Budget friendly campers with heavy duty canvas?

Thanks! Went to their Chullora showroom but it looks like they're in the midst of moving as it was closed.

Do you know if it is genuinely 15oz canvas? I saw the GIC ones yesterday which they claim to be 15oz rip stop canvas, but it feels no sturdier than the stuff on Oztrail tents/campers.

Refer to thread 83470, 15 ounze means zippo, its the thread count that thats important more so. Regards Steve M

Hi,

in regards to the Mario trailer i mentioned , it actually said it is 15 OZ rip stop canvas , well let me assure you , it is heavy , dam heavy bleep .

I seasoned it 3 times when i bought it and when i was on the first trip i had some rain and i had a few drops in one spot only , actually not even drops but just a couple of drops in one spot on the canvas so i am not concerned abot that. All the seams are also taped and it looks very neat for chinese import.

Now let me give you just my own personal opinion , i would not buy it again because for me the canvas is far too heavy.

My idea of camping is moving around and that means i have to set up and break up frequently and for me this canvas is to heavy and too much work.

If you are looking for heavy , Mario is the way to go. I know manypeople say Mario is the same as GIC , yes they are very similar and where once in biz togeter so you can look at oth because they are both in Sydney , i personally was notimpressed from GIC at the Melbourne show but that was just a personal impression and i also had an other reason why i choose Mario , i knew he could not sell the trailers that he had in Melbourne and i did get him down to rock bottom for this unit plus he actually has his brother in law in Melbourne ,Trailers only , that actually manufactures the same trailers , just not with tents , so if something really goes wrong i dont have to take the trailer back to sydney.

There are things not right with the Mario one but for the price it was ok , and i just spent a few days and a bit of silicone and a few clamps etc to fix the issues. Mostly attention to detail is the issue on that trailer but pls. keep in mind , you do et what you pay for and 5500.00 for a drive away camper trailer today is chicken bleep .

I wish you al the best.

Thanks for sharing your experience with your camper. I'm actually going to check them out next weekend. Would you mind elaborating a bit more on some of the other issues you mentioned? Also, did you find the canvas on the Marios any different to the canvas on the GICs?

Hi,

no worries , i will tell you but keep i mind the price and in general i am very happy with the trailer , as i said , most issues in my opinion are just attention to details and i suppose if you pay next to nothing you can not expect a Tvan.

Issues with Mario Extreme off road camper trailer:

1)Kitchen box sink had no drain fittings or drain hose had to get parts from Reece .
2) Kitchen box only has a magnet to hold the front so I put a latch on the side.
3) Dust seal not sufficient , still have to fix.
4) Cable loom is a joke , using scotch clips , earth was not working and the electric
brakes locked up all the time. Cableling is really bad but fixable , cost me about 150.00
for the auto electrician.
5) All holes for cableing , water for the tank , etc are all just blown in and very sharp and
will cut the cables or hoses , I put some grommets in and used about 6 cartridges of
silicone to fix all that.

In my case , i also added some tie down points in the trailer to hold all the boxes in place , i added a deep cycle battery to the toolbox and wired back to the trailer for lights and access point for the fridge in the tent etc. Added a few 12 outlet points , a smart charger to charge the batter from te genny , i also lowered the boat rack a bit , welded some tie down points to it and added a tow bar to the trailer for recovery and for the bike rack.

The canvas was also my greatest concern , the tents are fully imported fro china and since i am in the chines import biz i know what bleep comes from china if the quality control is not good but i am really pleasantly surprised , all looks good , neat and tidy , all seams are nice , really the canvas is better then the trailer if you get my drift but dont let this hold you up from looking at them.

I think for the money you have to expect a it of after work and anyway thats the fun part , customize your trailer.

Have fun

Hi there Joe, your statement ""yes they are cheap but it is the "care" of them that makes them last not the use"" I would have to disagree with you on this point, check out my reply on previous post on 83470, ours was under cover when not in use and had a full tarp over the whole of it when it was, used it once with out tarp and it leaked and yes it was soaked and wet properly prior to using it for the first time. Maybe i just got a real bad one I dont know but will not be buying one from china again, as mentioned above 15 ounze these days has nothing on the canvas that was 15 ounze 20 years ago, my tent was only 8 ounze for memory and was a lot heavier and thinker then my camper was. Regards steve

I suppose I should post the LINK