Philip Lord•16 May 2017

REVIEW

First look: Cub Campers Frontier

Forward-fold camper a new direction for Sydney stalwart

What we liked:

>> Plenty of kitchen bench space

>> Ample storage inside and out

>> Easy set up

Not so much:

>> Door won’t open with camper closed

>> Ark coupling difficult to use

>> Could do with more payload

Once you’ve tried a hard-floor camper, it’s hard to go back to a soft-floor. Not only is a hard floor so much quicker to set-up and pack-down, it’s much more comfortable underfoot and easier to keep clean.

Sydney’s Cub Campers are the hard-floor specialists: for nearly 50 years, they’ve offered little else, and here we have their latest camper, the Cub Frontier.

For rear-fold hard-floor campers, Cub is all over it. However, the Frontier is Cub’s first forward-fold model. With the rear-fold campers, you’re stuck with having to set up camp cots on the floor if more than two are sleeping in the camper.

The new Frontier is a family four-berth camper straight out of the box.

Solid core

We’ve been given a pre-production Frontier to test, so you won’t see here some improvements that Cub has made since it was first displayed last year.

The main differences to what you see here is that the door into the camper will be hinged at the front, not the rear, and the winch post is angled more to the rear so that you don’t knock your hand against the stone guard when winding at the winch.

The Frontier’s chassis rails are the typical 100mm x 50mm galvanised steel, but in this case they run the full length of the camper.

At the A-frame, a central T-shape box-section support helps provide greater strength in the structure for off-road forays. There’s a drop-down stabiliser leg at each corner of the body, and the underside is fairly clean and well-protected for off-road work.

There’s aluminium checker plate sheeting to protect the underside and most of the wiring and plumbing is tucked up out of harm’s way. The only exception to this is at the A-frame, where water pump piping snakes around underneath the chassis.

The water tank – fitted aft under the body – is a strong polycarbonate construction, and a 12v pump feeds water from the tank to the slide-out kitchen.

The Frontier’s suspension is an in-house coil-spring, independent design, with a single shock absorber each side.

Hitching blues

The Ark XO Quick Hitch 50mm off-road coupling is an acquired taste; it isn’t the easiest of couplings to hitch up to a vehicle, but it’s one of the few with which you can use a standard 50mm towball.

The main problem is the way the coupling locks onto the ball is a bit clunky – it takes a bit of effort to get the sliding mechanism to remain in the unlocked position as you maneuvre the coupling onto the ball (which is a bit of a challenge in itself, as the coupling swivels both fore-aft and side-to-side).

You could ditch the Ark with a Trigg hitch, which is a $400 option.

The rest of the A-frame features are much as expected; there’s a galvanised steel stone guard, behind which is tucked the winch to raise the camper floor.

The mud flaps are a good size to reduce underbody damage and nestled between the stone guard and the body are two 4kg gas bottle holders, two 20-litre jerry holders and a water hand pump.

There are no dramas getting to the bottles or jerry cans with the camper unfolded, with just enough clearance between the tent base and the holders to remove or replace the bottles or jerries.

On top you’ve got a large, shallow-lipped open storage tray – although anything you put there that sticks up much beyond the lip will have to be removed when you open the camper up, so that the camper floor can sit flush.

Hatches galore

One of the problems with some of the rear-fold Cub models is the relative lack of external access to stuff you’ve stored in the camper.

The Frontier is one Cub that you won’t be cursing yourself for packing something inside that then requires the tent to be opened to get to. Starting at the nearside, at the front there’s a small two-tiered tunnel boot, with the upper level ideal for pole storage. The lower level features a deep, slide-out drawer.

The next compartment along houses the fridge slide and (optional) Evakool fridge and further down the body, at the rear corner, is the compartment for the slide-out kitchen.

Up front on the offside, is a mirror-image of the nearside, with a tunnel boot at the front followed further down the body by a larger compartment with a slide-out tray.

On the back offside corner a hatch opens to reveal the electrics panel, which incorporates the Projecta 25amp charger, Projecta DC/solar charger, water level gauge, fuses and breaker switches.

This panel also slides out to reveal the battery compartment: one 100Ah battery is standard; our test example had the $420 option second battery fitted.

All the hatches are fitted with solid, locking latches.

The spare wheel is mounted on the rear of the aluminium sheet, box-steel frame body which makes it easy to get to, but the chunky all-terrain tyre fitted is going to be a heavy thing to get on and off.

With all that storage, it’d be nice to think you could load up big for weeks away in remote areas, but with a little over 400kg the payload isn’t as generous as it could be.

The outdoor kitchen has a fairly deep sink and the three-burner stove top has recessed burners, making it less likely that they’ll extinguish when it’s windy.

There’s storage in the stainless steel cabinet under the cooker and sink, and plenty of food prep area with the hinged bench section folded out. The bench sits on two adjustable legs that tuck in and clip to the underside of the bench when not in use.

Cracking it open

The Frontier has a quartet of AL-KO drop down stabilising legs, which is the first unfamiliar thing about this for a Cub camper (rear folds only need rear drop down stabilisers).

With legs down, it’s then down to the unlatching the camper floor from the body along the sides and rear. With the gas struts, you don’t need a huge amount of effort to open the tent – it’s easier to do than a rear-fold.

You can pull it open by hand with a bit of effort, but it’s much easier (but a little slower) to get winding at the winch. You have to use the winch to pull the floor down flush against the storage rack.

You then drop down the stairs, open the rear-hinged door (front hinged though, on the production model) to get into the camper.

The only downside here is that you can’t open the door when the camper is closed – the floor support strut sits across the door. Once you’ve stepped into the camper, all you need to do is push up the strut-assisted rear bow to tension the Wax Converters Dynaproof canvas tent.

Plenty of room

The living/sleeping quarters are pretty spacious, with a double bed up front and a double at the rear that converts to a U-shaped dinette once you remove some cushions and raise the spring-loaded bed base, which converts to a dining table.

The table top can then be adjusted to suit the seating arrangements, with both fore-aft and side-to-side movement available.

There’s a fair bit of storage inside, with a locker each side under the seat cushions and a locker under the main bed. There’s also a small fold-out step for the climb up to the forward bed. All interior panels are made of aluminium composite.

The nearside canvas wall from the door back can be rolled open, which allows a lot more light into what is otherwise a relatively dark interior. To keep the mozzies and flies out you can just open the meshed windows at the front, sides and rear.

There are two 12volt power sockets, a twin USB socket and a two-pole 240v power point inside, while outside you get one 240v inlet and one 240v outlet

Verdict

The Frontier appears to be well-sorted for short-stay outback camping, with solid construction and reasonable water and gas capacity, plus ample storage and kitchen bench space.

The big attraction here is the forward-fold design that takes up less space than a rear-fold when open and is easier and quicker to set up and pack down. Even better, you’ve got bedding ready to go for four straight away.

Cub Campers Frontier

Travel length: 5850mm

Body length (open length): 2500mm

External body width: 2060mm

Travel height: 1525mm

Interior height: 2410mm

Tare weight: 1359kg

ATM: 1700kg

Ball weight: 168kg

Body: Aluminium sheet, steel frame

Chassis: Galvanised 100x50mm

Suspension: Independent, coil spring/shocks

Brakes: 12in electric

Stability Control: NA

Wheels: 16in steel with 265/70R16 Goodyear Wrangler tyres

Fresh water: 100L

Battery: 2x 100Ah

Solar: NA

Air-conditioner: NA

Gas: 2 x 4kg

Hot water: Optional

Cooking: Three-burner SMEV

Fridge: Evakool 85L

Toilet: NA

Shower: NA

Lighting: 12V LED

TV: NA

Price: $33,990 (plus options)

Options fitted: Evakool 85L fridge/freezer ($1599), slide-out utility tray, driver’s side ($490), additional 100Ahbattery ($420)

Supplied by: Cub Campers, North Rocks, NSW

First look: Cub Campers Frontier

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