Strong tough camper trailer

If you'd rather sleep under a fibreglass roof than canvas (pretty good when it rains or blows a gale) then consider a TVan. They track nicely behind a 76series - same width, height and track.

Hi Nic,

Both the Kimberly and Aussie Swag are very good strong camper trailers.

We have an Aussie Swag, and have been very happy with it. We have also found after sales service with Aussie Swag to be excellent.

Cheers

Leanne

What ever you get, make sure it has shock absorbers on it. See this article.

Have a look on the Trader Page Campertrailers.org.

The best off road unit is Australian Offroad Campers. Odyssey range. If the vehicle will get trhough then the trailer will be right there with a very minimum of fuss.

Kevin J

The usual replies of "mine's the best" will apply throughout this thread unless you let us know a little more about your intended travel plans, number of people to accommodate and budget.

As you can imagine camper trailers can be bought for a few thousand, right up to abut $60k. Some will accommodate numerous people, kids, dogs and heaps of gear, whilst others are perhaps more comfortable, but with less storage space.

To follow the others in this thread, I have a Track Trailer "Desert Eagle" with MC2 suspension and my basic requirements when I bought it were:

* Around the $10k mark
* Solid enough to drag anywhere (similar to your requirements)
* The smoothest and best suspension setup, so as not to shake the cr@p out of everything on board.
* Fully galvanised chassis for rust prevention
* Fairly quick setup and take down... more on this later.
* Plenty of storage space for family travels with little kids
* Approximately the same width as the car (105 Landcruiser)
* Not too heavy
* Good quality heavy canvas tent with doors at both sides of the tent and plenty of windows for ventilation...must be able to withstand heavy weather.
* Reasonable undercover areas/awnings (for longer stays).
* Inner spring mattress.

I'm sure there were other things I though about, but these were the main priorities and the Desert Eagle well fits my style of travel and storage needs.

It's not a fancy camper
It doesn't have a shiny stainless steel pull out kitchen, but does have a built in stove and a couple of hand pump water taps.
It's not the "best" camper on the market. There are much fancier (read more expensive) ones on the market with some great features, but this one has never let me down.

Spend some time on the following sites for some great information on campertrailers:

http://www.campertrailers.org/

http://myswag.org/forum/index.php

All the best with your search.

Cheers,

we have a good Off Road Camper, but they are hard to get hold of as no longer made.

I like the Ultimate campers very much

Yes Ultimate are the one I'd be interested in as well, looks like our ideal kind of set up....well in about hmmm 10years or so when the kids start thinking about leaving home or something lol.

Check out the MySwag forums as well, I believe there is a thread there of someone having just brought an Ultimate, so it would be of interest to you.

Nic
Haven't we opened a can of worms ?

How big is your wallet. ?

We have a Trak Shak, (Aussie made version) and love it.
Done the Kimberley twice, Cape York twice, the Simpson, the Canning, and countless trips into as many places as we, (and the previous owners) could drag it.

We have been thru some really nasty storms, high winds, and downpours, and have survived all.

In saying that we have been accompanied by many other good trailers as well, eg Ultimate, Kimberley, Outback, and Cavalier (with upgraded suspension)

As I said it's how big your wallet is, and also how much maintenance you are prepared to do, as they all need it

Good luck with your hunting down one.
I may suggest that you try hiring a few different types first, or if you are down this way, (Wonthaggi), drop in and I will take you thru the in's and out's of the Trak Shak.
Cheers
Bucky

We traded up to a Goldstream offroasd camper van after using a cheap Chinese Camper trailer for a while, it was good fun but not suitable for serious offroad trips.

In saying that we did have as much fun with our $3000 chinese job as our current $30,000 palace without the luxury.

Check out Trackabout, they make a quality off road Camper Trailer which everyone raves about.

Hi turbo 79series

We purchased an Ultimate Xtrak in July last year and after 1 over night stop on the way from the factory as practise loaded it up and headed to Cape York and then back down from the Gulf through western Qld and NSW and it was a dream.
Previously we had owned 2 Aussie Swags and both were very solid units but the wife wanted the internal kitchen and a bit more comfort.
The Ultimate electrics are not in the same class as the AS but the great feature of the Ultimate over the AS is weight fully loaded about the same as the AS empty .
On our trip up north with a 2007 Prado diesel we used less than 13ltrs per 100kls
and most days had to check that we did indeed have the camper on the back.

Regards
TTD

I am so confused there are so many good reliable campers it seems this is going to come down to personal choice

My daughter and SIL have a Cub Camper Spacevan which is great.
http://cubcampers.com.au/camper-trailers/spacevan/
They have travelled extensively with it and love the extra space compared to the previous camper. They say the great thing about the Cub so easy for overnight stops and big enough to sit comfortably inside with table and chairs in bad weather. They say the extra space when parked at the same location for a week is great. Chucked out the useless Dometic 3 Way fridge and fitted 110L Waeco tropical rated compressor fridge.

Nic..
To add to your confusion..
Also consider a - ‘VistaRV’ - camper.

Travels as well as a Tvan (some say it’s better) – similar long travel coil spring independent suspension..
Excellent ride with no towing vices at all – more storage space -less set up time - easy pack up - more secure when set up in camp..
We have travelled the deserts towing a Vista, without any problems – also being towed by a Nissan.

www.vistarv.com.au

Jim

We hd an Obrien's offroad trailer. They are in Melbourne. We spent 3 yrs on the road with 2 kids and loved it. We took it to some remote places, we did cape york and the GRR. We could not fault the trailer.
The best thing to do is work out what you want in a trailer.
Hard floor/ soft floor.
canvas roof/ fibre glass
How much room. We had an extra room plus annexe
Kitchen/sink/water
tool boxes
extra storage space
Batteries
Stone gaurd
How many do you need to sleep
Lift the bed to get gear out or drawers that slide
Some campers, put heaps of gear like poles ect on the bed when travelling, others have dedicated pole lockers
Sit down and work out what features you want. Then go camping shows or to the dealers and compare trailers. Ask if they can modify it for you if you want them to do something different.
We spent over a year looking and the Obrien trailer was perfect for what we wanted. You may want something different so even though I love their trailers, it's set up may not suit you. So take your time looking and compare heaps. We took ideas from other trailers and modified ours so it was exactly what we wanted.

Josh

turbo 79series,

Also look at Cape York Trailers (ahern metal) in cairns. These are built like the preverbial outhouse.
3.3 tonne axles (60mm), coil springs, can be fitted with 4 shock absorbers (from the standard 2), 12in maranised electric drum brakes, greasable swing arm bushes, full galvanised chassis and drawbar. These are just some of the features of these campers. If you break one of these campers you will also have broken your 4wd.

Also don't discount the second hand market as there are some great campers out there that are well below new prices and still have most of the items the new ones have.

Good luck with your purchase.

crd

Hi there,
We have had an Aussie Swag for 5 years and been lucky enough to travel heaps of Central Oz and The Cape as well as the forestry tracks of Tassie. It has been nothing short of perfection in every facet, even during Tassie storms and cold.
The back up from the team in Brisbane has been way above what I consider normal. I managed to rip a side door off when it came open near Marree and they actually pulled one off a new trailer and freighted it to the Alice for us and we were all fixed 5 days later - service extrordinaire.
We have also travelled with many other campers in the same price range and they are all excellent in their own right. Never forget that you get what you pay for.
I spent 2 years just looking before buying and I finally settled on the "swag" after they said to me "what lifestyle do you want?" They then proceeded to fit every criteria I had and spent as much time as we needed to fully understand what the trailer would do. They spent almost half a day on induction before we towed it out of the factory.
Advice aplenty from very wise people here on the forum, but if you do the hard yards on line and get ALL the info, you won't go wrong when it comes time to decide.

hi Nic, After two years of of research, reviews, trying, hiring, and borrowing, we came to the conclusion that the best camper was the aussie swag,,, but we couldn 't afford it as our budget was 30k so we decided on next best, an off road cub brumby.
Mate you would not believe this thing. We have spent the past 3 months in central oz, the gulf, northen and western qld, we took every dirt road and back track and its unbelievable. Not 1 ounce of dust or water inside the camper, tows like its not there,with independant suspension not a single broken item even though the cans of beer in the back of the hilux sprung leaks from rubbing together on the corrogations. We set up faster than you can roll out a swag. I wonder why you would need to spend more money on a camper when this does everything. phil

Nic

You have already got a lot of replies from owners of various campers. There are many good campers available, it gets down to personal preference and how much you want to spend.

In 2006 I purchased a TVan second hand. It was a very good unit and gave good service. For a quick night stop you can't beat it. From stop to getting into bed is only a few minutes. Setup the full canvas was about 5 mins. The part I did not like was that the full canvas is stored in the lid of the upward opening rear door. In my advanced age I found it hard to packup if I was alone.

In 2008 I sold the TVan and purchased a second hand Ultimate #519 for $36k. I had Ultimate upgrade it to the latest axles and 5 stud hubs. I still have it and I am very happy with it. I changed to the Ultimate because I liked the inside kitchen and the lounge area. Somewhere to get away from the flies. We do not grill inside, we carry another gas stove for grilling work outside.

Both the TVan and the Ultimate will go anywhere the vehicle will go. They are excellent offroad campers.

That's my personal experience

Thanks everyone so much.I and my wife are overwhelmed with all the replys.Yes it is going to be a hard choice but a personal one.Like so many people here all the campers that got listed here sound perfect.It will come down to the dollar in the end.We will be hiring a few over the next few months.I will really be taking the suspension into consideration.I will be going for a shorter trailer with loads of height for manouvering .We will take into consideration the size and for my family and ease of setting up and taking down.Storage won't really be a problem as most of my stuff will be in the wagon.Then I will tow the camper at a few different places to see how it tows .My tinny will sit on the roof of the 4wdrive ,so I think I will go from here I will let everyone know how I go .


Thank for your kindness for replying we took every post very seriously.

Nic


76 series locked and lifted