Extenda campers

[nuthermug]

Iam looking at buying an easy erect campertrailer, but I am not thrilled with the basic climbe over the wife to get out of bed types.
I have looked at the cameron easy top very expensive, and allso the camel bushman plus with a walk up step at the bottom of the bed lifestyle campers allso make one.

I,am trying to find out how hard/easy they are to setup/putdown by one person as the tent is longer by about 460 mm it is no doubt heavier and maybe more awkward. If anyone has one and can help me out I would be gratefull.

                                            Thanks

[mcbadger2]

You can get gas struts on the tent bows, this make life a lot easier to put up.

[nuthermug]

Thanks mcbadger2, I dont recon puting it up will be as hard as packing it up I,m thinkig of when I would have to throw the tent and floor up onto the trailer, I shoul hve mentioned that I want an offroader it will be higher to throw.

[Squalo]

I picked up a 2007 offroad Jimboomba with staircase during the week - 9' north-south and 15' wide. About as big as CT tents get from what I can tell.

I opened it for the first time this morning with my uncle-in-law's help; first time for either of us to handle a CT. I've been in plenty at camping shows but never actually watched one being set up or packed down except on manufacturers websites until the seller opened it up to show me last weekend.

Got the main tent up in 20 minutes inc. taking tarp off and winding down stabilisers i.e. as if we'd just parked it. Would have been quicker if we'd had the right poles ready to go for the wall tent bow, and then we had to work out that we needed to extend the main tent bows to tension it... but I now think I could put it up by myself fairly quickly, 10-15 mins easy.

Raising the tent base before folding the tent out helped (suggested by seller) as you're not fighting gravity quite as much. Once the main tent was out, I dropped the base back onto the trailer then we did the two internal poles and tensioned the tent bows.

I packed it down by myself, also in about 20 minutes and that includes wiping the floor with a towel as I gradually raised it up to the top of the trailer (mowed the grass the day before and put tent up when it was damp with morning dew, bugger). I had a little bit of help, as in my 7yo daughter helping to throw the floor up and over - but could have done that solo too - as you'd expect she didn't throw it quite as far as was required

So, definitely do-able, but of course all tents are different and some might be harder than others to erect.

[Squalo]

Forgot to mention it is packed with the 8' x 15' awning folded back on the roof too, so there was that much more canvas to move - and it's all 14oz canvas. If I can do that then a more typical size of 9' x 12' should be fairly straightforward?

[barneys]

 the soft floor are real easy to put up buy your self
how i was show en to do it was to first pull  all the lose tent of the top of the trailer .
 now go around to the  otherside of the trailer and put a broom head under the top bow and push it up as far as you can .when it is up put the other end of the  broom handle on the tent frame so it is holdind the bow up .
now go around to the other side of the trailer and grab a be hand full of tent and pull it. now gravity comes in to play and the tent opens up
easy peasey

[speewa158]

Now hang on a tick , if you dont want to climb over SWMBO in the middle of the night then have a look at my plan . In our soft floor CT we have an extender platform supported by a step ladder . The Queen size 9in inner spring mattres travels long ways in the CT . At camp it is rotated 90Deg so as the Mattres is better placed . The step ladder supports the platform . The bed is able to be accesed via the end so you can get in & out as required . PM for details 

[Matto]

Hi nuthermug,

Barneys has got the answer - the broom trick is the go. JT showed us how to do it when we picked ours up, it really does make it easy.

I have no trouble putting ours up or pulling it down myself, but it's a lot quicker if you've got a second person (mainly because you don't need to keep walking from one side of the trailer back to the other). I prefer just to potter along at my own speed though, it's certainly not difficult.

When packing up, I don't have a problem pulling the floor back onto the top of the camper by myself - again, it just takes a little longer. Pull up one side as far as you can, then go get the other corner and do the same. Once the majority of it is up, it's really easy to go back and pull it "properly" up and get it sitting perfectly. If you're really concerned, you could attach from rope to the far corner peg eyelets, and use that to pull it over from the back-side, but I've never found it necessary.

This is all on a Trackabout Safari Extenda with the 10" tent - http://www.trackabout.com.au/module.php?module=trailerquote&file=show_camper.php&range_id=8 (ours - http://myswag.org/forum/index.php?topic=8571.0)

The other option is as Speewa says, make a supporting platform so you can rotate your mattress. I can remember seeing a bunch of photos on here a while ago about how people have done the same thing in slightly different ways. I think jcclures has made a similar mode to his new tent? You've still got to deal with the ladder in that case though, and I find that's one of the main benefits of the extenda trailers - the fold-down steps and walkway just make it so easy, which is good for me because I tend not to be able to work ladders after a night around the campfire  .

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the gas struts on the tent bows, but I've never used them before. I would expect that, if they make setting up easier, you would have to work against them while packing up? Seems like an unnecessary complication to me, which is saying something. That said, the poeple that have them seem to rate them, so my ignorance is probably working against me here.

Good luck - there's a few manufacturers now making the Extenda trailers, and I reckon they're great. You should have no worries getting something to suit your needs!

Good luck!
Matto

[barneys]

if you would like i could  do pics

[Matto]

if you would like i could  do pics

Hi Barneys, and welcome to myswag. It's obviously your first post...



 

Thanks!
Matto

[nuthermug]

I just sent a reply and thank you to every one who responded to my post but it went bush.
If anyone sees it can you returne it , it could wind up in someones pm box.

And I,m not even drunk

[speewa158]

Ok go checkout CTA 39  it will show you how I did the joj or PM me