Purchasing a campomatic

[jexhead]

Hello fellow members.
Friends of mine a virgins in the camper world and are looking to purchase a 1995 campomatic camper.
We are interested in any feedback or thoughts on campomatics
The down side
The up side
What they should look for eg:
Common faults
Common ware
How to tell if the canvas is ok?
Any help would be awesome.

[robcaz]

Campomatic Camper Trailers were designed in New Zealand in the early 60's & by a few years later were being exported to Australia. In the late 80's manufacturing began in Australia under licence to the New Zealand company. A couple of years later the company was bought & all manufacturing was moved here. Around 2005 Campomatic was bought by Trak Shak. All manufacturing then moved to China.

Storage space is minimal, however the trailers balance is good, unlike other rear folding campers with a large box mounted on the Aframe making the ball weight heavy.

One of the big pluses is the easy access slide out kitchen for quick roadside stops. The annex can be left on & pulled over the main roof when packing up saving a heap of time zipping it on each time.

All models, even those that are 30 years old, seem to hold their resale value well.


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[jexhead]

Thank you for your reply.
They do seam to hold there value very well even for older models.

The balance issue is something of concern with other campers and i was not aware that campomatic had such good balance.

Is there any easy way to check the canvas goodness apart for a visual inspection?

Dave

[robcaz]

Hi Dave,

I have not heard any negative feedback on the canvas since manufacturing has moved offshore. You can find a few points in checking the canvas condition under the 'buying secondhand' towards the bottom of the page in the tech tips article http://www.campertrailers.org/camper_bu ... cklist.htm

[armbrup]

I have a 1997 Camp'o'matic and it has been everywhere man.

Things to look for are to check that it has independent or solid axle suspension. Some were sold with ALKO rubber suspension and the problem with these is if the suspension fails they cannot be fixed by anyone but ALKO in Melbourne. I don't know if the ALKO has a high failure rate but I have met one person who had it happen.

The only problems with mine have been age related.

The flyscreen zip on the main door failed, but I was able to fix it by buying a new slider on ebay for $5.

The kitchen turnbuckles wore a groove in the wooden floor and the kitchen came open about 25MM on the Plenty Highway, and I was able to fix it by having little extensions welded on the levers in Alice Springs for $20.

My taillights rusted out , and I replaced them with LEDs
My Koni shocks gave up after 17 years and so I bought new ones.
I tend to lose some rivets from around the floor during heavy off road trips like the GRR so I carry a rivet gun to replace them. They seem to just wear through the head.
I have recoated the canvas with Driseal twice now and it is very watertight.
I have added a few mods to mine over time such as a winch, extra power points ,deleted one gas cylinder holder to fit a custom made box and rearranged the jerry holders for another box.
One thing to look for is if it is an offroad model, that the tare weight on the plate is fiction. I went for 7 years believing my tare was 450Kg , so had no brakes on it. I reality the tare is about 750KG so I fitted electric brakes but I have yet to officially change the rego , which in NSW seems to be difficult, seeing it is the RMS who let it be registered originally with a fictional tare weight!!!! This is common to lots of older camper trailers.
I still love my old Camp'o'matic and wouldn't change it for anything else.
Regards Philip A

[jexhead]

Thanks Phil

Good points to look for and some great feed back on what seams to be a very well built and popular camper.