Cavalier Campers

We have a cavalier camper. 1995 model(I think). As a strong and durable no frills camper I believe that it is the best value for money around.

Small things such as the 13oz canvas allround. Clears for the windows, all widow openings well off the ground which stops dirt splatterduring rain from getting inside if the window is open.

What else....I think you will find the steel forming the drawbar extends all the way to the rear of the trailer. Checkerplate floor makes sliding bims and boxes more easy.

Once you have mastered the foldup procedure(due to the heavy and stiff canvas) packing up is a dream and is extremely quick.

The zip on cover keeps 99.9% of the dust out.

In fact we stored quite a bit gear ontop of the bed base and under the mattress;
2 fold up directors chairs
2 fold up tables
the cavalier ladder
a clothes airer
a banana lounge
1 inflated single air matress

then the foam matress goes on top of that and the tent is packed up. On top of the tent goes ;
the annex
1 very large poly tarp
An industrial poly/canvas groundsheet which is layed out before the tent is deployed
the bundled up tent poles for the annex and tarps etc
4 crab traps.

Then the cover goes on

I feel tired just typing all of that!!!

The whole thing is extremly tough and heavy duty as indicated by the weight of it. Our trailer weighed just over 500kg totally stripped. Only trailer and tent. Zero accessories. I fitted 10.5 R15 tyre to match the car . They did fit but I had to slightly bent the lip on the mudguards out fractionally to avoid a rub. Unless you knew about it you would never notice.

Another thing I noticed is that they is very little on it to fail. No slide out bbq's or a multitude of doors etc. The only thing that can realy break is the suspension(and that is for any trailer not just the Cavalier) and if you carry a hub and couple of spare u-bolts and fish plates to get you out of trouble you will be set. HAving said that I have never done a hub and I have only had 2 U-bolts break since we have owned the trailer and our last trip was 55000km throught the entire top end Kimberly Pilbara etc etc driving on as many dirt roads as we could find.

I cannot complain one bit about the CAvalier, I do feel a little jealous when I see other travellers get into their swisho pop up etc but all is forgotten when they tell us that half the places we go would destroy their vans.

There are a couple of pics here of the camper.

Diesel 1,
Bought a Cavalier off roader with the 14' tent option. Had a 60 litre water tank fitted & a 12 volt deep cycle battery charged with a solenoid system from the Narvara. Am just in the process of fitting 240 v . Have also fitted a swing away 3 bike push bike rack, of my own design, to the rear. Did the rounds before we bought ours & these were definitely the best quality camper, of this type & price range, by a long shot

Diesel,
the only changes I have seen is the improvement to the tailgate locking system and I think they may have slightly lengthened the drawbar to enable a toolbox at the front..not sure.

Here is another tip to help you decide between the 14ft and the 9 ft.

I found that when we pulled into caravan parks and rain was on the way I actually parked the trailer so that the last 100 mm of tent floor would just overhang the concrete. My cut to size poly/canvas groundsheet is exactly the right size and is layed out before the trailer is positioned. Basically the trailer is parked on the grass and the tent pulled over the concrete, This ensured that there was almost zero risk of getting water into the tent (got flodded in Cairns after 12 inches in 6 hrs a couple of years ago) and reduced the pack up time considerably as there was no mud on anything. I have also set the whole thing up on the concrete but you must always make sure that you overhang the end of the tent so that you can peg the 2 corners down.
This may not be possible with a 14 ft long floor.

Make sure you order exactly what you want when you buy the camper. The factory are apparently very busy and are reluctant to make additional annex pieces within a reasonable time. 4 to 6 weeks.

Be careful looking at the Cavaliers at that place in Darwin...Winellie Rd isn't it? you may end up coming home with a boat or even a motorbike from a few doors down the road on the other side of REPCO>>>>>>>

REmember to pack them up leave the windows ove the bed halfway down . The doors can be zipped but do not press the velcro together at the bottom. Air will build up and billow the floor out a bit but this actually helps in the folding. YOu will get the hang of it after a few times. More hurry less haste.

Ive got a cavalier with a 14ft tent and attached annexe
we reckon they are sensational and after looking at heaps we thought they were the best value around.
we have recently ,last winter , been to the kimberley for six weeks without a problem, we got the water tank and slide out kitchen .

we can set up in 10 minutes , on over night stop i would regulary not even peg down .
we have three kids who sleep in swags , these are stored on top of the queen bed(the bed is one of the biggest around) and as you can imagine when unpacking we just slide the swags onto the floor and they can hop straight into bed .

we love it as i'm sure you will

big john

Diesel1

Not sure where you are based. We had narrowed our shortlist down to one including Cavalier and then found Lifestyle Camper. Many similar features but less $.

Bundy

I bought a new Off road Cavalier last year for just over $8000 and love it. For the same money there is nothing else on the market like it. It's the little things that did it for me. New tyres, all steel, good jerry holders etc. I would recommend the 9' tent with annex and the wind break around the kitchen gives it that little bit more protection from the elements. I've towed mine from Victoria to Brisbane and lived in it for about a month. I love it.

They've been around 20 odd years, so they must be ok. At this weekends Adelaide camping fest they were throwing in a free awning with every trailer sold during show week.

Dean

Diesel ,

I have uploaded a couple of pics of the camper into Yahoo photos. Copy and paste the line below to your address bar.

http://au.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/brett_and_julie/my_photos

pics are a little poor as I took digital photos of normal photos . In fact I didn,t even take them out of the album.

cheers

Brett

ps . Have you done any culvert fishing up there for Barra. I have heard that te Hopewells rd spot has been very productive.