Aussie swag camper feed back

[maxum]

Hi new to forum and considering purchasing a new Aussie swag camper and interested in feed back on these units, good and bad.

[TinkCT]

Excellent quality Aussie camper. Know of a couple that have been to the Cape on the OTT without issue.

[Elsewhere]

Hi,

We have a 2005 model and it has been great! It has been off road (e.g. Victorian High Country) and done many miles on the blacktop and never let us down.
I can thoroughly recommend them.
The new ones look even better.
You can check ours out at our Aussie Swag page.
The biggest selling point for my wife was the kitchen folding back.
The attention to detail is excellent.

[tonyrh58]

Hi Maxum.
We have recently purchased an Ultra D after many years doing soft floor (Challenge and Cavalier). Having only spent 11 nights under canvas in the new beast, my thoughts are still qualified but, generally speaking, we are super impressed with our new toy. While it weighs much more (160kg ball weight and 1350 kg tare vs 100 / 850) than we were used to, towing wise there seems to be less of a physical presence behind us than with the softies and we don't notice the extra weight unless faced with serious steepness. Incidentally much of the tare on the Aussie Swag is made up of stuff we had to add to our previous campers so the weight difference is less significant than would at first appear. Everything functions faultlessly, with 3 minor exceptions. Two of these are that the jerry can rack won't take our pro quip plastic "cans" and we haven't been able to source anything non metal that will fit as yet, Similarly the spice rack in the kitchen won't fit standard spice bottles, despite what the brochure pics show. Finally, at least to my mind, the electrical switching system isn't all that intuitive, or certainly the instruction "manual" isn't at all clear on how that side of things work (maybe that is a 4th criticism). E.G. it took a while to work out how to get the shower pump running as it had to be switched on in two places, but this wasn't indicated anywhere. We had our camper shipped from Brisbane so maybe some of this would have been clarified had we taken delivery from Aussie Swag directly. Certainly any questions, pre and post sale, have been answered efficiently and professionally, and the Youtube stuff on their website is handy, if a little quirky at times. After sales seems really good. We managed to snap the little fold up strap (camper partly folded for the first time, big gust of wind got in under and opened the thing up again, breaking the strap in the process) and we had a new one posted to us within a week, no charge and no questions asked. We had the DO35 hitch fitted and, after many years with Treg /Trigg, are really happy with the decision. The DO35 is a much easier and, IMHO, safer process, especially with such a heavy ball weight. My wife loves the 80L Waeco fridge, though I am still a bit concerned at the amount of current it will draw as a fridge and freezer (I know, 315 Ah of batteries plus 140w solar!), but it sure beats man handling into position the 40L that we had previously and the ease of access on the road is brilliant. The camper has too many bells and whistles to go through but we have been constantly impressed with how well thought out everything is for the intended purpose. The kitchen / pantry is brilliant, the diesel hot water / heating system works very well, the under bed storage area is huge and accessible when the camper is folded up, the shower is pure luxury - one selling point for my wife was that the "ensuite" tent doesn't block off the 2nd main tent door as is the case on many other setups, the independent suspension system is better than on the ute, the hard wired LED lighting is great, and on I could go.

As previously mentioned, we haven't had a lot of use yet, and time will tell, but we certainly think that it is (a lot of!!!) money well spent. BTW for over 2 years prior to purchase we did look at many alternatives, including off road caravans and other similarly featured hard floors (Complete Campsite, Mountain Trail, Pioneer, AOR, Kimberly, to name a few) but kept coming back to Aussie Swag.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Tony.

[armbrup]

I found that the black "Visy" Plastic jerry cans made in NZ fit in spaces for steel cans on my 1997 Camp'o'matic.

They are the only ones that do AFAIK.
I bought mine from Supercheap about 6 years ago so I don't know if you can get them now.
Regards Philip A

[Campers]

Hi Maxum, we bought our ASC Ultra D in Nov 2014, and have had 2 trips away so far, totalling 20 days. Rain, wind and dust environments. I looked at Tony's post, and had similar points and thoughts. We did drive from Sydney to Brisbane to collect the ASC and spent 5 very valuable hours with James, one of the owners, going through the unit. We would highly recommend this to save extra frustration or to think that he or his team have missed something. We took notepad and pen and took pages of notes. Some of Tony's comments (like the water pump) are covered in the rundown. We are so happy with the unit. Still though having problems squaring the canvas to prevent sag. We upgraded to the 90L fridge, that uses 3-4 amps p/h. The diesel water heater is just as expensive on electricity, and we found ourselves obsessed with power consumption, and ensuring we only used the water heater on demand. We were not wanting to go below 50% and 11V. The mattress is wonderful, and the airflow in the cabin is great with the tropical roof. On our first shakedown from Brisbane to Sydney over 6 days, we took copious notes of things to buy and do before our 2nd trip, and that was worthwhile. It is sometimes hard to get water out of the tanks (we have 2) (without using the water pump) through the mud flap when volume is below 60%, and don't even bother to fill the water tanks when on any type of slope. James has been so responsive for after sales service and answering problems or reminders on how to do things. Set up of the cabin only is probably 10 minutes from leaving the car, and 80 minutes with all canvas up including the bathroom and vista (highly recommended). When I thought they have not thought of something, I was usually wrong. This is our first camper of any sort, moving up from tenting, so can't compare. We also tried plastic jerry tanks, and the good quality ones are 19cm, where the cages are 17.5cm. We went to heavier but top quality metal jerry cans that fit, and only put 15L in each (to save 5kgs on easy trips). So far, extremely happy with the unit and the service, and seeing value for money. We circled the market for more than 3 years, and next closest to us was Complete Campsite. Good luck

[robcaz]

Hi Campers,

You definitely do not want to discharge your deep cycle battery down to 11 amps. It is best to only discharge it to 50% or 12.2 volts for best battery life.



Under the theory heading in my Enerdrive Elite battery monitor write up it explains when is the best time to check your battery voltage & the discharging of a battery http://www.campertrailers.org/enerdrive_elite.htm