Darian replied:

Have taken mine down Googs Track in SA- it has the wide tyres on board - let them down a bit as you do for the car - Googs has about 3 difficult sand hills near the top end which tested my rig, but with some practice it all turned out well .....if you have the power, the trailer can run quite well in the sand.....BUT.....I'm told that it is a bad idea for serious sand hill country like the Simpson.....I use the 3.0 99 TD Jackaroo.....dp

Member - Andrew replied:

I would suggest hiring one first and testing fuel consumption. Your fuel consumption will go up and it will probably triple. You will need strong suspension (as on any proper trailer) cos when you go up sand dunes and get near the top where the others have been there are usually a lot of big humps (and you will dig a lot too) which puts a lot of stress on the trailer. If you havent been already you could even go into a sand area and see how much your car drinks now ( without the trailer), you'll be shocked!!!!!

Member - Lex replied:

Mark

My Campo/Matic camper has 'tough/dog' shocks which seem to be fine on the camper.I also had them on my Patrol but I found the ride to be too hard with minimal load.Last week I replced them with Bilsteins and the improved ride was fantastic; no jarring over small bumps anymore.

Kind Regards
Lex

heffo replied:

mark
I have a heaslip camper trailer, I take it everywhere. Went to frazer island , had no problems. correct tyre pressure is the most important thing when driving on sand , not just for the towing vechical. while on frazer island i ran both vechicals on 18psi. my towing vechical is a 4.2 turbo diesel nissan

heffo

Axel + Karen replied:

Mark,, the best bet for the sand is to have your trailer track width the same as your tow vehicle so that the trailer is following in the sand you have already compressed,,,also drop your trailer pressures by the same amount as you do on your vehicle,,,, as for fuel consumption,,used to have a 2.6 auto jackarroo,, 10ks per lt h/way with trailer,,,8ks per lt beach,,[ Nossa to Rainbow Beach/Inskip Point /Fraser Island ] towing same trailer,,,,now use 4lt v6 ford explorer auto ,8klm per lt h/way and 8klm per lt beach towing same trailer !!!!! try and figure??? Axel

Mike replied:

Mate, forget about a camper trailer if going off-road. Get a touring tent. I've got a Jackeroo V6 3.5 and fuel useage goes from 14l/100km to 30l/100km and a Landrover defender which goes from 12l/100km to 14l/100 km when touring off road with a trailer, which absolutely kills range plus my wallet. I sold my camper trailer and got a touring tent - 1001% better.

The problem is it's horses for courses. Touring round oz - get a caravan and touring tent (for when you want to get real off road) and when 4WDing get a touring tent. The caravan/camper trailer can't go where you want your 4WD to go an it will only hamper your off road experience.

Advice - only tow when using bitumen or well travelled tracks.

Probably doesn't help or answer your question but what the hell!!

Member - Melissa replied:

Hi Mark,

We've had a campertrailer for over 3 years now and have just ordered a new one. Wouldn't be without it. Re: driving in sand. I second comments above about tyre pressure etc. Yahoo offroad campertrailer group have members who have towed their trailers over the Simpson and Canning Stock Route without a bit of trouble. I don't want to get into a debate about taking trailers across the Simpson - plenty has been said on this forum previously about it. Just trying to demonstrate that a well set-up trailer need not restrict your off-road trekking activies. These trailers were purpose built off-road units being towed by well equipped, grunty 4WD's being driven by experienced drivers.

Regarding fuel consumption...our trailer tracks extremely well behind our vehicle. In fact, sometimes we barely know it is there. Fuel consumption is marginally higher but substantially less than if we were towing a caravan. Also, the trailer has made our roof rack almost redundant. Taking that off the car improved our everyday, around town consumption and towing fuel consumption is on a par with heavily loaded vehicle with roof rack.

Hope this is of some help.

:o) Melissa