campomatic v aussiswag

G'day

I do not own an Aussie Swag but the gentleman who owns this site does. Having a read at this link may be of assistance Trailer Travels

Aussie Swag are close by and build an excellent product. A close comparison of specs will also reveal a value for money product.

You may also find this site of interest Camper Trailers Group

Regards

Paul

Although it's probably not what you are looking for as I don't own either, but my Adventure off roader CT doesn't splash fat onto anything, can use the kitchen undercover any time (even on the side of the road), has absolutely no dust ingress at all in my experience, has abolustely no water ingress when fording up to 2 M, prevents rocks and dust build up on the rear of the troopy and tracks perfectly both on and off road. No bending to cook, open up or un pack, eliminates the need for gas lanterns and food storage boxes (has in built pantry).

Are built in Adelaide and I've always found their after sales service to be great.

They have stand at the show

Hi Trevor, We bought an Aussie Swag in August 2004 and have been extremely happy with it. We have used it on around 20 trips - mostly weekenders with the most recent being 2 weeks up to Lawn Hill and surrounds.

Dust proofing is excellent although we did get minute amounts in through where some cable bundles enter the camper but some more silicon will fix this.

When loaded up with water and provisions the ride is beter than our Patrol with very little bounce. I must say the suspension is top notch. We put non slip matting in the pantry and under sink which did a great job and preventing items from sliding around.

With regards to the kitchen, a removeable berklite (?) spash back is provided which attaches to the canvas. This prevents any foodstuffs being accidently thrown around the kitchen but there is also the stainless windbreak covers that is setup around the stove to stop fat spray from cooking. We use the stove extensively and the canvas is still like new.

What don't I like..... Well I can't think of anything except maybe the 12 volt system when we bought it (now changed on the newer modles).

What really makes a camper feel comfortable is how you personalise it with your own additions. We had totally changed the 12 configuration to suit our needs. Also added a alloy checkerpate section to the roofrack to transport firwood and bikes as the tend to rub on the floor section. Future plans are for a generator box on the side of the storage box. The front storage box quickly fills when you add chainsaws, generators, yabby traps, boogy boards and then all the camping gear however this is work in progress.

I have done some small write ups on our camper which are located at our homepage. You may find some additional info there. Please email me if you want to know anything else. We live North Brisbane so if you want to have a look or take for a tow let us know.

Regards
David

Hi revor,
Have had an Aussiswag for three years now.
Take it camping every other weekend and to Uluru from Brisbane once across the Plenty Highway. Had little problems.

Replaced the ball with a TREG hitch.

Friends etc liked ours so much they followed suite and purchased one as well.

Other frinds with campomatic also have had little prolems.

Best bet is to see which one has the facilities you require

Regards

Redeye

Hi Trev,
We have just done the same as you and looked at both of these campers and more. We have decided on the Kimberley kamper ltd edt ,they should be at the show ,there wasn't much differance in pricing between the top models. All are good in there own way but we feel the design and bulld quality on the KK is excellent.We are picking it up today .
Good luck with what ever you decide .

Col

Hi Trevor,
We have really done a lot of looking at CT's over the last 3 months and we live near the Aussie Swag factory so looked really hard at them.

Like Col above us...we have ordered a Kimberley Kamper Limited Edition....Why???

The Gull Wing Box with slide out stainless steel draw and compartments is a far better storage option than the big fibreglass box on the draw bar of the Aussie Swag. You don't have to lean over the edge of the box and reach way down the bottom to get something...only to find after the big stretch, that you're covered in dust that was on the box and has now rubbed off onto your shirt etc.

The Roof / floor of the KK is Checker plate Alloy and not fibreglass which is a lot stronger option especially if you are throwing firewood on top on your way to a camp site.

The Aussie Swag factory would not budge on his price of $30,000 for a Rover LX with ensuite, one end wall and draw bar mounted generator box.

3 KK dealers moved $2500 to bring the price of the KK Limited Edition to $30,000 with an end wall, tropical roof, extra 3 jerry can rack in front of the gullwing box. This gave us room inside the gullwing box to store the Honda EU20i generator and take 3 jerry cans as well.

If you're going to a show, compare all at one time while all the features are fresh in your mind.

It's fun ordering a new CT....we pick ours up next month and are having 3 weeks shakedown and scheduled 6 weeks in '06 for the Red Centre and a further 4 weeks for the gulf a little later in the year.

Not half excited ...can't you tell.

Happy camping
Rick & Julie

Trevor

Our Aussie Swag is a 2001 model off road challenger. We love it.

It has done over 40000 kms of trips including several out to the desert country and into Vic high country. We took it (dragged it) from Bluff Hut over to Hewitt Hut. If you don't know the road it has numerous erosion dips across the road.

The dust proofing is great. I wipe the rubber seals and the body where they fit and dust has never been a problem. The advantge is the quick setup and packup. We usually keep very mobile and rarely camp more than 1 night in one place.

It tows well and has never faltered. I did get a small stone in the brakes while north of Camoweel and during the clearing I changed the bearings as the rear seal seemed to be chewed out.

The swing kitchen is great and tidy back against the side and no we do not get fat over the canvas.

Problems:- I find cooking in wind driven rain a pain and even with an awning there is hole above edge of the pantry.
I don't have a storage box at the front but would find this handy to put wet awning s and muddy pegs in when packing up in the rain.

During any rain and it has been through quite a bit, we stayed nice and dry. A side wall adjacent to the door would be handy to allow door to be open in light rain.

I have a small and large awning and find these great if it looks like rain as the windows can be left open to avoid condensation.

Friends have recently bought a new one and the changes are great. Double roof, kitchen light, 12v socket outside.

As stated above, I think both products are probably fine and you need personal preferences to decide which one. I don't think you will be disappointed with either.

Alan!MPG:5!

The cape york is probably the best one however it is very expensive. Almost unbreakable. Some models up near $30K
The campomatic does let some dusty in after a couple of years as the rubber or lastice seal does get hard and fails to meet near the front of the trailer.
The model a mate had you had to move the spare then lower the tailgate before unfolding the floor then the tent section. Bit involved for something that should be much faster.

Trevor
We were looking for a hard floor camper also and came down to those 2 great choices. I am as interested in the responses to your post as you are I imagine.

The only thing I didn’t like about Aussieswag was angle section draw bar. Campomatic and KK use RHS section. I have talked to the owner of Aussieswag and his knowledge / experience very impressive but I just can’t get comfortable with that type of draw bar for outback touring.

On the other hand the extremely large RHS draw bar section going into a light chassis as with the (recent) KK is normally the sort of detail that leads to fatigue cracking where the rigid section connects to the less rigid section. Fatigue is what you get from repetitious loading - i.e. problems don’t become apparent for some time. I rang KK to ask about that (i.e. precautions they had taken, load testing they had done) and got a sales pitch....................

Good luck.

Hi Trevor

We tossed up between a kk and Aussie Swag, but i bought the kk because it tracks exactly behind the tow vehicle witch i think is very important in off road conditions. If we were to change tow vehicle u can purchase other swing arms to suit, the gull wing box is a lot easier to access also. The kids room is great how it zips on, but the assie had other things i liked, the small annex for over night stays has an inverter etc.
My aunt and uncle have a campomatic and are very happy with it, no dust and one thing i really liked was being able to pack it up with the annex attached.
All three are great campers i have not heard anyone that has complained about these brands other than not getting to use them enough.

Cheers Mattie

Thanks for all of your replys

We ended up buying a -------Kimberly Kamper Ltd Edition.
Originally this rig was out of our price range. However it was on 'special' for the show.
After comparing the storage areas and a few other things we eventually changed our mind away from the C-o-m and the AS and went with the KK. The AS saleman was also one of the reasons . Would not budge from their price and would not install Jackaroo alloy compatable wheels.

So now we have to live with our decision. It only took three years!!
hope to see you all on the road some time.

Trevor