Buying a Camper Trailer

Funny that as I thought that was one of the good points with the KK ?? ( the kitchen and pantry setup ) But everyone has their own ideas ..

I have my portaloo stored in the off side front storage box ( along with all the canvas walls etc, clothes line, bbq etc )

The Aussie Offroad is an excellent CT except for one thing ( and this may not bother other people )
You can't pack the camper with clothes etc that go under the bed without having to open the camper out , as it has no rear door.. good for dust, but for me would be a major problem to pack and unpack the camper !!

Being the proud owners of an Aussie Offroad CT, we have not found it necessary to have all clothes inside the trailer. When continually travelling each day, we keep one outfit each in the truck and always keep our toiletries in the galley. As we use the camper each night, we keep out the clothes we may need the next day. Friends of ours who have travelled Aus in a CT, found that they would stop at midday to fuel up vehicle, have hot/main meal of the day and then would have a shower at facilities provided, if available. This cut down a lot of hassles at the end of the day when they were worn out and tired. If camped for a few days the clothes become a non issue.
Ozesheila.

But the problem as I said before is when you want to pack (or unpack ) the CT before a trip ( and the trip may only be one night )

I have heard of some AOC owners putting all their clothes in the 4x4 and then putting them under the bed when at camp for the 1st time !!! Bit of a pain to do it that way ??

As I said.....a great CT, but this was a major problem for the way I wanted to go camping....but maybe not for others !!!

An excellent trailer & certainly the OP should look at one.
BTW I don't have one, but a friend does!

If I had 3 kids I would seriuosly look at the Camprite !!!

Even though the KK has a bigger bedroom now available, it still means another thing to attach every time you make camp..

The Track Shack is a soft floor CT !! ( nothing wrong with that, as long as you are aware of the longer setup times etc ?? )

Me personally !!! I would pick between the Camprite or the KK..

I have not heard of the Camprite, but looking at the website it certainly appears the go for a family of five. I am planning a trip in April with a hired 'soft floor' just to experience what is involved with setting up an Annex Tent etc. Having said that I can just see the missus and 3 girls giving it to me while we flounder around setting up camp (in the dry!) The extra 10K's would be money well spent for everyone!

Hi Confucious,

Hiring a camper trailer is a great way to understand what you do/don't want. Not sure how much of the Camprite you have seen but for an overnight stop you can be setup in well under 5 minutes with no pegs or guy ropes. You even have your beds made-up ready to sleep (but will have to set bunks up).

The awning does take some time (~10 minutes) to set up and I find I only every use it if staying for more than 2 nights. While I have a full annexe I haven't ever used it, only one wall as a wind break.

Also, the attraction of sleeping well off the ground with a ladder as the only way in certainly minimises any creepy crawly entering your camper. Plus being able to camp in stoney ground (no pegs) or very soggy ground (no wet canvas on the ground) are real advantages.

My BIL has just purchased a new Camprite after trialling a Pioneer CT, very similair to the KK. He also tried a softfloor and swore never to use one again after trying to peg it out in stony ground and ended up putting weights (water conatiners) in the corners.

Anyway, we are very happy Camprite customers who find them to be a great family camper. Nothing is perfect and all have compromises but we have found the Camprite the best for us.

Cheers

Captain

Hey Gronk,

I'll bet I can set up my Trak Shak for 5 of us to sleep quicker than you can set up a KK for 5 to sleep.

Duncs

Should have said in the last follow up but just thought of it.

I'd be willing to take on the camprite too for set up time. Might be a bit bold 'cause I haven't seen one set up.

How long does it take you Captain for a quick set up just for an overnight stop?

Duncs

Hi Duncs,

Speed of setup is not the be all and end all of why the Camprite is IMHO one of the best campers for a family. But having said that I would be willing to bet my camper against your Trak Shak that I could set it up quicker, but I get to pick the location - either a concrete pad or a 2ft deep stream hahaha...

But back to reality, for an overnight stop all you have to do is:
- open the rear kitchen and lower steps down - 10 sec
- unclip the two main gullwings and pull open (gas struts) - 20 sec
- push up main tent section and clip in supports - 30 sec
- push double bed forward and clip in supports -10 sec
And thats it, 2 single beds and 1 double all ready to sleep in - beds made- after a total of just over a minute.

But in the real world, after tripping over the log in the dark, banging your head on the car door as the kids open it as you walk past and stubbing your toe after losing the left thong, well you would probably need nearly 5 minutes before the beer was in your hand after setting up:)

And as we all know, for a longer setup you will need to unpack the camp table and chairs, set up the annexe, put up the shower tent and toilet etc... and so the fact that the camper took 2 minutes or 10 fades into insignificance.

Whats of more importance IMHO is that when you pack up you have somewhere to put all your gear and that things go easily into place (how often have you cursed those spring loaded shower tents that take "10 seconds" to fold bag into their round bags!!!)

Anyway, I am very happy with my Camprite, my BIL picked his new on up last week after comparing with others so all in all both very happy. But I am sure other camper owners are just as happy with theirs, and why not (beacause they haven't experienced a Camprite - thats why hahaha...)

Cheers

Captain

I agree about the set up time not being everything. My follow up was primarilly to let people know that the hard floor is not everything either.

Some people seem to be righting off soft floor campers for the wrong reasons.

Can you open the camprite while it is hooked onto the car? That was one of the features that attracted me to the Trak Shak and I still really appreciate that small thing. For me it was important at the time of pruchase because we were planning a trip with lots of one night camps. Oh and I can still open the back of the Patrol with the TS set up.

Duncs

Yep, can set up without unhooking and have done so when only an overnight stop on a "transport" leg of a trip. And I can still access the rear of the GU with only a small degree of difficulty.
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But I would think that a cruiser with horizontal split tailgate would be much more dificult. You can improve the acces by angling the vehicle to one side.

Cheers

Captain

Hello Duncs.....I haven't got any extra bedrooms etc with my KK, but looking at the new bedroom available for the KK, I think you may eat your words if it came to that !!!!!!!! ( although the bedroom is designed for 2 beds, so the 3 kids would have to be fairly small )

After pulling up ....to being in bed.....is approx 2 minutes ( that would be skipping the beer of course )

The bedroom attachs via a zipper and 2 pegs ( I think ) so add another 2 minutes...

I doubt a soft floor would come close to that ??

Hi, We looked long and hard at the Camprite when looking for a trailer and it looks a great bit of kit. A few things concerned us though - the door doesn't look like it seals at the bottom and the canvas just 'hooks' under the gull wings and main bed - do you have any issues with insects getting in?

In addition, is the quick set up time offset by the need to remove everything off the floor to get to the beds? For quick overnighters where you just want to fall into bed I imagine you would need to climb over all your gear to get into bed??

Not having a dig at the Camprite - I reckon they look great. These were some issues that we couldn't get comfortable with and would like to hear what a Camprite owner thinks of them?

Hi Moggs,

We have never had a problem with insects getting in, except when leaving the door unzipped and the light on! The door actually extends down past the entrance so you can just lift that back into the camper and thus you have about an inch of canvas "sealing" the entrance.

There are other areas that have gaps (where the double bed pushes out - on the side in the corners) but we have never had an issue and besides, it nothing a jacket or rug pushed into the tiny gap wouldn't fix if required one night.

We keep all our gear in boxes or bags and normally have say 5-6 all up. Originally I just put them at one end of each single bed as the beds are longer than standard beds and the kids are short! But I have since had an "L" shaped stand (about 700mm wide) made up by Camprite and this simply clips in at the bed ends. I put the gear on this and you can still put your feet underneath - great if an adult sleeps in the single bed. Time taken is very quick, way under a minute and not really an issue for us.

As I said earlier, no camper is perfect and there are compromises in all designs. After many trips of differnet lengths I still reckon they are the best camper for a family bar non - but others will have different compromises on what suits.

One of the biggest bonuses is being able to take our kayaks and not have to unpack them when setting up. Take a look in the pic above and you can see how they just "hang" when setup - plus they are very easy to remove/replace in that position

Cheers

Captain

Hi Grego,

Must be good to be heading off for 6 months! A lot of people have commented that the Camprite is a great hard floor camper for families, the short setup times is a big positive. To my knowledge there are no Qld distributers for the Camprite (I could be wrong here), so if your trip includes the Mackay area (a bit damp at the moment) I can offer a beer to have a gander.



My greatest fight was with my first wife!

Mohammd Ali

I know there is a Byron Bay Dealer - but still a hell of a long trip.

I might take you up on your offer. Will be up your way July'ish.

We own a Robust Camper, purchased it after looking at my mates one. We have found it to be fantastic and great value for money.John (Robust) has a few really cool ideas. One of the best things is that because it is aluminum it weighs less when loaded than a lot of the others empty! The new model has a big attached kids room however when ours are big enough we will put them in a little tent so we did not get that option.
Good luck

www.robustcampers.com/

A cut above a KK.....thats a bold statement.......to compare a soft floor with a hard floor

Gronk,

One of the few criticisms about the KK I have come across is the Tare weight, particuarly on the drawbar (although the Camprite, Trak Shak etc all seem to be heavy also). Did you have to beef up your suspension, are airbags sufficient? Interested in your thoughts.

It seems like the soft floor vs hard floor argument is like L/cruiser vs Nissan, it goes on forever.

Tare weight of the KK ranges from approx 850 to 1050kg's and ball weight from approx 70 to 140kg's.... which I think you will find is much the same as the other hard floors..

Keep in mind that the ball weight should be approx 10% of the weight of the CT..

I have a Terracan with some King springs in the rear and with the KK on the back it droops approx 20mm ( hardly noticeable )
But then again I don't carry much crap in the rear of the 4x4,,,,,only a Waeco fridge..( the advantage of no kids )

Yes I would prefer to tow a lighter trailer (500kg's would be great ) but we love the KK and nothing else comes close ( I know, we are a bit biased !!!!! )

Gronk,
My recollection of the one at the show was that it was a hard floor model as we were doing some research at the time in terms of what suited us for our touring and we were only interested in hard flloor campers if we went that way. We did look at a KK and in my view the Robust was better...but anyway everyone to his/her own. I do understand though that the standard robust is soft floor. There's more soft floor campers out there but if I had one it would be hard floor.

Ratmo, I couldn't agree more. We have a hard floor CT (Odyssey) and once, we thought we would see how fast we could set up for an overnight stay. Took just under 2.5 mins from turning the Hilux off to sitting at the camp table with a beer in hand, kitchen open and operational (inc sullage hose connected), bed ready for sleeping and Porta Potti out for wife.

Once was enough. We normally take 15 or 20 mins to do the same thing at a leisurley pace, having a chat while we do it. Much more relaxing. If it was a race, I could get the annex up in about 5 mins. We generally take at least 20 mins.

I also agree that we all expand to fill any given space. Having said that, I also spent 20 years in the Army (though not in tanks). I figure I've done my share of living rough and on the bare essentials (well a bit more than that, but you get the drift). I now enjoy camping in relative luxury. Rather than cutting down on what we carry, I'm looking at getting a bigger vehicle!!!!!