Cub Daintree LE

The Cub brand is one of the best known in the camper trailer industry. The Sydney-based family-owned company has been building camper-trailers since 1968, and now has a range spanning five different models.

But while the company dabbled with wind-up campers from the 1970s to the 1990s (and also built horse floats), the range is solely hard-floor campers today.

We haven’t sampled a Cub for quite some time, and so thought we’d look at a more recent arrival to the range, the Kamparoo Daintree LE.

The Daintree LE is the penultimate model in the Kamparoo range. The Kamperoo is the entry-level series in the Cub range, and spans from the Kamparoo Junior to the Brumby.

The Daintree LE has all the basics needed for an off-road camper-trailer: there’s the pile of ground clearance, independent suspension, off-road tyres, simple steel rims and an off-road coupling.

It’s also easy to hitch-up and to tow. There’s none of the bobbing about that occurs with an unladen leaf-spring trailer, with  the Daintree LE’s independent coil-spring suspension blotting out the worst of the bumps.

At less than 800kg Tare, weight is not going to be an issue for any decent 4WD towing it to off-road destinations.

The body is the familiar sheet-steel box with thick ply floor and ply walls sitting on a box-section steel frame. This in turn is welded to the 50 x 150mm box-section steel chassis (galvanizing is a $620 option on this model).

The underside is well protected from off-road damage, with sheet steel wrapped around the water tank and the floor ply sheeted with checker plate aluminium on the front section.

The drawbar has a sturdy stone guard fitted, along with two 4kg gas bottles and two jerry holders. The coupling is the familiar Trigg unit.

Cracking open the camper is a pretty simple affair. First you drop down the two legs at the back of the trailer, which have threaded locks with infinite adjustment. You can set them exactly to suit the terrain, rather than slotted, set positions that may or may not suit your camping spot.

There are four latches that when released secure the hard floor. Then it’s a matter of releasing slack at the Ezy-Wind winch at the front and pivoting the floor up and back until it’s vertical. Then back at the winch (which is braked) to wind down the floor until it’s level.

Four legs on the hard floor (with the same securing method as the drop-down legs) are dropped down and then the Australian-made Wax Converters canvas can be secured around the periphery of the tent. Then you’re good to go with tensioning the tent.

This is done by lifting up the left-hand side bow and locking it into place, pushing out the rear bow (which tensions the canvas) and locking it into place, then fitting the two C-clip poles to the rear bow and adjusting them.

Once you’re used to this routine, it shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes from arriving at camp to pulling up a chair and cracking open a beer.

The bed mattress is made of high-density foam and sits on a ply base.

The ply base, hinged at the front and supported by two gas struts, lifts to reveal the interior’s storage space. The storage area can also be accessed from the open area at the bed base if you need quick access to gear.

Also fitted under the bed are the AGM battery, battery charger, 12v pump switch, fuses for the battery, pump and charger and four 240v power outlets. There are also two Merit (24v) plugs positioned above the 240v outlets.

The bed area has three large screened PVC windows, the front one screened by canvas while the side windows are screened by rubber-backed curtains secured with velcro.

The interior feels light and airy, so during the day you won’t feel the need to switch on a light.

Speaking of lighting, there isn’t any. An LED strip light doesn’t cost much and in a $25,000 camper at least one should be a standard fitment, not on the options list (Cub charges an extra $98 for a strip light).

The beauty of a hard floor camper is the fact that you have a dry, level area off the ground for extra sleeping space or living quarters. A bunk bed will easily fit in this area, which also has two screened windows and of course the zippered entrance door.

The under-bed storage space is quite shallow, so you won’t get a portable toilet or other bulky gear in here, but for camping chairs, clothing and other bits and pieces this is quite a usable space.

But you have to remember what goes in there stays there until you open the camper again; there is no external access to this space.

The checker-plate aluminium front storage box offers plenty of space in its two lockers for bulky items though.

Access is via top-hinged, dust-sealed locking hatches on each side. The nearside locker is equipped with a fridge slide covered in marine-grade carpet and fitted with a merit plug to hook up your fridge to power.

The offside locker, also floored in marine-grade carpet, offers ample unfettered space for a generator or portable toilet. You can also tick the options box for shelving in this locker, with the shelf brackets already in place.

The (standard) awning is zipped to the main tent and can be left this way when packing up — this makes erecting the awning a lot easier, because reaching the zipper at the peak of the tent requires an extraordinary abundance of natural height or a ladder.

The tent is supported and tensioned by interconnecting C-clip poles poles and can be set-up without ropes. While it’s a simple set-up, it takes a few attempts to finesse the canvas tension so it looks right.

The slide-out kitchen and pantry are found on the nearside front, as is the norm for hard floor campers, and are accessed via a locking, checker-plate, dust-sealed aluminium hatch.

The stainless-steel bench is supported by an adjustable drop-down leg and is plumbed for gas and water.

The water tap folds out from the front of the kitchen (and feeds water from the 80-litre tank with a 12-volt pump) and the two-burner gas stove is sheltered from the wind from two sides.

The pantry is quite narrow and when opened to its full extent it gets in the way of where you’d want to stand to use the sink or stove, but at least it’s a deep storage space.

There are two shallow storage drawers in the kitchen unit too; one is set up as a cutlery drawer, the other is simply an open recess.

VERDICT

The Daintree LE isn’t perfect — things like the lack of external access to the under-bed storage area and the lack of standard lighting are negatives that Cub should address.

Yet Cub hasn’t garnered a reputation for excellent quality for nothing. The Daintree LE is very well put together and while the layout is not new, in the main it’s a good, workable and solid design.

WE LIKED:
>> Solid, quality construction
>> Ease of tent set-up
>> Useable interior space

NOT SO MUCH:
>> Lack of external under-bed access
>> No standard lighting
>> Setting up awning for first time can be fiddly

CUB CAMPERS DAINTREE LE

Travel length: 4000mm (13ft 4in)
Body length (open): 4400mm (14ft 4in)
Body length (closed): 2200mm (7ft 4in)
External body width: 1700mm (5ft 6in)
Travel height: 1550mm (5ft 1in)
Tare: 795kg (approx..)
ATM: 1200kg
Ball weight: 120kg (approx.)
Body: Painted sheet steel
Canvas: 10-12oz Wax Converters
Chassis: Steel, 100 x 50mm box section (galvanised optional)
Suspension: Independent, coil springs and shock absorbers
Brakes: 10in electric drum
Stability Control: Not available
Wheels/tyres: 15in steel/ 31x10.5R15 A/T
Fresh water: 80L
Battery: 100A/h deep cycle AGM
Solar: Optional
Air-conditioner: Not available
Gas: 2 x 4kg
Hot water: Optional
Cooking: Two-burner stainless steel slide-out kitchen
Fridge: Optional
Toilet: Not available
Shower: Optional
Lighting: Optional
Price: $24,990 (drive-away, NSW)
Options fitted: None
Supplied by: Cub Campers, North Rocks, NSW