Camper Trailers & small cars

Member - Alan H (QLD) replied:

We very rarely stop for longer than one night in one place on any trip. We have an Aussie Swag hard floor offroad version. It takes about 3 mins to setup the camper after stopping and about the same to close it down.

While we have awnings etc we rarely use them. The kitchen is a slide out gadget which can be accessed with the camper folded as can the under bed bed storage through the tail gate.

The only problem we find is using the kitchen in wind blown rain. Time to eat cold meal or find take away.

The unit is very dry and the hard floor means you can camp on stone, gravel etc which can be great to avoid dust or mud as you are above the ground.

It has been all over Australia and tows well. It weighs about 700kgs dry.

Maybe a secondhand one of these might do the trick.

Alan Thumbs UpThanks 0

Member - Mottleman (NSW) replied:

You'll get lots of very different opinions on this one. We are all different and what's important to one is minor to another.

We do mostly what you do, have 11 and 13yrs kids and love our jayco eagle outback. It has done way more than most people imagine it could/would/should .... but the main thing is it suits us perfectly.

Why not hire one for a while?

Any eagle questions, ask away.

cheers
John Thumbs UpThanks 0

LeanneW replied:

Hi Julie & Bob,

My husband and I were looking at buying a Jayco Hawk/Eagle very recently. One thing that was brought to our attention was the roof - up until the 2009 models, it is constructed in two halves, and there have been some problems with the join parting (after someone has walked on the roof) and it leaking.
They still take a while setting up, but nowhere near the 1.5 hours like your old camper trailer. The Jayco appealed to me because of its spaciousness and comfort inside when set up (particularly if the weather turned bad).
We ended up buying an Aussie Swag camper trailer, mainly because we want to do some 4WD treks, which are not recommended for the Jayco.
I agree with the previous reply about hard-floor camper trailers being very quick and easy to set up, but you do need to be conscious of how much weight your Subaru can tow and its maximum ball weight.
Perhaps look at secondhand hardfloor campers such as the Aussie Swag, Cub, Kimberley etc and some secondhand Coromals to compare to the Jayco.
Good luck!
Leanne Thumbs UpThanks 0

Member - Wayne David (NSW) replied:

Gidday julie&bob,

I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination. For the 2 of us a hard floor camper trailer seems best.

For you though with kids & your budget of $20,000 I'm wondering if you have checked out the trader section above. Try this link.

http://www.exploroz.com/Trader/View.aspx?ttid=5&sd=&s=&id=8213

The unit seems like a pretty capable piece of kit, looks good for kids and parents, is $19,000 (reduced) and well worth a look.

Let us know what you think. Thumbs UpThanks 0

Member - Alan H (QLD) replied:

Julie and Bob

The aussie swag has a double bed built in and others would sleep on the hard floor. 2 children would be fine but we have had two adults sleeping on the floor as well.

They need some padding which has to be picked up each day before closing. Sleeping bags etc all fit inside the tent.

Aussie Swag

The site will show you what they are like. New ones are getting expensive. We bought ours several years ago ($15000) so does not have all the fancy options of the latest models.

Ours is a Challenger offroad model. It has a water tank, rollout kitchen, gas bottles, pantry but no battery etc. It does have 240V wiring and 12V sockets inside. We use a col light in the 12v socket inside while connected to tow vehicle. We have an extension lead to join vehicle to trailer if we have disconnected the vehicle.

It sleeps very dry the couple of times we have been caught in pouring rain. The quick packup is really great if raining. We put plastice sheet on bed to protect from damp canvas and never never had a wet bed.

Alan Thumbs UpThanks 0

HGMonaro replied:

We have a wind-up (a Goldstream but the following points apply), our kids sleep on the queen bed end but we had the matress divided into two seperate 'singles' This way we make their beds individually... yes we use sheets and blankets/doonas (much easier to manage if the younger one had an 'accident' than a sleeping bag but thankfully those days are gone!).

We never wind it up completely for lunch stops but you could easy enough in fine weather. Would need to pull out the bed ends far enough that you could sit at the table (depending on layout) and erect the door to keep flies out. We just pop the lid enough to open the door and get at the fridge. We don't like making our lunch in the morning (silly in some ways as I do that for work most days!) but use the our drop down table on the exterior of the camper to make lunch and have somewhere to sit drinks. We also use the lunch stop as a chance to get some exercise into the kids, usually by kicking the footy around.

Setup time would be around 10-15mins. Something like.. park, move it cause the wife thinks north is 1 degree clockwise more than your compass says*, disconnect car, level via jockey wheel, check sideways leveling is within acceptable tollerance (esp if running fridge on gas), wind down stabilisers, errect bed flys**, wind up roof, errect bed end supports and fasten canvas, fit door, connect services if available, crack a tinny.

* - true! bloody farm girls!
** - optional but recommended. Obviously good in rain, but also good in sunny weather.

One aspect of wind-ups that is rarely discussed is the ability to open it up to let any breeze through. On a warm day you can open all sides and it's more like being under a shady tree.

Weight for your Suburu will be a problem, but maybe a Dove or Hawk might be possible. Still get the two bed ends (might be a bit smaller.. not sure of the specs), just the space between them is reduced so you can't fill it up with so much junk, thus it's lighter! :)

Cheers, Nige Thumbs UpThanks 0