Our choices reflect our
uses. We like to tour and travel with the camper trailer with
our three kids. We like to go bush, we always prefer free
camping and we prefer to do it “off the beaten track”. We like
simple and reliable over some of the more complex creature
comforts. Even now, we are pushed for storage space!
Our big five main items on our check list for choosing a trailer
were:
1.strength and off road ability
2. space for storage and the whole family to sleep comfortably
3. simplicity and easy to repair
4. the ability to arrive, put the tent up and have started on
the first beer within 5 minutes, then to have everything packed
away and ready to drive off in less than 10 minutes
5. as much rust protection and weatherproofing we could get, a
galvanised trailer, waterproofed underneath with good seals, a
quality travel cover and good quality canvas.
Tent size. Although most of our nights under canvas have
been in good weather, we have learnt to always assume bad
weather. Bad weather has such a big impact on the amount of
living space available as you can’t touch the canvas sides of
the tent and when it's windy, our three kids in our twelve foot
tent don’t have much spare room at all. We nearly bought a nine
foot tent and are very glad we did not.
Mobility. Given we like to tour, speed of set-up or
tear-down is really important. It’s got to be fast and easy
because we do it just about every day. That said, one day we
will set up our trailer somewhere and stay for more than a few
nights so an annexe with good midgee/mozzie proofing and
protection from the weather are also important.
Soft floor v hard floor. We choose a soft floor because
we got about 40% more storage than a hard floor and often a
lower centre of gravity too. We also prefer the most simple as
possible option in almost all circumstances. With camper
trailers, things will always break, sometimes rather easily.
With a soft floor there is much less to break and there is much
more storage room in the trailer.
Trailer finish. We chose a galvanized trailer over a
painted finish for durability. We are scared of rust.
Kitchen. We really like “simple”, so we deliberately
chose no sink and no fixed stove to get more bench space. This
has other advantages with more flexibility when free camping. We
think the Drifta trailer kitchens are really excellent but have
decided its not necessary for us. We have a tailgate kitchen on
our trailer and can store all of our kitchen needs in this like
all of our cooking gear, except foodstuff. We don’t need to do
any “setup” just open the trailer gate and its all there, right
in front of you. We have a set of six small drawers and two
shelves and this is enough for us. It took a long time to get
the contents of our kitchen gear just right.
Trailer storage. We like a simple trailer with no extra
drawers in the sides as it limits the space “underneath”. We
like a large space which we can conform to fit our needs. With
some of the trailers that have drawer systems running across the
beam of the trailer, you are not left with any larger spaces to
use at all. That said, we now have the long Drifta pull out
drawer for the trailer (running parallel to the direction of
travel) and it is excellent.
Water tanks are critical. Water means weight but if your
tanks are well situated and low down, the weight has less impact
on the ride. We normally carry a few 10 litre store bought
containers for drinking and do everything else with tank water
which we happily drink but its not as nice as bottled water. We
have one tank and are thinking of a second. Thankfully this is
quite easy to achieve with our Customline Camper Trailer.
Extra storage. The tool box on the front of the trailer
is important for us, we use it a lot to store anything that we
will want to use during the day such as camping chairs,
chainsaw, tools etc. Weight on the front is a worry but if
positioned well, its really handy.
Stone reflector. Under normal conditions a mesh stone
guard is fine. On hard gravel roads, stones flying off the
wheels that hit any point where the mesh covers the metal
frames, will destroy the mesh i.e. where the point of impact
brings the stone to hit the mesh and the metal at the same time.
Elastic straps to hold the mesh on is a big advantage. Always
make sure that the mesh used is not shade cloth but sturdier
“truck mesh”.
Spare wheels. Ideally to match towing vehicle. We had a
few occasions where a trailer wheel had been totally ruined and
we had to drive carefully as we had no spare. When planning your
first trip, check that you can undo the wheel nuts on your
trailer as it may have a different size wheel nut to your towing
vehicle. We have now spent quite a bit of money to have axles
and hubs converted to match our 4WD.
Tyres. On roads up north/west where some of the shire’s
cannot afford gravel, they use quartz rocks mixed with gravel
instead. These quartz rocks are big and sharp and cut the
sidewalls of the tyres very easily. Unless you know its happened
immediately, harder than you think on heavy corrugations, it can
destroy your rim very quickly. We saw that most of the guys at
the tyre stores drove on B.F.Goodrich tyres which we have very
happily used for five years on our Landcruiser as they have much
stronger sidewall protection to counter this kind of situation.
Give some thought to a tyre pressure management system TPMS that
alerts you in the car when a tyre has a heat build up or a drop
in pressure. The $400 you spend now can probably save you at
least one $350 tyre and an expensive rim on a long trip.
Battery. It is easy to set up a 12volt battery system as
you do need decent camp lights. Relying on torches or lanterns
is no fun and LED lighting is much more efficient. We have a 100
amp hour Absorbent Glass Mat deep cycle battery which is totally
sealed. It is charges from a Ctek 12volt DC to DC charger as we
travel. As we tour around a lot, we have never found a need for
solar panels as with just 12volt lighting, the 100 amp hour
battery will last a few days without needing to go for a drive
to charge. Its important to remember that when the trailer is
being stored that you need to keep this battery charged- we use
a 240v trickle charger.
Fridge. The 60 litre EverKool fridge/freezer is
permanently mounted in the 4WD and does not take up other
storage space in the trailer. It runs from the vehicles
auxiliary battery being charged by a Ctek 12volt DC to DC
charger. The shock absorbers and dust sealing on the 4WD provide
a much better, cooler and operating environment.
Suspension. This is probably the one thing that seems to
go really wrong with camper trailers. Again we like simple leaf
springs as you can fix them on the road and parts are easy to
come by. The bespoke independent suspension can leave you
waiting many weeks for parts in the middle of nowhere, we have
seen it a few times now. We have Al-Ko leaf springs and hubs are
they have been excellent.
Weight and Height. Do everything you can to keep both
down. The less you have, the better your fuel efficiency and the
more money you save and the better range you will have. Some
people like to save money by avoiding electric brakes. Electric
brakes are mandatory on trailers weighing more than 750kg. Not
having electric brakes is crazy and may give you problems with
your insurance if you accidentally exceed the threshold and have
an accident.
Canvas. Avoid cheap canvas, you will regret it.
Apparently much of the cheap, “Made in China” stuff is really
bad from a waterproofing perspective and also for all round
durability. Its really important that the tent is designed to
fit the trailer or vice versa as nearly right is not water and
dust proof. The canvas on a trailer gets a lot of wear and tear
and you need quality, durable waxed canvas. People who know a
little about this say 12oz canvas is a good place to start and
15oz on the roof is a good idea too. Most experts seems to
agree, Australian canvas manufacturers make a superior quality
product over the imported stuff. Wax Converters or Dynaproofed
canvas always seems to be very well liked. Ours is Dynaproofed
and has been very reliable.
Trailer cover. The method of protecting the tent when its
folded up is critical. If this fastening mechanism fails to
function while on the road, your canvas could be at risk of
damage or water exposure and your fuel efficiency could suffer.
We bought an extra large travel cover sometimes called a
tonneau. This gave us the option to store a few items on top of
the canvas, but under the cover and safe from the weather.
Specifically, all of our bedding and clothes and a folding
table, even a solar panel that we borrowed to test out.
We’ve seen some dodgy (and busted) zip systems that look slow
and fiddly. They appear to be inflexible and from most accounts
are susceptible to unexpected breakage.
Our trailer has a heavy PVC cover secured by bungy cords
stretched over hooks attached to the trailer. This proves to be
water and dust proof, very quick to undo and is secure. Most
importantly, it's a system that is extremely unlikely to cause
unrepairable breakage on the road.
Location. Consider buying from a manufacturer located near you.
I've seen trailers being shipped up and down the country for
warranty repairs and you can bet the purchaser had to pay
freight costs. I have seen probably forty to fifty busted
trailers in the last five years and nearly all were cheap
imports.
Make a list. When purchasing a second hand trailer, we
had a list of things we wanted. We found that once we had chosen
the manufacturer we liked, finding a value for money trailer and
evaluating them against each other was a lot easier, especially
when shopping on Gumtree or similar. We found that the list
helped us shop over the phone and saved us a few trips to view
trailers that were not suitable.
We chose a quality Australian manufactured Customline Camper
Trailer and are very happy with that choice. We are glad we took
the time to write down exactly what we wanted to do with our
trailer before we bought it. This then turned into our
requirements list. It helped us avoid buying things we did not
need. The one piece of advice I would offer is 'unless its
critical, don’t get it'. You can always buy or install whatever
later, if or when you need it. In nearly all circumstances
camper trailers can be modified or added to unless you are
considering a hot-dip galvanised trailer.
thanks to David Bunce for sharing his thoughts
july 2018