50 years of Cub Campers

In an industry where local camper trailer brands continue to drop like flies, it’s worth taking time to celebrate the success stories – like Sydney’s Cub Campers, which has just clocked up an impressive milestone of 50 years of continuous production down under.

Well before the cheap Chinese lookalikes moved in, this well-loved brand led the way in offering lightweight, affordable tent trailers to budget-minded holidaymakers.

Somehow, Cub has managed to survive (and often thrive) through economic downturns, changing markets and the tsunami of Chinese imports, by adapting, innovating and remaining price competitive, all while flying the flag for quality local manufacturing.

Here’s how they did it…

FAMILY FIRST

Not only Australia’s longest running camper trailer brand (just beating Jayco which built its first camper in 1975), Cub is one of the oldest RV brands full stop; only pipped by a handful of iconic names that include 61-year-old Millard caravans and 80-year-old Roma.

Despite hiring its first CEO in 2017, the business remains family owned with the three adult children of retired Cub co-founder Roger Fagan now holding the reins.

As the story goes, Roger’s father (retired pharmacist JK Fagan) bought a small block of flats with an adjoining box trailer business in Lakemba in Sydney's south-west in the 1960s, with the intention of renting out the flats and outsourcing the business.

However, the young Roger had other ideas and seeing potential in the RV market, went ahead and invented what is believed to be the first soft floor camper. Called simply the Trailer Camper, it was little more than a box trailer with a canvas roof – however, it marked the beginning of a business that has gone to to build around 20,000 camper trailers (on average, around 400 a year).

“The process was more of an evolution rather than a one off design,” explains Roger Fagan. “We used to manufacture horse floats and sell them to buyers in Western Queensland.

"The roads there were very rugged with lots of corrugations – so we had to strengthen the chassis and suspension to make sure it could cope with the conditions. We then adapted that design to suit our camper trailers.”

HORSES FOR COURSES

As well as horse floats, in the early days Cub built basic box trailers including some with independent suspension and disc brakes – well ahead of their time!

They also offered a range of Jayco-style wind-up camper trailers with slide-out bed ends, before concentrating on the compact, rear-fold, hard-floor off-road campers that the company is best known for today.

Cub were also arguably a forerunner in the now popular hybrid micro-camper market when they introduced the high-sided Spacevan about 10 years ago. Before that, they were first with the ‘Ezy-Wind’ system that made setting up and packing up a tent trailer much easier, especially for grey nomads. Cub was late to the party with a powered option though.

The company continues to adapt quickly to changing market conditions and buyer preferences, recently slashing its range to seven models including the more family-focused Frontier – the only forward-fold family camper built locally – and dropping the Coolibah campers range of soft-floor campers after only six months on the market.

THE DUNDEE EFFECT

Cub has ridden the roller-coaster of several recessions but Fagan reckons the toughest period was during the 1980s when annual Australian RV sales plummeted to 6000, from a heady 35,000 the decade before.

While many of their rivals went bust, Cub looked to greener pastures and had a crack at the export market. The timing was good, as with Paul Hogan starring in Aussie tourism campaigns and Crocodile Dundee raking it in at the box office, Americans couldn’t get enough of ‘Aussie made’.

Cub picked up $1.5million in orders after exhibiting at a Californian RV show, and later would run a separate production line to build Johnnos’ rental campers before the company called it quits.

Cub has never been shy about promoting the lightweight towing advantages of its campers over the years, from early reviews that showed campers being towed behind Honda Civic hatchbacks, to adventurer Hans Tholstrup towing a Cub camper behind a Hyundai i30 from Sydney to Melbourne on just one tank of fuel.

Cub Campers’ Roger Fagan was also a driving force behind the establishment of the Australian Manufactured Camper Trailer Guild, which raised awareness of the plight of Aussie camper manufacturers trying to compete with cheaper and perceivably inferior Chinese knock-offs.

HIGH TECH FUTURE

Around the same time Cub made a multi-million dollar investment in its future by sinking $7 million into a new 12,000 square metre factory with state-of-the-art production facilities in North Rocks, Sydney.

New computerized equipment allowed the factory, which currently employs around 60 people, to streamline manufacturing processes while the installation of solar panels on the roof, which can supply up to 80 per cent of power, also helps reduce costs.

Roger’s 41-year old son Shane, who is now Cub’s Managing Director, recalls his humble beginnings on the factory floor.

"I remember Dad just walked me into the factory, showed me the saw for cutting steel and said ‘you’ll work it out’,” he says. “There was no favouritism.  I just had to join the production line and learn.

“(The new factory was) about keeping our overheads down. Pouring money into high quality machinery has paid off.”

As for the future, Cub is aiming to remain relevant by staying up-to-date with the latest fashions and technology filtering onto the RV market.

“Over the last few years the RV market has becoming increasingly sophisticated, demanding greater levels of quality, comfort, convenience and self-sufficiency,” explains John Learson, Cub’s Design and Development Manager.

“As a consequence our 2018 range is infused with more up-market styling, higher quality finishes and upgraded electrical technologies.”

Further reading:

Cub cuts Brumby price
Cub Frontier review