LITTLE FISH, BIG
It wasn’t long ago that probably around 80 per cent of camper trailers sold in Australia were sidefold softfloors. They were the basic notion of a camper trailer — a tent on a box trailer. They were simple, as people had lower expectations of the luxuries they wanted when camping, and easy to make. Virtually everyone who could weld and knew someone with a sewing machine was knocking them out at one time. Not so any more.
The venerable sidefold softfloor has all but disappeared from most manufacturers’ lineups. They say customers don’t want them anymore, that they want forwardfolds, doublefolds, or hybrids. They want bells and whistles — battery management systems, stainless steel kitchens, hot water and space heaters, ensuites, trailing arm suspensions, lithium batteries, you name it.
“THEY'VE CAPTURED A MARKET THAT'S MORE INTO FUNCTIONALITY THAN APPEARANCE. IN FACT, WHEN WE WENT TO THEIR FACTORY IN MID-SEPTEMBER, THEY WERE BOOKED OUT INTO NEXT YEAR.”
The king is dead, long live one of the other kings.
Except, on the NSW Central Coast, a little company called Marlin Campers has been doing nicely, churning out budget versions of those same basic campers that were rolling off production lines 15–20 years ago. They’ve captured a market that’s more into functionality than appearance. In fact,
