trailer for now...and add the camper <span class="highlight">tent</span> later?

some reasonable tents for campers on e-bay, check em out.... good for ideas..
All you need to do is get your head around what sort of trailer you want, if you are going to be towing it behind a 2wd car then you will only need a very basic 6x4 box trailer, you can get them pretty cheap brand new for around a grand, you buy the tent bit, buy some ply wood about 18 to 25mm for the bed base and bolt it all up...
Or do it our way, we have 3 kids, purchased a camper s/h about $7000 and just never liked it so sold it a month ago, we will be getting just a h/duty trailer with deep sides, few good locking boxes and 2 decent tents, 1 for me n mum and one for the kids, will have the table, cooking gear, chairs, eskys ect the same as we had to carry in the camper any way and we will then load it all in with our 4 wheel buggy (twister) and away we go, we can set up tents and explore in the buggy, we can just do quick camps with the tents and cruiser, just never liked the camper and we looked at hundreds of them as well, hence the going back to a basic trailer .....
Campers are expensive, if money is tight then stick to tents and you still need all the other gear and it is after all only the tent part ...
Go to a shop that sell campers and have a good look at them..
Cheers buddy, good luck

Jude, the tent tops bolt to the trailer, thru the ply bottom of the tent and the top web of the trailer side.. Most trailers would be suitable for this. Ebay can be a good place to look for trailers and tents, but for storage etc, you may want a trailer with higher sides, which may mean a custom made one. If you plan to use it later for offroad use, it maybe better to get one setup for that service now, rather than have to sell one to buy an other. Oztrail make a pretty good tent top and not too expensive.

I take it you are in Melbourne? If you are near Cranbourne and would like to look at a trailer I am building, tent top not on yet, it may make it easier to understand.

Hi Jude, we did exactly what you want to do some years ago. We wanted an off roader so we brought a 7x4 with 500mm side trailer. I had a torneau cover made for it as we were not getting the tent for some time. When we were ready for the tent I found a camper trailer company how made the whole top for us at a cost of $4300, that included the mattress, awning , poles, ropes and pegs etc, it was made by a reputable company. So in the end I think it cost us $5500. I brought a caravan water tank which I put in side the trailer.

If you really need a trailer and want to save some coin prior to purchasing a Camper Trailer maybe hire one initially for the Christmas run.
If you do end up going to the Pyrenees Gathering in November you may get some great ideas from other EO folk in regards to trailer set ups for camping.

Cheers Kev

Hey, Jude,....(sorry)..old beatles fan...just couldnt help myself..
Some good advice above...you need to decide if an onroad 6 by 4 trailer will meet
your needs as it is the cheaper option. You can add a camper top at a later date.
Storage is limited when compared with a high side trailer...50cms..the usual size
for an offroad type is 7 by 4. Probably cost around $2 k. Camper tops available
for this trailer too. I bought a trailer & added an Oztrail top, the all up cost less
than $4.5 k. It is relatively simple to bolt the top to the trailer & you and a helpful
handyman type will handle it, or you could look for a used camper. There are many around..have a look on eBay as a guide. The suggestion to hire one & see
how it suits you is a good one, ,you may need to move fast to get one for Xmas.
cheers....oldbaz.

thanks everyone - have been haunting ebay for months now so have an idea of what is going on but have been dreaming of buying one for months and reality is setting in - budget not as good as it was since I am no longer working (studying instead - which will benefit the budget in the long run). I had thought about hiring a trailer for the xmas trip and will look into it but as we will be gone for around 2 weeks I figured that hire would get quite pricey and may be better to invest in a trailer. Lets face it a trailer is always going to be a handy thing to own, I used to be able to borrow one regurlarly but not these days.

the main thing was how they went together and if we needed to look at anything special to put them together.

I have thought long and hard about the onroad/offroad bit and realistically (with me just starting a course I anticipate will take me 5 years) I reckon we are at LEAST 5 years away from being able to upgrade to a 4wd (hopefully the commodore continues to serve us well in the mean time) so I reckon that we might just look at an onroad one for now and look to replace it later, am sure we will get our moneys worth in the mean time....sometimes we have to be realistic at what we want Vs what we can afford unfortunately.

so looking for a 4x6 trailer with high (50mm) sides then (and then will need to learn to reverse with the bloody thing)!

Jude
oh and yes in Melbourne but other side - Cranbourne - if you are putting the camper part on is there any chance that someone could take some pics as you do it?

www.trailerdeals.com.au

My first camper trailer was like this. Worked fine. We used turnbuckles to secure the top to the trailer. This was easier than using bolts and much easier to line up when dropping the top onto the trailer. We set up 4 small block and tackles, one in each corner, to raise the tent on its heavy ply base, up into the roof of the garage. This enabled us to use the trailer asa trailer when required and dropping the top down and securibg the turnbucles was pretty simple.
This is a bit quick as an explanation. If it is of interest, let me know and I will answer in more detail.