Camper trailers buying advice/warnings

We did a lot of research before buying 3 years ago and I’m still happy with our decision. We had owned Australian trailers prior. It is a trade off between budget and ammenity. Check them out in the flesh and see what they are made from. They may look somewhat similar but there are plenty of differences between brands. Some (the brands you mention) buy on the open Chinese market and customise. Some (mdc) own their own factories and build their own product. On the rearfolds we looked at there were differences in chassis size, steel v aluminium front box construction, steel v aluminium composite for the body cladding, Chinese v name brand (Dometic) stoves and sinks, elec cutout etc etc.
Since we bought ours the aust domestic 2nd hand market has dropped significantly - I’d be scouring within my budget in there as well for the big name units. There is a ‘cape York trailers’ rear fold on myswag for barely $20k at the moment. They are heirloom quality. We also quickly discounted CUB very quickly.

Hi Julian,I looked at some Aust made and some Chinese ,and finally went for a Chinese MDC rear fold after looking at the build quality and accessories that were included ,including fully dipped galvanised frame .
One of the deciding factors on price was ,why would I spend more money on a Aust built camper than I would on my 4 WD to tow it a few times a year and the fourby is used daily ,not logical I thought .

I would choose a second hand Australian built camper. As an example we had an Outback Sturt (now passed on within the family) which was almost 20 years old and with original canvas - a bit marked but without faults or leaks. That model is still being made so has stood the test of time, and is probably about $20,000 new. The older ones may not have all the fancy bits, most of which you can easily add if you want them, but will suit almost any budget and seem to be bullet proof. I’m sure there are other Aussie brands with similar heritage and prices.

If i was in the market for a camper, in the budget range, then i would be giving a used Aussie Swag camper some serious consideration. In the end , i went a used Adventure Trek hybrid van. The better half was sick of canvas.

Best of luck!

Most people will tell you that what they have dropped their 'hard earned' on is great. Very few admit to buying crap and not that many have owned several brands in order to make any sort of comparison.

There are so many personal things involved (you don't mention kids, budget, what you are towing with, etc) that there is no simple answer. Someone simply telling you that 'brand X is great' is a waste of time.

I suggest you read up on My Swag, which a forum dedicated to camper trailers (building and owning).
Read up on the different models and their owners experiences with them.
Go to the Fourby Camping shows and see some different styles in the flesh.
Lastly, try and hire a few different ones for a weekend and try them out and see what you love/hate about them.
You might find a hard floor is too small for you or too heavy for your tug etc etc

An Ozzie tent will cost around $4000 compared to a Chinese one at around $500.
There's good reasons for that but again there are plenty of shitty Aus made tents as well. Made in Aus isn't necessarily good.
You need to eyeball everything, don't forget to take the wife with you.

Camper trailers are a buyers market. I would never buy a new one as the resale drops alarmingly. There are soooo many trailers for sale and they have been for sale for a long time. Just dont rush in.

Its tricky Julian and you need to match it to your way of doing things.

Some of the things that made up our minds were ->

Almost all took to long to put up and hence were unsuitable for touring trips where you stayed only 1 night .
An important part of this for us was easy access to all the stuff in back of our patrol which meant that camper didn't have to be disconnected each night.
To make this work we got ours made with long single beam drawbar which is easy to step over.

Rear fold ones were just to long and required much longer space to set up in than side fold. They also require more level ground than soft floor.

Most are just to complex and hence usually heavy - we wanted loaded weight under 750kg and towball load under 50 kg which meant no need for brakes.

Almost no hard floor could do above off the shelf .

Until I get round to making such a unit we had a basic soft floor driver side fold out item built which meet all our requirements above. ($5000 Aussie camper trailers).
It users leaf springs and is very tough surviving many hard core trips now.

Our car has a double bed mattress in it and its a bit tight but is used when we just stay 1 night enabling us to be step up much quicker.
We set up camper only when its 2 or more nights.

Also when we leave camper for a day trip the car and also camper requires minimal packing up.

The main disadvantage of our approach is that the car becomes a 2 seater.

Try Adventure campers. Made in Adelaide. Many brands say Aussie made but only a small percentage of CT needs to be put together here to qualify as made in Australia. I asked retailer and he was very honest about his CTs, all made in China but can be labelled made in Australia.

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