TRAK SHAK - BEHEADING PLANNED .

Vince ,
I will check this out.
Thanks .

Jack ,
That is a good idea . I will ring Peter and have a talk to him . I agree , they are a brilliant CT.
Thanks .

Willie

Trackshak used to make a single fold out soft top with a bouble bed 2.2x2.2 floor plus awaning out the front. all it takes is two poles and two ropes to put up and other poles are optional.

saw two second hand ones at dave benson caravans in adelaide they are worth around $7k

Worth a look to get the set up fro some one to err copy.

Regards

Tevor

Trevor ,
I found the Benson website , but it had no info of the second hand stuff .
Did these old TShaks open up to the side , or to the rear ? They sound perfect . I am a long way from Adelaide so there is no way I can duck down there for a look .
Thanks .

Yes Flappa , I am in Sydney and you are right about what I want . I will check out Complete Campsite .
Thanks .

I'll second that one.. Complete Campsite would be the one I'ld probly go with. They seemed very easy to talk to and very willing to help with different ideas. Wish we'd bought ours through them instead of the company we did.

Boo, where did you get your camper from as I am looking at a camper trailer and have narrowed it down to 4 manufacturers. Don't want to blow hard earned cash on a crappy one.

Which ones you looking at.

there are very few "bad" CT makers , just some better then others.

Flappa,
We're looking at Tough Country, Paramount, The Complete Campsite and Challenge.

You are certainly on a good thing with either CC or Challenge.

Dont know much about the other 2.

I personally would be happy to buy either , with my personal pref for the CC. Probably comes down to what you can get from either for the money you want to spend.

The CC guys are very good to talk to and will build what you want , rather then just say , hey , this is what we have , take it or leave it.

Spak..
I'll stress from the start that it's only my findings with the said company and others may be very happy with them.

I will also note that we havent bought any thing from 'Complete' and my oppinion on them is only from discussion and quotes recieved from them and how easy they seemed to sort out and discuss alternatives.

If you hadnt guessed our unit is a little different from an off the shelf style campertrailer..

The company we went with was 'Allterrain' in Sydney, the quotes we got from several (a lot) of different companies came down to a tie between 'Allterrain' and 'Complete', so we concidered the extra travel time from Canberra to 'Complete' and ended up going with 'Allterrain'.... BIG mistake, should have spent a few extra hours in the car and would have been a lot more satisfide in the end product. Foud that 'Allterrain' didnt bother to listen to our requirements and when we insisted that they rectified them they got all @#$%%$#@ (while still smilling and sounding polite) . They may be good for the standard product but when you ask for somthing out of the ordinary they havent a clue but still nod and say "yes we can do that.." in total the finish we got on our unit was very second grade, to the point at the end of the season I'm intending to strip the trailer etc back and recote the thing after I grind all the welding spater off and patch some of the joins etc. I couldnt recomend them to any one in all ownesty. They were so proud of the finished product they sold us they wouldnt even put their own name labels on it to identify it to others... I will concede that their tent unit is one of the better ones, but is also one of the pricier ones to boot. Problem is the tent is only half the unit..

Any way ... enough rambling.... still tryin to get over the crap and just enjoy getting out using the beast.
Heading down to Potatoe point in the morning for a few days (till Sunday) so if any one wants to drop in for a cold one feel free, we have the white Patrol and LARGE green camper..

When my wife and I go camping and expect to stay in some spots for 3-4 days , then I like to take the camper . It has a great stove , two gas bottles , incredible storage ,it will take 120 litres of water in the jerry cans and it will carry my 3.7 m Dart on a swing away rack and a 15 hp Merc mounted on the front . If it rains , it does not matter .

On our last trip through the Pilbara and Rudall , we hardly opened it because it was too much trouble for a one or two night stop . We just slept in our swags next to it .

When we go into the desert where we cannot tow , we are both happy to swag it and cook over a fire . We are pretty versatile !

Thanks ,

Darian ,
In my humble opinion , no other CT comes up to the design and build quality of the Trak Shak , so I want to hold on to it and modify it . I am sure that will raise everybody's hackles , but that is just my personal feeling and others I am sure will think differently ( I do not want to get involved with that argument )
I would not choose a hard floor trailer, because they lack the storeage room that I require - even though I love the ease with which they go up and down .
Cheers

Willie, looking around for a CT myself, the best basic fold out soft floor one that i have seen is made by a mob called sar major canvas goods. You may not have heard of them as they don't advertise much. They make them in Adelaide and the canvas is thick, heavy and the manufacturing is excellent. King bed, only a few pegs and 2 internal poles. Well worth a look if they have a distributor sydney.

Barnesy

And no i don't work for them

Barnesy,
I just checked out their website . Very impressive .
Thanks for this tip .

No hackles raised here Willie - the subject just illustrates the hugely diverse range of camping formulas that people use. The hard floors certainly have reduced storage space - and what space I have is always chokka anyway (like a shed)..... but I still take stuff I don't need !

Forgot to say.........We bought a Sar Major centre pole tent years back - will have it forever I think - so easy to use for quick stops - well made product - they know their game, and easy to deal with too.

Brother ,
How the hell are you .
In Sydney we don't have to go to Iraq , for that sort of unpleasantness .You'll have to get the eye operation like Old Coot .
Willie .

Gajm ,
I will definitely ring TS tomorrow and ask them if they have any ideas .I like your idea of using the original box and lid .
But if you pulled a tent out to the side of the bit you had opened , it would make the whole thing too wide for most camp sites . You could pull it off to the back - that would be OK . You would need to make a canvas cover for the half that you were not using ( when you had it open )
I wonder if they could design a tent that went out sideways over the two beds and maybe 8 feet further .
Let me think about this some more .
Thanks ,
Willie .

Peter ,
You could put a Shippshape plus a patio barbeque area on the top of that monster .
Was it you that bought my Cibies ?
I have agonised over the rooftop tents . I think they are a great idea BUT you have to pack them up everytime you want to use the car when you are staying somewhere for a few days , BUT 2 - I lose my roofrack space and BUT 3 - Climbing down the ladder half asleep at 4.00 am for a twinkle , could be a problem for me .
So I think I will stick to swags and CTs for the moment . Mind you , our swags are like tents - they are the Ultimate ones which have two mesh side and roof and a big flap to throw over if it rains or is too cold to look at the stars .
Cheers ,
Willie .

Funnily enough you've probably got more roof space than me, the Humvee is 500mm shorter than your 100 series and only 200 mm wider and weighs about the same. The Humvee is narrower than the outside of your mirrors by about 30mm.
It's just that it is lower and square with huge ground clearance which makes it look much bigger.
Yes it was me that bought the Cibies.
The shippshape actually works well for us and while there have been occasions when we have had a fixed camp it only takes 5 minutes to close it up and less to put back up. The other benefit is that we can move easily if the neighbours get noisy.
We've got swags too but the attraction of an innerspring mattress in the Shippshape beats the swag every time.

Peter ,
I am sorry I missed you that night . I was called up at the last minute as a reserve player in the tennis comp.
Willie .

Brewman ,
I heard that they were making the tent part in China and the trailer at their factory in Adelaide . How true that is I do not know . In China , they could make the canvas part for a quarter of the cost of the Australian made ones . The quality would be good if they paid enough and had a guy checking the quality control at the factory .
Not everything made in China is crap Brewer - even there you get what you pay for .
Cheers .