Camper Trailer Questions.

To save you looking and searching the internet I have a list of makes on my 4x4 webpage , just click campers in the quick links or scroll to the bottom .

Link to Campers

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Mr / Mrs Bodhichitta ,

You can get hard floor campers that sit higher up off the axle than the normal ones and this leaves space underneath for storeage . The Kimberley type hardfloor campers are hopelessly short on space . If you can imagine a Kimberley with sides 20 inches taller and when it opens , the floor sits 20 inches off the ground . This gives you 20 inches of storeage . Hard to explain and I cannot remember the brand names , sorry .

One of them opens with some kind of motor which was pretty sexy .

I have had a soft floor Trak Shak and they are a pain to put up for one night .

Willie .

Suggest you try www.campertrailers.org as a good place to start.

We had an Australian Offroad Odyssey ZR (ours was the first built and they have changed) and we were absolutely thrilled with it. We travelled across the top and back and found the set up easy once we got into the swing. Handled everything we put it to do and only sold it because better half had some health issues and it it hard to aircondition and heat a camper.

Had a lot of KK owners drolling when we set up near them.

AND no dust. Our canvas was still green after three months in the Kimberleys.

Kevin J

We have a soft floor camper and a 15 foot van......now I watch what people are towing around with a lot of interest..... Bodichitia what are you towing it with?...why I see people with KKs Ultimates etc etc towing them with standard 4X4s, ( my niece has an Ultimate and tow it with a very stand old Pathy) no mods to suspensions, tyres, diffs etc when their camper is built to go real off road, so where are you going to take it?
For 35Ks you could buy a nice caravan.
PS my camper is for sale as I like the convenience of the van.

Cheers Bruce

Some interesting questions you pose and ones that will be answered differently by various people.

We have a soft floor camper and it is no big hassle to put up.
If erecting the annex, like we usually do, it takes a bit longer.

The advantage of the soft floor campers are the "huge" storage space available. On our Camper, the whole of the trailer section underneath the bed provides storage. The cooking/washing up section is attached to the rear tailgate and when swung out, provides an adequate facility. When the Camper is collapsed, you can also store a large amount on top of the bed/tent, underneath the waterproof cover.

Folding it up in windy conditions is probably the greatest disadvantage, but I "maneuver" the trailer so that the wind kind of assists in the collapsing/folding of the tent.

As we get older, there may come a time when a hard floor camper trailer would be more suitable for our needs, but this will come with a loss of some of the features we currently have.

I have done a bit of searching and out of the KK and the AOR, I prefer none of them.

Bang for buck, my choice would be the Pioneer Argyle or Onyx.


Bill.

Check out the Cub range. Just spent nearly two weeks in a very well used one moving around quite a bit ( 3,500ks ). Easy to set up and take down.

We've got a quality, fast set-up and knock down hard floor (Campomatic) - couldn't see me living out of that while working though - I'd want more, conveniently setup living space..... and as soon as you get into zip on walls that go with the awning on a hard floor, you have all the pegs, poles and ropes, and canvas panels that come with some of the better soft floors.... Trakshak for example - maybe the AOR product too.

To be quite honest, I think you will find that the perfect camper trailer is yet to be designed!

All you can do is look at reputable makes of each type & then work out which one best suits your 'own' needs.

Anybody that says they take too long to put up for overnight, really needs to take a long, hard look at why they are on holidays & that is surely to relax & not worry if it takes 3 minutes or 30 minutes.

If you have the kimberly camper as an option have a look at the Pioneer campers--the argysle SE and the Onyx.They are VERY similar to the KK in design and quality but a lot cheaper.Ihave had an Argysle for 1.5 years now and it has been from Perth to Cape York and I have just come back from Tasmania with it and so far no problems.It has done over 40000kms so far and has seen some real rough stuff----highly reccomended.

I looked at these at the recent caravan show at Caulfield in Vic, & they seemed to be well designed & built, also represented exceptional value. REBEL CAMPERS

We have a KK platinum, a bit more then your budget, but the ensuite with the built in diesel hot water system is brilliant. We went from a soft floor to the KK, wife wasn't keen and thought short on space, but after 12 months and about 15000k we both still love it. We go away with our club and up to 12 other trailers of different varieties and we are always first set up.

we went for the soft floor camper trailer as we both are suspect to bad backs and wanted the exact same mattress when we are travelling as we enjoy at home. We went for the smaller tent size as it does not need tent pegs and we can be in bed 15 minutes after stopping. I have towed Ngarkat and the Simpson without any great problem (very low tyre pressures required to avoid environmental impact) and have adequate power from a mildly "warmed up" GU TD42 Patrol non inter cooled. The best thing that we did before buying was to hire various types and brands to try. I was originally hot for a KK but changed my mind after we hired 4 different styles/brands and used them. All said and done whatever you get you will most probably want to change it to suit yourself, and that ends up great fun too. We love our camper trailer and always feel lucky and happy to be out in the bush in our 'canvas castle', I hope your experience is the same.

We had an Adventure Pilbara & now we have an All Terrain.

Like others have said what suits some won't suit others

A few things we didn't like about the adventure was....
Fiddly set up (time adds up doing all those little things and trying to shut the "suitcase")
Not much room under the awning for 2 adults and 2 little kids especially with the stove out in cooking position. We made a diy extension (velcro & canvas) but stil not quite right.
Not very bug proof - we had these huge ants crawling all over our bed one night (no we weren't on a nest) luckily they seemed like roamers and there was no biting going on.
And even though storage is ample you have to walk all the way around to the other side, which isn't so fun if it's really wet and rainy.
Now we had that one at least 3yrs ago so I'm sure some changes have been made by now.

With the All Terrain it's much quicker to set up, and no bugs in it to date. We opted for a bigger tent size & awning too so it's got more than enough room in nasty weather even without walls. And yes the awning is easy to set up because it can be left attached & flipped over the top of the main tent the whole time (as long as you tie the corners down!).
I suppose best of all it was only around the $20k mark (thanks to a few specials at the Sydney show of course - yeah it's made in Sydney).

We have made 2 trips over the Nullabor so far, once to holiday in WA and 2nd time to move here! It was easy enough for the overnight stops and we did live in it for a short while before moving into our shed (building a house atm). However not something I would like to do long term (live in the camper) mainly if it's with two little kids in a caravan park without much grass & people around for the kids to annoy!

Into the future now, when the kids grow up and we're travelling around on our own we'll probably opt for something more compact (T-Van? Back Trax?) or keep the All Terrain if we've still got it whatever is easy to put up I suppose.

Something to consider....

Fridge: Are you always going to be on a powered site?
If not then how often do you want to stay in one spot without moving the camper? With a draw bar mounted fridge (and no solar panels etc) we found it was hard to stay in one spot for much more than 3 days without moving it, recharging batteries or just plugging into power. For us the fridge in the back of the car makes much more sense, and for the long stays it can be removed and put inside the camper hooked up to 240v (like we did when we lived in it for a bit).
And the other consideration is that for extra kitchen bench space, camping tables these days don't take much longer to set up compared to a camping chair.

We were on a more limited budget the 2nd time around so didn't even consider the KK (I've seen quite a few go through when living in Cobar). Only real downsides to the hard floor that I knew of was less room overall, and I've heard that they can be a pain to set up on uneven ground taking longer to level all the legs etc.

Have fun researching, there is always going to be a risk that something about your camper won't suit you no matter how much research you have done, there is not perfect creation after all unless you alter it as you go along or make your own! At least these days we're spoilt for choice with so many out there!

Wow! Thanks for all the info and opinions. Lots of good reading here.
Great website Doug T I spent half of last night clicking around.

Spent some time today having another look at the KK and really unimpressed with the build quality we found in the store. Inner tent (where your head goes in the bed) sagged inwards and would be annoying (im tall, so use up the whole bed). Storage cupboards around the cooking area didnt close properly and didnt latch.

We had a look at the cub campers and they didnt seem too bad, but again, we just expect better build quality for the price you pay.
T van had us going until we actually lay down in it and unfortunately we were put off by the low roof... not helpful for 'bedroom antics' hehe.

We checked out a few caravans and were about to give up on that idea, when we found a Supreme Getaway caravan. Its a pop top and looks pretty bloody solid all round.
Im still looking into this caravan, but it seems to be about the best thing Ive seen yet. Apparently its built for 4wders is a bit heavy, but solid as rock. And best of all, its pretty reasonably priced. For a 16 footer we may have to go over our budget a little bit, but could be well worth it (about $40000 brand new).

Will do more research on that though, if anyone has any opinions on the Getaway Id be grateful for them.

Thanks!

Hi,

We have an Auusie Swag hard floor camper, and find it great. Have spent 4 weeks traveling in it with 2 children, and no problem with setup etc.

Details at Our Aussie Swag

Cheers,
Greg