known brand second-hand for similar money, but then not had the choice of layout etc.
They are happy, and I reckon they did alright.
Happy hunting.
glids
AnswerID:
513038
Follow Up By: KevinE - Thursday, Jun 13, 2013 at 15:07
Thursday, Jun 13, 2013 at 15:07
Hi Glids,
"There were some poorly fitted bits and pieces on my son's unit, such as the following:
* The 'T' spirit level was way off level. We set the trailer up to the level on nearly flat ground and one wheel was 2" off the ground and the trailer obviously not level. Easily fixed, but frustrating that it wasn't a lot closer.
* The locking mechanism for the swing-out rear tailgate kitchen is poorly designed and far too weak. If you leaned on the kitchen the locking bar would simply bend. I fixed that by installing a strut rod.
* The catches on the two front storage boxes were poorly constructed and aligned. The MDC sales guy said 'don't let the lids drop to close them, always lower them down and press down to lock'. Why not improve the locking catch? I did!"
We had the same issue with the tailgate kitchen (different brand, but likely out of the same factory in China) I fixed it in a similar way to you.
Luckily for us, someone else had complained about the latches on the toolbox before we bought ours & to his credit, the distributor we bought ours off had them modified prior to our picking up the trailer. These are working fine & I have no complaints about them.
Cheers mate,
Kevin.
FollowupID:
791687