Joe replied:

Ian,

I can't tell you much about the Jayco as it has never figured in my plans as I do not believe that it is robust enough for the sort of travel I am planning, but I have looked at the other hard floor campers and used the Campomatic.

My thoughts on the Campo apply pretty much to the others of its type and they are generally very positive. They are easy to live with and have everything you would want in a quickly erected home from home.

The only down side is that none of them have very much in the way of luggage space - the bad side of filling them with all the useful bits I suppose. None of them have much space inside the tent either for those days when you *have* to eat inside bease of the blasted flies etc. They do come with walls for the awnings, but putting those up takes a fair bit of time and negates the ease of the basic configuration's erection.

Try taking a look at the TVan - a very interesting unit indeed.

Good luck.

Joe

Greg replied:

Ian I have a Jayco Flipper Off??? road trailer. I have owned a heavy duty off road camper for years and been into some very rugged spots with it but the Jayco is a different story. Great for touring even on rough roads and plenty of space including an internal kitchen which is fantastic in cold wet weather. The down side is that it is wider than the vehicle which makes it no good for hard offroad work. For this type of work I would only buy the hard floored Campomatic, Kimberley or Aussie Swag and the harder the work the smaller and solider the unit you require. I carry a boat on the top of my Jayco. Incidently I was out in the Simpson Desert a few months ago and came across and idiot towing a very large Jayco camper trailer across the french line. He got across but stuffed the road for anyone following. You can take anything anywhere if you are determined enough but eventually the less robust units will literally fall apart. Jayco no longer make the flipper but Cub make a similar unit.

Brian Noyes replied:

I have a Camp-O Matic Converter that I purchased two years ago. It has a hard floor and it has been fantastic. Unfortunately the newer models don't have as much storage space as ours but it is a graet camper. We have a fully enclosed annex on ours for those windy or wet days and yes it takes about 40 minutes to fully set it up but that is what camping is all about. Something to give you a thirst for a beer at the end of the day. I tow mine with a VS Commodore so naturally haven't been "off" road. We took it to Central Australia via the Oodnadatta Track from Bathurst last year with no problems at all. We are off to WA for five weeks at the end of this month with it as well. I just think you need something a bit solid even on good roads if you are going to use is often.

John replied:

Haven't used one of these as don't have the storage space, but did a fair amount of research --through outback travellers and am fairly convinced that the Kimberley Kamper is the way to go.I never met anyone who wasn't delighted and who would not buy anything else! These happy people I met throughout the outback from Broken Hill to Kakadu and around the Gulf- no tarmac experts!
John

Gary Mac replied:

I have a 2000 model Jayco Flamingo OffRoad and have found it to be fairly robust offroad. Biggest problem is the track is wider than the towing vehicle. Except for that, provided you remember it is a caravan and needs to be treated 'softly', it will go most places in style.