MDC Camper Trailer OR Emu Camper Trailer - Advice Please!

[WaituiRob]

Hi Baz1,
  I see someone else mentioned Austrack Campers. There are quite a few here with them and everyone is happy with theirs. Our trailer has an Austrack tent and we`ve never had any problems in three years.  They have an onroad and semi offroad for under $7,000 .

            http://www.austrackcampers.com.au/light-off-road/

Good luck with your search,
  Robyn.

[baz1]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the advice, it's very much appreciated.

Someone kindly stopped by Emu for me today and had a look at the trailer and tent, and they seemed pretty happy with the products, and so I bought the semis off road SUV trailer, with additions of a tool box, gas struts, the upgraded flash kitchen, the 12ft tent and stone guard. All in all, including rego and delivery to Cairns it came in at $8500, I am pretty happy with what I am paying for what I am getting. To Emu's credit I told them what car I had (a Nissan X-Trail), and enquired about the off road model, and the guy there was very honest and told me my car would struggle to pull a fully loaded off road trailer, and that the SUV semi off road trailer was designed specifically for SUV vehicles, so I would be better off buying the SUV trailer unless I was contemplating buying a more powerful vehicle. All credit to them, they could have tried to sell me the full off road model and so got more money from me, but they didn't and did the right thing by me.

[ynost]

baz1
We were in Cairns yesterday, and following up on an ad in the Cairns Post went to place at 208 Draper St.
They sell & hire "Swag Camper Trailers"
He said they are made in Aus.   
Prices ranged from $7790 to & $9900 for soft floor C/T's.
Unfortunately they don't have the walk up style which we require.
Hope this helps you

joffa

I purchased my CT from Swag Camper Trailers http://www.swagcampertrailers.com.au/ and have found it very frustrating getting warranty work done. I got the RACQ to do an inspection before, the warranty ran out. My trailer has significant rust (after 11 months from new) and poor quality workmanship. This guy in Cairns is an agent for the Brisbane office and has had my CT for nearly 2 months. I am waiting for the trailer to be sandblasted and re-painted. The work is being contracted out to a local Cairns painter and NOT being done in the factory where it was built.

My advice would be to get an RACQ inspection before your warranty runs out and stay away from Swag Camper Trailers if you need prompt warranty work done and a quiality build.

[fuji]

Have you thought of Aussie Jays? Yes they are in Melbourne, but I reckon he makes a good trailer. No affiliation.
Wayne

[Muzzah]

hello all, I've been going thru similar process from standing start, with similar budget and specs to baz1 and similar vendors - MDC, Emu plus Swag and GIC.

Not entirely convinced of any of them as a combination of trailer and tent yet.

Without knowing anything about welding or trailers, my impression is that GICs trailers are best made, full welds etc, but don't like the tent at all.  Emu (nathan trailers, which is in receivership, but likely to be bought out by someone and carry on in business though it must put some question over current build quality and warranty) has nice tent.

Swag Camper Trailers - use Economy Trailers, local Brisbane manufacturer and looks very much like same good tents as Emu. 

MDC - too much marketing and Chinese supply for us.

Am starting to think I might get a better trailer e.g. the aluminium one from http://www.jimboombacampertrailers.com.au/product/2232/Offroad-7-x-4-Box-Trailer find out where the tent we like comes from and get them stuck together. (Will post separately about that.)

I did take some photos of the Emu / Nathan trailers and can pop them up if anyone's interested. Should have taken a lot more of all of them in hindsight.

Would be interested to hear of any other final decisions reached.

Cheers
Muzzah

[baz1]

I would be interested to see your photos from Emu if you can put them up. What was your impression of them out of interest? How did you find the sales staff, what was your impression of the quality of trailer and tent? I had to make my purchase based on what I saw on the net at the www.mycampertrailer.com.au website, and a helpful Swagger who checked them out for me. When the swag inspection was done I was to,d like they seemed like decent quality trailers, but there was some blemishing on the trailers themselves from the galvanising process, you can see some of this on the photos on the net too.

I spoke to the guy that runs the show, I get the impression Nathan Trailers bought the very basic 'box' of the trailer from China, in the same way as many car manufacturers buy the 'shell' of a car from China, then they bring the box over to Oz where Nathan Trailers wold do their bit to it, and basically turn it from a box into a trailer. Likewise car manufacturers wold turn the shell into a working vehicle. I got the impression from the chap at Emu that they will source the box from the same place Nathan Trailers sourced it, and then do what Nathan Trailers did themselves. I'm not sure I understood it all 100%, but more than likely if you order a camper from Emu now, you are going to get a Nathan Trailer anyway as it will take a while to get through the last of the stock.

What I liked about Emu is it is a small family business, and they genuinely seemed to have pride in their product, and I would hope that would be reflected in the quality of the product they sell.

What looking at campers I found it a challenge to find a camper in our budget range, with a trailer I liked, and a tent I liked, quite often I would get two out of three but not three out of three. I am happy with Emu but I would probably prefer the trailer to be powder coated than galvanised, for no other reason that vanity - IMO powder coating looks better!

[GeeTee]

Powdercoating will be destroyed in about 500km of gravel road

[baz1]

But it looks soo goood!

[MrLucyTheBoxer]

So three years later, how has the Emu stood up? We're looking at buying the Off Road model shortly...


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[baz1]

Hi Mate,

Fine actually, but we haven't been out as much as we would like to have done because of the arrival of our two new sproggs! We got out last week however which was really nice.

Overall no complaints, to be honest with kids what we really need is a caravan, but for this to happen we would also need a lotto win 👍