The Ever Increasing Camping Kit

Just when you think you have it ALL, they go & bring out some NEW must HAVE gadget.

It’ll make camping with the kids so much easier, at least that’s what your saying whilst packing.

But too much stuff adds TOO MUCH WEIGHT



Don’t remind me ! Shit Happens :'(

We all have seen those horrible images of 4wds towing much loved vans and campers rolled-over. Their contents strewn all over the road. Having fallen victim to this myself I now have reduced my load by more than half.
I have empty cupboards in the caravan and only 2 storage boxes under the bed in our camper trailer.

ESSENTITAL KIT

NO more “we might need it”, we don’t use it and it comes home untouched. Luckily some things we no longer need to take because the kids have grown up, but back when they were little I would demand that certain essentials came.

We have been bush camping since before we were married, and when our children came along the TWO most important bits of kit with a baby were the PRAM and BACKPACK

Winter Camping with Youngins

Camping with Littlies

A pram is a bulky item to pack at anytime, but it is essential for your baby’s safety. It also acts as a high chair around the campfire, and it’s much easier to feed them when they aren’t squirming or on the run. I also added the PORTABLE COT at the crawling stage, yes very bulky, but consider it a safe little prison for those busy times, like dinner prep or setting up.

But I halt it there, no ‘baby only’ stuff. All your gear should be multi-functional. Bath time was always in a trusty storage box we had for decades that carried the bulky items in the camper. At camp after a good wipe out, it’s used to either bathe in or shower in. And when it rains, and it always does, it was a great water catcher.




Car Camping

Car based camping gives everyone the opportunity to take more of everything like the larger gas bottles, running the stove and light off the dual purpose light-pole. However with young children I prefer 12v lights and they are getting very cheap. We still have a couple of the older style 12v fluro lights that draw a small current, but nothing like the super efficient LED lights available now. Also the newer solar panels are much more efficient which makes 12v power an easy option for car, tent or trailer camping.

TENT vs TRAILER



1985 Hill End June Long Weekend

Seriously, from a mothers perspective the most ESSENTIAL bit of kit when camping with a tribe is the camping trailer.

Tents

Don’t get me wrong we camped for many years in our old A framed bell-back tent, dual skinned and made from very lightweight nylon outer and poly-cotton inner. With a poly tub floor and great waterproofed seams light and easy to carry, she was very expensive back in 1985. But you pay for quality.
She has withstood many very windy rainy beach camps
up and down the coast, including a very wet week
on Fraser Island.



Fraser Island 80’s speck camping

She’s been dragged around Australia. Being lightweight nylon and quick to dry, I even dried it in a caravan park drier once, after weeks of constant rain. On LOW and she was fine, didn’t effect her waterproofing in any way.

Tents give you the ability to set up on the other-side of those pesky Nat Park bollards, but as 4wd campers with four legged family members, we rarely encounter these at our chosen spots.

Paddy’s River Dam Camp

Our first Oztent purchased over 10yrs ago,
initially to give the kids a bit of independence, is great. Just for ease of setting up and size, we also added the Oztent fly to reduce condensation building up and dripping down on those sleepy heads. We have the zip-on sail channel so it slides directly onto the camper or awning or to our other Oztent, face to face. Whichever way we chose to set up the
Oztent it is a fabulous bit of camping kit.
See Link to Oztent Range Here:OZTENT

Yarrangabilly Camp Kozi NP

However, a camper trailer is the ducks nuts for a happy camping wife. With the awning out and walls to protect us from wind and rain, we had an old bit of carpet as the floor which was appreciated by the ‘ON ALL FOURS’ crowd and a crawling child, a safe warm home away from home. Eventually our old bit of carpet was updated to some rather expensive ‘costa’ annex matting.
Available at BCF by the meter



BCF

‘Costa Matting’ is heavy and squashes down long underlying grass and is great for bush camping as it provides a safe no-trip zone in the kitchen area. We also have a lightweight mat, which unfortunately does kick up and wrinkle, but folds down to nothing, which is the advantage over the ‘costa mat’. We still take a couple of bits of the ‘costa mat’ for under the toilet tent and under the boys swags, or the Oztents as it provides great protection from sharp sticks and makes packing-up cleaner.

Camping has come a long way

The metamorphosis of the camper trailer is proof of the Aussie love of the outdoors. From the humble beginnings of the simple box trailer, with foldout lids becoming the beds/seats, a card table in the center, all covered with army spec green canvas and timber supporting poles; to the very popular Jayco pop-top or the Hard/soft floor fold-over campers, camping is a fast growing recreation.

Camper Trailer Camping – Childowla NSW

Just look how huge the Sydney Supershow is now, a testimony to the search for the dream-life, camping, 4wding, boating and fishing, now add hunting and the market is huge. The equipment available is endless, sent to the archive are the old paint-tin billy and cast iron frypan and camp oven.

Ironman 4×4 Collapsible Kettle

These days you can get talked into every conceivable gadget, I whiz through the gadget hall at the show, I already have too much stuff, but I do like the collapsible stuff. With all this new gear and the luxury of a camper trailer camping life for women is so much more inviting. Providing somewhere off the ground to sleep, somewhere to get dressed and somewhere to cook a proper meal. The camper trailer puts camping into the luxury holiday class. And to have a real mattress with proper sheets – no sleeping bag – heaven – no over-heating.

Many would say this isn’t camping, and I would agree, but in the 1990’s with 4 kids under 10yrs, the security of a trailer was paramount. The best part of all the trailers we’ve owned over the years would be the camp kitchen, and the quickest way to calm frayed ‘setting-up’ nerves is with tasty hot food and a cold drink. And the car 12v or 3way fridge is essential.

ESKY vs FRIDGE

We took 2 old 30l Engel fridges and a 40l Coleman Cooler around central Australia in our first Hilux back in 1985, they were unbreakable.



Engel Fridge Camping 80’s Speck – Central Aus 4wd

The Engels certainly made dinnertime easy; one ran as a fridge, the other a freezer. Although feeding 7 hungry mouths 3 times a day without reverting to the canned food backup was trying. It was all made possible by those fridges, which we re-filled at each town with fresh food. The esky was used to store the bread, and fruit and the vegies. Remember, in the 1980’s 4wding was fairly new and camping still quite primitive, and we were traveling on isolated dirt roads, rarely seeing anyone else. We carried all the food supplies in boxes, filling the ute well of the single cab to the gunnels.

Since then we have had several camper trailers with the ubiquitous 3way fridge and I loved them. I only had trouble getting the system to cool once on some very sloping land that required some serious rock building to get it level for the old ammonia system to work properly.



Ironman 4×4 Ice Cube 12v Fridge

Our Engel fridges have been updated over the years, all lasting more than 10 yrs, and surviving many a tumble out of the back of the troopy. One even survived the rollover tango with B double on the Hume, INDESTRUCTIBLE.

Now two of the sons have Engels in their 4wds, whilst our daughter has an Ironman4x4 65L fridge freezer combo. It’s huge and lives on an equally huge slide that slides out from under the bed in their camper trailer, all part of their luxury camper kitchen.

CHEAP Broccoli Box

Carrying perishable fresh food is always hard on a long trip. The readily available and cheap throw away broccoli box from the fruit market is great for carrying the bread, fruit & veg etc. When you’ve eaten it all it’s one less thing to carry home, and they’re stackable. Fresh fruit and veg will keep your belly happy and not bunged up because you’re out of your routine and in a strange place….
…… which leads neatly onto the next essential

DAILY ABLUTIONS



Worst Ever Portable Toilet


The En-suite – PORTABLE TOILET vs SHOVEL


This is a NO BRAINER. We bought our first camping toilet before we were married, a folding stand with a toilet seat and hanging plastic bag.

Seriously they still sell these, and people think the $40 is well spent !!

Put the $40 towards a chemical toilet, after you have used one there is NO turning back.

Ezy Go Portable Toilet

We have had 3 chemical toilets over the years, and I always use ‘Environmentally Friendly’ waste digesters. We have never had issues with bad odors or a smelly loo like some campground long drops. These days disposal is easy with dump points in most towns, and if your too far out, it’s nothing a good deep hole well away from water or people can’t fix. Feed a tree ! More importantly ALL the children and I have been comfortable, which makes for a good camping trip.
A really ESSENTIAL bit of kit for your camp.
They are so cheap these days, the 20 litre JUST model $145. Your family shouldn’t go bush camping without one.

Ironman 4×4 Battery Powered Shower

When setup for more than just a few days, we have 2 pop-up shower/toilet tents. That way the floor in the toilet stays dry and the shower can be better located away from camp for better drainage, under a thirsty tree if available. We also use our large tub in our shower to collect the water, and our hand held shower has an on/off switch to conserve water.

#Camping or Glamping #all mod cons
#family of 6

All luxury in the mighty little Getaway, caravan not really a camper but at just 13ft and built into a chequer-plate steel box trailer she is more camper than caravan, the original hybrid.
This en-suite setup works on our other camper just the same. The roll-out awning over the top collects any rainwater in our large tub which in turn feeds the hot water shower pump.

12v POWER

We have used 12v power for lighting in the campers and tents for many years. It makes night time more manageable. Our original fluro area lights were brighter than the gas light and safer too, but the light provided by the LEDs is far better. With 12v sockets installed inside the camper sleeping area, great for running the lights and DVD/TV player at night when the children are put to bed. Running and charging phones and iPods so everyone can drift off to sleep to music rather than hearing the sounds from ‘where the wild things are’.



Ironman 4×4 LED Strip Light

The new LED technology keeps getting better and better. The LED strip lights are so bright, they come with dimmer switches. The current draw is minimal and with the combination plug and AMP meter you can easily keep track of battery usage.

SOLAR POWER



Ironman 4×4 Solar Mat to keep you charged

Solar panels can be hard wired and permanently mounted or portable like the new solar mat. We have permanent panles mounted on our van, camper and the roof of our canopy on our 4wd. All our batteries – auxiliary and starting are fully charged from either the power generated whilst driving via the vehicle’s alternator or when stationary at camp we use the solar to top it up. We also have a small Honda Geni if the weather is overcast.



Ironman 4×4 12v Power Pack

We do a lot of day trips using camp as base, exploring and 4wdriving, so the vehicle is always fully charged, if necessary we can swap out the camper battery to the auxiliary in our 4wd to charge-up whilst driving. If your camping style isn’t trailer or caravan based, one of these 44amp portable power packs could be your answer. Stow it in the back of your car and connect via the cigarette socket whilst out exploring for the day. They’re fully sealed and have ALL the necessary power outlets, and can be charged from multiple sources – AC/DC.



Perfect match to the Solar Mat …. ready …set …power.

….. Happy Camping …..

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