Hey Crispy,
Glad to see you've made it over here! I'm not sure if I mentioned this to you previously or not, so feel free to ignore me if I'm repeating myself.
If you're after a solid unit on a budget, one of the best options I think I can suggest is to do what my brother did with his current camper. He went to a local trailer place, and got them to build an offroad trailer to his specifications - the drawbar length he wanted, the suspension design and height he wanted, all of that. The he bought an OzTrail Camper9 top off ebay for a bit of a discount, bolted that on top, and got him self a brand new offroad camper for around the $6k mark.
Since then, he's been working with it to make his own kitchen, put on a water tank, toolbox, gas rings, jerry can holders, and so forth and has ended up with a really comprehensive camper. Fits him and his family in no worries at all, and cost them a lot less than buying a pre-made unit. He saved a lot of money by doing things himself, but he also spread the investment out across a long period of time because he didn't need to buy everything at once. We've been camping with them and this camper a bit, and it's always impressive.
So that might be an option if you can't find a proper camper trailer manufacturer in your price range locally. This is the OzTrail top that he's using on his :
http://www.kampers.com.au/sale.php?p=Camper_9
The other thing I'd suggest would be to give Johnny @ Trackabout a ring, and see if he could still bend you up one of his Kakadu campers. I know he doesn't do them as a normal product line any more, but you might be able to talk him into a special order - depends if he can still bend up the chassis rails I would suppose. You may be out of luck though - they may not be available any more. From memory they were around the $7500-$8k mark, but could have gone up since then - I would treat that price as purely ballpark. They're a basic camper too, but they're built Trackabout Tough, and you'll never have a problem with them.
They're my go-to camper for a basic entry-level option, simply because most people don't realise that for that sort of money they might actually be able to get into a Trackabout camper. It's a bit more expensive than the DIY option above, but you get a quality Oz-made unit whereas the OzTrail camper tops are a fully-imported product. As John has already mentioned, the Aussie canvas is generally regarded as a better material, if you're able to purchase an Aussie-made tent, not only are you supporting the local industry but you'll get much better aftersales support to boot! Plus, speaking from experience, the Trackabout tents are awesome!
Dave, as usual, is also full of good advice about the shows being a great place to compare heaps of different models quickly.
Anyway, that's my rant - all the best with your decisions mate - you should have a fair bit of reading and learning to do over the next few weeks and months anyway! I've been hanging round these parts for years and still learn new things every day - it's just that sort of place. Make yourself at home!
Thanks!
Matto
