Camper trailer - leaf or independent suspension

Diesel82


I have a camper trailer with leaf springs. I have done the gibb river road and a lot of other drives without any problems.

I have never had anything in the camper damaged, even on the roughest roads.

If you go for leaf springs make sure they are shackled springs - not slipper springs.


Tjilpi

I've had both for a few years each and no problems with either. Seems that it is the trailer that gets the benefit from independent - not directly to the driver). Ind setups are said to give the trailer and its contents an easier life overall. The premium trailer makers (maybe the higher priced ones - not just premium :-o) all have ind as standard.
Been researching caravans a lot lately and all of the 'rough road capable' makers (Trakmaster, Kedron, Bushtracker, et al) offer independent setups - some of them have 3 types of ind to choose from - and leaves figure in some of the ind designs !

Coils/independent , are the go, we have a Trak Shak, CT, and love it,. The CT just seems to effortlessly waddle along

Coils just seem to cope with anything you chuck at it, and believe me, we have our setup in some gr8 spots, not to say that leaf springs will not do the job, they will, but the coils/independent, do it easier.

One word of advice, and that is to steer clear of those rubberised torsion bar type independant, they really are crap.

Cheers
Bucky

Diesel,

I have independent on my offroad trailer, have a look at my rig pics.

It cost about $2500 just for the suspension and it travels very well regardless of whether it is loaded or not. I would not look at getting standard leaf spring suspension again.

Cheers Kev

Just have a think also about how easily a repair can be carried out on each type of suspension too.

Buy a Tvan, rides like a dream!

Ask yourself this question - how many cars with superior ride characteristics use leaf springs to achieve this result.

The only vehicles that still use them are utes and the like for load carrying, often only at the rear.

Everything else uses coils, and your trailer should too.

I had a Campomatic for a while, and it handled the Cape York trip beautifully, hardly anything inside moved at all, even over all the corrugations. Was chatting with a guy at Musgrave on his way up, who had already broken 2 leaf springs on his trailer.

I think this discussion is missing a key point. Most leaf spring set ups don't have shockers. I think it is the shockers that make the biggest difference to the ride, not the independent set up. On a heavy off road camper I would go for leaf springs, but only with good shockers. Reason? Expense and ease of repair outback. You are very hard pressed to distinguish between towing leaf with good shockers and ind suspension.

Leafs are easier to repair as we found out, we did a huge amount of damage under the CT and we had everything fixed by the gentleman in copley and we lost 2 days on our trip. if that had of been independant we would have trouble maybe finding parts.
personally i would stick to the leafs our trailer has done a lot of work and is still going strong.

DaveT

Bit of a personal choice thing really. Sure, Ind will cost you more, a lot more, & will be difficult to repair in remote locations. it has been suggested ind gives a better ride, maybe, but if things arent breaking what is wrong with leaves ? One respondent spent $2k
on ind, I spent that on a complete trailer. Yep, leaves, & it only required new bushes after 13k of outback roads, nothing broke
or was damaged. No shocks, no brakes, no problems. Some consider ind the only way to go, & thats their choice, but I find
leaves effective & economical with low maintenance required.
Avoid slippers..shackled is the way to go. Good luck with your
new camper.....oldbaz.

The six year old Cavalier has flattened one of the leaf springs after cape york and gibb river road as well a few other shorter runs. There have been other bits of cracking in the body but I kind of expect it even if the hilux that tows it carrys more weight and still like new.

I reckon shockies should have been fitted to qualify as an off road trailer. Never mind. I better get out to the trailer shop and get a new set and fit some shockies myself. Better for the contents too.

Owen

You know the more you pay for a trailer or camper combo the more people feel they need to justify the outlay for the rig.
I have travelled over 50-60 thousand ks over some of the worst roads that OZ can throw at you, and the real result is---- has the trailer held together. Well yes it has and we are heading off again these vic school hols and I have just replaced the spring hangers and bushes of our eye to eye leaf sprung suspension on our 7x4 trailer.
Dont get sucked in by the supposed hype that you NEED a though rig. These companies make massive profits from people that feel they need to be though bushy people, with really though rigs.
For christ sake dont get sucked in, they are making the profit from the fact that you believe that they make the only rig that will stand the Aussie bushy tracks that you intend to travel.
Don't re-invent the wheel, stay with something that works, look at what the Bushies use themselves and ask yourself, do I need this over the top product that has been designed to take lots of money from me to satisfy a trailer manufacturer.
Be honest with yourself, Dont get suckered !!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone is different and has a budget. But just because leaf springs work and work well doesnt mean that IND isn't better.
As already stated if leafs were better then every current 4wd and car would use them.
There is no doubt that my Hilux rear end with leaf springs would handle most off road driving better with IND instead. As for making repairs, the setup on our trailer would be as easy to weld up or repair if needed as any thing else.
I do agree on the profits that are probably made off these trailers but the bottom line is if everyone thought thay were being riped off then there would be no business anyway. For me if you can afford the extra for IND then it is worth it.