Something that I have recently dealt with and my parents are currently dealing with is the availability (or lack of) of spare parts on import campers.
On my (non MDC) camper I needed to change out the brake drums as they had disintegrated, what followed was a series of issues that ended in replacing the entire axle. Our mechanic tried various ways of getting correctly fitting parts but it just wasn't happening, in the end it was either no brakes (illegal), import parts as a whole and strip down the bits we need from America (prohibitively expensive) or change out to a whole new axle and use parts readily available in Australia (also fixing the issue of future repairs.)
Our trailer is leaf suspension, so changing to a whole new axle wasn't stupid expensive - especially since our lovely mechanic did a call around and found one at a good price. But had it been independent and I needed to change out the whole suspension because of weird sizing
My parents recently had a roadside breakdown in their camper (MDC) the issue was relating the brakes and wheel bearings. After having a look at it roadside they decided they could limp it to the next big town.
They got it to the mechanics who found the issues but when trying to order parts found that (just like mine) odd sizing meant that he could not find and Australian stockist. He tried ringing MDC who said that they order parts in bulk and once they are used then they are used and they move onto the next bulk batch (sound exactly like what my mechanic told me when my camper had its issue) but they might have a part left in WA, they didnt - the answer was we dont have any left and we wont be getting anymore we cant help sorry.
The mechanic got the engineering place round the corner to make something up but it is only temporary so they could get home. Since then my parents have spoken the Dept. of Fair Trading who have said it us unacceptable that a trailer that is 2 years old cannot get appropriate parts. Speaking (email) with MDC again (this time adding fair trading into the mix) the answer he gets back is we can get you the part, it needs to be ordered from china it costs $xxx and will take 4+ weeks to come in.
When my situation happened I thought maybe it was not common (have not read or heard any other similar issues) but then almost exactly the same issue happened on my parents (different brand import) happened within 6 months of mine. I have not posted about it yet because the above issue has not yet been resolved.
But when talking about import campers, the issue of readily available spare parts is rarely brought up.
