Sani and I did our first camping trip together to Hillocks Drive – way back in 2003. We had a little dome tent, an air mattress, an esky, and a gas cooker. We packed it into Sani’s little Suzuki Swift and away we went.
That trip triggered a passion for camping and a constant evolution of our setup over the years. The urge to buy something new before each trip was high. The Swift gave way to a Toyota Rav4. Then I discovered the Rav4 wasn’t really getting us to the places I wanted to go. So the Rav4 went, and a Hilux Surf came in. The Surf gave us so many awesome trips that it paid for itself many times over. But it was getting on in years, and we wanted to tackle some bigger trips over longer distances. We had The Kimberley in mind.
I wanted something a bit newer, so we upgraded to a 2007 Nissan Patrol (the first of the CRD models). At the time, I was blown away by how much more powerful it was than the surf, which is funny because now I think its gutless!
We got by for a number of years with our trusty Blackwolf Turbo tent. We eventually replaced our air mattress with an Exped self inflating mattress, and things were pretty comfy! When Ayla was born, there was still plenty of room in the tent for the portacot, and we managed to squeeze the additional luggage into the Patrol.
Then, we had twins. It was immediately apparent that we weren’t going to fit all our gear into the Patrol with now the entire backseat taken up by baby seats, and a child restraint anchor bar through the luggage area meaning even my fridge cage wouldn’t fit. Luckily the fridge still does! The dogs lost their spot on the back seat and were relegated to the cargo area.
Expanding Family
When the twins turned 2 years old, I took 6 months off work. I needed a break from work, and Sani needed help with the 3 kids at home. We decided to knock out two big trips in this time off. A month to Tasmania, and later, a month up in Queensland & Fraser Island (via the outback). It was time to get a camper trailer.
My thoughts with getting a camper trailer were quite simple. I just needed more room to take all our things. But I thought if I am towing a trailer, it may as well had an attached tent. I wanted to keep the essence of basic camping alive. Simply, it needed to store things, and be off-road capable with little that could go wrong. It needed nothing else. I shunned anything other than the most basic setup.
So, I came across a Far Horizon Soft Floor Camper Trailer second hand. It is a ‘fast fold’ model which is actually very simple and quick to set up, so long as you don’t put the awning up. The awning probably adds 20 minutes doing it solo whilst Sani wrangles the kids. I felt the Patrol struggling despite the trailer not weighing that much, so I got an ECU remap, which certainly helps keep the temperatures down. Whilst it is still sluggish off the mark, it cruises at 100km/hr quite nicely. It still doesn’t like hills though!
The camper has a 55litre water tank, and stainless steel sink/bench that swings out where we put our cooker. We have another 60 litre water bladder behind the rear seats in the Patrol too, so are good for water for 4 or 5 days if we use it carefully. Just on the cooker; we bought a Coleman Hyperflame, and it’s been awesome. There is a little ‘hack’ on youtube to enable it to burn more softly, otherwise it cranks way too hard (many a piece of toast burnt). Once the hack is done, it’s solid as!
12 Volt
I added a 100ah slimline lithium battery to the rear of the car, and it has been an absolute game changer. I’m usually the poor man who pays twice guy, but didn’t want to go cheap on something that was keeping my beers cold. I purchased a Baintech 110ah slimline lithium with inbuilt BMS, and Victron solar controller. The difference from the old deep cycle battery is night and day. The lithium charges so much quicker, its like having double the capacity (on top of having way more usable Ah in lithium anyway). I’m never going back! I leave the deep cycle under the bonnet still, just as a backup. To keep those beers cold (and some food), we run a Waeco CFX-65. I’ve had it a long time now and it’s never missed a beat despite some punishing corrugations.
What I don’t like
The kids, once out of portacots, now sleep sideways on a double air mattress. This set up got us around Tassie, and to Queensland and back with no problems. Apart from one. The dreaded overnight stop.
Whilst the camper trailer tent itself is quite easy to fold out, we do need to get clothes bags, chairs, tables and other items in and out of the trailer each time. So a setup looks like: a) Find a spot. b) Lift tent up to access luggage. c) Pull out all the things you’ll thing you need and put them on the ground d) Take off tent cover and fold tent out. e) Put luggage into tent.
And then reverse this for packing away. Typing it out like that makes it not seem that bad, and its not until you are travelling on the road and do a few one nights in a row. It becomes very tedious, and more so when it’s been raining and dirt/mud have stuck to the underside of the tent floor. Finding a place to put everything from inside the tent, outside the tent, whilst you fold the tent away becomes more painful in the wet too. We end up with towers of things on top of camp chairs. I guess the tent would be even more work though!
Future Plans
On our way home from Tasmania, we were 6 hours from home, and had pegged a spot half way along that looked nice for a final night stay. When we got close, the thought of doing a final night set up / pack down was too much and we plowed on towards home instead. I look back and think it’s disappointing that we missed a potentially great spot purely because of our setup. For now, this set up will suit us as we are predominately doing shorter trips with one base camp. But I am definitely keeping one eye open for a good deal on a Hybrid Camper for any future, long road trips. I do worry this will lead down an expensive path of deciding the car needs upgrading too though!
So, whilst we might drift further away from ‘true camping’ the allure of setting up in 3 minutes is very tempting! So long as we keep getting outdoors, life is good.
