I've added a expedition roofrack and a Eezi Awn tent, shower skirt and side awning to make camping a easier and more fun.

Below are a few rough notes that maybe useful for some of you about my experiences of buying Eezi Awn gear from South Africa. I have also posted this on a few other sites on the net...

Introduction:

I have a 110 and wanted the smaller of the 2 Eezi Awn tents (1.2 x etc), and a 3m Awning with legs, and a shower skirt for the tent as I plan on hanging the tent over the back of the landy.

To buy the whole lot from Footloose4x4 would have been £1100+ which I could not afford, so I decided to investigate buying it directly from South Africa where it is made.

After much fruitless web searching, emailing and faxing I only got consistent replies from Melt at the Cape Town Safari Centre. They were the only people to have a half decent website, and who actually replied to my emails and would ship it overseas. Eezi Awn themselves were a bit snotty, told me to buy it from Footloose here in the UK, and when I said it is too expensive to buy it in
the UK, they quoted me a high price and said I would have to organise my own shipping as it wasn't worth their effort for one tent etc. I think they protect their resellers by quoting a higher price.

You could also try getting a quote from http://www.4x4warehouse.co.za as this is listed on Hennie's (owner of overland.co.za - email list I belong to) links page and I think a few guys from the list use them. I didn't find them during my web searches, so didn't get a quote etc. I have no idea if I have paid too much in South African terms, but it works out very well in UK terms (note: you do not have to pay VAT in SA)

Prices quoted:

Tent R4118.42(without SA VAT - all price's have increased unfortunately)

Ladder R289.00 (without SA VAT)

Shower skirt R964.91 (without SA VAT)

Awnings 3m R2550 (less VAT)

Awning brackets R219.00 X 2 = R438.00

Shipping R2300 (only about R1100 for actual shipping. Loads of extra bollocks charges added on!)

Total in Rand was 10660.33 - about £682. It was more than I hoped for, but the recalculation of the shipping charges to metric volume instead of weight topped it up, and a few extras like the ladder and brackets also helped. I think the awning helped stuff this up as it is very long, and combined with the tent it makes a odd shaped 'total' package etc. Buying this from footloose4x4.com in the UK would have been £1100+ (just the tent alone costs £650 etc) so it is still a huge saving, and kinda fun to order from a far ;-)

In addition (and not originally quoted as I thought it was included with a tent) was a ladder for the tent (there are a few different ladders I think depending on front or back of vehicle etc) and some brackets to attach the awning. Again, I would have thought these would be included in the original quote, but apparently not.

Shipping:

Shipping took 18 days to Tilbury, on the Thames entrance to London. I picked it up in the landy! Airfrieght was quoted as R3860.00 (based on metric volume because of size) but if shipping only takes 20 odd days it hardly seems worth it for the extra.

Shipping break down is as follows:

Ocean freight R1130.00

Wharfage R75.00

Cartage R85.00

Customs R550.00

Communications R60.00

Packaging R400.00

Total = R2300.00

In addition there was a whopping £56 port charge at Tilbury, you can clear it through customs yourself or pay for the shipping company to do it. What VAT you have to pay will depend on your circumstances etc.

Contacts:

I ordered this from the Cape Town Safari Centre. Contact person was Melt de Kock. He has been quite helpful in what has been a long process. It should be easier now that they know a little more about the process themselves etc.

Contact details:
Melt de Kock
http://www.safaricentre.co.za/
safarict@sabertex.com or info@safarict.co.za
Physical Address
No 9, N1 Motor City, Goodwood, Cape Town, South Africa

Postal Address
PO Box 12498, N1 City, 7463, Cape Town, South Africa
Telephone
+27 21 595 3910
Fax
+27 21 595 3966

They should be able to have something on the way within a week or so I would imagine etc

I also bought the National Luna Battery management system directly from National Luna in SA also. It worked out at £90 + £15 quid shipping. It is very fancy, but very simple technology.

Footloose sell if for about £230 (see www.nationalluna.com - but don't email they never answer - phone and ask to speak with Mike - they were very slow at organising it but it seems worth it) more details at http://heine.nusa.co.za/ under MODS and then National Luna battery system.

Hope that helps a few of you out.