Author Topic: Buying a CT scares the crap outta me... (Read 8682 times)

j3nn0 · « **on:** June 10, 2012, 08:05:00 PM »

Evening All,

As you can see from the subject line, my husband and I are currently looking at buying our first ever Camper Trailer, however it all seems a little bit too daunting for me. I don't want to fork out $$ and in 6 months time decide that the CT we have chosen is not what we thought it was....

Is this normal for a first time CT buyer/user?

We are very budget concious, so we are looking at the lower end imported canvas type (i.e. Oztrail, EzyTrail & TrekMaster).

Today, we came accross an Oztrail Camper 12 on a 6x4 light off road trailer - seems to be a good price ($6490 on-road), but can anyone give me any feedback on what the Oztrail Campers are like? Is it a good starter camper? We would only be using it 3 times a year at max. Would you recommend any of the others i.e. which one gets you more bang for your $??

I'm so confused and don't really want to part with my money until I'm 110% sure!

Hoping to get some advice, as we are total newbies to the CT world!

Thanks in advance!

HEM19X · « **Reply #1 on:** June 10, 2012, 08:19:25 PM »

Don't think of it as "forking out"money! If you spend say $10k on a quality CT and decide that it is not for you, you should get most of your money back when you sell it.

So if you buy for $6,500k & sell for $5,500 in 12 months, the CT has cost you less than $20 per week. Most used CT's don't depreciate too much but it just depends on who's looking to buy when you are selling.

Soft floor camper are good if you want to set them up & stay in one place for a few days or more - there are many threads here on specific brands and what to look for when buying a used CT.

Good luck with your search, hopefully you will be posting pics of your purchase soon & get to meet some Swaggers as well.

Regards

Hem

britts · « **Reply #2 on:** June 10, 2012, 08:21:32 PM »

You can always hire first

HEM19X · « **Reply #3 on:** June 10, 2012, 08:23:41 PM »

Quote from: britts on June 10, 2012, 08:21:32 PM

You can always hire first

Good point britts, there are several places in Melbourne where you can hire CT's.

D4D · « **Reply #4 on:** June 10, 2012, 08:26:22 PM »

As you're in MEL checkout these guys, there are a few members with them and they get good reviews.
http://www.aussiejayscampers.com/campers/the-wallaby/

skog · « **Reply #5 on:** June 10, 2012, 08:29:17 PM »

We were the same position, I spent almost 10 months looking.
We decided on a semi off road as a starting point to ensure that we would use one and then we could decided on what we wanted into the future. It cost less than $4k brand new with a 7 x 4 trailer.
I want to upgrade this year to allow for more exploring

Campa · « **Reply #6 on:** June 10, 2012, 08:31:34 PM »

Quote from: britts on June 10, 2012, 08:21:32 PM

You can always hire first

Yep x 10000

j3nn0 · « **Reply #7 on:** June 10, 2012, 08:52:07 PM »

Thanks all!

We will definitely need to keep researching and looking around to see what bargains pop-up! There is just so many out there....

We're just checking out the Aussie Jays at the moment and they look great, I think we'll be taking a trip out to them next weekend. Seem to be great prices for "aussie" made campers!

Fingers crossed we can find the right CT for us soon and start on some adventures!!

fuji · « **Reply #8 on:** June 10, 2012, 09:47:23 PM »

I think most people that have Aussie jays are happy people. Mention AJ here and you will get good reports. A good friend bought a ezytrail from enz trading. He is wrapped. He reckons it is the best thing he has bought for his family of 5. Cheers
Wayne

Paul (SA) · « **Reply #9 on:** June 10, 2012, 10:05:25 PM »

Life's too short...get out there and have a go.

It's not about what you've got. It's about how you use it. Would rather get out often in a cheap and cheerful, than fuss over an expensive one that stays in the garage and hardly makes it past the front letterbox.

rkwpjv · « **Reply #10 on:** June 10, 2012, 10:52:48 PM »

When it came to buying our first camper I wanted a Jayco as it was what I grew up with, but my other half felt them same as you when it came to shelling out the bucks and wasn't sure how much use we would get out of it. We ended up buying an old Cub camper which had just been re canvased for $3800. After a bit of updating of the interior, 3 years and heaps of great trips, we sold it for $5000 to buy our Jayco and havent looked back!

My point... check out what's on the second hand market to see if you can pick up a bargain.

Pete

bundyfamily · « **Reply #11 on:** June 11, 2012, 07:00:04 AM »

It took the wife and I 2years to finally buy a camper. In that time we we hired a Jayco Hawk, Johno's CT, and borrowed an Austrak from a friend, I spent an incredible chunk of my life surfing the net, looking at reviews and quite a bit of money in buying magazines I was nearly ready to give up until I found and fell in love with a camper just 15 mins down the road here in Bundy, at one stage I was seriously looking at traveling down to Adelaide to look at a camper. I know exactly how you feel. I reckon the best thing to do is to make a list of the options and what you and the family want in a camper, how much you want to pay, rear fold, side fold, hard floor etc, this can narrow it down abit. Also I reckon there is nothing wrong with looking at the second hand market as sometimes you can get a camper that someone has put a lot options into and is taking up too much space in the shed and you can get it for an excellent price as we did. We got ours for half the price of a new Jayco, with 80 Litre Engel 240 AH batteries HWOD, ensuite tent, Jerry can sand lots of other bits and pieces. Were very happy. At the end of the day what ever you buy, at least your getting out there and doing it.

speewa158 · « **Reply #12 on:** June 11, 2012, 08:00:01 AM »

Hmmmm to buy or not to buy ripper question

If l was asking then there would be so many answers , possibly 1 answer is to talk to Swaggers 1 on 1 at a catchup ,,,Mitchels Crossing catchup 14/15 July . there you get to see what is what & it can be explained more full than on posts . The CT toursat a meet are not to be missed

See you there , day trip

Jon · « **Reply #13 on:** June 11, 2012, 08:38:47 AM »

If you have not used a CT before you must hire one for at least a couple of short trips say 2-4 nights, to get an idea of the whole thing and if it suits your lifestyle.
Generally hire CT are good quality basic units. This will give you an idea of what sort of things you should be looking for in a CT. It would be a shame to buy one and not be happy with either the quality or the whole life under canvas thing.

It will pay you to check this out first.
Good luck with your hunt.

BigJules · « **Reply #14 on:** June 11, 2012, 08:58:37 AM »

Hire a few different campers and go where you'd like to go, i.e. don't just do van parks on 240V if you want to get off the grid in your own camper.

Also, get along with some other members, even if you're tenting it, to find out what they have, what they like. There is no perfect camper. Even those who spend $50K, $70K have mods they want to do, so whatever you choose will be a starting point.

I bought my first camper off the Trading Post, was a ripper.

The cheaper tents have lighter canvas. An Aussie tent will be heavier, darker and last longer.

McGirr · « **Reply #15 on:** June 11, 2012, 09:17:13 AM »

I think people look too hard at what they want in a camper. Remember it's camping so start with the basics, how many are you sleeping , going off road or not. , what tow vehicle etc. Also how often are you going to use it. Don't try and look at every brand and model, look at a 50 klm radius from where you live and see what manufacturers are there expand the radius if needed.

If hiring make sure it's a camper that is roughly in your budget regarding buying.

Mark

j3nn0 · « **Reply #16 on:** June 11, 2012, 10:07:27 AM »

Well after sleeping on it, hubby and I are pretty sure about what we want now. We've listed down all the things we want & then a few more if the $$ permit!

I've been having a browse through the Trading Post, caravanandcampingsales.com.au & just on the net in general. There are a few ripper second hand ones out there that are worth checking out.

Quote from: Donuts on June 10, 2012, 09:47:23 PM

I think most people that have Aussie jays are happy people. Mention AJ here and you will get good reports. A good friend bought a ezytrail from enz trading. He is wrapped. He reckons it is the best thing he has bought for his family of 5. Cheers
Wayne

Having said that, we are definitely planning on making the trip to Aussie Jays next weekend, we're really happy with the reviews they have and their campers seem to be just what we are looking for and within our price range! Out of curiosity we will probably go and see E & Z Trading, you seem to get so much for your dollar!

Quote from: speewa158 on June 11, 2012, 08:00:01 AM

Hmmmm to buy or not to buy ripper question
If l was asking then there would be so many answers , possibly 1 answer is to talk to Swaggers 1 on 1 at a catchup ,,,Mitchels Crossing catchup 14/15 July . there you get to see what is what & it can be explained more full than on posts . The CT toursat a meet are not to be missed See you there , day trip

I need to keep an eye out for these catchups! How often do they happen or are they just random events that someone organises?

Nay-DMAX · « **Reply #17 on:** June 11, 2012, 10:34:40 AM »

It is a hard decision to make. We started off with an Oztrail 6 that we just bolted the tent top to the 6x4 trailer we already had and we loved it, was easy set up good tent and we used it quite alot in the time we had it. Then we started researching as we wanted something that had a bit more storage in the trailer section and could go offroad a bit more we went to a few camping shows and looked through alot of different campers probably there are too many there almost to remember which points you liked on each. We thought we would maybe look at another oztrail bit bigger tent size there are only 2 of us but we camp with our 2 dogs a bit and I like them to sleep in the bed area on the floor so I know they are with us still. We eventually bought an Aussie jays big red model without the kitchen when we got ours they were still made with the Austrack tents I see they have a different tent now but have only seen photos. We expected that being bigger it would take a bit longer to set up so that was no big deal but still of the 2 I miss the oztrail as a tent product. Having the Austrack set up in the back yard to season it all the spigots in the poles on awning broke and bent one of the poles (not high winds), one of the eyelets has started to pull a little and when we went to take the foam mattress out to replace with the innerspring we got for it heard a ripping noise on cover of foam one and there was a screw that had been skewed up through the bed base which would not of been nice to find whilst tucking the sheets in. We have now had to use all our camping poles that we already had from tarp days for the awning. Never had any issues with the oztrail and had it out on some windy days. Having said all that we are getting used to the set up it just would of been good to not have those things happen. This could happen with any camper so really just look and see what type canvas and ease of set up is better. Aussie Jays do hire some now so if you are that way might be an option

cruisindub · « **Reply #18 on:** June 11, 2012, 11:14:49 AM »

Buy with tour head, not your heart.

What can you afford? What is practical to your situation? Storage? Size? Function? Etc etc.

I can understand it seems daunting.
Buy with your head.

Rest easy in your decision. You'll be fine.. ask questions on here, ask for advice from fello swaggers, climb all over any prospective purchase, have them put it up-takr it down, then you do it. Twice if needed.
Take your time and be confident in your decision.
Good luck.

D4D · « **Reply #19 on:** June 11, 2012, 12:20:26 PM »

Quote from: McGirr on June 11, 2012, 09:17:13 AM

I think people look too hard at what they want in a camper.

I agree, you will never find or own the perfect camper and your requirements change as your life changes. A good soft floor will do most things you need right now. Start basic, work out how you like to camp and you will soon find out what else you need.

Eamonn · « **Reply #20 on:** June 11, 2012, 02:00:17 PM »

Hi,

I was with you, so decided to build my own. Thought it would be a pretty straight forward exercise but is not turning out to be the case as thoughts and wants/design keeps changing. I think you really can't go wrong with any camper trailer, I would suggest getting something very basic and make additions after you have used it a few time. Anyhow good luck....you'll be right....

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Author Topic: Buying a CT scares the crap outta me... (Read 8682 times)