Lifestyle Campers Iconn E2 Review

We travelled full time around Australia for 10 months in 2022, and before we left we purchased a brand new camper to live in while on the road. We did like our old forward fold camper trailer and it would have done the job for us, but we were in a good financial position thanks to the sale of our house, so we decided to go to that next level for comfort and ease of setting up.

When we were researching for a new camper, the Australian made Lifestyle Campers Reconn came up in our search option as a good fit for us. Once we enquired, we were told there was a two year wait for these trailers but they did have another import option that had just been released that may be a good option for us (the Iconn E2). Even though it was an import model, we were told that it was made in a factory that specialises in Lifestyle Campers only (unlike other import models) and that it was inspected in Australia before being provided to new owners. We had a look at the videos and promo photos and decided to sell our other trailer and put a deposit on this to be delivered in December.

Unfortunately due to border restrictions, we weren’t able to have a face-to-face handover in Melbourne and had it delivered to us in Tasmania. We took it on a short trip to the East Coast of Tasmania over new years, then down to Hobart for a few days and this helped us to get used to how everything worked before we set off on our big adventure around Tasmania. 

The Iconn E2 is known as a hyper camper as it isn’t a full caravan, but a bit more than just a camper trailer. This allows it to be able to get to places where a normal caravan may not get to, and was what we were looking for with off road adventures.

We didn’t have the best experience with this camper while we were travelling full time, as we had multiple items fail on it and was one of the reasons why we ended our trip around Australia sooner than expected.

What went wrong with our Lifestyle Campers Iconn E2

Awning

The awning is flimsy garbage. The legs are weak, the wind out mechanism is flimsy and because of the long length of the awning, the canvas buffets and slaps around in even a slight breeze. We tried many ways of securing the awning to try and alleviate this but had little luck. The awning is so frustrating we would often just simply not use it and pack things away if it rained. We paid $500 for a factory supplied anti-flap kit which allowed us to run walls at the ends of the awning but clips for this kit wore holes through the awning fabric. Lifestyle Campers have since replaced the awning (after initially denying the warranty request), which also has an updated mounting system but is much the same as the previous awning. The new mounting system stops water leaking down between the awning and the body of the van which is a nice improvement.

The door

One item on the trailer that has failed on us is the door. After a few weeks on the road we found the door became harder and harder to open and eventually it broke leaving one of us locked outside. We disassembled the door and found that the internal rod holding the 3 door latches together had stripped the teeth meaning the latch would not engage. After much stuffing around I was able to remove one of the three latches and get the door working again. We arranged for replacement parts to be sent to Alice Springs as this was the direction we were travelling in. Despite multiple emails with detailed pictures and descriptions of the faulty part, Lifestyle Campers still sent the incorrect part to Alice Springs and we had to pick it up from the delivery depot as it wasn’t addressed correctly. After reporting it to the dealer late Monday afternoon, we heard back Thursday afternoon that there was a door available and were asked where to send it. Due to time differences, we didn’t get a hold of the dealer until Friday and by that point another latch on the door had failed and nothing was secure in our camper. The new door was sent by road from Brisbane to Alice Springs, meaning that we ended up stuck there for two weeks waiting for the new door. Once the door arrived, the original workshop that was completing the work couldn’t do it due to COVID isolation, so we were told we could organise it to be fitted by another caravan repairer and it would be covered. We paid out of our own pocket to get this fixed and have since been reimbursed by Camping Adventures. Lifestyle Campers replaced both the door and the frame, but unfortunately the replacement door has had a similar failure so we have had to do the same bandaid fix in order to be able to open the door and get inside the camper. Camping Adventures were able to fix the door at our next major service.

Silicone issues

The factory silicone application was poor at best. Almost immediately after delivery we had water leaking through the roof and down through the awning, meaning you got covered in water if you were cooking in the rain (this has now been fixed with the new awning mounts mentioned previously). We also had external joins along the top of the van where the silicone had failed which Lifestyle Campers claims to have fixed but have reappeared almost immediately after the service. This has since been rectified again by Lifestyle Campers and we are hoping that it will not reappear. The roof also began leaking water through the solar panel wiring which eventually got so bad that the inside of the camper went mouldy. They claimed to have fixed this but it leaked straight away again so we took it back and after the second fix, it appears to be holding up now.  

Kitchen failure

While we were travelling to Cape York, the kitchen cracked in one corner and came away from its mounting position on the door. We noticed that the kitchen has sagged dramatically and upon further investigation found that the mounting screws had stripped in their holes and the metal in one corner had cracked and torn away. This occurred a few weeks ago and our dealer is yet to hear back from Lifestyle Campers on how this one will be fixed under warranty. For now we have reinforced with some screws and this seems to be holding up for now. We were surprised this occurred as it is an off road camper and we were encouraged by Lifestyle Campers to take it up to Cape York and we didn’t even take it on some of the worse corrugations. We reported this to Camping Adventures on August 14 and we were advised on September 8 that Lifestyle Campers will assist with parts and things necessary for the fix but would like us to go to an authorised dealer or back to Camping Adventures for the repair. On September 13, we advised Camping Adventures that we will be heading back to Melbourne as our roof had broken and we couldn’t get it fixed in WA in a suitable timeframe and we arranged to book in the camper for a service and to have the issues fixed (kitchen included) on September 28. We dropped the camper off on this date and were advised on October 17 that Lifestyle Campers have refused to provide a replacement kitchen under warranty, but Camping Adventures have been able to fix the issues for us.

Roof failure

Two days into our Gibb River Road trip (and eight months into our big lap) we were unable to open the roof of our E2. Initial investigation showed one of the bolts for the scissor lifts had failed. After a sweaty few hours in the sun trying to extract the bolt we found that two of the lifters had actually sheered their bolts, not just the one. Further to that the lifter at the front of the van had bent from the extra pressure without us knowing and wedged itself against the inside of the roof. This means we couldn’t open the roof at all but have since been able to get the roof open so we could sleep in it. This issue appears to have been caused by a few factors. When Lifestyle Campers replaced the external gas struts in June, the replacement struts were low on gas or under-specced for the weight of the roof. We noticed the roof was much harder to open after they were replaced and this has put extra strain on the scissor lifts. The bolt for the front lifter had also worked its way loose without us noticing. Our dealer mentioned these need to be installed with red loktite to stop them from working their way out (ours did not appear to have any loktite installed from the factory). Thankfully Camping Adventures were able to sort all of this out at our last major service and there is no damage to the van itself.

What we love about the Lifestyle Campers Iconn E2

The bed

One of our most favourite parts of this trailer is the bed. The mattress is so comfortable and it is nice to be able to have a queen bed while sleeping in a camper trailer and to also wake up and not have horrible back pain (the joys of being over 30). We have both said we haven’t missed sleeping in a normal bed and that would be due to the nice innerspring mattress. Even after eight months on the road the mattress is holding up well.

Easy to tow

The E2 has similar dimensions to our Nissan patrol which makes it quite easy to tow. The placement of the axle makes it very nimble and allows us to get into some tighter spots or smaller caravan park sites. Being a similar width to our vehicle means we can get away with not having our towing mirrors extended while still having great visibility. Like most hybrids however, it is on the heavy side and you can definitely feel the weight behind the car. 

Easy to set up/pack up

For a quick overnight stop the setup time is under a minute. Once the rear winch is released and the 6 latches removed, the roof pops itself up and you are ready to sleep. If we are unhitching and leaving it for a few days, this setup time varies depending on if you need the awning, or if you are setting up an external ensuite etc. For a longer stay the setup time can easily become 15-20 minutes once you finish dealing with the flimsy awning and put up a shower tent with a portable toilet. The pack up time varies from 10-30 minutes depending on the same factors. 

Storage

Compared to our previous camper trailers, the Lifestyle Campers Iconn E2 has SO much storage! We were able to bring heaps of clothes with us on this trip, as well as shoes, medicine, blankets and any extra items that we may have needed. It is nice that everything is stored inside the trailer as well, rather than having to go through the car or plastic containers to find something. 

Off road ability

The off road ability of this trailer is great. With its nimble dimensions and good ground clearance from the 33” tires it will go pretty much anywhere the vehicle goes. The track width of the tires is very similar to our Nissan Patrol which makes it easy to tow on sand. We have taken ours through Inskip Point and up to Fraser Island without issue. The suspension however is quite soft and it has a tendency to rock the van side to side a bit while navigating obstacles that are off camber. 

Good quality extra features

We opted to pay for a few extra features that have definitely made our trip more comfortable. Having a diesel heater has saved us on some cooler nights, and we have only had to run it for not even an hour an hour before the camper was warm and comfortable. The battery system is an Australian made Redarc system which allowed us to upgrade to lithium batteries and a large inverter. 

What we don’t love about our Lifestyle Campers Iconn E2

Pantry door supports 

The Iconn models all come with a ridiculous hinge on the pantry door that operates like a scissor inside the van. This means that if anything falls down behind the mechanism, you cannot open the pantry door. This was a daily occurrence for us and a major frustration and on our first trip away, we broke one of the hinges while we were trying to get the door open as something was stuck. We ended up ripping them out and replacing them with some steel cable (a very common aftermarket modification). 

Kitchen seating area

While the kitchen seating area is a great feature and we use it pretty much everyday to eat dinner, it is quite uncomfortable to sit in and we get a bit of back pain if we try to sit in it for too long. The foam has also collapsed a bit on one side so the seat isn’t as firm as it used to be. Really not a massive deal for us as we still use it all the time and two of us can sit and eat dinner, but really can’t do anything else (like both of us using laptops to work) due to the space.

After sales support

The after sales support we received initially was disappointing. We have had multiple failures that were not covered to start with, but have been rectified recently. We also had a lack of communication when taking it in for a major service, where we were told then and there that the van had to stay overnight leaving us with nowhere to stay that night. Luckily we were able to find a cabin to stay in (photos below) but at a cost we weren’t expecting. We were then told over the phone the next day that it was actually staying for two nights and that we “must have misunderstood what they said”. We had to beg for the van back to sleep that night and drop it off again the next morning for more repairs. After reaching out to other owners on social media we have received numerous reports of this behaviour towards other owners.

As some of the issues were not resolved, we reached out to Lifestyle Campers again to see if we could have these issues sorted while we were stuck in South-East Queensland with a broken clutch on the car. The service we received the second time around was amazing and they were keen and willing to work with us to ensure that we could get everything sorted and get us back on the road. They made time for us to drop the trailer off when it suited us, and we had new gas struts, a new door, the silicone fixed and a new awning replaced under warranty. They even cleaned the van for us both inside and out and it was something we were not expecting. Everything was well communicated and we were given plenty of notice to find alternative accommodation and they lent us a gazebo to use as we were camping out in our swag. It was a positive outcome and we were very impressed.

Unfortunately the after sales support has again deteriorated later in our trip. We had some breakages which we reported to our dealer and we found that Lifestyle Campers were extremely hard to get a hold of and have been refusing to provide us with replacement parts under warranty.

Would we recommend this trailer to others?

We would recommend an Iconn E2 to an occasional user, who goes camping a few times a year and wants some extra comfort. If you want to work it hard or live in it like we have then you should be prepared for breakages that could be frustrating. We paid over $50,000 AUD for this camper and it did not live up to the expectations set at time of sale. If we had our time again we would go with a Patriot X1 (with the soft floor tent) or a second hand Australian made van.