Is the traditional soft floor camper a thing of the past?

[SEADOO]

Cruising the classified, caravan and camping shows and most show rooms of importers/manufactures it seems the demand for the traditional 10ft (as an example) is a thing of the past.

Most "camper trailers" imported/or made here are now leaning towards the forward fold, traditional rear fold or the new Hybrid Campers.

With the flood of imported cheap soft floor models kicking around now, will that make it much harder to sell your Customline/Johnno's or Lifestyle range of traditional soft floor campers?

I can get a brand new forward or rear fold camper with all the fruit for what at a good Aussie made soft floor sells on the second hand market.

Is there still a demand for a soft floor camper? Or do most people prefer the ease, comforts of a hard floor or hybrid camper now?

[SEADOO]

PS: please let's not get into another imported v local debate.

Just speaking about soft floors in general.

[Vitara_JaycoSwift_Outback]

Heading off tomorrow to test out our brand new Emu soft floor camper. We decided to move to the soft floor and away from the our Jayco Camper because it has considerably more floor space for our two boys. Especially if we get some bad weather.

[Lochie0811]

I've got a Camel Beachcomber (one of the last one's) and hang around with a couple of Jayco's and they are always at my tent because it has so much room, especially when there are a few kids around.
It takes a bit to put up, but once it's up, we've got the Taj Mahal.

[LB]

All my friends with small children have soft floor for the space. Once the kids our out most seem to move to hard floor or vans. I think there will always be a place for the soft floor as they serve families extremely well.

[Beepa]

I've got a Camel Beachcomber (one of the last one's) and hang around with a couple of Jayco's and they are always at my tent because it has so much room, especially when there are a few kids around.
It takes a bit to put up, but once it's up, we've got the Taj Mahal.

We also have one of the last Beachcombers and still prefer soft floors due to the amount of crap we can load into them. We originally got a soft floor because the ute was overloaded whenever we went camping, now the ute and the camper are overloaded....bloody women.....

[Liege]

We also have one of the last Beachcombers and still prefer soft floors due to the amount of crap we can load into them....

Us as Well.  2 kids under 2, with portacots and all associated must haves.

[NewieCamper]

Might be true, not even a nibble on mine for sale for a few weeks now. Still, the weather hasn't really been conducive to camping of any kind lately.

[Paddler Ed]

Possibly for some segments of the market, but for others it's ideal.

HOWEVER

I think that the Taj Mahal's may be the undoing of the softfloor market; whilst yes, they do meet a need, I think that they are making it harder for people to get away with. We've got a 10' camper (Gordigear Taiga) and an annex; we use the annex as shade/shelter, rarely putting the walls up but often having the roof up so we can sit under it in shade/shelter, yet we can fit on an average sized site at most campsites - the Taj Mahals just too big and start to take up too much space width wise that then makes it hard to set up somewhere.

[SEADOO]

We "only" have a 10 foot Lifestyle Elite. Still gets emotional to set up.

I was always a fan of the Customline 9 foot free standing of the 3 bows with the vertical walks. But we preferred the trailer design of the Lifestyle.

[Gunda]

We have just upgraded from a customline 9 foot tent soft floor and into a complete campsite Kakadu soft floor.  I dont think the soft floor market is dead I think a lot of it gets a bad name through certain manufacturers making huge tents with a myriad of poles - this gets soft floors the reputation of taking too long to set-up.
We went away on the weekend and set our Kakadu up in approx the same time that friends set-up their jayco expanda.
We like hard floor campers however with 3 kids under 5 we value the soft floor space.

[Beachman]

Good question as we went away last weekend and saw the below camper pull into the camping ground and my initial thought was it's a stupid looking camper only because it looks like a builders trailer. 

The guy then sets it the trailer which didn't take long and once set up looked similar to a forward fold trailer. Next morning I decided to walk over and speak with the guy (with the intention of justifying how crap it would be) but I have to admit looking inside I was surprised especially considering it can sleep 6 (2 adults & 2 kids in comfort)

Different design to what I'm use too, but just shows how thinking out the box can work.

Sorry at work so can't upload photos.
http://www.eaglecampertrailers.com.au/uploads/trailers/192/eagle-cheyenneopener__medium.jpg

[chisel]

Good question as we went away last weekend and saw the below camper pull into the camping ground and my initial thought was it's a stupid looking camper only because it looks like a builders trailer. 

The guy then sets it the trailer which didn't take long and once set up looked similar to a forward fold trailer. Next morning I decided to walk over and speak with the guy (with the intention of justifying how crap it would be) but I have to admit looking inside I was surprised especially considering it can sleep 6 (2 adults & 2 kids in comfort)

Different design to what I'm use too, but just shows how thinking out the box can work.

Sorry at work so can't upload photos.
http://www.eaglecampertrailers.com.au/uploads/trailers/192/eagle-cheyenneopener__medium.jpg

Isn't that a camprite knock-off?

[Beachman]

Sorry I've never seen a Camprite, so can't help.

[Paddy16]

We have a new Aussie made Challenge Meridian soft floor and love it. Awesome quality and when we sell it in 10 years time I would've had my money back. It's what suits you. Our consideration was what tows well with my GQ Patrol TD42 NA so hardfloor was tricky but this works really well and tows well. Only takes an hour to set everything up incl awning.

[Rodt]

I think the biggest PITA with setting mine up is having to get all (most anyway) the stuff out of the tub first then storing it somewhere off to the side until the tent is setup and then moving it where it needs to be. Double handling 

The actual tent setup and the awning is probably a 1/2hour job on it's own but as said by the time I get all the crap out, setup the tent, pull a tarp over the top (convinced that this is the way to go for temp control etc), move all the stuff to where we want it, set up the shower (including the Hottap  ) etc makes the whole task go to about 21/2 hours from pull up to 

Would reckon that the Forward Folds would improve most of this

[KingBilly]

Nah, soft floors aren't dead.  They are a great option for kids.  We can set ours up quicker than some can set up a Jayco.  Got it down pat these days.

KB

[chester ver2.0]

I dont think they are dying but now that there are so many shows on TV of all the places in oz you can go the average punter is going further afield and due to the driving distances involved and the amount of overnight stays the hard floor is becoming more popular.

I remember the prado point 2009 trip to the red centre we hired a soft floor and loved the trip on the way to Alice when we stayed 2 or 3 nights in each location but hated the return journey which involved 6 over night stays.

Now maybe because it was a rental it was not set up as well but as a poster above indicated it felt like we had to pull the whole trailer apart every arvo

[Julian Kaye]

Isn't that a camprite knock-off?

  Yep as much of a copy as you can get. I spoke to a guy from Eagle at a show last year and he was quite proud of the fact that they had taken someone's design and knocked it off to the finest detail.  Says a lot about the company IMHO.

[03GV]

When we signed up for our forward fold, talking to the owner of the company about why we thought a forward fold would suit our needs better and how we see our friends with softfloors battling with all the awning and getting into petty arguements
He mentioned they don't take their softfloors to the shows anymore because they don't get interest in them anymore.

Its clearly horses for courses, we dont have kids so don't need the huge tent space. Being able to head off on a friday night after work and then crank it open and be in bed in 10mins is a bonus. We did notice on our last camping trip quite a few hardfloors,  both forward and rear folding with instant up tents to throw the kids in.

[austastar]

............... with instant up tents to throw the kids in.

Hi,
     Yep, at least 30m either side of the camper!

Bliss!


Peace!



Though now we are allowed to go camping with them some times.

Cheers


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[Cruiser 105Tvan]

Hi,
     Yep, at least 30Klm either side of the camper!

Bliss!

Peace!


Though now we are allowed to go camping with them some times.

Cheers


Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

Fixed it for ya.

[Garfish]

  Yep as much of a copy as you can get. I spoke to a guy from Eagle at a show last year and he was quite proud of the fact that they had taken someone's design and knocked it off to the finest detail.  Says a lot about the company IMHO.

That they are honest, unlike others who claim it's their own design......   

With 3 kids we got a soft floor 10 ft so we could fit them in and have some room for games during crap weather. 

[melba]

I was looking at a soft floor, but the latest quote i got for a patriot camper with a couple of extras was 57k, which i believe was way over the top and in the range of a good hard floor. So the hard floor is now a no brainer...although less on space as mentioned it offers a lot of other benefits.

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[KingBilly]

I was looking at a soft floor, but the latest quote i got for a patriot camper with a couple of extras was 57k, which i believe was way over the top and in the range of a good hard floor. So the hard floor is now a no brainer...although less on space as mentioned it offers a lot of other benefits.

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Drifta makes a good softfloor.

KB