Author Topic: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor  (Read 12830 times)

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Offline Alan Loy

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #50 on: April 07, 2020, 08:18:25 AM »
One advantage of a premium brand of soft floor is they go up easier due to careful design of the frame and struts (it's tricky to design these right).  Any serious seller should allow you to set up and down the camper as part of the pre purchase inspection.  Might be worth trying a few to get a feel if the style suits your needs.

Complete Campsite have a great reputation here is some that might suit from $7000 to $20000

https://www.caravancampingsales.com.au/items/details/2008-complete-campsite-nomad-extreme/SSE-AD-6164289/?Cr=3
https://www.caravancampingsales.com.au/items/details/2009-complete-campsite-nomad-extreme/SSE-AD-5909023/?Cr=4
https://www.caravancampingsales.com.au/items/details/2009-complete-campsite-nomad-extreme/SSE-AD-5842162/?Cr=5
https://www.caravancampingsales.com.au/items/details/2008-complete-campsite-nomad-offroad-deluxe/SSE-AD-6434574/?Cr=6
https://www.caravancampingsales.com.au/items/details/2009-complete-campsite-9x4/SSE-AD-6073937/?Cr=7
https://www.caravancampingsales.com.au/items/details/2012-complete-campsite-jabiru/SSE-AD-1162026/?Cr=8

Offline tryagain

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #51 on: April 07, 2020, 08:30:03 AM »
Not entirely sure if this is the actual brand or not.

To give you an idea, my wife had to use a step to cook and do dishes on the tailgate kitchen!



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This one

https://www.camplify.com.au/rv/soft-floor-camper-trailer-rental-leura-nsw-2010-all-terrain-full-off-road/13543

Offline israel.mcgregor

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #52 on: April 07, 2020, 08:49:38 AM »

Offline tryagain

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #53 on: April 07, 2020, 09:43:03 AM »
15K hard limit pretty much puts you out of most of the new trailers (once you add a few bits and pieces) apart from soft floors,  So you need to evaluate what you want more, new, or tick more of your box's. Soft floor campers have gone a little out of fashion, so used you can get such great buys which then makes buying them new seem a bit silly ( and why many have stopped making them). Here are a few random examples of different styles it might be worth to have a look at.

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/central-coast-nsw-region/camper-trailers/cub-spacevan-camper-trailer-fully-off-road-hard-floor/1244034768

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/mount-riverview/camper-trailers/black-series-delta/1239871797

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/terrey-hills/camper-trailers/2019-4x4-camper-trailer-with-diesel-heater-fridge-etc/1233470807

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/waitara/camper-trailers/jayco-flamingo-outback-2007/1244170537

Also, keep in mind, there is probably a reason why a salesman steers you away from the style of campers that can be had on the second-hand market and towards something you can only buy new ;) it likely has a lot more to do with him than you.

Offline tryagain

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #54 on: April 07, 2020, 10:02:03 AM »
Softfloors can be put up pretty quickly, even the imports (they mostly copied the Aus made ones) see this video as an example https://youtu.be/GdyNNRzu3c4 as others have said it's all the other bits you take with you that take the time, and I suspect you are your own worst enemy here. The awning/canopy is what often adds a fair bit of time, but this is the same on pretty much on both forward/dual folds and soft floors alike.

Did you put up all the rooms on the one you hired? if so that would have added a bit of extra time, also as others have said, the first few times seem to take a lot longer, it gets quicker once you know what you are doing.

One of the main negatives with soft floors, as opposed to the other types, is that they have the (soft) floor on the ground, this can get a bit messy and take a bit longer at pack up time if it has been raining and is wet/muddy, but like most things you can do things to mitigate this.

Offline israel.mcgregor

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #55 on: April 07, 2020, 10:26:27 AM »


I suspect you are your own worst enemy here.

Did you put up all the rooms on the one you hired? if so that would have added a bit of extra time,

One of the main negatives with soft floors, as opposed to the other types, is that they have the (soft) floor on the ground, this can get a bit messy and take a bit longer at pack up time if it has been raining and is wet/muddy, but like most things you can do things to mitigate this.

For sure I'm my own worst enemy. Why get by with a bucket to dump my grey water when I have a perfectly good cliff right beyond my site. With a Y piece for both sinks and 3m of PVC pipe I can have full waste water plumbing! This has always been my mentality and I continually look for ways to improve our camping experience.  Wife always agrees improvements make life easier but it makes setup up harder.

I think I can live with this issue for the three weeker. Not for the weekender tho and I'll learn to CULL CULL CULL.

Yes ,we hired this one because of the large rear kids room. We really liked it, but it did take effort to attach everything and maybe added close to an hour as it was our first time.

Having stuff on the floor that gets dirty is a two edged sword. We appreciated the floor but it took work to maintain and extra time at packup to make sure it was fully dry.

To your point about the design of the camper, this was a good one in that, it could be done by one person. But you'd need to have a ladder with you as getting it over the apex to allow gravity to complete the job on packup would have meant be being around 3m tall!  I'm sure theres a way to Jimmy up a pole/ broom of some sort to push it over and take away the need to pack a ladder.



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Offline israel.mcgregor

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #56 on: April 07, 2020, 10:54:39 AM »


15K hard limit pretty much puts you out of most of the new trailers (once you add a few bits and pieces) apart from soft floors,  So you need to evaluate what you want more, new, or tick more of your box's. Soft floor campers have gone a little out of fashion, so used you can get such great buys which then makes buying them new seem a bit silly ( and why many have stopped making them). Here are a few random examples of different styles it might be worth to have a look at.


https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/waitara/camper-trailers/jayco-flamingo-outback-2007/1244170537



There are a few companies who have a forward fold at the $15k mark. But as you say without accessories. With some hard negotiation, either with the company or with the wife, I may be able to squeeze more out of the budget

But, if feel that it would probably be better to get a well cared for second hand dual fold than a new forward fold?

Thanks for the links. Ill take a look later. I think I already have that last one bookmarked on gumtree!

As far as softfloor goes, I feel we would end up 'trading up' fairly soon to a FF or DF. I've thought about buying a cheap softy while we get more experience and are ready to trade up, but I think id rather start with a FF and go up from there.


As I see it now, these seem to be my options:
1) A fully kitted out soft floor with a large second room either at the rear or as an extension of the kitchen.  Likely going to cost at least 8-10k for something of quality.
2) new or near new forward fold and custom make a second annexe $12-18k
3) wait for a quality second hand dual fold and possibly still need to add an extra Annexe - $15-25k

Does this sound about right?





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Offline Bird

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #57 on: April 07, 2020, 10:55:52 AM »
Quote from: tryagain
Softfloors can be put up pretty quickly, even the imports (they mostly copied the Aus made ones) see this video as an example https://youtu.be/GdyNNRzu3c4 as
Lifestyle had a video of the Explorer Plus - once the trailer was parked and detached from the car, legs down - 2 people putting up the 9ft tent rollingb back travel cover, pulling tent off trailer, and putting up poles - was <1 minute and they were inside. I'd have said <5 mins more to put the other poles up, but they didnt do the awning in the video - that takes the time.
But remember they had done it 5000 times...

I have the video at home on the NAS.
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Offline israel.mcgregor

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #58 on: April 07, 2020, 11:02:27 AM »


- 2 people putting up the 9ft tent

I have the video at home on the NAS.

For the foreseeable future, whatever I get needs to be a one person job. At least until the young bub can be left alone for a few mins.

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Offline Bird

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #59 on: April 07, 2020, 11:03:32 AM »
Quote from: israel.mcgregor
For the foreseeable future, whatever I get needs to be a one person job. At least until the young bub can be left alone for a few mins.

I've done our 12ft tent on my own many times... Bloody lazy teenagers :'(
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Offline Ultimate Adventures Podcast

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #60 on: April 07, 2020, 11:54:00 AM »

Anything else worth looking at?






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Offline Bird

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #61 on: April 07, 2020, 11:56:50 AM »
Just remember - there is no perfect one size fits all trailers out there

nearly everyone has to give and take their must haves and wishes.
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Offline paceman

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #62 on: April 07, 2020, 12:02:45 PM »
One advantage of a premium brand of soft floor is they go up easier due to careful design of the frame and struts (it's tricky to design these right). 

+1 for this...

we have a cheaper soft floor and if it wasn't such a faff, that would be the next thing to upgrade...

makes a huge difference...

Offline Bird

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #63 on: April 07, 2020, 12:25:08 PM »
+1 for this...

we have a cheaper soft floor and if it wasn't such a faff, that would be the next thing to upgrade...

makes a huge difference...
Sell ya mine :)
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Offline paceman

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #64 on: April 07, 2020, 12:32:24 PM »
Sell ya mine :)

wouldn't buy another soft floor... hybrid or downsize with two jettent bunkers for the boys...

Offline xcvator

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #65 on: April 07, 2020, 12:54:11 PM »
Just my 2 bob's worth, from reading this thread, what you want doesn't exist, full stop, end of story.
1st step you MUST take is to go through all the stuff you take with a packet of epsom salts, and clean it out, get rid of ALL the excess junk.Get rid of all the "nice to have" and keep "must have" if you don't take this step you'll still be looking in 50 years.Stop dreaming and become a doer
Once you change your attitude and mindset it will be easy, and remember that when/if you get your dream camper you need to take the same amount of stuff for 4 days or 40, apart from food and drink
Sorry if I sound harsh but this is the reality
There is another alternative, forget the camper, rent a unit  :'( 
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Offline israel.mcgregor

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #66 on: April 07, 2020, 01:13:33 PM »


wouldn't buy another soft floor...

Can I ask your reasons not to?

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Offline israel.mcgregor

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #67 on: April 07, 2020, 01:15:20 PM »
Just remember - there is no perfect one size fits all trailers out there

nearly everyone has to give and take their must haves and wishes.
Yep it seems that way. And I can accept that. I was hoping there might be a crossover out there that has best of both worlds, a bit like a hybrid is for the caravan.

Btw if anyone has experience with specific brands to look for/ avoid, please feel free to DM me as that would be a massive help

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Offline paceman

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #68 on: April 07, 2020, 01:19:10 PM »

Can I ask your reasons not to?

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mainly because of setup time (for us)...

a lot of the trips i would like to do in our local area are great overnighters... but our soft floor is a bit too much to setup for an overnighter... we have an unspoken rule of three nights for our soft floor...

Offline Bigfish

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #69 on: April 07, 2020, 01:30:51 PM »
mainly because of setup time (for us)...

a lot of the trips i would like to do in our local area are great overnighters... but our soft floor is a bit too much to setup for an overnighter... we have an unspoken rule of three nights for our soft floor...

I,m exactly the same with my forward fold.  3 nights minimum...  Overnight-get a cabin/room/swag or hotel.
Having lots of friends on farcebook is the same as having lots of money in monopoly...means absolutely nothing!!

Offline israel.mcgregor

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #70 on: April 07, 2020, 01:58:47 PM »


what you want doesn't exist, full stop, end of story.


Yep, you directly answered the question raised in the title of this thread. Thanks

As far as 'take what you need' is concerned, everyone's needs are different. Do I need hot water for a three week holiday with two kids under 3? I say yes, you might say no. Do I need to plumb my drainage? Well I already have to cart 60l of water a day from the bore outlet 500m a way with no vehicle access. So to have to cart the grey water away as well isn't really much fun. (Bear in mind this is all based on tent camping not camper trailer).

Someone mentioned b-double earlier.  It was close enough in our pre camper days.  Full car and van.  When we hired the camper it was full car and whatever we could strap to the camper which amounted to about the same, but fortunately the camper had much of the stuff we normally would have to pack (kitchen, water, lights, batteries and the rest).

I expect whatever camper I buy will be able to sit there ready to go at a moment's notice. So we can hitch it up, throw some food in and off we go.  When it comes to bigger trips, then we may have to chuck a few more luxury items in that become needs for a long stay.


But what I really am trying to work out is, if there is nothing that will suit exactly what I am looking for, what's the closest I'm gonna find in my price range and how much canvas adding will I need to do for the longer stays when we want to set up and spread out. It's likely for a long weekend I won't care too much about lots of undercover space.






 

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Offline israel.mcgregor

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #71 on: April 07, 2020, 02:08:57 PM »
I,m exactly the same with my forward fold.  3 nights minimum...  Overnight-get a cabin/room/swag or hotel.
That's interesting, I thought forward fold would one of the easiest to set up?

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Offline campingaroundoz

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #72 on: April 07, 2020, 10:58:27 PM »
We are looking at selling our follow me camper pentecost which is a hard floor side folding camper which is similar to a soft floor. The pentecost is the top of the line camper from follow me campers which is all Australian built. Brilliantly designed campers and tough as nails. If you want more information you can PM me.
Here is a link to a review https://camper.hemax.com/Reviews/584/Follow_Me_Campers_Pentecost_Review
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Offline israel.mcgregor

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #73 on: April 08, 2020, 06:57:00 AM »
We are looking at selling our follow me camper pentecost which is a hard floor side folding camper which is similar to a soft floor. The pentecost is the top of the line camper from follow me campers which is all Australian built. Brilliantly designed campers and tough as nails. If you want more information you can PM me.
Here is a link to a review https://camper.hemax.com/Reviews/584/Follow_Me_Campers_Pentecost_Review
Seems they are no longer in business. Cant find a great deal about them online.

Send through some more info tho, photos etc that would be great.

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Offline Bird

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Re: Is there a perfect inbetweener? Hard floor with space of a soft floor
« Reply #74 on: April 08, 2020, 10:31:22 AM »
Quote from: israel.mcgregor
Seems they are no longer in business. Cant find a great deal about them online.

Send through some more info tho, photos etc that would be great.


There used to be a website listing all campertrailer manufacturers - was around 40 odd Aussie manufacturers... and a couple of importers.. now its the other way around. That wasn't that many years ago either.  Like it or not the influx of cheap chinese trailers, destroyed the market - with our high wages n Shit aussie manufacturers couldnt keep it up.
Would be in interesting exercise to see how many of these still exist.. http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=1231.0

This Followme Camper looks like a nice bit of kit to be honest well worth checking out.
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