MySwag.org The Off-road Camper Trailer Forum
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: gronk on May 14, 2015, 02:37:23 PM
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This is not designed to highlight any one person, but do people go camping enough to justify buying a camper...or tent..or van ??
Say you own a camper and you use it once a year.....have you really wasted your money ?......would you be better off hiring one ?....or a cabin if van parks are your thing ?
How many times camping a year is worthwhile for your investment ? Do people actually do some maths and work it out ?
I do it for enjoyment, and dollars don't come into it, but what about others ??
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Personally I think once a year is a waste of a camper. I barely use mine to make it worth while.
I've now had several mates sell their campers and go back to tents and put the $ on the mortgage.
in reality with *some* setups, there isn't much difference in setup times of trailer/awning/kitchen/chairs etc than tent and setup..
YMMV
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In a nutshell.... NO.!
But My CT did not cost me the earth, so if it sits there 10 months of the year i don't care to much. :cheers:
BHG
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I use ours as much as possible and it would equate to around 6 weeks in the year which I think is good. Life is to busy and any quality time spent with family and friends away from the general craziness of the world is great. Would O like more time, yes, is it possible, no. Its the good times living the dream that count. The kids call our camper the holiday house, we can go to the mountains or the beach and they are happy.
GG
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I do it for enjoyment, and dollars don't come into it, but what about others ??
We're the same.
If $$$ were the limiting factor, we wouldn't own one, or the boat, or V8 Hilux, the Missus would drive a Prius not a V8, I wouldn't go fishing, racing or drink beer either. (life would really suck if I lived like that)
But I choose too, so I pay.
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We're the same.
If $$$ were the limiting factor, we wouldn't own one, or the boat, or V8 Hilux, the Missus would drive a Prius not a V8, I wouldn't go fishing, racing or drink beer either. (life would really suck if I lived like that)
But I choose too, so I pay.
100%
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We only average about 3 weeks a year but I lived in it for 6 months in 2010 and I am about to do the same thing again.
If I owed money on it then yes I would not be happy but it only costs me a service and some rego and insurance so that is OK
Where it gets me is that we have talked about upgrading and come to the decision on the amount of use we are doing we cannot justify and upgrade
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Not nearly as much as we would like, But Couldnt justify a $10 k + camper or van sitting on the drive most of the year, so thats why its a home built / reliable and comfortable enough at a 1/ 3 of the cost basic camper for us ..
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I think a lot depends on your circumstances. We have had our camper for about 12 years and have never travelled with kids. We have a hard floor which takes about 2 minutes to set up, no way were we that slick with our tent even after years of practice. Now that the grey hairs are well and truly set in (for the hairs that are still left), I find it just so much easier (and comfortable) to camp with the trailer.
I hate hiring things as I always feel ripped off (I know it is my problem). If you buy well to start with and look after your gear you will get a good return on your trailer/tent/swag when you decide to move on, and I think this is something that is quite often forgotten.
So to answer your original question, NO. We camped for at least 4 months last year and we still wanted more.
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We usually get away for a couple of 10 day trips each year, as well as half a dozen 3 or 4 dayers fairly close to home. Truth is if I wasn't away fishing so much, we'd do a lot more camping ;D
Wouldn't and couldn't be without the camper though
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Nowhere near enough (5 x times in 2 years :'(). Paid bugger all for it though (relatively speaking) and happy to do mods on it throughout the year (bloody MySwag) :cup:
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Not really concerned about the dollars, but no it doesn't get used enough.
Took the young bloke out to Darlington Park a couple of weekends ago and didn't bother with the camper.
Was much easier and less hassle than the camper.
(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/05/13/c0d3b0e3f5616b13bef58566f34bad2f.jpg)
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I don't really know anyone who feels they use their camper enough....
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I don't really know anyone who feels they use their camper enough....
X 2
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In a word...NO....but when I do the family and I love it, so bugger it, im keeping it.....the look on my kids faces during our camping trip at times is worth it to me..
Swanny
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I don't really know anyone who feels they use their camper enough....
x3
If you look at a yacht/boat harbor on a beautiful sunny weekend - it will be 60% - 80% full of big toys just sitting there...
Clearly something is wrong - and compared to campers and vans - those particular toys have $100K - $1M price tags...
So it boils down to whether you have the cash to sink on a camper / van... and what part of life you are in.... (Grey nomad tourers; or say a young family of dedicated users through all the school holidays etc....)
Everyone else not in these 2 main groups may, in reality, be wasting money buying biggish bucks CT or vans? With HP repayments; rego and insurance; etc - where you only use it (say) 4 times a year maybe the equivalent to spending over $3K on every one of those 4 trips a year - for the "joy" of owning something vs hiring something...
EG - Figures based on:
$45K Van on HP = $55K cost over 5 years = $11K per year (add) (guesstimated) $1.2Kpa for rego; ins; repairs .... take her out on 4 trips a year = BINGO; each trip is costing you $3k+... :'( (Ownership vs Hire)....
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No, we don't use it enough.
Yes, we would love to use it more.
One day we plan on travelling Australia... (Dreaming constantly)
We own it, we love it and when we do get to use it we don't want to come home,
So, I would never ever sell it. I don't for one minute regret buying it. It's always there if we want to go away.
Vicki
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No, we don't use it enough.
Yes, we would love to use it more.
One day we plan on travelling Australia... (Dreaming constantly)
We own it, we love it and when we do get to use it we don't want to come home,
So, I would never ever sell it. I don't for one minute regret buying it. It's always there if we want to go away.
Vicki
Spot on for us as well, I also use it as therapy - I have a fairly constant, stressful job (like most of us these days) and just because we don't use it one weekend I know it's in the garage and can go and tinker on it, upgrade it etc - that in itself is worth it as I rarely drink these days, don't gamble, rarely go out so I put our money here.
We have a running joke at home of how much each night costs us when we go away with the Hawk we bought - my mates are in to it now as well, lol.
We are really trying to use it every 3 to 2 weekends and just booked a week touring down to Dubbo in August. No more overseas holidays - we have the car and camper and plan to use it.
Cheers Dan
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Can't say I've ever thought about the cost of our camper, it's what we wanted at the time so we bought it. That line of thought is why I'll still be working at 70 years of age though...lol. Do we use it often enough for what it cost to buy?...no idea, like I said it's not something I bother to think about. I go camping to get away from the every day rat race which is priceless in my book, and I definately don't spend that time wondering if I'm getting value for money out of my camper.
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No, don't use the camper enough. A couple of times a year perhaps. It costs money (depreciation, insurance, rego) just to sit there. I'd sell it and go back to tenting but the wife likes the camper when we use it. The trailer certainly doesn't save us any significant time versus tenting.
I have toyed with giving up camping altogether as it probably would be cheaper to spend 10 nights a year in resorts, and the kids love that, but I think camping gives the kids some worthwhile experience of the outdoors ... and I personally enjoy it (apart from the all the effort of a family camping setup) so I'm going to persist with it for now.
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Can't say I've ever thought about the cost of our camper, it's what we wanted at the time so we bought it. That line of thought is why I'll still be working at 70 years of age though...lol. Do we use it often enough for what it cost to buy?...no idea, like I said it's not something I bother to think about. I go camping to get away from the every day rat race which is priceless in my book, and I definately don't spend that time wondering if I'm getting value for money out of my camper.
Lol. Myself and Lyndall will never be rich either mate, I'll be working for ever also. If we want something we just buy it.
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We spend more weekends camping than we do in our house, so I guess my answer would be yes. ;D
We live in the camper for a month every christmas and go away all through the year.
To us its a lifestyle so I don't hesitate to spend money on a glamper.
(Hence the upgrade to the dark side recently)
Not trying to be morbid, but we look at it with the view that in 10 years our kids wont want to know us, so we get out and about with them while we can enjoy it.
Then we have an asset that we can use to enjoy our lives when they are doing their own thing.
Hopefully it will then go full circle and we can enjoy corrupting helping our grandkids. ;D ;D ;D
Go on, get out and use it........ that's what they're for.
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x3
If you look at a yacht/boat harbor on a beautiful sunny weekend - it will be 60% - 80% full of big toys just sitting there...
Clearly something is wrong - and compared to campers and vans - those particular toys have $100K - $1M price tags...
So it boils down to whether you have the cash to sink on a camper / van... and what part of life you are in.... (Grey nomad tourers; or say a young family of dedicated users through all the school holidays etc....)
Everyone else not in these 2 main groups may, in reality, be wasting money buying biggish bucks CT or vans? With HP repayments; rego and insurance; etc - where you only use it (say) 4 times a year maybe the equivalent to spending over $3K on every one of those 4 trips a year - for the "joy" of owning something vs hiring something...
EG - Figures based on:
$45K Van on HP = $55K cost over 5 years = $11K per year (add) (guesstimated) $1.2Kpa for rego; ins; repairs .... take her out on 4 trips a year = BINGO; each trip is costing you $3k+... :'( (Ownership vs Hire)....
Depending on what you buy though, you need to factor in resale value as well. So let's say you get 60% back after 5 years (not unrealistic for a Jayco), each trip is only costing $1200.
Before we had the CT we would stay in cabins at a CP or a resort/unit (my wife isn't that interested in tents) so I reckon we'd be ahead anyway.
I wouldn't necessarily borrow money to by a CT but luckily I didn't have to.
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a lot of good arguments/comments there. in our first year we camped every third weekend but since then the weather hasn't been on our side plus they put my work group on call so one weekend in five I sit around home unable to go too far from the phone or partake in certain liquid refreshments.
in our case we only bought a fairly cost-effective camper, miminal bells and whistles. I often think a pop-up would be better, smaller of course but at least if it rains we drop it down and put it away without worrying about the canvas rotting as opposed to having to put it all back up when we get home to dry it out but the purchase cost and weight are a factor when one spends a month on soft sand that most vans get stuck on
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One of the main reasons I've gone with building a teardrop is its always got a made up bed and fully equipped galley and absolutely no set up what so ever and even better no canvas to dry out.
If you want to stay in one place for days you can set up as much of a camp based around it as you like but you can pull over, cook a feed and go to bed anywhere any time and just take off in the morning
Plus it's fully insulated, because of these reasons I hope I'll get plenty of use out of it
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Well this is a very interesting subject.
We are lucky that we get away every month on RDO weekends and generally a weekend in between.
As my wife is retired she is convinced that it is not enough.
I have only 12 months to go till we can go anytime.
I think that every one is different and you buy a camper with good intentions but life's struggles change plans. I,m sure that when you use your CT any thought of what it cost will not come into your mind. If it sits in the driveway all year all the stresses are forgotten when you back up and hook up for your special trip. To take the family somewhere special forgoes what it might cost.
Rob
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I'm satisfied we use it enough to justify it, at about 6 weeks per year for the past 5 years. Not too bad considering we both work full time and have 2 young kids.
The best part is that the kids love it. Every holidays they want to know where we are going, what we're going to see. That stuff's priceless. And it is also fantastic for the relationship with the Mrs - I'm blessed that she loves it as much as I do, and we just get to hang out and spend time together.
In that perspective, cost is irrelevant.
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The best part is that the kids love it. Every holidays they want to know where we are going, what we're going to see. That stuff's priceless. And it is also fantastic for the relationship with the Mrs - I'm blessed that she loves it as much as I do, and we just get to hang out and spend time together.
In that perspective, cost is irrelevant.
This. X 100
Yep, we're lucky to be able to buy a new off road caravan which we hope will last us many years to come. Not bad for us given we're still young (me 35, mrs shriek a tad older) so, many years to left to go camping with kids (4 and 8) and make lots of memories. Looking forward to it.
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We average about 5-6 weeks per year I guess.
We keep a pretty good log of our travels and actually do tally how much it has cost us per night! Even though the numbers start out frightening, with each trip the cost per night drops.
The smiles of the kids faces and the adventures we share as a family make every cent worth it.
And like most of you, our camper and camping planning is as much of a hobby as it is a family adventure.
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We get out and about once a month but not always with the camper. I don't see the trailer as a financial investment, rather it's more of a lifestyle improvement. My 4WD an camper give me quality time away from the daily grind and we like the fact that it's ours and setup the way we want with all our gear ready to go. It's a hobby that I enjoy tinkering with in the shed on those rainy days and it's a home with all the creature comforts I need when we can get away for extended periods of time. I never thought of myself buying a camper trailer but now we have we are glad we took the plunge and have not one single regret other than not doing it earlier! At the very least it's opened the doors on a new lifestyle and being ours, ready to roll, it's a great motivator/ excuse to hit the road more often than not. So no we don't go camping as much as we like but ill say yes to being a great investment in our lives.
Cheers,
Matt
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We've been averaging twice a month for 11yrs, I reckon that justifies buying ours, although this year not so much.
It's pointless having a camper if you only use it once or twice a year, you can hire one for less.
Baz.
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On average ours is used for 3 weeks of the year, then another week or so in a tent for overnight trips up the beach.
Is it enough to justify it’s initial cost, probably not. But when we get a day or two of rain while camping then that alone justifies the initial purchase price as the kids and wife are dry and happy. So if they are happy I’m happy.
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I've never bothered to work out the costs and monetary worth. There's other qualitative benefits to getting out that some have mentioned - time with kids, new experiences, recharge out of the rat race). There's also hidden costs of staying at home you forget about. We are a family of 5 so one trip to the cinema in Sydney is not cheap, and a day trip to Taronga costs over $120. School holidays get expensive. So even a few weeks a year is worth it IMO, for more than just money.
We are planning to get out more since our recent acquisition. Aiming at least two weeks long trip once a year and a few weekends in between. Sydney>Fraser via New England highway last year, NE Tassie this year, Syd>Adelaide via the Darling River Run next year etc etc. Our kids love getting out even though iThingies are banned on camping weekends. They still talk regularly about our Uluru to Darwin trip 3 years ago.
We've also got a permanent van on the NSW South coast. We really need to use that once a month to justify the park fees. But we usually are down there for a weekend every couple of months and spend 1-2 weeks and Xmas and 1-2 weeks at Easter there. Those 4 weeks pay for itself if you look at hiring a house/cabin over the same period. Its an extravagance, but being 300m stroll to the beach on the edge of a National Park, but away from the school holiday crowds down in tent city is gold.
So with that and the CT, we'll have a lot of great family experiences over the coming years, but a really crappy looking garden :)
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Not trying to be morbid, but we look at it with the view that in 10 years our kids wont want to know us, so we get out and about with them while we can enjoy it.
Then we have an asset that we can use to enjoy our lives when they are doing their own thing.
x2 this is exactly our approach, getting ready to head off again this afternoon.
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We're the same.
If $$$ were the limiting factor, we wouldn't own one, or the boat, or V8 Hilux, the Missus would drive a Prius not a V8, I wouldn't go fishing, racing or drink beer either. (life would really suck if I lived like that)
But I choose too, so I pay.
Shane I'm with you.
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Bought ours last year for a 3 month trip.
Looked at selling it afterwards, but finally decided against it.
Currently we are averaging a weekend a month - not enough for our liking but that's what we can manage with Life/Work balancing issues...
Thought about it from a financial perspective - and the way I am looking at it is that if we continue to average a weekend a month it is financially worth it.. The problem with this approach is that you can't put a value on waking up in a national park or on a beach somewhere.. :D
Our tent setup took significantly longer than out camper so would not want to go back..
Having the camper sitting in the driveway also allows us to be flexible. Though not planned we will now go up to the Big Red Bash in July...
So - no regrets and worthwhile... wish we could be out more often....
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Currently we are averaging a weekend a month
I reckon that's more than double many of us on here.
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I reckon that's more than double many of us on here.
Still feels like it is not often enough.. Given the small amount of time it takes to set our camper up (hardfloor) we found that even an overnighter somewhere is worthwhile.. It is always prepared that we essentially only have to put some food and - more importantly - drinks in the fridge and we are ready to go..
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Not enough but then my trailer cost less than a set of big tyres so no big deal if it doesnt get used enough.
I wanted to get away over the summer time but a badly broken leg had me laid up for 3 months and now its catch up time doing all the things i couldnt do before.
Hope to get out more often this year.
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In a word...NO....but when I do the family and I love it, so bugger it, im keeping it.....the look on my kids faces during our camping trip at times is worth it to me..
Swanny
That about says it for me..... its all about us folks :)
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My golden rules when it comes to toys,
1. Never buy new
2. Never finance it
3. Look after it
Hiring sounds good but you need to book it, pick it up, put all your gear on board, clean it straight away afterwards, remove your gear and return it. Kind of defeats the purpose of a quick get away.
If you buy used, someone else has taken the $ hit and if you don't finance it, its only costing a bit of rego per year and maintence.
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My golden rules when it comes to toys,
1. Never buy new
2. Never finance it
3. Look after it
Hiring sounds good but you need to book it, pick it up, put all your gear on board, clean it straight away afterwards, remove your gear and return it. Kind of defeats the purpose of a quick get away.
If you buy used, someone else has taken the $ hit and if you don't finance it, its only costing a bit of rego per year and maintence.
Couldn't agree more but I'd add a point before all those...try before you buy preferably.
I own alot less than some and more than others but I don't borrow money on anything other than vehicles and I never buy them new either
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I get away for about four weeks a year, three of those would be in the van. I'd love to do more but work gets in the way of life. For me, once I've made a decision to buy or do something I don't rationalise it any further. It goes to more than the CT or van, there's also the 4WD that doesn't get enough use to justify it financially either. The same goes for swimming pools, spas, and Thermomixes.
Anyway, as the old saying goes, at the end of the day, he who dies with the most toys wins.
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I get away for about four weeks a year, three of those would be in the van. I'd love to do more but work gets in the way of life. For me, once I've made a decision to buy or do something I don't rationalise it any further. It goes to more than the CT or van, there's also the 4WD that doesn't get enough use to justify it financially either. The same goes for swimming pools, spas, and Thermomixes.
Anyway, as the old saying goes, at the end of the day, he who dies with the most toys wins.
My Jackaroo and Heaslip are themselves a 'journey' of getting them to where I want.
They will eventually do some big trips, until then it is a series of 'shake down' trips to get it all together! :cheers:
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We are currently "between" our CT's (having sold our old one and waiting for our new one to arrive) and I can say that I really miss having it in the drive ready to go whenever we want.
I too once vowed that I'd never buy new, but the price difference between a new Jayco swan and one a couple of years old was bugger all so it's a new one for us.
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We average about 5-6 weeks a years away in the camper. We made a conscious effort to get away as much as possible after a crappy year a few years ago - we didn't go camping once and family/friend issues and deaths were unfortunately happening every couple of months. That changes your perspective a bit I reckon.
The kids (5,3 &1) absolutely love going camping. To be honest they would love spending time doing anything with me as I work a bit as we all do but when camping they have my full attention for the 3-days or 2-weeks we are out there. No phone reception means nothing to take away the enjoyment of seeing the kids having an absolute blast!!!
When we get home there is usually another day or two cleaning/drying it but that is part of the fun of camper ownership, as is the few days spent organising and packing beforehand.
I also have as much fun tinkering with it as I do using it so the enjoyment is not just limited to the actual time it is used.
I reckon if we only went away twice a year it would still be worth it!
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Were lucky to have so many beautiful places in such close proximity to Brisbane for a quick weekend trip once a month, and usually we'll do a couple of longer trips during the year.
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Best we got to with the Expanda was 55 nights away in one year. But been busy with kids sport/school and reno's but hope to get away for a weekend every month plus a couple of week longs through the year. I happy with that given the return on investment etc.
Some of the trips money can't buy so no alternatives.
The boats another story, actually the fishing gear doesn't even justify itself so we won't go there!
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Bought ours 2nd hand so don't mind if its sits in the garage more often than not.
Overall though, we probably use it 6 weeks a year - xmas, a random week roadtrip and plenty of weekend getaways. We also use it when we visit family as it's easier with the dog.
Likewise achlimmy, our tinny is worth 4 times what we paid for the camper and we take it out way less, so i guess value doesn't really matter at all for us. We enjoy both and keen to use more when life permits.
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I have owed my Trackabout since new (mid 2009), on average I/we use it six times a year , not enough, but that is all we can fit in. I bought a Trackabout because I knew that I was getting a quality built camp trailer that will last me for a long bloody time.
I will get many years out of my trailer and many many enjoyable trips away.
Too many people are over concerned about how much the resale of their camp trailer will bring them, rather than enjoying what they have and where they can go.
cheers duggie
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Answer:
NO !
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as above....
Brand new camper in the shed and havent used it yet........blah
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Like the others, try for once a month but still working on the house reno (in stages) and sometimes stuff gets in the road like someone needs a hand or a weekend away but not camping... I don't think they count but yeah, when we decide to go for a camp it's there waiting, just hook it up and it's all set up just how we like it.
Hard to put a price on such a thing as convenience
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No, would love to get the camper out more and I'm always dreaming about going to all these places but work,lack of time and endless other stuff always seem to get in the way.
Hopefully have it out in the next few weeks or so... I have a few new mods and additions that urgently need testing out