Cub Campers Drifter II 2020 Review

Cub Campers is a familiar name in Australia’s camper-trailer industry, the company having built campers at its Sydney base for more than 50 years. Now Cub has a fresh new product to add to the 2020 line-up, a double-fold family camper called the Drifter II.

The Drifter II sees the revival of a model name last used by Cub in the 1990s, when it built the Drifter, a fibreglass roof, canvas-walled pop-up family camper.

Even though the concept is the same – that is, a family-size, lightweight camper – the 2020 Drifter II is a far cry from the original Drifter.

Shiny green machine

Rather than the original Drifter’s pop-top fibreglass roof and canvas walls, the new Drifter II instead uses a double-fold frame canvas tent and its patented silent winch to operate it.

While it's in a sense an evolution of the original Cub rear-fold tent camper design, it's really more of a forward-fold camper like the Cub Frontier with an additional rear fold-out section.

The Drifter II takes the mantle as the premium model in the Cub range. With it comes a premium price - $48,990, drive-away in NSW. The review example also has a few options fitted – TV coaxial outlet ($110), pillowtop mattress upgrade ($175), water tank protector ($210) and draught skirt ($270) – bringing the as-reviewed total to $49,755.

The Drifter II you see here was painted in Emerald green, an eye-catching colour and one of two standard body colours available (the other being Cool Grey). There are another six body colours to choose from, available at extra cost.

With a travel length of 5.5m and width of 1.9m, the Cub isn’t the biggest double-fold camper but that's to its advantage when towing in tight off-road situations. Weight is also the enemy when towing off-road, and here the Drifter II is not excessive with a Tare of 1453kg and ATM at 1900kg.

Swift set-up

The Drifter II doesn’t take very long at all to set up for camp. First you set the four stabiliser legs, then the Wax Converters canvas tent, attached to the aluminium base, is released from the locked position via clamps on the tub.

Then the hinged front section is folded out, using the front-mount winch. Once the forward-fold section is out, the hinged rear bed section of the tent is easy to push out into position from within the camper body.

All that remains is to tension the canvas via the rear bed base webbing straps and then, if you wish, roll down the nearside canvas wall and fit the (standard) awning.

For a basic set-up (without adding the awning), you’ll be ready to relax in less than five minutes from parking at camp.

Room for six

The inside living quarters is a simple set-up, with a U-shaped dinette and gas-lift multi-position table situated within the camper’s fairly large body.

There’s ample room for six to eight people to sit around the table. The dinette also easily converts to a bed for two, with the dining table quickly lowering into position to serve as part of the bed base.

The living quarters has a few window options - there’s a large, meshed window on the offside of the living area, and a roll-up wall on the nearside with the same window set-up.

So if the weather’s fine and/or you have the awning set up, you can roll up the nearside canvas and enjoy the view. Or if it’s raining or the insects become too much, you can seal it all up and still have some light through the meshed windows

Up front there’s the queen bed with three meshed windows surrounding it. At the rear fold-out section is the queen-size bed, also with three large meshed windows.

Additional bows and draught side canvas sections are supplied so that you can set up the external canvas flaps on front and rear windows so they’re open enough for ventilation without letting the weather in.

Both bed areas have LED reading lights on each side of the bedhead, plus there are LED strip lights on the living area and a neat floor light for the front bed step.

Storage options

Storage options consist of lockers under the dinette seats and small open lockers inset on the front wall of the camper body. These small lockers have a mesh cover that clips over the front to ensure that items don’t fall out when on the move.

While it’s hard to see where Cub would fit it, it’d be nice to see a bit more internal storage for a family camper – even if just perhaps removable hanging canvas shelves.

However, there are ample storage options on the exterior of the camper. Starting on the nearside, there’s a slide-out fridge locker and a slide-out pantry locker with a pole storage shelf above it.

On the offside there are two large storage lockers. Of course, the exterior storage doors are all lockable (as is the kitchen slide locker).

Outside cooking

The stainless steel kitchen slides out of a locker on the nearside rear, and features a three-burner stove, two storage compartments and a sink. The benchtop folds out to offer more than enough food prep space.

The Cub’s electrics and gauges are housed in the external offside rear hatch. While it’s a good thing that it's all located in the one spot, it would be nice if it was more convenient – near the entry on the nearside, for example.

There’s an LED gauge for both 100-litre and 80-litre water tanks, the displays for the Projecta IDC 12v charger, Projecta IC2510 240v charger and battery monitor, the RCD switch, DC fuse panel and Truma hot water service power switch.

The Cub has an Anderson plug set up for solar input, although you’ll have to bring your own or buy the solar panels.

The steel spare is mounted on the rear of the camper, on a bumper mount that also houses the number plate.

Adjacent to the electrics locker on the offside are the two water filling points (with locking caps) and the 240v power inlet.

Stone proof underbody

The underbody is well protected with, in this case, the optional steel water tank guards adding reassurance when off-road. All wiring and plumbing under the camper is well tucked up out of harm’s way.

The solid-looking trailing arm independent suspension is built in-house at Cub’s Sydney factory and features coil springs and dual shocks per side.

Up on the A-frame is storage for the two 4kg gas bottles and two jerry holders and a water hand pump. The off-road coupling is an AL-KO 50mm ball type.

The stone guard is a neat design because it folds around the sides, giving additional protection for jerry cans and helping to contain them if the worst were to happen and they worked loose from the holders.

The angled stone protector design also helps you avoid damaging the back of your tow vehicle in tight turning situations -- a problem with too-wide stone guards on some campers.

Summing up

The Drifter II is an interesting take on the canvas top fold-out camper. At almost $50K it isn’t cheap -- you can buy an imported double-fold camper for almost half that.

However the Cub brand brings with it an established record for quality, resale value and parts and service back-up. And for many, that will be enough to justify the cost.

How much does the Cub Drifter II cost?

Price: $49,755 (as tested, drive-away NSW)
Travel length: 5510mm
Body length (open length): 6510mm
External body width: 1940mm
Travel height: 1710mm
Tare weight: 1453kg
ATM: 1900kg
Ball weight (Tare): 144kg
Body: Steel
Chassis: RHS Steel
Suspension: Independent, coil springs, dual shocks
Brakes: 12in electric
Wheels: 17in alloy
Fresh water: 180L
Battery: 1 x 100A/h AGM
Solar: n/a
Air-conditioner: n/a
Gas: 2 x 4kg
Hot water: Truma 14L gas
Cooking: Smev three-burner gas stove
Fridge: n/a
Microwave: n/a
Toilet: n/a
Shower: External
Lighting: 12v LED
TV: n/a
Options fitted: TV coaxial outlet ($110), pillowtop mattress upgrade ($175), water tank protector ($210), draught skirt ($270).
Supplied by: Cub Campers, North Rocks NSW