Hello world.

[BrisVegasGolfer]

Cheers mate.  I just re-read your Ecomate thread, it's looking good.  I'm meeting Joe next week to look over their campers. 

Are you going to take yours to the Cape?  I like your fridge slide pantry.  Looks like the slide is wide enough to take a 40litre Engel sideways.  I've taken mine out of the car and rather than buying a bigger fridge, looks like I could add a second one in there to run as a freezer.  That or sit the Webber 200 in there as well.

[wilson79]

Thanks mate, you will get two 40 ltr fridges in no worries with room to spare the fridge slide is HUGE..

Joe s a good bloke, and was very good with an issue I had with one of my Electric brakes at Xmas time.. Very happy with after sales service thus far in fact it has exceeded my expectations what he did for me..

yes I will be taking it to the cape but as I have a company car I wont be talking any of the hard core parts and will be softing out and taking the bypasses.. Also with the FF it is very long and I think the ramp over angle may cause some issues with some of the crossings..

[BrisVegasGolfer]

Thanks for the feedback.  As a newbie, it's hard to work out what the difference is between the various versions of this same "chinese rear fold hard floor camper".  I like the fact that Modcon have something to do with the Ecomates, and assume sahara and guardian et al are just local agents.  The Leisure Matters camper looks very similar but is a few grand cheaper.  Are the Ecomates worth $3-4k  over the Leisure Matters?  How flexible is the $15,990 pricing on them? I'm sure I saw them for $14,999 a little while ago.  Any money I can save would be great as I'm gonna be up for brake controller, reverse camera and winch in the near future. 

[wilson79]

Not sure about the differences with the rear folds, it only looks like the front Fridge box has changed between the 2.

best bet would be to crawl all over both of them and ask Nathan at LM and Joe at Sahara  ask heaps of questions and maybe ask them what the differences are?

Both guys are great blokes and will be happy to answer all questions..

[BrisVegasGolfer]

OK, so where did that 4 years go!??!?  Still don't have a camper, but am now actively looking for one.  Have about $15k to spend, so am looking at 10 year old Kimberley/Pioneer/Aus Offroad/Cub etc and the Chinese Ecomates and Leisure Matters etc.

We're living in Townsville now and my old Pajero is still chugging along.  We're going to the Cape in June/July and want to sort out a camper before then.  Actually, Easter would be better as a shakedown trip.

Really want something that has a fridge slide, plumbed water tank to sink, gas cooker and pantry storage etc etc..  We've done plenty of camping trips with our touring tent and I'm just over the setup and packup time of all the "stuff" we have to cram in and on the car.

*SNAP* 10 years later and I'm back in a camper! 

Found myself back here reading through topics again as I was researching old Cub/Kimberley and Pioneer campers, as we were wanting to downsize from a caravan.  We bought a Mountain Trail soft floor camper back around  2014 and used it for lots of trips across NQ and even dragged it up the OTT to the Cape.  I think we swapped it for a boat around 2017, and we went back to tents and swags for a while.  Did the Simpson and Tassie in canvas tent and swags with the kids and have definitely done our time as tent campers!  Moved back to Brisbane late 2019 and ordered a 16' Jayco Crosstrak hybrid during COVID.  That was so much easier than our soft floor camper.  Dragged the hybrid out to the Big Red Bash a couple of times and had no issues with it other than the main bed was a bit cramped and our kids hated the bunks in it.  We then had a couple of years in a 19' Jayco All Terrain full caravan.  Both were great, but the kids dont come with us anymore and we don't "need" a big van for the trips we do.  We're also not old enough to retire and do the big lap yet. 

We've now got a 2015 Pioneer Longreach rear fold, which is very cool.  We also upgraded to a v6 Ranger ute last year and sold our trusty 2015 Isuzu MU-X.  I'd post pics if I could figure out how....  Maiden trip will be to the Mundi Mundi Bash in two weeks.  Have only had it a week and have already updated wheels, tyres, shockies and doubled it's batteries.  So nice to tow after dragging the 3tonne van around for a couple of years.  I'm really looking forward to the trip down the Darling River now.

I found the Facebook group, so will try to keep up with things there and here.

[duggie]

*SNAP* 10 years later and I'm back in a camper! 

Found myself back here reading through topics again as I was researching old Cub/Kimberley and Pioneer campers, as we were wanting to downsize from a caravan.  We bought a Mountain Trail soft floor camper back around  2014 and used it for lots of trips across NQ and even dragged it up the OTT to the Cape.  I think we swapped it for a boat around 2017, and we went back to tents and swags for a while.  Did the Simpson and Tassie in canvas tent and swags with the kids and have definitely done our time as tent campers!  Moved back to Brisbane late 2019 and ordered a 16' Jayco Crosstrak hybrid during COVID.  That was so much easier than our soft floor camper.  Dragged the hybrid out to the Big Red Bash a couple of times and had no issues with it other than the main bed was a bit cramped and our kids hated the bunks in it.  We then had a couple of years in a 19' Jayco All Terrain full caravan.  Both were great, but the kids dont come with us anymore and we don't "need" a big van for the trips we do.  We're also not old enough to retire and do the big lap yet. 

We've now got a 2015 Pioneer Longreach rear fold, which is very cool.  We also upgraded to a v6 Ranger ute last year and sold our trusty 2015 Isuzu MU-X.  I'd post pics if I could figure out how....  Maiden trip will be to the Mundi Mundi Bash in two weeks.  Have only had it a week and have already updated wheels, tyres, shockies and doubled it's batteries.  So nice to tow after dragging the 3tonne van around for a couple of years.  I'm really looking forward to the trip down the Darling River now.

I found the Facebook group, so will try to keep up with things there and here.

Welcome back to the family BrisVegasGolfer, I did enjoy you and your families company on one of our trips , cheers and beers duggie

[BrisVegasGolfer]

20250812_080214 by Dion Knowles, on Flickr20250823_061654 by Dion Knowles, on Flickr
20250817_075945 by Dion Knowles, on Flickr

[BrisVegasGolfer]

Previous Setups...

Pajero and Mountain Trail Camper 2014-2015
472081886_10165446082557715_7190667516981903851_n by Dion Knowles, on Flickr

MUX and tent/swags 2015-2020
468867856_10165232921252715_1279074535556742960_n by Dion Knowles, on Flickr

MU-X and Johnno's camper - 2018
36229602_10157806209797715_4727236886551068672_n by Dion Knowles, on Flickr

MU-X and Jayco Crosstrak 2021-2022
IMG20220701124637 by Dion Knowles, on Flickr

MU-X and Jayco All Terrain 2023-2024
Screenshot_20250413_212743_Photos by Dion Knowles, on Flickr

Ranger and Jayco All Terrain 2025
Screenshot_20250706_192049_Gallery by Dion Knowles, on Flickr

[Bird]

Interesting seeing your path of cars and trailers from then till now

[Fizzie]

MUX and tent/swags 2015-2020

With that photo, what's the (looks like) a pipe coming out of the back of the car down to the orange tray?

[BrisVegasGolfer]

With that photo, what's the (looks like) a pipe coming out of the back of the car down to the orange tray?

I had a 60 litre water tank with pump in behind the fridge. Very handy little setup actually, especially for washing up dishes (as shown in that pic).