Are import trailers really "that bad?"

[Cruiser 105Tvan]

Chinese campers and caravans are like Hyundais. Early on, they were utter garbage. Hyundais became better over the years, as have the imported campers and caravans.

Give it a few years and they'll be everywhere, just like Hyundai is. Some people will NEVER own a Hyundai or Chinese trailer, others will own nothing but them.

Neither are right or wrong.

Shane.

That's right, our Family vehicles have basically been Toyota since the 60's.
It's what makes you, the end user, happy.
If your not happy, do something about it.  Don't just sit and bitch.
Happy camping.

[grafy82]

If we are talking soft floor campers this beats them every  day of the week and thrice on sundays;

http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=36094.msg578367#msg578367

 

Have to agree with this 100%. When I was making the decision on our camper I asked myself, how much and how hard will I take this offroad. If you only plan on sticking to the bitumen and light dirt trails, why wouldn't you buy Chinese and save a bucket. But I really wanted to be able to take mine anywhere and have minimal worries that something might go wrong. So I made a tough Aussie built trailer and stuck a Chinese Austrack tent on top. A reasonably priced, near bulletproof setup.
    In saying that, I do like the look of the front fold eBay campers with all the bells and whistles. But I don't think I could trust them in the rough stuff. Especially that crazy dual coil spring setup they have going on (2 must be better, right?).
    Anyways, like has been said, horses for courses. Have fun choosing

[Jakster1]

So went to the local camping & caravan show today and had the opportunity to check out some of the latest and greatest offering from home and abroad in the world of camper trailers.
I managed to get a pretty good look over, under, in, out and around a fair few of the campers for sale.
It quickly became fairly clear the difference between the locally professionally built campers and the fully imported or imported but assembled here in OZ campers.
At first glance they all look nice and new and shiny but upon closer inspection it reveals the difference in quality and finish of trailer, tent and components that sets the local apart from the cheap imports.
A few thing I noticed that stood out right away was the poor quality of under body paint and galvanising.
Peeling and chipping paint off "brand new looked like they've never been taken offroad show demos"
Weld quality in some less obvious places was questionable.
Rust spots inside questionable welds appearing on the surface through paint
Finish of aluminium frames and joins in the panels.
Quality of rollers, zips, canvas etc.
Some were better than other, and some others had some pretty darn good salespersons there too.
This was certainly an eye opener and has definitely hit home all the advice from you guys to buy locally made and built.

The imports are obviously built to a price and I guess you get what you pay for. They still do look like OK/good value for money in the short term, but I think my money will be going elsewhere.

[MrNoodle]

I have had my ezytrailer now for a few months and only had the one test run in it (getting to chilly for the lovely) when I noticed a rust stain than a water drip from the stainless water tank. Kept forgetting to contact them about it but was headed to Melbourne from Geelong on Friday so I contacted them. They asked me to email them some pics which I had taken many weeks before but had forgotten. Call back and said I sent the photos, I will bring the tank and the lady said if its a problem with the tank they will replace on the spot. Rock up later that arvo and with a bit of yakkin, I walked out with a new tank and happy with their customer service. They aren't all that bad