Camper Trailers for Sale in Australia

Which camper trailer suits you

Camper trailers fold away for travel and open up into a tent with a bed once you stop, usually with an outdoor kitchen as well. The differences are in how they open and how long it takes.

Soft floor and tent trailers

A soft floor camper is a box trailer with a tent folded on top. You open the lid, the bed flips out over the drawbar or the back, and the canvas floor sits on the ground beside the trailer. They are usually the lightest and simplest campers, and the floor space grows with every annexe wall you peg out. Setting up takes longer, and a wet canvas floor has to be dried before it goes away. Our tent trailers for sale page keeps these together.

Hard floor campers: forward fold and rear fold

A hard floor camper has a rigid lid that becomes the floor of the main room when you unfold it. Forward fold models open over the drawbar, which usually leaves the kitchen at the back and the bed at the front. Rear fold models open off the back, so the inside is often bigger and the setup a little slower. Either way you sleep off the ground and can be set up quickly, which matters on a trip with one night in each place. Browse forward fold campers and rear fold campers separately if you already know which you want.

Wind-up campers

Some makers build campers with a hard roof that winds up on posts and canvas walls that unfold from the body, so check how each model's roof and walls go up before you buy. Jayco lists the Lark, the Wren, the Swan and the Penguin as its current camper trailers, and its Lark and Swan pages describe a fully enclosed roof lifter system ⁶⁷. If you want solid walls as well as a roof that drops for towing, look at pop top caravans and hybrid campers, which carry more and weigh more.

The weights on the plate

Every trailer has a set of weights, and a camper is no different. The tare is the trailer's own weight when it is empty. The Western Australian Department of Transport's towing guide defines the others like this ²:

• ATM (aggregate trailer mass): the most the trailer may weigh, set by its manufacturer, which is the GTM plus the tow hitch download ².
• GTM (gross trailer mass): the weight the trailer's tyres put on the ground when it is coupled to the vehicle and fully loaded ².
• Tow hitch download, or ball weight: the weight the trailer puts on the tow ball ².
• Payload: the load you can carry, which is the ATM minus the tare and must not be exceeded ².

Water in the tank, the fridge, the gear in the kitchen drawer and the jerry cans on the drawbar all come out of that payload. A camper with a modest tare and a small payload can end up over its ATM after a week of shopping and firewood. Every towable ad on Caravan Domain shows a weights panel with the ATM. When the seller gives the tare, the panel works out the payload for you, and it shows the GTM and ball weight whenever the ad has them.

Brakes, safety chains and couplings

Camper trailers are light enough that the brake rules often catch buyers out. In NSW a trailer with a GTM of up to 750 kg needs no brakes (NSW Government), one from 751 to 2,000 kg needs an efficient braking system on both wheels of at least one axle, and one from 2,001 to 4,500 kg needs brakes on all wheels ¹. A trailer over 2 tonnes GTM must also have a breakaway system that applies its brakes if it comes off the vehicle ¹. The WA guide adds that over-run brakes may only be used on trailers up to 2 tonnes GTM ².

Safety chains follow the trailer's loaded weight. NSW requires at least one chain on a trailer under 2,500 kg loaded and two chains on a heavier one ¹. Chains must be as short as practicable and connected to the towing vehicle, and two chains must be crossed over ¹.

The coupling matters too. The WA guide says a 50 mm ball coupling suits trailers with an ATM up to 3,500 kg ². It also says towbars and couplings made after 1 July 1988 must be marked with their rated capacity ². Off-road campers often use a high articulation coupling instead of a ball, and the WA guide recommends one for off-road travel, but says that a high articulation coupling used with a weight distribution system should only be used for highway driving ². Check what your towbar takes before you buy a camper with a different hitch.

Who can tow a camper trailer

The rules start with your licence. In NSW, learner drivers are not allowed to tow, and a P1 driver may only tow a small trailer with up to 250 kg of unloaded weight, so compare that figure with the tare of the camper you want ¹. Check your own state's rules if you hold a provisional licence anywhere else.

Then comes the vehicle. NSW limits the loaded trailer to the lowest of the towbar's rating, the vehicle's towing capacity, the trailer's own carrying capacity and its tyres' rating ¹. Where the vehicle maker gives no towing figure, the limit is one and a half times the vehicle's unladen mass with working trailer brakes, or the vehicle's unladen mass when the trailer needs no brakes ¹. Our tow-match tool turns your vehicle's towing capacity and towball limit into a search of the campers that fit.

Registration and paperwork

Camper trailers are registered trailers, so the rego, the VIN on the plate and the seller's name should all line up. Queensland says trailers and caravans used on its roads must be registered, and a trailer with more than one axle or an ATM over 750 kg needs a pre-registration inspection before it is first registered there ³. When a registered trailer with an ATM between 750 kg and 4,500 kg is sold in Queensland, the seller must get a safety certificate first unless the buyer is a dealer, and a private seller's certificate lasts 2 months or 2,000 km (Queensland Government). The other states have their own transfer rules, so ask the seller for current rego papers and check them against the plate.

What to check on a used camper trailer

A camper trailer often lives a harder life than a caravan, out on corrugated roads and in the dust. Before you pay:

• Open it all the way, ideally on the seller's driveway, and look at every seam, zip and window in the canvas for mould, tears and water marks.
• Look under the trailer at the chassis, drawbar and spring hangers for cracks, fresh welds and rust, and at the tyres for uneven wear.
• Spin each wheel and listen for rough bearings, then check the brakes work and, on a heavier camper, that the breakaway system does.
• Run the water pump and tap, light the stove and check the fridge, battery and lights on the trailer's own power.
• Match the VIN on the plate to the rego papers, and run a PPSR search before any money changes hands.

Who you buy from changes your rights. Consumer Affairs Victoria says goods bought from an Australian business are covered by the consumer guarantees automatically, while a one-off sale by a private seller may not be covered ⁵. A private sale can still be the better buy, but inspect it as if there will be no comeback. Our safety tips for buyers and sellers cover deposits and payment.

Selling your camper trailer on Caravan Domain

Private ads cost $23 a month for Basic or $35 a month for Premium, and you can cancel at any time. The ad renews each month until you cancel it, as our terms of use set out ⁸. You can upgrade a Basic ad to Premium at any time and pay only the difference for the rest of the month. A bump at $9 puts your ad back at the top of the results once.

Campers that sell quickly say exactly what they are. A good ad gives:

• the make, the model and the year
• the ATM and the tare from the plate
• whether it is a soft or hard floor, and which way it folds
• what comes with it, such as annexe walls, the kitchen, water tanks, batteries and solar

Photograph it closed and fully set up in daylight. Sell your camper trailer.