Longstanding Melbourne camper dealer adds caravans to the mix

Pakenham, Victoria dealer Melbourne Camper Trailer Centre has had a name change, and added its first caravan-only brand to its showroom line-up.

The longstanding Victorian multi-brand dealer, now known as Melbourne Campers & Caravans, is Australia's newest Gold Class Caravans retailer, joining five other dealers around the country stocking MDC's fledgling upmarket brand.

Committed to retaining its roots in the camper trailer space, Melbourne Campers & Caravans (MCC) continues to sell a range of canvas, slide-on and hybrid models from long-running brands including Cub Campers, Trayon Campers and Modcon RV.

“We see caravans as the next logical step to meet our customers’ needs," explained MCC's owner Kellie Casey.

"Some of our existing customers have loved the camper phase. As they mature, they are looking for the extra convenience and comfort of a caravan or hybrid caravan. And of course, we can now help already committed caravanners with some great options.”

MCC started off as a Johnno’s Camper Trailers franchise in 2010 in the Melbourne suburb of Ringwood, focussing on affordable soft floor campers, before adding hard-floor and forward-fold models from Sydney's Cub Campers, and slide-ons from Trayon Campers, in 2016.

Further expansion resulted in a move to a bigger site in the south-eastern RV hub of Pakenham in 2018, before relocating to its current Pakenham indoor showroom in 2024.

Gold Class Caravans offers premium full-size Chinese-built caravans, and currently on display at the MCC showroom is an Adventure Class 19 footer (AC19C) priced at $144,990.

Befitting the brand's 'no options' approach, it comes with a long list of standard features including auto height control, Airbag Man suspension, an electric awning, Gusto dust reduction system, Tuson asymmetric stability control, Maxtrax recovery boards, a slide-out kitchen, Eberspächer diesel heater, rear platform bumper, and an Enerdrive 3000W inverter/600Ah lithium battery system including 1225W of solar.

Also on display are a couple of Cub offerings: a $47,990 Frontier forward-fold camper with a tare weight of 1283kg, and a $139,990 Cub C16 with 2800kg ATM, representing the ever-growing solid-wall hybrid range of models from the 58 year old Sydney manufacturer.

There's also a hinge-top roof, C3 Plus hybrid priced at $69,990 from the Chinese-built Modcon range, and a Trayon slide-on displayed on the back of huge Chevrolet 2500 pickup.

Trayon has been in business since 1994, and the display camper fitted with all the bells and whistles represents the top end of the homegrown slide-on range, which is priced from around $46K up to $80K-plus depending on options fitted.