Forward Folding camper trailers

cra...p is exactly what I thought when I went shopping for a new trailer. They are about the cheapest Aust made hard floor camper.

I did buy one and what you say is correct about being heavy. You certainly know you have it behind you. But then you do get an enormous amount of camper with it, which is what we particularly liked. If it’s just the two of us, we’re several hundred kilos lighter, but if we’re the mother ship for the whole family or a bunch of friends, we’re heavier, but we can perform that role really well too, and we’re really pleased that both roles can be fulfilled.

We are able to open our barn door on the Pajero but that is as a result of choosing the removable winch option.

We bought a Chinese built camper after ascertaining the company had established the necessary relationships with their Chinese builder and his workforce. And that they would back it up. They are a small business owned and worked by two couples in WA who are both seasoned campers themselves and simply don’t have the resources to be able to carry lots of unhappy customers. As small business operators ourselves, we understood that intuitively because it describes our businesses pretty well too.

There were certainly far cheaper campers on the market but the one we bought was less than half the price of many Australian-built campers that frankly didn’t look particularly robust or well appointed.

They also hire their campers out, which seems to me a very good testing ground and in a place the size of WA, they certainly wouldn’t be staying in business if they had to deliver service across the length and breadth of WA if they broke down often.

I spoke to present owners and past hirers and was able to get a very good sense of the product and went with that rather than a simple blanket ban on anything Chinese. There are some terrible Chinese-built campers on the market and there are some equally dreadful Australian-built campers, so I think you’ve got to work out what you want and go looking for it until you find it.

And form judgements based on the people behind them rather than blanket bans. After all, everything comes down to relationships.

Being a bit pedantic there.

Not defending them as I think their products are way over rated and actually not so good. They take shortcuts just like everyone else but...

My Johnnos camper built by them:
The steel comes from Port Kembla.
The independent suspension is fabricated 'in house' by Cub in Nth Rocks.
The tent is made in Queensland by Crazy Dog Canvas.
The brakes etc are all Alko who have factories in Sydney, Melb and NZ.
The camper is built in Sydney.
Not sure where the copper is smelted or the pop rivets are made though and the tyres are American so I guess you win...

I too have a 1997 Camp'o'matic which I have owned for 12 years. It has been around OZ twice and on the GRR ,Plenty, Tanami, up the OTT etc.

It has rarely given a problem and AFAIR all I have ever had to do was replace the Koni shocks, and a few zip sliders. Oh and my water tank wore through. It was plastic so cheap and easy to replace.

A major attraction is how light it is at about 1000Kg fully loaded with water and 2 jerries of Diesel.
On the strength of mine my daughter also bought a 2004 which is bigger and heavier but still maybe 1200Kg loaded.

To give an idea of how it was Oz made, everything was made in house including the tent. When I went to get spare nuts for the ALKO parallel hubs, I found the old bloke had actually made the axles himself as they had a different finer pitch than ALKO stubs!
What a great product it is and hopefully will continue to be.
Regards Philip A

As far as I remember, they aren’t forward fold, so hardly relevant.

Er well......seeing that one 'unfolds' a Campomatic to the rear and then needs to 'fold' it forward, Terry's query and the responses on the Campo would appear to be in order, no ?

Errr No it doesnt

I also think that since around 2005 that they have been manufactured in China along with Trak Shak.

I'd be careful with this list, two of them, Jayco and Track Trailer are on "High Alert" with the Lemon RV's and Caravan site

You'd think this mob would question any of their "members" on the Lemon List

I wouldn’t take too much notice of that site, the founder’s complaints against Lotus Caravans were found to be mainly caused by a lack of, or inadequate service by an independent assessor.
Track Trailer have an excellent reputation.

Founder of Lemon RV's site has been discredited so many times, I wouldn't take much notice of what is on their site.

Macca.