Camping Trailers
Although caravans are a comfortable way to tour, with good camping trailers you can literally go anywhere (I am not referring to a 'camper trailer' here. Initially, I thought about buying a manufactured off-road, u-beaut, ready to go unit. However, anything that was decent and suitable for the trips I wanted to do was going to cost an arm and a leg. As a result I looked around and purchased a solid trailer and built in my own storage and kitchen. 
The first trip I did with the trailer was along the
Old Andado Track
on the edge of the Simpson Desert. My father towed a older style pop-up caravan and we spent a week or so exploring a beautiful part of Australia. At this stage the trailer didn't have a canopy, just the bare trailer and I wanted to see how it handled before doing any more to it.
The trailer tracked well, and was fantastic on the deeply corrugated Andado Track. At the end of this trip I decided that the trailer was certainly worth fitting out into a real camping trailer. The short wheeled based Pajero you see in the pictures has a 2.4 litre turbo charged diesel, not underpowered but overall it is on the small side. For this reason, I opted to have a canopy built that wasn't square, more along the lines of a trade canopy. This shape means the camping trailer has less wind resistance as it follows the shape of the vehicle, and also provides plenty of room inside. There is even space to put my small generator!
Once I fitted the canopy it was onto the fun of fitting it out and making it into a real camping trailer. Firstly, a 60 litre water tank (cased inside 3mm galvanised skin) was slung forward of the axle, with a 12v pressure pump inside the trailer, and tap outlet at the rear of the canopy. Nothing like having running water... although you need to educate people to use it sparingly. In addition to the 60L another 40L of water is carried in two external jerry cans, giving a total of 100 litres, enough for a couple of weeks if used sensibly. I then built a roll out cupboard to hold all foodstuffs, pots n pans, cutlery and any other imaginable item that my wife wished to carry. Finally, and after months in the shed, I had full slide out rear kitchen, complete with sink and four burner gas stove. (some would say a kitchen really is overkill and something like a woodgas stove would be far better:) The trip through the Finke Gorge National Park (NT) to Boggy Hole was the first trip with this fit out. By the way, Finke Gorge National Park trip guidelines suggest trailers should be left behind. Basically the track follows the river, (interesting to watch our progression on the GPS ) and in places it is very deep fine sand. This means you can become hopelessly bogged unless you know what you are doing. The trip was undertaken in January and temps were regularly over 40°C. In these temperatures fine sand is treacherously soft, but correct tyre pressures and application of good driving skills made the trip an enjoyable experience. Nevertheless, after the trip I did change over to wider rims and tyres on the trailer. Apart from being interchangeable with the vehicle, the larger footprint meant easier towing in soft sand. One final addition was the Howling Moon rooftop tent. It is always a pleasure to go bush with the trailer and it formed the support centerpiece for the Uluru National Park riders in the 2004
Finke Desert Race.
Build Your Own Camping Trailer!
These plans will show you:
How to build yourself, using common building materials, an inexpensive, totally portable camp on wheels. That will follow a pick-up or SUV anywhere. That will accommodate from 4 to12 adults, keeping them & their gear high & dry, sitting on its own wheels two feet off the ground. You will have, in ebook format, the BLUE PRINTS and STEP BY STEP instructions for a portable, solid-wall, hard roof and structured level floor camp. Including the window and door installation, bunk bed construction, kitchen area design, heating & lighting options.
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