Gloucester River Camping Area - Barrington Tops National Park

 

We bought our Track Trailer Eagle in 1993 in preparation for our 6 week trip to Cape York during July & August 1994. There were not many purpose built off road camper trailers on the market in those days. Research was mainly by articles in 4WD monthly magazines like Overlander & 4X4 Australia & also writing to the manufacturer asking for pamphlets to be mailed. The information highway of the internet & useful forums such as the Australian CamperTrailers Group make it so much easier today.

The suspension of the trailer is made up of seven leaf springs by 70mm wide & are controlled by KONI shocks. This system works extremely well in off road conditions. Both on & off road the trailer sits behind the Patrol in a very well behaved manner, owing mainly to the short draw bar & rear set axle.

All lockers are dust proofed. The two on the drivers side make ideal food storage, while the two passenger side lockers, which are inside when the tent is erected, are the hub of the kitchen with stove, crockery & cutlery. The front locker holds our spares & tools.

The tent opens out to enclose an area of 2.2 x 3.7 metres, with 2.2 x 2.1 metres floor space. A quick & simple camp can be erected in minutes with three poles. A full camp takes a little longer with the need of three extra poles for the awning & gives plenty of protection from both sun & rain. A sidewall can be zipped to either side of the awning depending on the direction of the wind if needed.

The bed sits on top of the camper between the lockers ready made. We have two sleeping bags zipped together & a down duner to throw on top for winter warmth. A sheet of plastic is used to keep the bed dry when breaking camp in the early mornings or after rain when the canvas is damp.

A rack sits across the front of the trailer that will carry three 20 litre jerry cans of either water or petrol. The 60 litre water tank is situated under the rear of the trailer encased in a steel protective cover which supplies water through two hand pumps, one in the kitchen locker & the other located on the rear outside drivers side guard. Two additional lockers provide extra storage. One near the outside tap is our bathroom locker where toiletries are kept handy. The other stores our tent pegs, ropes & hammer.

I built two large ply boxes that slide into the rear of the box trailer. This provides a huge additional storage space for our backpacks, clothes, shoes, cooking & camping gear.

Our TRACK TRAILER EAGLE OFF ROAD CAMPER makes camping all that much more enjoyable. Not only is everything easily accessible from the lockers at all times, but we also like the ease at which the camper can be packed during the week for that Friday afternoon getaway. Sunday night sees the trailer unhitched to be unpacked at a later time.
The kitchen is external, so there is no hassle preparing lunch or morning tea on the roadside. All we need do is lift the soft cover slightly & undo the locker doors to access the stove & meal preparation area. When the locker doors are down they also make the bench tops.

If traveling in the remoter areas of our great outdoors it is a good idea to have your trailer equipped with the same tyres as your vehicle. By carrying two complete spares & a good tyre repair kit you can get yourself out of most circumstances & back on the road.

 

 

Australian CamperTrailers Group 

If you would like to chat camper trailers, travel or just camping in general, you will find you are right at home with a bunch of like-minded people. Members come from all walks of life, but have a common interest in the great outdoors. 

 

Australian CamperTrailers website

Plenty of tips & tricks to be found to modify your camper trailer, all written by members of the Australian CamperTrailers Group. There are some fantastic trip reports as well as tips to look out for when buying a camper trailer.

 
The reply we received from Alan Mawson in 1990

other pages from here

NEW DIY battery system - Campertrailer Australia magazine write up

NEW our new canvas - we get new canvas on the camper

camper trailer walkabout - a few tips & tricks

more track camper trailer pictures - a collection of photos of our Track Trailer Eagle

Eagle pages from Tracks old website - the last Eagle was manufactured in 2001

Article from 4wd online - photo submitted to 4wd Online Magazine

campfire cooking basic kit - our cooking gear when camping

our camper trailer friends - photos of some of our camping friends

a trip with CamperTrailers friends - Polblue on Barrington Tops May 2011