Time to Roam Magazine Issue 7 - February/March 2014 | Page 37

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tried + tested camper review

RISING TO THE
CHALLENGE
Tried and Tested Challenge Camper Trailers Meridian Walk-in Story and photos by David Cook

Gareth and Sandy
Handshin are keen
campers and fourwheel-drivers and
the story of how they
started out as camper
trailer builders is
like others who are
successful in the
industry today.

TRIED
+
TESTED

They knew what they wanted out of
a camper but simply couldn’t find it
and so Gareth had the basic trailer
built and fitted it out himself.
On their first trip away they were plagued by
people wanting to have a look. Once they
returned home Sandy suggested they run an
advertisement to test the market response.
“We could have sold that original camper
a dozen times over,” Gareth recalls. It
wasn’t long before the former car dealers
were in a completely different industry
and struggling to cope with the success
of the business they’d launched.
Whatever we’ve done we have always
tried to stick with the basic principle that
all our campers are all Australian in build,
with all Australian canvas,” Gareth said.
It’s a factor that’s played a large part in the
Challenge’s success. The Adelaide-based
business has now been turning out top
quality off road-tough campers since 2001.
The fact they’ve survived, and prospered,
in a tightening market, squeezed by cheap

imports and uncertainty over global economic
times is a mark of success in itself.
In 2013 Challenge bought out Cavalier
Campers to expand their range of offerings
and added to their agencies for Camp-omatic campers and Northstar slide-ons as well
as a fleet of 12 hire campers (“They are our
proving ground for all our ideas!”). Challenge
offers the keen camper a lot of options.
Even if you’re only thinking about a camping
holiday in South Australia, give Challenge a
call, pick up one of their trailers on the way
through to the Flinders or even further into the
Outback, and drop it off on the way home.
The Challenge range blends almost
seamlessly from one model to the next as
options on lower spec models become
standard fittings on more expensive campers,
and ranges from the still offroadable but more
basic Desert Seeker through to the Meridian
Walk-in, which is the top of the line in their
range of trailers. This latter now forms as
much as eighty percent of Challenge’s sales.
> continued on page 38

Issue 07 Feb/Mar 2014

37