And for our next trick

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We have had a couple of trips. The trailer is fantastic to tow, a very good ride behind the car - at times it was easy to forget that she was there. We are planning to have several trips around the North West area of Tassie, with a bigger trip planned up the centre to Darwin in a couple of years (a Lotto win would help here).

Next major purchase will be a Solar panel - not sure the size, although the 150-160w may be the best option I think. Can have that hooked up to the deep draw battery so short term unpowered areas won't be an issue.

We purchased a great 80lt fridge/freezer from e-bay that runs on 12/240 volt.  Total cost for that was less than $700 including freight. In effect a saving of close to $900 on a named brand - yes only time will tell, however with the couple of uses already we are happy.

Some Photos

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Where to next

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Pod Trailers, or Stockmans is the direction that we went. Not able to do a hands on look here in Devonport, so we spent a lot of time talking to Phil and his team at Carrum Downs. After a lot of time researching what we specifically wanted, and having Phil answer a lot of questions we decided to go with something a little different. We had one made up on their all-roada trailer chassis as opposed to their off road model. This worked out to be a bit cheaper and lighter for us, and importantly the height of that model ment that we had a level draw when towing. The off road setup would have meant that the trailer slanted into the car.

The extras that we decided on (all Gen really wanted was a decent kitchen) are:

• 68 lt water tank. This has connections and hand pump at the sink as well as a metal guard
• A really large plastic storage tub on the draw bar
• LED lights
• Longer draw bar
• Kitchen
• Sunrasia rims and new tyres.
• Spare mounted under body. This is at the rear of the axle, with the water tank in front - excellent weight distribution.

Phil discussed some extras such as racks on the trailer and 12/240v electrics, however the racks we wil get later and I did something different for power.

The tent is the standard product range from Stockmans, and although we had not seen it erected the photos on the web site plus extra ones that Phil sent really helped.

After some negotiation on price and pick up details we were away. Ordered in early Sep 09 with a pick up on 24 Dec 09 (Phil came in after their breakup party). Stockmans kept us in the loop every few weeks with how the order was progressing. We are both really impressed with the service and good cheer that Stockmans provided at all stages of the transaction. 

So What did we buy?

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This was the longest portion – so many quality trailers.  We did flirt a little with buying one from e-bay and then kitting it out to what we wanted. Although these went for around the $5,000 mark, still a metal setup. This still did not really meet our needs though, and with one exception, all the trailers that I viewed (online – really love the internet at times) where big, cumbersome and very, very, very heavy.

Our camping was not going to be full off road, so we didn’t need something that required a tank to tow it. Something that would not overly trouble an X Trail and my back (in that order), that would not be too expensive with additional fuel costs.

While searching 4WD Action I stumbled, literally as I miss-selected a site, across Stockman trailers. This caught our attention straightaway as they are a camper trailer based on a metal chassis with a plastic tub. Hmmm, yes I do that, liked the premise and they do look kinda cool – not like the big and boxy metal trailers.  We were able to put several ticks in box’s- - light weight, reduced environmental impact etc.

What to buy?

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Buying a camper trailer, sounds simple and easy. Wished it was. Some of our early discussions were around size, weight, fitout and cost. Budget first, as with everything. What do they sell for and thank goodness for the internet. Purpose built trailers ranged from $5,000 to $25,000 plus, depending on quality, location, etc.

I did find a number of trailers on e-bay that sold for around the $5,000 mark. These were just trailer and tent - no extra's. OK, what did we need and want?

• Light weight
• Low environmental impact
• Kitchen
• Off road capability
• Low drag behind a X Trail
• Extra storage
• Water tank
• Spare tire
• Annex

This list proved to be an interesting challenge as some of our wants where really different. We looked at having extra tent space, 12/240 volt, solar etc and decided that these may be add on’s later.

The Start of our Journey

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Ohhh boy, was this was a process and a half. Gennie and my (I'm Peter BTW) first step was to come up with what we wanted in a camper trailer. After camping in tents, we decided that we wanted something easy to manoeuvre, would not cause either of us a hernia and looked cool (no, just made that bit up). As we are both over 50 and hoping to retire sometime this lifetime, we wanted to make a start.

A little background first. We had our first big camping adventure in 05 with a trip to Fraser Island. Such a magnificent part of the world, great views, scenery and interesting wildlife (more about that shortly). We spent several days driving from Melbourne to Maryborough in QLD via the Newell, one of Australia's great drives. We got onto the Island from Maryborough, and not driving like I had stolen the XTrail, promptly got bogged (yea OK I’m allowed one per trip). Also educated Gen in that the unbogger (shovel) lived under her seat. Lucky me that a tour bus came along and recovered us…. We had a blinder of a time on the Island and decided that this camping thing was for us.

Camping – 10/10, setting up tent and site 00/10, fully loaded car you get the picture.