Wannabe Camping

[Ropes]

Hi Everyone

Thought we'd better introduce ourselves instead of just lurking in the background,
We have a fair bit of tent camping experience between us, both here in WA and over east in QLD on the Sunshine Coast but after a trip last year up to Carnarvon and back with friends we have decided not to tour with tents again, long setups and long pack ups don't leave enough time for travel, so we will be upgrading to an off-road camper trailer in the very near future.

Nikki has been longing for and researching camper trailers for quite a number of years now, so we have a long wish list of wants to mix with our needs.

Our tow vehicle will be a 2003 Nissan Patrol, diesel, 5 speed manual with a 2" lift, 33" tyres, so the camper will need to be able to go everywhere the Patrol can.

We are looking forward continuing our research by searching through this forum and asking the knowledgeable people for their advice and experiences to help us make the right choices for our happy and relaxing camper trailer future.

Here's a couple of pics from our trip up north last year.

Ellendale Pool



Lucky Bay



After some wind



A Lucky Bay Sunset



The Murchison River



Crossing the Murchison River




Cheers
Craig & Nikki

[sol]

G'day Craig & Nikki
Welcome to MySwag guys.Nice pics too!!All the best with finding
the camper.Any ideas on what camper trailer you are looking for?

                                             

[Jenko67]

Welcome Craig & Nikki, great pics mate.... you willl certainly find heaps of info here.

Good luck

Scott

[Wandering Tassie]

Hi Craig and Nikki, welcome to My Swag.
Lots of good campers for you to decide from. Are you looking at hard floor or soft.

Trevor

[grc]

welcome craig and nikki top tow vechile for quick set up and pack up hardfloor is the way to go depending on the dollars  best of luck           grc

[gunna]

welcome to myswag graig & nikki
sheeds

[Manjimike]

Welcome to the Myswag family Craig & Nikki.
As 'Ropes' is my Scout name, I am interested how you got yours 



Mike and Brenda

[gibbo301]

To My Swag  Craig & Nikki

[JCOJ]

Welcome, officially, to the forum!!  There are some great pics there!!

You won't kow yourself when updgrading from a tent to a camper - it's like going to the Hilton!!

Good luck deciding which one to buy - that is half the fun.

Cheers,

JKohn.

[D4D]

Welcome to myswag, great pics, you'll fit right in around here

[Dreama]

Hi there Craig and Nikki,
Welcome to MY Swag,
There are  certainly alot of choices, Have you narrowed the field down?
You can always ask for opinions here.

[Ropes]

I should probably have put this in the original post.

Our situation is very Brady Bunch every second weekend and half of school holidays, which leaves no room in the Patrol for anything other than the basics. So we have some specific requirements.

The trailer will need to have a minimum side height/depth of 500mm, 550 would be ideal to fit a fridge or our iceboxes.
The trailer tent top needs to open from the passenger side (safety for quick road side access)
Loads of storage space (to make up for the unavailability of storing anything in the Patrol)
Canvas - quality won't be compromised on (WA - windy as, Qld - nightly rain) with a tropical roof type setup so we can use it all year round.
A kitchen is not required because we would upgrade to a Drifta anyway.

That's just to list a few, we are in love with the Jimboomba Explorer Staircase, which would meet all our needs but it is a fair way above our budget at the moment, not to mention the $1800'ish just to get it over to WA in the first instance.

The problem we are having is we find a trailer that will do the job (with a few DIY upgrades) but the tent doesn't hold up to scrutiny or vice versa, we even looked at building our own but space and tools to do the build are a hinderance.

Currently on our "to tyre kick" list are the MDC (they have a new staircase model) and PMX (the gal dipped model), so any personal experiences are very welcome.

Our budget is extremely close to 10G and we have narrowed our search to a soft floor.

We will welcome any advice and suggestions.


Cheers,
Craig & Nikki

[Stozz]

Welcome guys. Good to have some more locals on the forum. Heaps of info on here to help you with your search 

[theflyingbadger]

I see they let all sorts of riffraff on here now.

[Ropes]

I see they let all sorts of riffraff on here now.

Yep you know how it goes, everyone is welcome until they get to know you. 

[Ropes]

Welcome to the Myswag family Craig & Nikki.
As 'Ropes' is my Scout name, I am interested how you got yours 



Mike and Brenda

Hi Mike
Nothing as story worth as that, it's just an abreviated version of my last name 

[Ropes]

Welcome guys. Good to have some more locals on the forum. Heaps of info on here to help you with your search 

Searching is half the fun, you'll have to tell the Driver that just because he has moved buildings doesn't mean he can't drop by and say hello once in a while 

Cheers
Craig

[Nomad]

Welcome Ropes,

Where on the Sunny Coast do you base yourselves from when your here?

Regards
Nomad.

[gonefishing]

Gday, I wannabe camping too!!  Thanks for the pics, and I know exactly what you mean about the tents.

Happy campertrailering (when you get one!)

[Ropes]

Welcome Ropes,

Where on the Sunny Coast do you base yourselves from when your here?

Regards
Nomad.

Hi Nomad,

Anywhere from Bli Bli, Peregian Springs, Noosa, Gympie and WooP WooP (commonly known as Kilkivan)
Cooroy/Noosa is our home stomping grounds.

Cheers
Craig & Nikki

[Nomad]

Thats about my stomping grounds as well.
Have to catch up for a coldie one day.



Nomad

[Heiny]

Hi Craig & Nikki, welcome to My Swag

bubba

[GGV8Cruza]

Welcome to the Forum Ropes, good luck on the search

GG

[BigJules]

G'day & Welcome.

I see you've caught the bug, nearly 60 posts in a couple of days. Good luck in your camper search.

[Ropes]

Thanks Jules and everyone for the welcomes.

I see you've caught the bug, nearly 60 posts in a couple of days. Good luck in your camper search.

Yes when I set my sights on something it tends to become an obsession, much to Nikki's annoyance at times. 

You'll see in my above post that one of the places I was going to check out has been crossed out, I went, I saw and I was appalled at the lack of attention to detail, sorry to anyone that has one, all I can hope is that the ones I saw in the yard were the dregs.

So yes, the search continues and after that experience we have decided to increase our budget to around $15G and stick to our original requirement of an extenda/staircase/walk-thru model and nothing less than Aussie canvas.

Thanks to Fun Police for putting together the List of "Extenda"/ "Walk-through" style campers, we are working our way though it.



Craig & Nikki