Time to Roam Magazine Issue 9 - June/July 2014 | Page 33

|

tried + tested camper review

Karl Geddes and Andrew Walter

Blue Tongue Campers, the creation of
Karl Geddes and Andrew Walter, in the
southern Sydney suburb of Kirrawee, was
launched to provide the market with the
pair’s best efforts in camper trailers.
When they began, five years ago, they
started with all-Australian manufactured
campers, but found themselves
swimming against an economic tide.
Customers wanted all local materials, but
many baulked at the extra $5000 for local
canvas and so the range of Blue Tongue
campers began to feature locally made
trailers with imported tents. This kept the
price down, allowing Blue Tongue’s range
of moderately priced side-fold softfloor
campers to offer a range of extra features
in the basic trailer with livable canvas.
The business was running along happily, but
faced with a rapidly evolving market, Karl and
Andrew recognised that they needed to offer
something new, with a wider range of options
in both basic layouts and features. Developing
a totally new camper design is expensive
and time consuming, or there was the option
of buying in finished trailers from China.
The latter course was settled on, and two
totally new campers were ordered, with the
first just landed: a rear-fold hardfloor and a
forward-fold design. Karl and Andrew have very
definite opinions about build standards and
protecting Blue Tongue’s hard-won reputation
for quality was obviously paramount. While it
is still early days in their relationship with the
overseas workshops, they have already made
great strides in resolving the sorts of issues that
make customers look warily at some imports.
The forward-fold camper has been named

the Overland Grande, and is based on an
Australian-developed design in which the top
of the camper body folds forward, not back,
with the bed coming to rest on the front of the
camper and the rear half being devoted to a
lounge/storage/additional sleeping area.
To facilitate the opening and closing
processes are two winches, one at
the front and one at the rear.
To open the trailer you simply back off the
front winch strap, fold over the front storage
box’s top firewood/luggage rack, extend out
the front winch on its post, undo the six clips
arou