Last year swmbo gave the go ahead for a new camper trailer. After a lot of internet searches, My Swag trawling & also attending this year’s Melbourne Caravan & Camping Show we put down our deposit in March with a July delivery date. We could have had a much earlier delivery date but decided that my wife would take her long service leave after the end of the financial year & that we would pick up our camper on the mainland & do some travelling straight away.
Nick from Regional Campers & Kerry of Mod Con were terrific to deal with. We purchased an Ecomate Forward Fold Traveller with the following options.
• Boat loader.
• Hot water system
• 240 volt system with charger
• Pantry box & interior drawers
We also received the MY Swag bonus i.e. Ensuite, touring awning, hyland hitch & 2 night’s accommodation at Lake Hume tourist & Caravan resort.
Two months out from picking up EKO we sold our Cub Spacematic Regal & started to prepare for our journey across the ditch. The Triton was serviced, tyres changed, new CB etc. & items from the old Cub & new sheets, doona etc. were all packed . Come the day we left & we were loaded to the max as we caught the Spirit of Tasmania.
We then travelled to Albury Wodonga where we met up with Nick & completed the paperwork as well as being given an informative & hands on induction for EKO. Nick also surprised us with a number of upgrades we had not requested.
We made our way mostly up the Newell Highway then through Gilgandra, Walgett, to Lightning Ridge. Then it was off to Bourke & we then intended to have 3-4 days at Currawinya National Park but the road was in disrepair & was closed to for vehicles over 6 t. & caravans. Camper trailers were okay but the road was said to be heavily rutted & very slow going.
We went Cunnamulla, Charleville & Quilpie & made our way to Blackall via Adavale. We then went to Barcaldine & Longreach before arriving at our present location of Winton.
EKO – our first impressions, observations & comments after 4000 km in tow!!!!!
• Reasonably well finished & quite strongly built
• Tows like a dream but quite heavy
• My wife loves the pantry box design & the two interior drawers hold more than you think
• Good sized sink & stove with wind protector
• Bed step is a good large storage area
• Some dust ingress into interior drawers & bed step which appears to come from where camper folds
• We have only used the touring awning so far- which we leave on when we pack up. An awning pole does get in the way of the kitchen.
• EKO is not hard to set up or put away
• EKO does not appear to leak
We have only had EKO the Ecomate for 17 days so still getting it right!
Mods.
I have plenty of mods planned but they will be done when I get back to Tassie. So far all I have done is fit a Stone Stomper (brilliant) & a rod carrier in front of the stone guard.
