Which Camper Trailer for Landie - in Australia

[CornishDaddy]

Hi All,

We're in Australia and are in a position to sign a new 6 month contract for work. Not exciting, but the treat we are thinking about to keep us going is to buy a camper trailer and spend the following 6 months touring Oz. Maybe ....

Anyhow, still don't know much about trailers, but there are TONNES available here - including several magazines dedicated to them.

Unfortunately all this information just makes my head spin. We've started checking ebay, and have six months to buy our treat, but would like to know if anyone has any advice on which make/type/colour (!!) would suit best being towed behind a Landie. It's a 110 defender 200tdi.

We'd like to be able to get off road, and will be travelling with a 9 months old baby, so will be looking for creature comforts over hard core camping look!

Finally we have set ourselves a nominal $5000 target price, although this can probably change if we can find reason enough, especially if there is a good reseller price.

Any assistance would be great.

Thanks All

Cheers

[gren_t]

hi are you looking for a trailer that has been designed for off-road touring with all the fittings for cooker fridge battery etc or a rugged trailer for hauling your camping gear.

if it's the latter then an ex army sankey trailer is purpose designed for the job and designed to be towed behind a land rover albeit with a tow pintle and readily available, easy to service and runs on the standard LR wheel and tyre.
The Oz army used lots of them so you may be able to pic one up at a reasonable price.

have fun

Gren

[Camel110]

Good friend of mine has a 'GlobeMaster' with a Howling Moon tent. Seems to tow well on road, a two person job to set up, plenty of room in the trailer and tent and seems well built.

It was re built after doing an around the world behind a LR wolf where I think the axle was replaced, It really needs disk brakes due to the weight if you don't like adjusting the brakes too often.

Trekoveland sell them in the UK, I believe they are made in South Africa.

W

[CornishDaddy]

Yes - we're looking for one with all he fittings. Now we have a baby we have lost the desire for hardcore! Better to go in comfort than not go at all

Thanks for the answers so far - keep them coming, especially if you know any good Aussie varieties ...

[Mike.C]

Here is an option, made here in Brisbane. Camper Trailers Brisbane, Off Road Camper Trailers, Camper Trailer, Folding Camper Trailer

[RogerM]

Whatever you buy just make sure that you have an appropriate hitch for use off bitumen roads. The ball style hitches are fine for general trailers on road but will cause the back end of your LR to fall off after a few hundred kms of badly corrugated dirt road.

There is really a load of manufacturers who claim to make offroad camper trailers - a lot of them are just standard trailers with big wheels and tyres. The designed ones tend to have coil sprung independant suspension - the others tend to have a cargo trailer solid axle. Cross braced corners and very few unbraced butt welds. Look also for appropriate hitch weights - I've seen a few Toyos running around with badly overloaded hitches which can break spings or tow bars. Hitch height is important to make sure that the trailer runs level otherwise the weight is transferred onto the LR hitch.

Look for a trailer that has common wheel/tyre size to the LR - will save carrying yet another set of spare tyres.

Buy a cheap set of spring scales to get weight distribution right - attach to the trailer hitch and then load upto about 75% of the LR hitch maximum or trailer maximum whichever is the lower. You may have to play around with that figure when driving on corrugated roads to get stable driving.

Over ride brakes can also cause problems on dirt roads - theres fors and againsts - you can lock them out easily in very rough stuff - they can come on when you dont want them too - they lock up on steep descents - etc etc. Electric brakes are more reliable nowadays but can still cause some problems.

You've got plenty of time so look around a lot. Bear in mind that prices will start to rise towards Spring. Look at the transport authoty's website in the State you are in for details about purchasing a trailer - rego, safety certs, REVS check (nothing owing to a finance co).