MySwag.org The Off-road Camper Trailer Forum
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Jardry on December 20, 2011, 04:43:37 PM
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http://www.mgs.net.au/auctions/heaslip06_12/details.html (http://www.mgs.net.au/auctions/heaslip06_12/details.html)
Was driving down Port Wakefield Road, BOLIVAR the other day and noticed a "FOR LEASE" sign at the front of Heaslip Camper Trailers and wondered what was going on!
From the link provided above it appears that the owners have retired and have closed down the business.
Heaslip made a very good product and I for one am disappointed that thier campers will no longer be available new.
One can only speculate as to why they decided to retire without selling the business as a going concern - no interest, realised more liquidating rather than selling as a going concern.
R.I.P. Heaslip Camper Trailers.
P.S. - DIY'ers better download images of their website before it disappears into the Ethernet.
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Thats a real shame. We had a look at their campers in the last few years as they displayed at Agfest. It was obvious that they were a quality product.
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its a growing trend... obriens trailers earlier this year too...
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I thought I read somewhere that Challenge Campers have bought/merged with Heaslip.
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Nothing on their website
http://www.heaslipcampers.com/ (http://www.heaslipcampers.com/)
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I thought I read somewhere that Challenge Campers have bought/merged with Heaslip.
Challenge bought out Cavalier Camper Trailers
:cheers: bubba
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Australians can only blame ourselves by buying cheap crap from China MOST of the time. No wonder our aussie brands are going under.
I might think about that next time I buy.
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Australians can only blame ourselves by buying cheap crap from China MOST of the time. No wonder our aussie brands are going under.
I might think about that next time I buy.
Errrr didn't they retire?? ??? ???
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Errrr didn't they retire?? ??? ???
Yes they did, but it's easier to blame everything on China ;D
:cheers: bubba
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Challenge bought out Cavalier Camper Trailers
:cheers: bubba
Thanks Bubba, I knew that I'd read that they had bought someone - just got the wrong South Oz manufacturer.
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You get a bit tired of China being blamed for the closure of Australian manufacturing it's been going on long before China come on the scene, I think Massey Ferguson tractors had a plant at Ballarat many years ago and didn't Upton tractors have a plant at Shepparton I don't think there is any whitegoods manufactured in Australia anymore all these factories closed years ago before China became a manufacturing force.
I have a Chinese camper that I'm very happy with it is true that the quality is down on the Australian equivalent but paid a hell of a lot less for it, I don't think the Australians workers should be expected to work for the same as their Asian counterparts but I'm not going to throw my hard earned away just to buy Australian, the money I save on these purchases I will spend somewhere so Í figure I'm supporting jobs in the retail sector.
Fred
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And thus our (I can't think of a more appropriate word) leader wants fair trade with other countries which will mean Our Jobs and Our Salary will have to fall to match the overseas prices, cause sure as anything the more Chinese products we buy, they wont be putting up the salaries or prices to match ours
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Why not blame the North Koreans, they seem to be copping a lot of flak lately!! :D :D :D
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I have a china made tent on a aussie trailer called a Southern Star. Cost about 5,500.00 had no trouble with it and had some great times. I could never have afforded the 15,000 bucks aussie manufacturers were selling for at the time. I think there are lots like me who would not have a camper if not for the china tents and trailers
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I think there are lots like me who would not have a camper if not for the china tents and trailers
Same, i have an aussie made trailer but a chinese tent top ($2k ea) and if i had to spend $8-10k or more i'd still be tenting it.
If anything is to blame for busineses closing atm it's the recession we're in. The boom is over.
cheers
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Let's not forget what we are towing our C/T's with. A nice imported vehicle. How many members tow a Camper with a Commodore or Falcon? Not many I'll bet.
Pity about Heaslip, nice gear.
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Bugger :'(
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quite a few gone over recent times.. its a tough market out there...
http://www.campertrailers.org/manufacturers2.htm (http://www.campertrailers.org/manufacturers2.htm)
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Hey fellas, no need to feel bad for buying chinese, your money do what you like.
My comment was broader than just camper trailers though. Cheap ass crap from China that last 1/10 of the time that quality non chinese stuff does just irks me.
I lived in canberra when a huge hardware chain arrived with its cheap prices mainly driven by cheap crap chinese stuff. GMC gear anyone? We lost two canberra based hardware chains and a lot of local independent hardware stores.
Now there is virtually no place that has any reasonable knowledge base when it comes to hardware but you can buy all manner of $50 gazebos and Ryobi trimmers.
We brought it on ourselves.
Rant over.
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I lived in canberra when a huge hardware chain arrived with its cheap prices mainly driven by cheap crap chinese stuff. GMC gear anyone? We lost two canberra based hardware chains and a lot of local independent hardware stores.
Yep, same happened in the Shire... we had several SMALL hardware stores but they sold quality gear.. hardwarehouse turned up, and they all shut within 6mths.
We brought it on ourselves.
Rant over.
agree.
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I'm not sure you can blame a business (or country!) for killing other businesses.
It is purely you and me, the buyers, that decide who will and who won't survive, not manufacturers or importers of Chinese trailers. Doesn't matter whether the Chinese import salesman convinces a gumby to buy a $3k trailer with a 3 month warranty, if the schmuck buying it thinks it's a better deal than a $20k camper with a 2 year warranty, it is a good deal. Over time if people come to realise the imports are rubbish and stop buying them, the sellers of these things will go the way of O'Briens et al.
People whinge all the time about the Woolies and Coles monopoly but I see way more people shopping at those places than I do in the local bakery & butcher. Guess who's going to survive.
Chinese imports simply offer an alternative to Aussie made (i.e. expensive) campers. It's us that will make or break a business - if a business doesn't have a product I want at a price that I think is reasonable, I won't buy.
That, unfortunately today, is business.
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, I think Massey Ferguson tractors had a plant at Ballarat many years ago and didn't Upton tractors have a plant at Shepparton I don't think there is any whitegoods manufactured in Australia anymore all these factories closed years ago before China became a manufacturing force.
I believe the Ford foundry in Geelong is the old Massey factory/foundry , could be wrong...
Electrolux still have a cookers (ovens etc) division here in Adelaide, and whitegoods (fridge/freezer) division in Orange,
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Hi all
Just wanted to add that I am not having a go at anyone in particular or their choices. More just rambling on a bit.
cheers
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I'm not sure you can blame a business (or country!) for killing other businesses.
It is purely you and me, the buyers, that decide who will and who won't survive, not manufacturers or importers of Chinese trailers. Doesn't matter whether the Chinese import salesman convinces a gumby to buy a $3k trailer with a 3 month warranty, if the schmuck buying it thinks it's a better deal than a $20k camper with a 2 year warranty, it is a good deal. Over time if people come to realise the imports are rubbish and stop buying them, the sellers of these things will go the way of O'Briens et al.
People whinge all the time about the Woolies and Coles monopoly but I see way more people shopping at those places than I do in the local bakery & butcher. Guess who's going to survive.
Chinese imports simply offer an alternative to Aussie made (i.e. expensive) campers. It's us that will make or break a business - if a business doesn't have a product I want at a price that I think is reasonable, I won't buy.
That, unfortunately today, is business.
No it's our great Governments that wanted Australia to compete on the world stage that has caused all this, you cannot blame the buyer or the importer.
Australian business was in trouble the very minute it had to compete in a free for all with OS business >:(
bubba
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http://www.heaslipcampers.com/page.asp?parentid=25&parent2id=93&parent3id=25 (http://www.heaslipcampers.com/page.asp?parentid=25&parent2id=93&parent3id=25)
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I am surprised it has not sold as a walk in walk out ongoing concern.
As for the chinese debate that somehow started in these people's joyful retirement plan. It comes down to the Australian's aggressive behaviour. We are aggressive in business and we are aggressive towards each other. We are consumers and we chose where we spend our money. The end user is the one to blame not the chinese, the importer making a couple of hungee on the next container full of goods they sell on ebay. Our wages are very high in comparison to the majority of the western world this is why things seem so cheap when we travel abroad. We are not faithful to each other because of our aggressive nature otherwise we would take the American approach and support our fellow countryman before buying that cheap arse chinese CT.
Dont blame the chinese they are only doing business in the best way they know how. They are only trying to put dinner on the table and get the most out of life before they die like the rest of us.
There are a lot of people in this country who have tried to build CT's and have not done very well at it. It may be because they were bad in business or they did not build a good enough product to take anyone's eye. Who knows maybe they just didn't know how to market their product. The Heaslip's did all of the above but they worked very hard because they catered for a very broad range of the market, from slip on's to custom storage trailers etc.
I wish the Auction was a bit closer ;D
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HI Toy
I started the chinese thing with this;
Australians can only blame ourselves by buying cheap crap from China MOST of the time. No wonder our aussie brands are going under.
I might think about that next time I buy.
Your comments are really insightful. People knock the Americans and their love of country but it is pretty inspiring.
I think its sad that we consume to the extent that we are happy to accept second or third best just to get it. Particularly when we are one of the most affluent nations in the world.
cheers
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The Heaslips are retiring after 20 years in business!
From the Heaslip website:
We would like to thank all our customers for their support and very much appreciate the many friends we have made along the way. Our intention is to enjoy travelling Australia in our camper and we hope to see you "on the road" along the way. Whilst the factory has closed, our award-winning designs are available for purchase, but in the meantime we can still be contacted and organise spare parts as required.
Further updates to come.
Happy Travels to All -
Rob & Judy
Deserves congratulations rather than the whole sweatshop product debate...
A copy of the letter we sent:
Hi,
Congrats' on your retirement and thank you for such a great product.
When travelling and camping we often look around at other campers and honestly always come back to the Heaslip content in the knowledge that there is very little we would change or wish for, so again, thanks.
You can retire confident in the knowledge that you have contributed so much to so many in the form of quality engineering and customer service.
Well done and enjoy your terrific product travelling around this amazing country.
Ben and Mandy Lord.
:cheers:
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Hey the company I work for sell that cheap chinese crap, funny thing is the majority of the machinery we sell go to the manufacturing industry to make stuff in Australia, and a lot of it goes to camper trailer and caravan manufacturers, go figure. Last year we rolled over around 85 mill so some of it is staying in oz, and I get paid to fix them when they do break down, so it ain't all bad.
Now selling our land to overseas investors that's a different story
P.S. We do sell machinery made in Oz and Europe as well :cheers:
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Heaslip were also manufacturers of top line agricultural machinery earlier in the piece, not sure if they were still in the game latter on, hope they have got out in time to enjoy some well earned time on the road, good luck too them.
On the China side I recall many years ago Japanese gear was referred to as Jap crap and you took a risk buying any of their stuff, now you cant afford their gear. It's China's turn and a lot of their gear is as good as any ( you just have to find the diamonds in all the rubbish ), wont be long and their prices will match the local ones and we will be moaning and looking for the next cheap manufacturer. :-[
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Maddo, agree with your comments. India will be next and then Brazil.
Trevor
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Deserves congratulations rather than the whole sweatshop product debate...
:cup: 100% agree with you Ben and Mandy. We need to remember that the Heaslips have not been forced out of business, they have decided to retire. I do not think this needs to become an economic debate about where products are manufactured.
Well done to the Heaslips for 20 years of manufacturing and perfecting a great product, enjoy your well earned and deserved retirement.
:cheers: Cracka
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Very well said Craig
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