Upgrading to a camper trailer

*some text missing there.

Ment to say why can I get one brand new for 50k.

Less than 5k

Second hand Australian built soft floor. Regardless of budget, but you still need to check the quality of canvas, axle, hubs, bearings, tyres etc.
Best to spend as much time as you can researching and going to physically see new and used campers for sale prior to parting with your hard earned cash.

You could pick up a second hand Mars hardfloor with kitchen from someone who has already done all the hard work eg: strengthening, dust proofing, 12 volt batteries, lighting etc.

You may also get some good info for a $5K budget at "myswag.org".

Cheers

I,ll tell you from experience that a hard floor is so much better than a soft floor. Quicker set up and more comfortable. You will appreciate a quicker set up time at the end of a days driving.
Shop around, gumtree, google, magazines..but don't rush in and buy the first thing you see. If you can add a couple more thousand to the budget it will help.

good luck

Definately get a hard floor in preference to a soft floor, much faster to put up and pull down, off the ground and a smaller footprint.
We did an extended outback trip years ago with a group of friends, four with flip over hard floors and one with a soft floor, after a couple of weeks the soft floor mob wanted a hard floor and after getting home quickly sold it.

Ok thanks, so is hard floor an option or are some manufacturers hard floor and some soft?

Hi Shane, we have had an excellent camper in the past, sold it as our camping needs changed, and now 12 years later are back again looking at camper trailers - so have a little experience with what you are going through.
One really important tip I can give you is that when trolling through websites checking out the various(incredibly numerous ) campers on offer today- keep a worksheet next to you and jot down what brand you have looked at and a few notes on what you like or were attracted to and what put you off. My big mistake this time is not doing this and now I've confused myself and can't remember which ones I've looked at and which ones had this that and the other feature I really liked.

You have already worked out there is a great range in pricing and yes this does equate to you get what you pay for. The cheaper campers with all the fruit for a comparatively lowish price are usually mass produced overseas components and imported/assembled in Australia(usually with an "Australian made" claim. The chassis is usually lighter weight, often poorer quality metal and canvas than full Australian manufactured alternatives and often with poorer quality workmanship(welding etc). There are many product reviews out there regarding these items.
That is NOT to say they wont do a fantastic job.

If you are camping with children and on a budget then soft floor types are cheaper and offer much more storage room.
Personally I would stay away from any design that has a welded or bolted on A frame.
Secondly canvas quality is pretty important as leaking canvas, broken zips and doors/windows that wont close will ruin a holiday.

If you are on a budget then perhaps forget about the fancy kitchens. You can add pull out kitchens later if you are keen and chances are you already have some good quality kitchen gear.

Access to the camper tub for packing/unpacking is also of huge importance. Campers with a hinged lid make a huge impact.
If you are not intending on doing much off road then basic suspension would suffice such as leaf springs. Fancier options on full off road type campers can ad a fair bit to the cost.
Beware of campers with large/extensive add on rooms and huge awnings- these mean longer to set up and pack up and also a larger camping footprint which can restrict your access to some sites.

As has already been suggested - second hand makes good sense. Tried and true, perhaps with a little less shine but good value for money.

We hired our first camper to make sure it was what we wanted and it was well worth the expense as it showed us that some of the fancier "features" were not really that important and worth spending extra money on. We actually bought the camper we hired saving a lot of $.

Have fun. doc.

Hi Shane,
I've also had a few campers and caravans in the past and have just purchased another one. My son is also into the more serious off roading and will be able to share it's use.

After weeks of looking at various soft & hard floor campers, and with a budget of around 10k, I decidered on a soft floor model. The reasoning for this was storage space. I found that most soft floor models have more living and storage area, and for my budget, I could buy one new.

I eventually purchased a GIC Black Series Alpha model. This particular model is the extreme off road version with heavy duty independent suspension coil & four shocks. A very well designed set-up with lots of grease nipples. It also has lockable storage areas and a very large storage box. It is a very solid unit with 5 years structural warranty. This one cost me $8,200 with options included. They also make a couple of lighter construction versions for around the 4k & 5k mark.

The main reason I chose GIC was that their all made "in house", not a Chinese kit import that is put together here. I was given a tour of their factory before purchasing one and watched them being made.

This may sound like a advertisement for them, but it's only report from a happy buyer.

My son is currently at the Cape with the new trailer in tow for it's first shake down trip. He has reported, happily, that after dragging it through Nolan's Brook, that not a drop of water got in. Got to be happy about that.

Good luck with whatever camper you decide on.

Capt.

Shane

Years ago I bought a second hand soft floor for $5k and it gave me years of service until the suspension broke away from the chassis on Binns Track. (definately had more than my $5K worth)

If you are careful and get a good second hand unit it will do you for years and you will get your moneys worth.

I took the plunge and bought a new one as a replacement. After doing some research I decided on one from Cameron Campers. I am extremely happy with it and have done the Savannah Way and Cape York so far. I bought the deluxe version for about $30K.

On my trip to Cape York there were six trailers (all new) Three got through undamaged. The other three needed major repairs to chassis / suspension.

Be very careful about what you buy. The cheaper campers are normally cheap for a reason.


Tjilpi

Hi Shane,
Some good advice above.

I have owned three camper trailers. I built the first, a soft top on a standard 6x4 box trailer and it could be easily lifted off to use as a garden trailer. We spent our honeymoon in it and hauled it over a lot of Australia but not serious off-road. It was great but care had to be taken to clear the site of sticks & stones. Then two kids arrived and it became a bit small so I built a new one.

The new one was a camper-to-beat-all-campers! It had a wind-up fibreglass roof, pull-out beds each end, table and bench seats inside with a full kitchen, etc, etc. The first time we used it we were sitting inside eating at the table and I said "This is not camping".
The kids had to sleep toe-to-toe in one of the beds and cries of "He's kicking me!" echoed throughout the night. We kept it for a few years but only used it when the kids were elsewhere.

So we sold the 'Supercamper' and bought a second hand hard-floor, much like our first one but with a floor. It was good, we were back to 'camping' but it lacked the under-bed storage space of the soft-floor. Piling stuff on top for travel means a lot of loading/unloading.

When we retired we got serious and bought a Troopy with a bed in the back. This really is camping and we can go anywhere, and do. Off to The Pilbara in a couple of weeks. Will be living in and out of the Troopy for three months.

Maybe the moral of my story is that you may not get it right the first time. So limit your outlay at first... you can always upgrade. You will find that rigs with pull-out stainless steel kitchens are more expensive, a fold-up table with a folding stove on it still works fine for us. But as said above, be careful of poor build quality, a camper that has obviously seen a bit of work can be assumed to be tough, provided that the canvas is strong and in good condition. Also get the seller to erect and re-close the camper to ascertain if it is easy or difficult.

Hi
Not sure where you are located but Challenge campers make a good unit
You can hire for a weekend to try
They sell ex hire or new
There are lots around so second hand is also an option to suit the budget
Better a good used quality make rather than a cheap new one
There maybe some cheap new ones on the market but I can't see how you could build a good one for 5k without cutting corners.
Depends on your use, how often it will get used and where you intend to take it.
The cheap ones suit many people but not everyone. Don't expect one to last a long outback trip, quite a few try and they don't make it back, there were several in the yard at birdsville we saw that had major failures.
Good luck with what you buy.
Cheers
Mike

Thanks for the replys so far. This is exactly the sort of thing i need.
re. hard and soft floor, what's with the storage thing? People saying more storage in soft floor, why? Does the bed part not lift to allow access to trailer on a hard floor? Sorry, maybe stupid question but as I said I've got no idea about this.
Would definatley rather a 2nd hand proper Australian built camper. Just hard to know what brands are and are not.
Anyone care to suggest a few brands of the proper fully Australian built models to look at 2nd hand, or any imports to avoid???

Thanks all, keep it coming...

Its something we are trying to work thru as well Shane.

I have no conclusions yet , because like most things it depends on your own requirements.

I have broken the thought process into roughly 6 Options.

1/ Sleeping in the Car Diy $ 500

2/ Car & Tent $1500

3/ Soft Floor trailer 2-10k

4/ Hard floor Trailer 7 - 30k

5/ Crossover van 40 - 90K

6/ DIY Van $6K


1/ First and foremost , nothing beats sleeping in the car for 4wd capability , setup time , ease of access ,parking in towns, general security and
immunity from external elements- although option 5 comes close.

With only 2 of us now we have a caravan double bed mattress permanently setup in the Patrol and its very hard to beat.


2/ Car with Tent - we take an Oztent for stays longer than 3 days and it has longer setup/takedown time and isn't as immune from weather as the car not so much fun when it gets wet.


3/ I see little advantage with soft floor as we can already have both the tent and conveinece of still sleeping in the car.
In fact most soft floors require a big step up to the bed , sometimes even a 3 or 4 step ladder is used.
Indeed both it and many van types have slideout Kitchen burners which are quite subject to wind unless you put up there extra annexe which is really another tent.


4/ Hard Floors - a possibilty for sure , I recently saw some on EBAY for $7500 and went and had a good look and was quite frankly surprized at how much you can get.
At this price you could get one for a year or two, and not lose much while figuring out what one really wants.
There is less height differential to bed than from a soft floor and one we looked at weighed only 750kg (empty) so it didn't put a lot of load on the tow car as we would add less than 100kg of net weight to it ready to roll.
They are however mostly big comfortable tents with just canvas between you and the elements.


5/ Crossover Van E.G. MDC approx $45khttp://www.marketdirectcampertrailers.com.au/en/xt-10/
Several friends of ours are going thru same the process and things like this and the more expensive TrakTrailers seem to be the favourite option , they have a lot of room in the east west bed versions , but still are a lot more to tow and anything with some weight and undriven axles consumes more fuel and puts on where you can go, however I should say that they can go a lot of places and for most people this is enough.


6/ DIY
We have special requirements like I want it to able to wheel a trail bike into it and I believe that by not getting all the fruit and with careful attention to design we should be able to build a sort of enclosed motor bike trailer with a tilt up roof , rear door (for bike access)and fixed east west double bed and Patrol wheels for about $5000.

The entire unit will weight about 550kg unloaded and less than 750kg loaded.
This light weight is important as it means no requirement for brakes or spare wheel and it will use existing camping equipment instead of the myriad of expensive internal fittings that most have.

To Validate this approach we designed , fabricated a trailer and took/road 3 bikes across the Simpson a couple of years ago.

All we have to do now is build the box on top of the proven framework.

Actually there is one other very hard hurdle to overcome - we must convince the wife that this is also what she wants.

Shane

If you want some unbiased information on what sort of camper trailer to buy have a look at the Australian Camper Trailer Group website:

Camper Trailer Group

There's a wealth of information there. At the top of the page there's a series of links that take you to all different types of information.

If you go to the Tech Tips page you'll see links to Choosing a Camper, Buying tips for beginners etc.

There's also a link on the home page to 2nd hand campers for sale.

This is a great resource so make the most of it!

Cheers

Geo22

Hi Shane,

Regardless of what others may think of the GIC's, don't just discount them. Check them out for yourself. I have no affiliation with them, my opinion is that of a person who just bought one. If I thought they were crap, I'd say so. All I can say that since new management took over about 6 - 8 months ago , they now seem to make a better trailer. I confess, that a couple of years ago I would not have bought one, but in my opinion they are now much better.

As for built "in - house". I was in their factor at Revesby and watched them pressing sides for trailers out of sheet metal and welding them all together. Regardless that some components ie locks, dolly wheels ect may be Chinese, I would class this as built "in-house".

When mine gets back from the Cape I will post how it coped, good or bad.

As I said, good luck with whatever you decide on.

Capt.

Shane
Suggest you go to a show where many campers will be on display and have a good look around and ask lots of questions. It's the easiest and best way to get an idea of what's what.

The Landy,

To answer some of your questions, the ones I can.

About two or three years ago I considered buying another camper trailer after selling my Jayco. This time I wanted something that could handle the more extreme off road tracks as my son would also be dragging it behind his 7" lifted, on 37" tyres, Patrol. So it was going to get a serious work out.

My budget was the same then, as now, max 10k. I went to all the shows and looked at what you got for the money, bearing in mind that true statement "you get what you pay for". With that understood I looked for my certain minimum requirements ... good welding, solid draw bar at least to the spring hanger, or independent suspension set-up, quality locks & hinges, and a reasonably good quality tent.

After much consideration I decidered that the CIG was value for money, but failed mainly on build quality. The welding was some of the worst I'd ever seen. Non-consistent and in some areas, very little penetration. If fact I doubt that it was water-tight in many areas. I also not impressed with the cheap locks & hinges used.

Anyway ........ circumstances changed at that time and I didn't proceed in buying one.

Current date : History repeats it's self. Back to the trade shows. More manufacturers to choose from .. et...

After a time I come to the same conclusion again. For what you get, and at the price ( $8,200 ) the GIC, in my opinion is value for money for me.

What's changed : The welding is much better quality, they are now using quality compression locks and stainless steel piano style hinges. The jury is still out on the tent, it looks the goods, but time will tell.

I received a call from my son last night who is currently camping at Capr York. I asked how the camper faired ...... no structural issues, no tent leaks, one of the compression locks of the front box wont stay latched and one of the four shocks is weeping oil slightly and three punctures. Also, none of the door seals

I don't think that's a bad report for a budget trailer on an extensive "shake-down" trip, four days out of the factory. So far I'm still happy with my purchase.

As I've said, This is my opinion on a camper I've purchased to fit my requirements. It may not fit yours.

Bazza

Thanks for all your input so far guys. Very Helpful.
So my next question, electrical systems. If I buy one without any electrical system, how much would I be looking at to put one in? So we aren't restricted to only powered sites in c'van parks.
I would want it to be able to run lighting and boil a kettle etc, phone chargers, a TV maybe...
I understand there would be many options and "how long is a piece of string" type of thing, but for a basic set up that will do the job, solar panel/s, inverter, deep cycle battery/batteries, wiring etc. plus anything wlse we need I havn't mentioned. Mid range quality components but not including any labour?
A ball park estimate anyone?
Would $1,000 cover it?

Thanks again for help so far.