There are a few around Dan, including ours.
We have had ours for just over 12 months, no real issues yet apart from one zip that needed some attention. As you would know, they have a big 18ft tent. Once you get into the routine of setting them up and packing up, they are fine for extended stay camping. They are a hassle if you want to travel each day and set up every night, but fine for 2 or 3 day stays and longer. We have done over 7000k including 2 SA trips and spent 24 nights away in ours.
We havnt used the annex/es yet, we carry a 4m x 3m Eazyup to give shade most of the time.
See:
http://myswag.org/forum/index.php?topic=19068.msg293779#msg293779Ive checked out other similar budget campers, and feel their build quality is better than most.
We have an inverter fitted to the Ark battery pack in the tub. I guess the use of an inverter has the same effect as any other battery draining attachment, if you draw it down to 30 or 40% charge regularly, it will reduce wet cell battery life. Our inverter doesnt get much use tho, we usually use car charging adapters for most gear (phones, laptops, etc). It is good for a quick use of the toaster tho.
Catch you round the traps.
