The Good & The Bad !!!!!

First big Q, What's your price range? Do you have any idea on how much you intend to spend becasue it will have a big influence on type of trailer/van and features. For example, hard floor trailers (new) start from $20K whereas soft floor can start (new) from as little as $4K.

Neville,

Unless you and the missus prefer the "luxury" of a live-in, home-away-from-home that a caravan provides, in my opinion you could not do better than a hard top camper trailer, either "on-road" or "off-road".

They are light and easy to tow and contain everything you are likely to need.

Set up time is a few minutes if all you require is to flip open the top, (which then becomes the floor) to gain access to the bed area.
Additional time is required to set up an awning, say over the cooking area, but this will be the same for just about any type of camper, be it soft, or hard top.
Cooking and washing up is usually done either on the side of the camper with a pull out drawer type arrangement for hard top campers, or at the rear tailgate for most soft tops.

Have a look at www.campertrailers.org/ for individual brand/style reference.

Side Opening or Rear Opening doesn't really matter but almost all hard top campers open to the rear, the top becoming a hard floor inside the tent area.

One or two exceptions exist, such as the Ultimate Camper Trailer, which opens to the side to become the bed area.

After looking at the various brands and options, try renting a couple for a weekend to get an idea what they are really like.

Thanks guys,
I like the "rent one first" idea, a mate has suggested that.

So To Date The List Of Prefered Items Is:
1 Hard Top (with roof rack)
2 Pull/Slide-out Kitchen (with good hinges & locks) (stove near gas bottle)
3 Water Tank (with pump & gauge)
4 Deep cycle battery
5 Fridge

Try looking at the www.campertrailers.org website.

There a few people that have their CTs shown.
Helpful group.
Also some good tech articles.
And (and not least) have a good listing including most manufacturers so you can browse before getting serious and doing the shows.

They have camping weekends where you would be welcome to come along just for the day (or hire a CT and come for the weekend) and just look and talk CTs.

hard floor, soft floor, kitchen locations and set up, chassis and suspension set up are all very personal items. Like nissan/toyota and engel/waeco discussions - almost!

We just bought a CT, after looking for 12 months to decide on a type, and then 6 months tying down the price and options.

Good luck :o)

one of the main things to consider is the suspension even for dirt roads most of which have corrugations, independant is the way to go, i have a track shack with this system and it has done more than 80,000 ks over some pretty rough country and it has never failed, all i have done is up graded the shockies. i have travelled with mates with leaf sprung trailers and they have all let their owners down and 2 of the campers were new, also putting al your water in a underneath tank is not always good you can loose all your water and not know it, this is also from experience. regards col

Neville

We spent 6 years and 100 klicks with an Aussie Swag which matches the specs you are building up. It was mega great. It had independent suspension & shockers because we wanted to, and did, go on bad roads.

Just two thoughts: You don't really need a gauge for the water tank - if you have a hand pump you will be well aware of how much water you are using - but always have at least a couple of 10l jerries too.

We " made do" quite comfortably with a 40 litres fridge in the car run off the second battery. For a long time it was a 3 way and we hauled it out and ran it on gas overnight no worries. Saves space and weight on the trailer, and the extra wiring.

We traded the trailer for $14k a couple of years back, so if you could pick up one like that it would fit in your budget. And I'd have bought it in the condition it was in except we needed to downgrade to a caravan.

Max
Max

HO, we have an Aussie Swag too. Love it. One to add to the list - have wheels and stud pattern that are compatible with your 4wd. Worked for us in the Kimberly last year when we had several flats on the same day.

Best of luck: RayJen

Don't know what state you're in but the best place to go look, see, touch and kick tyres will be your state Caravan expo. The 2007 Victorian Caravan & Camping Expo is at Caufield Race Course 28th March to 3rd April. They have a similar event in every state. There were 38 campertrailer manafacturers alone last year, not including the pop-up varieties (Jayco etc). Every caravan manafacturer is there as well. Gives you the best idea as to what may suit you and yours as well as the prices. Cheers.

I have also had an excellent run out of an Aussie Swag. The hard floor allows you to find rocky/gravel camp sites to eliminate dust. We often never stay more than one night in one place and find the simple flip over of the tent without awning is all that is required. Only use awnings for long stays. Overnight the setup is very quick with no pegs required.

Mine has the old slipper type springs which have been fine to date and the camper has travelled 50K on trips to Gulf, Flinders, Dig Tree, Birdsville etc without problem.

Thanks to everyone for your responses.
I have had a friend throw Kimberly Kamper into the argument.
Sandman suggested the Pioneer.
Max, RayJen & Alan offer the Aussie Swag.
At this stage the Aussie Swag seems to get the nod!

I have also read in another thread that dust proofing is a high priority.
Do you all consider it "up there" in priorities?

So unless someone else adds to the issue it looks like I should look at these 3 brands:
Kimberly Kamper
Pioneer
Aussie Swag

Can people please offer their votes guided by experience or (like Max) by wish list.

www.tambocampers.com.au
you can get one of these for well under $10,000 then spend the rest of the $$ fitting it out how you like it. we have one and would greatly recommend them. takes me about 20mins to have fully set-up. including the awning and side walls. i leave the bed made and ready.