Heards Campers, message for Thomo

Submitted: Monday, Apr 26, 2004 at 18:50

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Nino & Kerry (VIC)

Thomo,
Yes, in fact we have had a hassle with our zip on the cover!! We had used the camper about 4 times and were outside of the warranty and it was just a few teeth that were causing problems. We took it back and were quoted $100 to fix it, which we didn't think was too bad, but as we hadn't used it that much, we were a bit put out by it. Said he'd order up a zip, we left the camper and he said it would be ready in the week, three weeks later we were still waiting. We were going away so picked it up and haven't been bothered to go back as yet, as it is working ... touch wood. As I said, it's just a few teeth, which Simon played around with. The stitching is also starting to get a little frayed. How long before yours buggered up? On the subject, were you generally happy with the overall quality of the camper? We haven't been able to fault the stitching or the canvas work on the actual camper, but I wasn't too impressed with the general finish of the trailer, ie the very cheap clasp & hasp holding the jerry can holders shut, no grommets fitted to any of the wiring where it came through the body of the trailer ..... very flimsy rear door, but as stated, I have fixed/replaced a lot of these faults, and we paid only $6500 for ours as opposed to $14,000 which was the nearest quote for what we wanted. Your comments would be interesting.
Nino & Kerry

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Reply By: thomo - Monday, Apr 26, 2004 at 23:02

Monday, Apr 26, 2004 at 23:02

Hi nino and kerry
I took mine away for a month in september 2002 we went thru broken hill to innaminka camerons corner long reach and i noticed the vinyl was coming apart on the cover.It got progresivly worse as we went,So on the way home i stopped in at heards shop and he said that he had not seen this happen before and it was a fault with the material so he said to send it back to him when i got home so i did. I thought that he was going to send me a new one but all he did was cut the front of and sew another section on it looked preety crap so i rang the dealer i got it of to complain,He rang heards and simon said it that it had got damaged and it wasen't a fault i dont know how it changed so quick.But that was the only problem i had with it i think there a very good camper for the money i dont now why people pay $15000 for the same thing in other brands.I agree with what your saying about build quility a little dodgy in some areas but i did around 10000klm with mine and it still looked like new when i got home apart from the cover.One other thing i would have done to mine is replace the foam seal around the tailgate and the bed base to the trailer with proper rubber door seal to try and stop the dust getting in we had a lot of trouble with that the foam didnt last very long.
thomo.

AnswerID: 56095

Reply By: flappan - Tuesday, Apr 27, 2004 at 09:44

Tuesday, Apr 27, 2004 at 09:44

Interesting conversation on these Campers as I also have a Heards Campertrailer.

Bought it August last year.

"On the subject, were you generally happy with the overall quality of the camper? We haven't been able to fault the stitching or the canvas work on the actual camper, but I wasn't too impressed with the general finish of the trailer, ie the very cheap clasp & hasp holding the jerry can holders shut, no grommets fitted to any of the wiring where it came through the body of the trailer ..... very flimsy rear door, but as stated, I have fixed/replaced a lot of these faults, and we paid only $6500 for ours as opposed to $14,000 which was the nearest quote for what we wanted. Your comments would be interesting. "

Thats about my impression. I am VERY happy with the trailer , mostly because of the Price. Sure , a few little things have gone wrong , the interior light , got left "on" and nearly burn't the trailer down, and the Spare tyre has to be left flat , to fit on the wheel holder , but , I'm sure there are issues with the more expensive trailers as well.

AnswerID: 56155

Reply By: Colin T - Tuesday, Apr 27, 2004 at 10:33

Tuesday, Apr 27, 2004 at 10:33

Interesting stuff about the Simon Heard Campers. We saw a Heard Camper at Tambo Campers near Knox City, on the surface they looked quite okay , good value formoney.We looked at the way the cover zipped on as we'd heard lots of pros and cons about zip covers. Now we're glad we didn't go for it. We ended up buying a Tambo camper instead as their price was really great and the quality in the canvas and trailer was way ahead. We'd been looking around fora year or more trying to find a good camper trailer for our family of 5, but didn't have the $12000+ that they all looked like costing. We've gone thousands of kms with it and are very happy with performance and how easy it is to use.

Cheers,
Col

AnswerID: 56162

Reply By: Steve L - Tuesday, Apr 27, 2004 at 12:22

Tuesday, Apr 27, 2004 at 12:22

We've had our Adventurer since mid 2000, and haven't experienced any problems with the zips or frayed stitching. As mentioned above in the first post, the only problem we had was with the cheap clasp for the jerrycans - we lost both jerries somewhere between Betoota and Birdsville (thankfully both only full of water, and thankfully we weren't headed anywhere where lack of water was a really serious problem without a chance to reload the stores!).

Flimsy tailgate? I don't know how old your camper is, but our tailgate is fine and now has a fullsize kitchen unit on it, and still hasn't caused any problems. Sounds like Simon has changed 'standards' somewhere along the line, or that there are just the occassional ones that get through with a few things not quite right. The trailer is still going strong and we are more than impressed enough with its finish. Yes it could be better I suppose, but not $6,000+ better as per the price tags on others products.

The canvas work is excellent (as you'd expect having been in the business for ages), and has presented no problems (as it's weathered properly - isn't it Flappan?? dig dig).

AnswerID: 56179

Follow Up By: Nino & Kerry (VIC) - Wednesday, Apr 28, 2004 at 22:33

Wednesday, Apr 28, 2004 at 22:33

Hi all,
It's great to get so much feed back. Sounds like we're mostly in the same boat!
We looked at far too many campers, all of which got more and more expensive (the O'Briens being the most) Simon's was the last that we looked at and by far the best value for money, with everything on it that we wanted. I had a chance to have a good look over it when we saw it and noted the few things that I mentioned in the previous post at the time, so I knew what I was getting into before it was delivered. It cost me no more than $100 to fix up the points that I thought were a bit weak, and since spent a couple of hundred putting a 12V battery system on it, and replaced the rear door. I now think we have a trailer that is second to none, and have campaigned it to Qld and back and driven it over several tracks without fault. I would say to anybody, don't be put off buying a Heard's because overall we're really happy with it and it is a much more affordable option than some of the others out there.
Cheers
Nino & Kerry

FollowupID: 318221

Follow Up By: flappan - Thursday, Apr 29, 2004 at 08:53

Thursday, Apr 29, 2004 at 08:53

"Simon's was the last that we looked at and by far the best value for money, with everything on it that we wanted."

ABSOLUTELY agree with that. Others we looked at we over $12000 for a similar setup.

Yeah look, you can find "better" CT's , but geez , you would be hard pressed to find a better "value" CT anywhere.

FollowupID: 318270