Jayco swan/ eagle camper with portacot

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Hi Kate,

We went through this scenario..... long, long ago.
Our camper then was a soft floor model and the portacot worked fine for a start.
Then we moved to basic folding stretchers with sleeping bags. Worked fine.
Even later the kids 'moved out' to a small tent. Worked even finer!

But what's this about "aircon/heater? Are you trying to bring-up namby-pambies?

You may be able to rig some sort of cargo net up across the front of the kids bed to prevent them from falling out. That would solve the porta-cot problem.

I am confident I have seen jaycos with a mesh rail along the kid’s bed side to keep them contained. You are zero chance of getting a Porta cot in one unless you sacrifice the dining area. High chairs are great to keep the small ones contained for a small time. Hard floor rear fold campers work well in this scenario. We toured all over with babies in one.

Hi Kate,

We were doing the motel room/cabin thing when we bought our first camper trailer. (with a small tent for remote areas) But we don't have small kids.

I was getting pressure to buy a camper from people close to me & resisted the idea quite strongly at 1st. (Someone didn't want to sleep in a tent anymore, but I didn't like the idea of towing everywhere)

In the end, I caved in & we bought a cheap soft floor camper trailer. It was Chinese & I didn't expect too much of it.

That camper went all over the outback for the 5 years we had it & never let us down ever. It still had the Chinese tyres on it when we sold it, the spare hadn't been used. I only ever did maintenance on the bearings & suspension, nothing else.

We had a pop-top caravan for a couple of years after we sold the soft floor.

We now own a hard floor camper trailer (Aussie made). The maintenance on it is exactly the same as it was on the Chinese job.

Of the 3, I'd recommend the soft floor version above the other 2 for a family starting out.

* They're comparatively cheap to buy & much easier to sell (due to more people being able to afford them)

* They have a lot more room under the bed than a hard floor does for storage.

* The floor space on them can be MASSIVE, depending on what you buy.

The only drawback with them is that they take longer to erect & pack up. Even that is getting better with units like the Cameron Concept.

I've noticed in our travels that families tend to use them & the Jayco style campers that you've asked about, far more than hard floor campers.

The drawback with the campers you mention is dust ingress on gravel roads. If you don't travel on gravel roads, that's not a problem.

Good luck with it! :-)