Market Direct Camper Trailers

[marty+jojo]

Has anyone got one or know anybody that has one? I have been watching them on ebay and the on road version with a 15 x 13 foot tent models are going cheap, cheapest i saw one sell for was $2326.99 , the most i have seen one sell for is $3400. The tents are 15oz ripstopp canvas. I would only use it a few times a year for 2 or 3 nights at a time so i don't want to spend $$$$$. Just wanting to know if they fall apart or not as there is no warranty on the tents.
Marty.

P.S - They also call themselves campertrailersaustralia

[shano]

yes they are bloody excellent for the money you pay for them! my mate has got one, bought it about 4 months ago and has used it heaps in that time! what impressed us the most is one night it pissed down rain and it never leaked a drop of water, butthe water did pool up, so if you get one get the option extra pole spreader kit this will stop it!

[chisel]

I assume at that price that it's an on-road trailer?

[bluegumfergie]

Hi, the misses here, we brought one in Oct and yep there are problems. I have spoken with 6 others who also purchased the campers and found pretty much the same issues. We brought the delux off road, tool box and got the spreader poles (these you will need for the larger tent). But i have to say i think we come out better than some. On our first adventure the kitchen fell apart, found the water tank leaked and the tent leaked like a seive. Just make sure if you do purchase one you really spend the money to water proof it. I seasoned it and did all the seams but wasn't enough. Don't expect any after sales care, you'll get called a lier and an inexperienced camper just to name afew. Reality wise, we would never have gotten this size tent and trailer for $6600. And i mean the tent is a kick arse size. The last night we camped it must have been about 30+ knots outside and it withstood it no dramas. I've stopped chewing at the bit and excepted the faults, (which are fixable) and progressing to fixing it up to a campable state. If you do buy one look up a site called drifter kitchens, have great ideas and they build kitchens for campers.

[Steve B]

Mate of mine has one. Seems OK. Extra stuff like poles, pegs, ropes are flimsy and need upgrading. His struts (that lift the camper section off the trailer) gave way first trip. The support under the bed is pretty weak too, thin aluminium...If your a big bloke and or couple...then it may pay to reinforce this area. Other than that I was pretty impressed with the rest......well for the money anyway.

I am still glad I got a second hand aussie tough built trailer, with quality aussie made tent, HD everything. ...it cost about the same as the new imported trailer.

If I had my time again, I would still go a second hand heavy duty aussie trailer and tent.

Cheers

[StevenM]

They are based on Beaudesert Rpd at Coopers Plains.

Go and have a look yourself.

I think fo rthe money they are ok.

Canvas looked allright (was ripstop as well)

Alot you could do with them for the money. Would need a few mods and they would be fairly bulletproof

[griz066]

Don't touch them they are cheap n nasty the canvas is cheap Chinese and leaks the eyelets tear out and the poles are cheap Chinese.

[Aussie Spirit]

Hi Guys, I purchased the gal Extreme Off-Road about Oct 2010 and have had no problems with it at all, I did however replace the U Bolts around the axle as I felt there wasn't enough thread showing for my liking, we have done a trip to Straddie in the first weekend of Dec and it bucketed down of us no leaks at all. I find the trailer easy to tow, But I am going to replace the hitch on the trailer as I feel it will be a hassle to line the teflon block up to get the pin threw. Overall we are happy, we have been tent campers for many many years and we got to a stage that we wanted a little more comfort. PM me if you want any more information.

[plaztix]

I just bought the off road deluxe (with the 18ft x 23ft tent for $4500) and for the money, i'm happy with it. There is no doubt they are a budget built trailer and the tents are made in china however they seem to be of reasonably good quality.

The trailers are made of fairly light weight steel and the paint work is pretty light on in some areas but i wont be doing any hard core off roading and i'll hit the under body with black jack. I'll also be keeping it in the garage so rust shouldn't be an issue. They have just changed trailer design and the new ones are bolted together, which i'm not a big fan of, so i got the old style welded trailer.

Set it up for the first time on the weekend and gave it a major soaking (to cure the canvas) and it didn't leak a drop. It was blowing its ring out and i was a tad worried about setting it up in the wind after reading grizz066's post about the strength of the poles. Well i gotta say, i was really surprised with the strength of the poles and stability of the tent frame and could have left it up without the ropes, but figured better to be safe then sorry.

The kitchen was riveted on to the tail gate but i drilled out the rivets and bolted it together with some small bolts. I will probably also change out the slider leaf springs to eye to eye shackle style springs eventually but these will do for a while.

The main section of tent (straight off the trailer) was set up within 15 minutes and made plenty of room for a small family for an over nighter. The roof of the annex should only take another half hour which will give 7m x 3m area of outdoor shelter (or it has walls to fully enclose it). So no need to take the tarp any more.

Anyway, i'm heading to Tin Can Bay for the weekend so will let you know how it goes after a 500K round trip and 2 nights with 4 adults and 2 kids.

[plaztix]

Got back from Tin can bay yesterday and all went well. Drove the back roads half the way (which included probably 10 or 20km of dirt roads) and the trailer handled the corrugations and monster pot holes perfectly. I had it fully loaded with gear and expected it to be a bit of a pig through the single lane sections were you often have to put one wheel off the bitumen into the lumpy dirt but it towed perfectly. I actually forgot it was there a few times.

Set up of the main tent was easier this time (less than 15 minutes) and the annex roof only took an extra 20 minutes, so happy with the set up time. It pissed down on saturday and the wind was constantly above 15 knots and the tent handled it with out any issue (the optional spreader bars are a must as without them you do get pooling on the lower sections of the annex). Only a slight leak through the back door zippers (which is pretty common even in expensive tents that dont have a weather flap covering the zip) but a quick wipe with a towel sorted that.

Got a few things i'll be doing to make it more liveable for next weeks holiday.

[Aussie Spirit]

Hey Plaztix,

Great to hear that everything went well for your trip to TCB, what are your plans for mods on the CT.

[plaztix]

Hey Aussie spirit,

Nothing major just yet but a few small things to make life a little easier and comfortable.

I'm looking for a longer stove hose so i can run it through the kitchen and out the side of the trailer and into the bottle, so i can leave it set up when i close the tail gate. I wont leave it set up in transit (because it would need certification), but during the day its good to be able to close the kitchen to make more room in the annex.

I've bought another spreader bar and cut one end off to make it a support for the diagonal main tent frame next to the main bedroom door. There was alot of weight on this section of the tent with the annex on and i noticed it sagged a bit when soaking wet, so figured another pole would be good just in case.

Looking for some 150mm sewer pipe to make a pole holder.

The hand pump tap is pretty useless for much more than a quick wash of the hands so i'm going to fit a tap in the kitchen that i can connect straight to tap water when camping in camp grounds.

I've got a LED light set up that lights up the main tent and annex perfectly (4 seperate bar lights) and i've made a 4 switch panel that allows me to control each light individually but want to look at running the wiring inside the tent poles so i can leave it wired permanently, but not sure if its worth the drama as it only takes about 5 minutes to set up now.

I've got a few extra cigarette lighter points i'm going to mount on the trailer that are accessible from inside the tent so i can charge phones, ipod and run an air mattress pump etc.

Going to make a little shelf to store magazines, books, phones, ipod, speakers etc inside the tent where its accessible from the bed.

I was also considering getting a large custom mattress but after realising that a double and a single air mattress fit in the main bed area perfectly, we'll leave it at that for the moment.(our 4 year old boy usually ends up in our bed most nights and a double just doesn't cut it)

I also just bought some ultramesh shade cloth tarps to go under the tent floors (as the pvc flooring is quite thin) and on the ground in the annex to minimise sand build up. Its similar to the C gear flooring but a third of the price.

Heading off on saturday so gotta get cracking and find some of this gear.

[Aussie Spirit]

Hi Plaztic,

If your looking to find some good information on things to do with the CT, I suggest trying this site which deals with camper trailers (CT). Lots of good stuff and also its Australian. www.myswag.org

[plaztix]

Hi Plaztic,

If your looking to find some good information on things to do with the CT, I suggest trying this site which deals with camper trailers (CT). Lots of good stuff and also its Australian. www.myswag.org

Yeah, been trawling through the forum for a few months now. Haven't joined yet but its quite a good source of info for all things CT related. Some big $$$ rigs around, i had no idea you could spend $30K+ on a tent on wheels.......

[Heath]

After seeing the price of kitchens I made my own.
All the bits cost under $200 & a day or so to knock it up...easy!

All aluminium from Ulrich

Got my inspiration from the below pictures, I didn't countersink the sink in mine.
I also covered the sides in and the sheet which is stowed underneath when in use, slides in from the top when travelling so everything doesn't fall out the front.