Hard floor Vs Soft floor opinions

[KieranR]

Gday,
I'm sure it's been raised before, but a mate of mine is looking at buying a camper, he really doesn't  know what type to go for, but one thing he has asked me is

"whats the difference between hard vs soft floor", obveiously cost is a big difference

Can you guys swing some opinions on pros vs cons for this please, to help him decide what is best for him and his wife, they have no kids or anythng like that, the are in thier late 40's also.

Thanks.
Kieran

[Campfire]

If you search the forum you will probably find this has been discussed before in one form or another, it's a common question alot people ask when they look into camper trailers. Another good source of information is Camper Trailer Australia magazine both current and old copies, where this issue has also been looked into.

In nutshell and this is a crude summary:

Soft floor is cheaper than hard floor
Soft floor takes a little longer to set up than hard floor ( not by much)
If your a typical family with the need for kids space, then soft floor is usually the preferred choice because of larger living area ( although some hard floors can cater for families too).
Hard floor has the advantage over soft floor for quick set up for couples etc who like touring and
don't want to spend much time setting up or never stay longer than 1-2 nights before moving on.
Hard floors have the advantage on rough or uneven ground, where a softfloor might get damaged.
For alot of people the dollars involved are a big considerations, cost of living, raising kids, mortgages all play there part in what kind of dollars we fork out for new shiny toys.

Also the type of camping / holidaying you want to be doing. If you were traveling around Aussie as a cashed up couple looking for a hardtop and had a spare $50 something like a T Van ( random example) might be on your shopping list.

If it's dragging a family away to caravan parks or setting up at local camp reserve/ beach every
public or school holidays  where it might be semi off road and you were still keen on a hard floor and only wanted to spend around $30K then I would look at Jayco Hawk.

Another brand of hard floors to look at is Cub Camper Trailers, they have a huge choice.

As for the topic of Soft Floor Campers, that's a big one and too much info to list in one thread response. But for dollars , they are cheaper and you could get a basic set up around $10K give or
take a few thousand, and depending on what your looking at the cost would only go up from there.


Common sense rules do apply though, " You get what you pay for" but can't go wrong if it's Australian


 Built and the company you choose to buy it from has a solid reputation and been in the industry for while. Can't go wrong also if the soft floor tent is made from Wax Converters Dynaproof Canvas.

We are lucky in this country as there are so many great brands/ manufacturers out there.
But it does take time to do your home work and choose wisely, using this forum is a great source of information you won't find a better supply of feedback on camper trailers anywhere else in the country, especially when you think of how many members there are in myswag and all their experience.

 so ask plenty of questions as there would be many people here only too willing to help with advice on Camper Trailers.

cheers

Campfire

[Blinky Bill]

Sound advice there Campfire. 

I reckon the main consideration will be cost. As far as I can tell both styles offer plenty of room for families.

I have a hard floor and love it but to be honest I'd have no probs at all with owning a good soft floor again. 

I'm just wondering if soft floors are usually lighter or not. 

My old on road soft foor was especially light & I could push it all around the place on my Pat Malone and easily lift it on and off the coupling. No chance of doing that with the Kimberley. 

Cheers - Wayne D

[Pipeliner]

As said before, hard floors cost more and are significantly quicker (and easier) to erect and pack up.  Soft floors offer (usually) a lot more room as the size of the tent isn't limited by the size of the trailer. 

Most soft floors open sideways off the trailer (usually to the driver's side) with the kitchen at the tailgate of the trailer: hard floors invariably open out backwards and have the kitchen pulling out on the passenger side which makes it a lot easier to pull up at the side of the road and make lunch or a cup of tea whilst travelling.  Some soft floors open out to the rear and have side kitchens, but not the majority.

Because a hard floor packs up into a rigid box, storage is limited: it is a lot easier to throw the table, chairs, tec on top of the soft floor tent and tie the cover down over everything.  With a hard floor you have to select your furniture on the basis of being able to pack it in!

We started with a soft floor - loads of room but the heavy canvas was a hard (as in exhausting!) job to pack away.  We swapped it for a hard floor (AORC Odyssey) five years ago and have really enjoyed our camping since then.

[Campfire]

By definition my camper could be defined as a hardfloor, I designed and built myself because what I wanted simply didn't exist on the market, my camper is set up for a specific need / design.

While it may only have space for a couple, as small hard floor, I shove my kids in another tent which goes up pretty quick.

If you do opt for a hard floor , and space for kids is needed, you could always purchase one those instant tents like the Turbo Wolf or Oztent, even other brands are jumping on this market now like Coleman etc. Going this way also means quick set up.

Cheers

Campfire

[workhorsewa]

Hi,

Cost and space are a BIG factor!!  Depends how much your mates have to spend or are willing to spend.  We opted for a soft floor mainly due to cost factor.  We also found we have LOTS more storage, so if your into fishing, diving etc. it gives you alot more room under the bed, in my opinion.

Ours was around $14,000 for an off-road one and it is one of the best things we have ever bought, mainly because we actually use it.  I don't feel it takes any longer to setup than our friends do, that have hard floor campers.  Perhaps the soft floor is a bit lighter as well, although you can cram more stuff into it....probably works out equal to a hard floor.

We usually put down a tarp on the ground and fold the floor out over it, been using it 4 years now and no problems.  It's also not too bad on uneven ground, as we can change the length of our poles to accommodate unevenness, just as long as the bed (trailer section) is on relatively even ground.  We don't bother pegging down if it's not windy or an overnight stop, we just chuck the bag with the heavy awning canvass in the corner and all is good.  We love our soft floor camper, the $$ of a hard floor aren't so attractive.  Oh the other thing is the ladder to get into the bed, can get quite tedious sometimes (as the beds are usually higher than a hard floor), but think they are all different, but something to look at all the same!!

Just something I was wondering - why is it that you can buy a reasonable caravan for around $34,000, but to get into a hard floor trailer you are looking at a similar amount.....am puzzled as to why there is a similar cost factor, would think the caravan had more specs etc.?! 

[Campfire]

Workhorsewa,

I like the fact you mentioned the importance of having space for fishing and diving gear, that's rates pretty high in my books

Totally agree with the advantages of soft floor campers for lightness/ maneuverability , cost savings, more space for gear/ toys  and most importantly budget $$$$$$. Those factors alone are a bloody good reason to buy a soft floor camper.

You raised the point, why are Hardtop Campers as pricey as large caravans with all the bells and whistles. What you need to look at is production costs, plus all those parts/ costs you don't see.

  I could walk into a caravan and see lots of shiny bells and whistles, large space and living area so you instantly see a perception of  value, where a very small fold out hard top might look basic compared to that big shiny caravan but you can't go off first impressions.

 Many campers have heavy duty top quality materials or specialized componentry designed to put up with the rugged remote environments they are designed for, I look at something like T Vans or RV Crossover where there is top quality parts and specialized research development gone into them to
keep you going in places caravans might not be able to survive.

 I see the value of these campers in areas like specialized heavy duty suspension systems, heavy duty
 chassis, top quality   12 volt systems, weight and handling factors ( cost of research and time involved), the list goes on.  These campers while cost a little more, give you top quality gear able to survive anywhere in our harsh / remote environment, being made from the best materials and designs
on the market.

You can't compare a caravan with a camper trailer if your looking at cost, that's like comparing a medium size 4X4 ( carrying capacity), with a  touring big bore motorcycle of similar value.

Value is in the quality of componentry and design. Like the caravan and camper trailer, just because a motorbike has less people space doesn't mean it's any less in value than a 4x4.

All Aussie made campers give excellent value for money and long term use/ reliability.

Cheers

Campfire

[workhorsewa]

Workhorsewa,

I like the fact you mentioned the importance of having space for fishing and diving gear, that's rates pretty high in my books

Totally agree with the advantages of soft floor campers for lightness/ maneuverability , cost savings, more space for gear/ toys  and most importantly budget $$$$$$. Those factors alone are a bloody good reason to buy a soft floor camper.

You raised the point, why are Hardtop Campers as pricey as large caravans with all the bells and whistles. What you need to look at is production costs, plus all those parts/ costs you don't see.

  I could walk into a caravan and see lots of shiny bells and whistles, large space and living area so you instantly see a perception of  value, where a very small fold out hard top might look basic compared to that big shiny caravan but you can't go off first impressions.

 Many campers have heavy duty top quality materials or specialized componentry designed to put up with the rugged remote environments they are designed for, I look at something like T Vans or RV Crossover where there is top quality parts and specialized research development gone into them to
keep you going in places caravans might not be able to survive.

 I see the value of these campers in areas like specialized heavy duty suspension systems, heavy duty
 chassis, top quality   12 volt systems, weight and handling factors ( cost of research and time involved), the list goes on.  These campers while cost a little more, give you top quality gear able to survive anywhere in our harsh / remote environment, being made from the best materials and designs
on the market.

You can't compare a caravan with a camper trailer if your looking at cost, that's like comparing a medium size 4X4 ( carrying capacity), with a  touring big bore motorcycle of similar value.

Value is in the quality of componentry and design. Like the caravan and camper trailer, just because a motorbike has less people space doesn't mean it's any less in value than a 4x4.

All Aussie made campers give excellent value for money and long term use/ reliability.

Cheers

Campfire

Thanks Campfire for clearing that up for us, we did have a "discussion" about the price comparison sighting it was probably mainly to do with the suspension, durability side of things, plus I think the $34,000 van was for blacktop one (not designed to really go offroad), which doesn't interest me.....unless it can go off-road to most places, aint worth having one....will stick to my softie  Amanda

[Kit_e_kat9]

Kit_e's Opinion:

We went hard floor.  There are 2 of us, 1 extra (on occassion and he has a tent which he likes to put up at least 1 mile from where we are) and 3 fur babies (who sleep on the hard floor).  We have full offroad-ability.  It closes up into a hard box ... so no dust inside.  Yes, it doesn't quite have the storage of a 6x4 box trailer, but it's not far off it so does have a fair bit of storage (how much are you taking really?).  We can get up off the ground which was a preference for us.

How did we decide? 

A pro's and con's list.  We listed what we wanted, who offered it, how much it cost, if we could change things, how much canvas we wanted to "play" with all the time, how easy things were to open/close, could I do it myself (a sheila) in case of emergency, many, many things that mattered to us ... that might not matter to you ... that might not matter to your mate.

It's a personal choice really.

Kit_e

P.S.  We've done no modifications really, but we did opt up on a few things when we purchased.  You can check out my Blog and see how we camp, where we camp, and how much we love to camp.  I also did a bit of a write up on CamperTrailerAustralia.org on how we chose our camper and why (it's in the tech section).

[KieranR]

I'm trying to convince him of a camprite like i have just bought , He's reading this thread as a guest, and taking in all of everyones opinions, keep them coming, it's all great advice.

Thanks,
Kieran

[workhorsewa]

Just a point of note with a softie, if it's a tailgate kitchen I would recommend getting the cooker inbuilt into the kitchen unit....i.e. we opted for a standard kitchen and we have a separate cooker - will upgrade ours in time to have the cooker inbuilt into the tailgate rather than setting up a cooker separately = pain in the arse when stopping overnight.

[Campfire]

I'm trying to convince him of a camprite like i have just bought , He's reading this thread as a guest, and taking in all of everyones opinions, keep them coming, it's all great advice.

Thanks,
Kieran

I like the camprites too, and have to admit when they are new out of the shop with a flash coat of paint and all the bells and whistles etc they look awesome (very sexy eye candy).

I like their unusual / exotic design of being a camper which can be set up completely off the ground.


Problems is Aussie has too many great looking campers to choose from and if I was a multi millionaire I would probably have a half dozen campers in my the garage of my luxury mansion ( keep dreaming).

 Camprite Campers would be an excellent choice and well worth the money invested.

Cheers


Campfire

[KieranR]

So my mate is looking very closely at a complete campsite jabiru - are there any complete campsite owners out there and what do you reckon?  I saw one up at Cape Leveque last year and i must admit, it looked very nice, and didnt take them ong to set it up.

Cheers,
Kieran

[sablesoft]

So my mate is looking very closely at a complete campsite jabiru - are there any complete campsite owners out there and what do you reckon?  I saw one up at Cape Leveque last year and i must admit, it looked very nice, and didnt take them long to set it up.
Cheers,
Kieran

Hi,
Complete Campsite are well known for making a TOP Quality, well thought out camper,  CC make a thermal blanket for the camper tent roof, they make a lot of difference (approx 8-10 deg ) to the  inside temp in the summer, Its a MUST HAVE in the summer.

Ray

[Campfire]

With the complete campsite your getting excellent quality with a product that is fully kitted out. If I was buying a traditional style soft floor camper for trips away with the family, this would be my first choice especially when you look at all the bells and whistles it comes with. I do like how they can be fitted Quad/ motorbike carrier and boat rack.

Cheers

Campfire

[Disco4Guy]

So my mate is looking very closely at a complete campsite jabiru - are there any complete campsite owners out there and what do you reckon?  I saw one up at Cape Leveque last year and i must admit, it looked very nice, and didnt take them ong to set it up.

Cheers,
Kieran

We were looking very closely at the Complete Campsite and a Mountain Trail at the recent Melbourne show we went back and forth between them ended up getting a Mountain Trail Evolution.  Their CC Jabiru compete is the Mountain trail Escape.  Worth looking at.

[Lemo79]

Was only discussing with wife tonight after packing our soft floor for this weekend, we need 2 camper trailers, 1 hard floor or Jayco equivelent for our small 1 - 2 night trips (usally van park), which we have done 2 trips already this year in this category. And our existing soft floor for the extended "free camping" trips wich we are about to do our 2nd this year.

Be it good or bad, leaning towards the good, lol, we have 4 kids and i think the soft floor suits us best in most cases. It just involves a kull of gear for the quick park trips and then a re stocking of gear for extended free camp trips, which with 4 kids i don't think we could fit in a hard floor.

Lemo.