Chinese canvas on camper trailers...yes or no

Do you have a choice of canvas supplier ?

I believe most reputable manufacturers would back up the products they sell if it did leak due to faulty fabric ?

Make sure you get the full warranty in writing, if it's available.

Mainey . . .

As with most things coming out of china these days it is what the person buying the goods specifies as to the quality of the finished product.
If the camper manufacturer specifies a lower grade of canvas to make a bit more on the finished product then that is totally up to them and the purchaser of final product.
You can't blame the chinese they are making it to what the customer specifies.

Hi Guys,
When you say you will be living in it a long time, I presume you will be traveling and erecting and pulling it down a great number of times in a week.
If this is the case I could only guess that the thin canvas would wear quicker at the stitching than the heavier and cause problems over time. I would believe than you may be able to get hold of some kind of treatment, be it a spay or paint on product that could help.
We bought a cheap canvas camper top, and have made allowances for that. Eg; a good quality tarp goes of the top. We weathered ours for a good week before we used it. Hosing it down and letting dry out several times And were the canavas creases we have ScotchGuarded it.
Hope this helps.

We bought a chinese one a couple of years ago for our homemade trailer. Cost about 1600. In hind sight.....bad investment. It did get us camping on the cheap side but now things are starting to go wrong. The canvas is thin and light shows through in places. The canvas tears easily. The plywood base is falling apart due to air gaps between panels and not solid enough. I think if we spent 4 or even 5 grand on good aussie made stuff we'd still be using it AND have a good re-sale value. Rus.

Hi Kirk and Jeanette

I asked a question a while ago about Liberty Camper Trailers which have the Chinese canvas.....I have included a link to the post should you like to have a look....I had a few good replies one especially from Stephen M NSW ,who l believe now goes by the name wherehegone, Stephen is a top person who i'm sure if you send him an MM will fill you in on all the headaches he had with his cheap Chinese camper and canvas.....


LINK

Hope this helps...

Cheers.....Dave

I have had an OZtrail touring 9plus for 4years now, no problems with leaks and it was 25% of the cost of a Australian made Southern Cross!! For $300, it it lasts another year , i would be happy but i can see it lasting much longer than that.. As Peter said, the quality is set by the importer and the price he wants to pay.. Waterproofing is a cheap option if it leaks.. Have a good look at what you are buying and make a judgement based on what you see.. Michael

I bought a tent from a bloke ingoulburn valley some years ago .
it looked great ,but it leaks like a sieve ,took it back he didn,t know how to fix it . then I find out he,s using cheap bleep canvas .
sold it , bought another one from southern cross canvas . the difference was like cheese an chalk . you get what you pay for .
mechpete.

After 6 months of looking at campers and seeing what garbage is out there, we settled on a custom made tent top to fit a custom made trailer. This was done by Central Coast Canvas and Central Coast trailers.
They were both excellent to work with and they worked well with each other.
We pounded the living snot out of the camper thru the worst the gulf and cape could throw at us and never missed a beat. Got very little dust in (even in heavy bulldust and cooorrruugggaaattiiooonnnssss) and when we sold it approx 9 mths later got $50 more for it than when we had it made new.
The dark grey canvas was that good that you couldn't tell if the sun was up in the morning and there was no sillouette cast from the inside at night with lights on. There were heaps of windows and we had 2 doors and heaps of extras as we wanted. All up for trailer, kitchen and 17 ft tent top on the road $8700. This is still cheap for a fully customised setup. Standard off road trailers are possibly 2k cheaper and they still would take a pounding.
No affiliation just happy. My FIL still has his and his went everywhere ours did and his is the standard 13 ft model.

http://www.centralcoastcanvas.com.au/

It's a shame his website doesn't do the product justice.

Cheers
Dave

We purchased our camper trailer a couple of years ago down at the show at Rose Hill.

A couple of things I noticed about some of the cheaper campers was that the quality of their canvas and the way their trailers were made was not as good as some of the ones that were a little dearer.

We settled for an All Terrain Camper Trailer. The quaility of their canvas is excellent. I think you will find that they will make up a tent for your own trailer. Have a look at their site.

Hi J&K,
Just thought this site may help. Its has plenty of tips for buying, a huge list of manufacturers and a heap of second hand trailers for sale.

Cheershttp://www.campertrailers.org/ask_a_salesman.htm

Hi
We researched all the campers plenty of crap out there, we settled for a chinese built trak shak just cant fault it. you normaly get what you pay for, the traky is deer but coudnt find a better camper for room and build, its never leaked.

Hows it going,

We started to look for a C/T earlier in the year and couldnt find a second hand one or new one in our budget that we liked.

Ended up getting a trailer made and fitted it out myself ,got the tent off ebay for a good price by being patient , X Trail .

To tell you the truth I wasnt expecting too much from the price that I paid ,and was pretty surprised when I first put it up on the
quality of the tent , as you said its really well made with all seams taped and sealed, zippers seem strong , we are also happy with how many windows it has .There are no imperfections in the canvas and it is an even colour.

When it was new we put it up in the front yard to 'season' the canvas I hosed it heaps and it didnt leak from new ( not sure if this is a hoax though ) , when it was up my neighbour came for a look and commented on the canvas thickness but still thought it was a little thinner than his KK.

I am expecting the tent to last as long as the trailer.

Glenn.

My Oztrail campertop has had over 150 "camp nights" without a
problem. No seam issues, no zipper issues, no issues. Leaks ?
Who knows....a $50 siver tarp & a handful of oco straps looks
after that. Never bothered with the wet & dry ritual. Tarp keeps
it clean, dry to pack up, & cooler. Value for money ? Sure. If it
dies, a replacement is cheap & simple. Repairs, sealing treatments
etc are expensive & fiddly, the last thing you want on holidays.
Dont fret over canvas...tarp it & forget it.....oldbaz.