Poor man's Campertrailer

[FlyingBushPig Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyingBushPig]

OK so I spent too much on vehicle and camera gear so we've gone and bought about the cheapest camper on ebay available!!!

Cost: $2600
Includes:
7x4 "Offroad" trailer - we'll see how much that means...
jockey wheel
very good rear stands believe it or not...
Primus 9' tent.

And that's all but...I'm very very happy for the money we paid and it means I can mod to suit. 1st job is a kitchen.
More images here: http://www.philtaylorphotography.com/camper

Just thought there might be some who are interested.Taking it to "The Prom" this weekend.

1st Trial setup at home:

[McBAIN Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close McBAIN]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

good stuff Phil! be keen to hear how it goes for you i've been checking these things out on ebay for a while now!

[IRON-PAWW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close IRON-PAWW]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

Yup good job there I reckon Phil! As long as it keeps the weather and wildlife out you can't go wrong. And as you say, you've bought a bare bones setup at a very good price so you can mod away all you like. I suppose the thing will be how tough the trailer really is but if you get a few decent trips out of it you'll have got your moneys worth. Looks like a decent tent setup you got with it, plenty of room by the look of it.

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

Looks like a nice n neat camper trailer Phil
No shots of it packed up though??

[FlyingBushPig Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyingBushPig]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

Not at the moment, I only went & got the camera once it was set up.
Gave it the complete hose down soaking to seal it and everything was dry as a bone this morning.
Trailer's built fairly tough but I wouldn't mind a few more leaves in the suspension - that'll come once I get more weight on it I guess.
I need gas rings, tool boxes, tent pole pipe etc. I'll get into that after this summer. At the moment we'll be using it pretty much straight away so no time to mod.

[Guest Close Guest]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

http://myswag.org/forum/ will be your friend.

[Black Prado Chick Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Black Prado Chick]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

I also bought a Camper Trailer Tent of Ebay. It cost me only $1100 and its 12 foot with full enclosed annex (removeable walls of course) and I ordered a Offroad Trailer thru a trailer making place which cost me $2200.

Been happy with them both so far, saved myself alot of money to! But just be careful if you havent set yours up to let it get wet yet, because when it does get wet for the 1st time it is going to leak like there is no tomorrow!

[Chuck Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chuck]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

But just be careful if you havent set yours up to let it get wet yet, because when it does get wet for the 1st time it is going to leak like there is no tomorrow!

Too true this happened to us when we picked our camper up second night rain and leaks every where, day to dry out more rain but no leaks...

At the time we were camped in a caravan park and unable to wet down the canvas before hand.

Chuck

[FlyingBushPig Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyingBushPig]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

That's actually why I set it up. It rained for a lot of the day and I soaked the rest of it with the hose to "waterproof" it. Thinking about getting some seam sealer to be extra sure. Anyone had any experience with that type of product?

[Golly Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Golly]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

keeping an eye on this thread for sure, i like the idea of the budget camper....

[vx05 Member Find all posts View Profile Close vx05]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

Budget camper, now that sounds better. We picked ours up 2nd hand from friends of the family.
It is from Cameron Canvas in Adelaide, very good tent 15oz canvas, zip in annex walls etc, but our trailer is pretty much on road only. This suits us for now, as this was a test of the water, as to whether we could camp with the kids. So far, so good but only long weekends yet, will have to wait and see how we go with longer stints.
Setting up without the annex takes about 10 - 15 minutes, the full annex takes it out to about 30 - 40 mins, single handed, so not to bad

[Golly Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Golly]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

Found this at Ray's Outdoors ( not affiliated with them at all ) as I was looking for a budget camper for our family.
https://www.raysoutdoors.com.au/catalog ... ts_id=1033

The 300gsm rating is that any good and will it leak hahaha... I know its basic, but It does have potential for a few mods in the future I am sure.

It has plenty of room and an upgrade to the mattress would be a good start, but other than that it looks promising.

Any views or opinions, as I am new to this.
Piccy

Details:
Just hook up and drive away. Opens from the side to provide more living space.
Optional sunroom availaible. Tent opens sideways to trailer to provide larger living area. 244x244cm.
Large side windows with half panel clear PVC curtains with roller tracks. Bed size 240 x 180 cm.
Vinyl travel cover supplied. Steel ladder included. Fits standard 6x4' trailer with side height 76cm(not included, sold seperatley). Just 4 bolts to fit.
High quality polycotton canvas 300gsm. Heavy duty .52mm reinforced PVC floor.
Comfortable supporting foam mattress with nylon cover.
Internal main frame for fast set-up.
Steel rings on all peg points. Super fine insect mesh. High quality plywood baseboard with clear laquer finish and trailer access hatch.
Extra large #10 coil zippers. Fully framed aluminium poles for awning set-up. Full length awning attached.
Large end door with cover can be used as awning. Double internal roof material on frame points

Decent 4 x 4 Trailer how much would they be to add this too ?

Cheers

Justin

[vx05 Member Find all posts View Profile Close vx05]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

G'day Golly,

This,

Fits standard 6x4' trailer with side height 76cm

is probably a limiting factor in trailer choice, as when you flip the tent over you want the floor to be flat. If you go much higher then their 76cm, the side wall, the bit that comes down the side of the trailer (hope this makes sense) may not actually reach the ground.
I looked at changing the wheels, axle and springs on ours to match the car, but was advised against for this reason.

Apart from that, i think that a tent that comes off the trailer, leaving you with a usable trailer for 90% of the time that you own it, is a great idea. Just bolt the tent down

Just 4 bolts to fit.

when you want to get away.

[FlyingBushPig Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyingBushPig]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

Well, went away last night (just for 1 night) and had very light rain - no leaks - but it was only light rain..
1st time we set up with all ropes, annex etc at home it took ages, working out the best way to set up - which poles first etc. Probably close to an hour, and I was feeling a bit worried.
Yesterday we did a quick set up - no annex, 6 pegs including 2 guy ropes and it took 15 mins with our bedding ready to go. It was fantastic, sooooo much quicker than even our smaller touring tent.
Next time it will be quicker as we've left our sleeping bags in there, the 4wd mat (our daughters sleep on), and their sleeping bags all on top of the bed.

We thought about putting it on our existing heavy duty (1 tonne) non offroad box trailer but didn't for 2 reasons - the height...while ours is slightly too high (1"), I'd rather that than too low where it would sag and tend to leak. secondly the trailer sides are standard depth on the std trailer whereas the new trailer has 500mm deep sides and that's essential for camping IMO. Remember, unlike a normal trailer, with the tent on top, you can't or wouldn't want to stack stuff on top.

As mentioned, our tent is a Primus tent

Just a comment on what to expect for this sort of money: You DO get what you pay for. Our trailer is very well built (from Europe Trailers in Thomastown) with 7 leaf suspension but no shocks.
The clips holding the tent base to the trailer are a bit fiddly. Ours lifts with the hinges on the drawbar end and uses quite suitable gas struts - on each side. The fiddly bits basically lock down the other end and as there is a bit of play in how the base sits on the trailer it needs a bit of playing with to get right. I'd prefer it to lift from the side as it's a bit hard to put stuff in at the hinged end, but some drawers down that end will fix that.

The PVC overcover is good and tough but the zip is not the best quality and I can see we'll need to replace this at some point. With the bedding in it was reasonably full but not overtight and the zip was already skipping a few notches here and there. It has seat belt type straps over the top but very weak clips (the type used on backpacks). One of these broke on the first tightening (perhaps me being a bit too zealous), and I'm going to replace these with some sort of heavy duty metal ones.

As for the tent itself, I can't fault it yet. Quite easy to put up, although realistically it is a two person job. Doable with one but easy with two. I plan on buying a few extra poles to put into the roofline to give it extra strength on windy nights and especially with one night setups where I don't want to use many guy ropes. This is a precaution only. We did have some pooling of water on the annex when we drenched it, hopefully we'll know how to set it up better next time and if that doesn't do the trick, a few more poles in that should do it.

All in all I'm very happy for what we payed. Anything that's not of the best quality is easily and fairly cheaply replaceable. It's a great trailer straight from sale and with a few extras - some drawers, kitchen and water tank it'll do pretty much anything we need.

[FlyingBushPig Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyingBushPig]

Re: Poor man's Campertrailer

Just thought I'd also mention that whilst it's a useable trailer when you're not using it as a camper, we want ours to be set up and ready to go at any time, so on a Friday afternoon, we can decide to take off anywhere. That means keeping kitchen stuff, general camping stuff in it. Also, if it's being used for other things, it's likely to be treated a bit worse than it should. If you've got room, get a second box trailer for that purpose - they're pretty cheap in comparison to most things automotive.