2017 Camper real people on real adventures trailer of the year SOUVENIR EDITION winner TOP POP OF THE They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and we reckon there s plenty to love about the AOR Odyssey Series 2 offroader Words John Willis PICS ELLEN DEWAR, MATT FEHLBERG & NATHAN JACOBS
Camper TEST AOR ODYSSEY SERIES 2 HITS Beautiful, tough, practical, precision engineering Sensible features and high level comfort Heaps of power and water Compact and reasonable weight Ease of use MISSES Could do with more cold storage When Australian Off Road comes to the party, you know it s gunna be good. AOR s managing director Steve Budden once said there s no such thing as almost beautiful. You either nail it the first time or forget it. The company strives to create beauty in everything it does and it has achieved its goals with the new Odyssey Series 2. This tough, well designed, practical combination of premium features and engineering is outback candy. The Odyssey Series 2 is ideal for two people; kids or hitchhikers will need to bring a swag or look at optional bunks. Its 1400kg Tare means you can load her up for an extended tour with its 2000kg GVM and minimal 100kg ball weight (unladen) for easy towing. This camper is ideal for mid-range RVs or serious offroad adventure with larger 4WDs. It offers Aussie travellers rugged, go-anywhere credentials with its strong, fully galvanised box section chassis and AOR s own track proven independent trailing arm suspension with twin shockers and coil springs. She rides on 17x8in Dynamic steel rims with 265/70 R17 Cooper all-terrain tyres, carries a spare up front and features 12in electric brakes and 2500kg bearings. The Odyssey s compact dimensions allow terrific ground clearance, good reversing angle and a steep 30 recovery angle at the tail end. Its overall length is 5.2m and it s virtually the same width as a LandCruiser at 1950mm. The accommodation shell is 3.6m long and all walls and roof are a thick composite of fibreglass with a gel coat external finish. It is also structurally insulated with a foam core and a fibreglass seal, which has easy-clean white marine vinyl glued to the inner face providing enormous strength and temperature control. The pop-up roof provides plenty of head room but a low towing height of 2275mm. 2 3
The Thule Omnistor wind-out canvas awning option was a hit with the judges. Camper TEST AOR ODYSSEY SERIES 2 LIVE WELL Pop the roof open with the aid of easy cantilevered springs and the overall feel is light and airy. The main control panel is to the left which holds the temperature switch for the diesel heater and a Redarc Manager30 5 in 1 battery management system. It s AGM or lithium battery compatible and includes a 12V/30A charger, a solar regulator for the twin 150W solar panels, 240V AC charger and Anderson plug connectivity. There are two 120Ah AGM batteries with a full switch panel for lights, water pump and accessories as well as a digital monitor for the 140L food-grade poly water tank. The kitchen unit at the rear offers faux marble benchtop and beautifully presented cabinetry with soft-close drawers and doors for The comfortable lounge is also available in leather. Love a little fresh air in your boudoir? Not a problem. utensils, cooking essentials and pantry, internal three-burner gas stove with a glass top as well as a stainless sink with hot/cold mixer and a power centre with 240V and 12V outlets on the full width benchtop. There s a Vitrifrigo 75L fridge/freezer, LED lighting and a 1000W pure sine wave inverter for your 240V needs. The convertible two-person upholstered dinette works very well with the camperqueen-size 6in mattress and base flipping up right out of the way on gas struts to reveal the dinette and plug-in table with plenty of storage underneath. There s a rear shelf, internal fan, marine standard dust-proof seals, a sound system, internal and external lighting and a fire extinguisher. OUTDOOR LIVING Envious travellers will stop you regularly to discuss your premium, fully Australian-made purchase. AOR offers the choice of a slide-in type canvas annexe with poles but I prefer the quick and easy Thule Omnistor wind-out option as displayed. The optional stainless steel slide-out kitchen The porta-potti stores easily in the van. Tyres are 265/70 R17 Cooper all-terrain. CTA RATINGS AOR ODYSSEY SERIES 2 BEAR COOKIE STUNT MAN STUPOT 1. FIT FOR INTENDED PURPOSE 2. INNOVATION 3. BUSHABILITY 4. QUALITY OF FINISH 5. BUILD QUALITY 6. OFFROAD-ABILITY 7. COMFORTS 8. EASE OF USE A DO35 hitch rides up front. AOR's suspension is tough as nuts. 9. VALUE FOR MONEY 10. X-FACTOR 4 5
STUNT MAN SAY C amper S T TES 2 SSEY SERIES AOR ODY Jerry cans and gas bottles sit neatly on the drawbar. WHILE SOME campers lean towards offroad ability and leave comfort a distant second, the AOR Odyssey 2 is more of an apartment than a camper trailer. It s immaculate throughout with literally not a flaw no matter how hard you look. There s cooking inside and out with plenty of storage under the lift-up bed and a heap of highend components. For comfortable twoup touring that ll see you down remote fire trails, this AOR model is hard to go past. COOKIE SAYS is a ripper! The top slides forward of the main unit making a full-length benchtop and another clips into the side wall making an L-shaped cooking station. It has a three-burner gas stove with wok burner, sink with a hot/cold mixer, pantry and a huge utensils drawer. I felt the unit lacked cold storage with only the internal 75L fridge/freezer although you can upgrade to a 130L Vitrifrigo. The easily-assembled external PVC shower/ toilet tent attaches to the rear wall and works a treat. The porta-potti stores easily in the van. Up front the very strong 150x50mm galvanised steel A-frame drawbar offers a Vehicle Components DO35 offroad coupling and handbrake, heavy-duty jockey wheel, a handy checkerplate platform, spare wheel mount with cover, twin 4.5kg gas bottles, twin jerry cans and the diesel tank for the Webasto space heater. The front is protected with dual aluminium stone deflectors and there are large mud flaps front and rear. CTA SPECS AOR ODYSSEY SERIES 2 TRAILER Tare 1400kg ATM 2000kg Suspension AOR independent trailing arm suspension with twin shockers and coil springs either side Brakes 12in electric Coupling Vehicle Components DO35 Chassis Galvanised high tensile steel, with powder-coating Drawbar 150x50mm galvanised A-frame Body Lightweight fibreglass body, fully insulated walls and roof Wheel/tyre 17x8in Dynamic steel rims with 265/70 R17 all-terrains Style Hybrid THE VERDICT DIMENSIONS Box size 3600x1950mm Length (hitch to tail lights) 5200mm Tent size 3m wind-out awning The Odyssey Series 2 has a ripper flexible external kitchen with a clip-in bench. ACCESSORIES Sitting pretty on a run along Bribie's Ocean Beach. Sink 2x Gas bottles Seat Spare Wheel Storage I HAVE A lot of respect for AOR campers and the design and engineering standards they bring to the market. The Odyssey Series 2 has tackled the tricky job of fitting a queen bed into a mid-sized hybrid by the simple tactic of having a tilted bed, which works surprisingly well. However, it is all the other features all in an attractive package that makes this camper a standout. Everything here works well. AOR says: Our trailers are designed to conquer the punishing conditions of the outback. From the chassis and suspension to the vents on the roof this is where they excel. I could see myself conquering and enjoying the punishing conditions of the outback with the rugged reliability, facilities and comfort of a premium AOR Odyssey Series 2. I just love seeing proudly Australian designed and made products! CTA PRICE AS SHOWN Queen bed w/ storage $77,000 ENQUIRIES Seat 2x Jerry Cans 6 Gas cylinders 2x4.5kg Water 140L food-grade poly water tank Cooktop Three-burner gas (internal); threeburner (external, quoted option) Kitchen Internal faux marble benchtop with sink and mixer tap plus external clipin bench, pantry, large utensils drawer and large sink with mixer tap. Battery 2x120Ah AGM Three- burner stove To enquire about this camper, visit www. campertraileraustralia.com.au/spec or phone (07) 5390 0300 campertraileraustralia.com.au Video review Compare campers 7
REGULARS BEHIND-THE-SCENES AOR employs more than 80 staff at its premises in Caloundra. LEGENDS OFFROAD Dan Everett chews the fat with one of the biggest names in rugged, go-anywhere campers and caravans and the winner of 2017 s Hybrid category, Australian Off Road. Words DAN EVERETT You d be hard pressed to find a single offroad traveller who hasn t heard of Australian Off Road (AOR). From humble beginnings to a manufacturing powerhouse, AOR has taken the offroad market by storm. In a one-on-one interview with general manager, Russel Evans, CTA gets the inside scoop on how AOR is run, how far it has come and how it s competing in an increasingly dense market against low price point imports. CTA: How did AOR come to be? AOR: Steve Budden started the company in his back shed. He had a camper trailer hire business at the time and had become increasingly frustrated with campers regularly coming back damaged, so he decided he could make one that was better, more durable and stronger. He built the first trailer and the rest is history. He had made about 800 by the time he stopped building them. which was custom-built and has around 80 employees. We ve got really strong marketing and admin departments, our welding shop has around six people and we do our own fibreglass bodies with about 12 people in the fibreglass department as well. All up we operate with nine build lines and whilst the trailers take a few months to build, we finish one every 1.7 days. CTA: What are some of the key features that make AOR models stand out? AOR: Based on what customers are telling us, design. Steve is a very clever man and has very clear principles around how he designs the trailers. Simple rules like ensuring they track the same as the vehicle and are no wider than the vehicle, so anywhere you can take the car you can take the trailer. He s serious about design and simplicity. He tries not to put anything automated onto the trailers. We ve still got a standard roof lifting mechanism where you lift the roof and pull it down yourself. We don t put electric motors on because people take these offroad to The Quantum Series IV demonstrated good bushability at CTOTY in 2016. Firewood-carrying capacity matters out on the tracks. really remote places and the last thing you want is an electric motor to fail and you can t get your roof down. Our trailers really are an extension of the original campers. A lot of innovation comes from our customers, too; they ll talk to us about ideas and because they know the product and the terrain they get taken on, we take their input seriously. If they re good ideas they get included in our R&D discussions and sometimes in the design of the trailer. CTA: As an Australian manufacturer, how do you see the future of the industry? AOR: I can only speak for us, but the future is pretty bright. We ve got really strong sales, we ve only got a few positions available for 2017 delivery and we re already selling spots for 2018, so from a sales perspective we re really strong. From a manufacturing perspective it all comes down to making sure you ve got good procedures and good systems, a good management team and a strong supply chain. If you can be working on all those principles and utilise machinery as much as you can in the workshops there s no reason we can t keep it here. A lot of the people who buy our trailers want Australian made. In the market we play in people come in and do the factory tours, they want to see the chassis get made, they want to see Australian workmanship on the trailer they re purchasing. It s a really important part of the buyer s experience. While that s there I think we can continue to compete in manufacturing. CTA: AOR is a household name now and you ve been around for a while, how big is AOR? AOR: We re on 5000m2 here at the factory, 8 Optus SatSleeve: From smartphone to satellite phone; 100% coverage Australia-wide 9
REGULARS BEHIND-THE-SCENES 2011 In 2011, AOR s Odyssey Export Signature achieved top score OVERALL IN 2011 as THE winner of the $45k+ class. 2011 Out of all of the campers, I was especially looking forward to getting a cook s tour of this one. Scott Jennings, OCOTY judge, 2011 OFFROAD CAMPER OF THE YEAR WINNER The quality of this trailer is what pulled it through: stainless bolts, rivets and tubing, everything sourced from the highest calibre suppliers, etc. It s an icon. Carlisle Rogers, former editor of CTA and OCOTY judge, 2011 Various aspects of the trailers' production take place in-house. 2015 10 Five years on, in 2016, AOR returns victorious at CTOTY WITH THE Quantum Series IV in the Competitive hybrid class. Bushability is huge, considering its size. It s warranted against dust ingress, and has pretty good relief angles and a strong chassis. John Willis, CTOTY judge, 2016 This Quantum Super Camper Series IV retains a high standard of luxury fitout and engineering with enough features to keep you in comfort for three to four weeks in the bush. David Cook, CTOTY judge, 2016 CTA: AOR has always positioned itself in the pointy end of the market, is it ever tempting to break into the budget end? AOR: No. I think the budget end requires a completely different skill set to what we have, and it d be really hard to adjust our business model. Steve s got really strong values in the way he makes decisions about the trailers and over the years we ve developed the same characteristics in our staff. Our sales are that strong we don t want to take our eye off the ball in terms of what we re doing. We don t want to play a game where we compete on price we d rather compete on quality, features and benefits. CTA: When you get customers who are completely new to the camper trailer lifestyle, what advice do you generally give them? AOR: One thing we ve started to do is introduce advice from the specialists on where people can travel, we run seminars in each state and get guest speakers in to talk about where people can go, what to expect all those sort of things. One of the big things that helps our new owners is we have an online forum. All the people who own AOR trailers have access to that forum and they all talk to each other. They talk about how to maintain them, how best to utilise them, but they also talk about the best places to take them and how to get there. Our business model isn t just about selling trailers, there s a big community aspect, too. AOR 11
owners run rallies in each state and you ll see 30, 40, even 50 AOR campers all turn up to these events. Our business model is more than just manufacturing it s really an overarching experience. CTA: You ve obviously got a lot of staff at AOR, do your crew get out there and use these campers? AOR: We try to get out there as much as we can. It s a bit like a mechanic who always has the worst car we re normally so busy we probably don t do it as much as we d like. Steve goes out there and tests trailers himself and we try to get other people doing it, too, even a lot of customers. We have a lot of existing customers involved in things like that, and representing us at shows. Steve goes for a couple of months every now and then, and went away about four times last year, the lucky bugger! CTA: You re predominantly a large caravan builder, but we're interested to know if you see much of a future in the smaller offroad side of things for AOR moving forward? AOR: We ve just released the Odyssey 2. It s interesting normally when we release a AOR's Russel Evans says the company isn't interested in making budget-end units. trailer it takes 12 months of showing before the market really takes it up and you start getting the sales you expected. You ve got to take them around the country, take them to all the shows so everyone gets to see them. The Odyssey started selling from the time we showed it at the first show. We will have sold more Odysseys in the first 12 months than any other trailer we ve ever released, so yes, I think that does show the potential of the slightly smaller market. However, having said that, all our other models have increased in sales as well. CTA: There are six models of AOR trailer, from huge double-axle offroad vans to the lightweight Odyssey 2 entered into this year's CTOTY awards. Out of all of them, which one would be your personal go-to for long trips? AOR: I like the Quantum Plus. Steve and I sat down about two or three years ago and said how are we going to make the company stronger and at that point in time the Quantum was probably our major seller. The building of a more diverse range of products is probably where a lot of the recent strengths of the company come from. We virtually sell an even number of every model, every month, 2017 AOR RETAINS ITS CROWN WITH A NEW INTERIOR IN 2017, EARNING PLAUDITS FOR INNOVATION AND SPOTLESS PRESENTATION. The AOR Odyssey Series 2 is more of an apartment than a camper trailer. It s immaculate throughout with literally not a flaw no matter how hard you looked. Dan Everett, CTOTY judge, 2017 The Odyssey Series 2 has tackled the tricky job of fitting a queen bed into a mid-sized hybrid by the simple tactic of having a tilted bed, which works surprisingly well...all in an attractive package that makes this camper a standout. Everything here works well." David Cook, CTOTY judge, 2017 BEHIND-THE-SCENES AOR prefers to compete on features, quality and benefits, which feeds into its choice of components. 12 13
The Quantum Series IV was victorious in the competitive Hybrid class in 2016. BEHIND-THE-SCENES AOR owners regularly run rallies and act as a support for those new to the fold. and we ve gone from being dependent on one model to now not being dependent on any of the models. The good thing about the Quantum Plus is it s quite roomy. It s got all the characteristics of the Quantum it s an outside cooking trailer, with a really good inside layout with a good sized pantry and storage. But it s got enough space that it s just that little bit more comfortable. It s only about 50kg heavier and 600mm longer than the Quantum, but it s amazing the difference it makes inside, so it s my pick for long trips. To be honest though, I d happily take any of them. CTA: AOR does pride itself on having some of the biggest firsts in the camper trailer market, is there anything else on the horizon that potential customers should be getting excited about that you can share with us? AOR: To be honest most of the stuff we re looking at the moment is already in the market, we re really only making little tweaks to the models coming through. We are, however, constantly looking at refining our grey water and recycled water systems, something that s going to continue growing in Australia. It s going to become more and more difficult to just dump grey water on the ground so we ve got some water solutions coming soon that will be pretty exciting. The way we re trying to build it is so they can be retrofitted. It depends on which models we talk about, though, because they all depend on certain chassis designs. We do try to do things in a way that things can be retrofitted a lot of our customers want the new features as soon as they re out. It s a way we avoid interrupting the sales cycle too because people can be confident to buy now and know they re not going to miss out on future initiatives because it can be added to their trailer at a later date. CTA 14 15
QUALITY INNOVATION COMMUNITY AFTER SALES SERVICE