New Sydney-built slide-ons for lazy campers
Lightweight, slide-on composite camper with electric roof designed for popular utesProduction of Australia’s newest slide-on ute camper is ramping up at a small factory in the Sydney suburb of Hornsby.
Since its introduction to the market earlier this year, Quick Camper founder Jim Storey said he has attracted a small queue of buyers for the new lightweight composite camper module, which is primarily designed to fit on the back of single and dual-cab ‘one tonne’ cab-chassis models from popular makes including Toyota, Isuzu, Ford, Volkswagen and Mazda.
Designed, developed and tested over the past two years, the Quick Camper slide-ons are designed to be both lightweight and super-quick to set-up, with no canvas to fuss with and a pop-top roof that rises and lowers at the touch of a button.
Storey said the idea for the new slide-on came after owning an on-road campervan but desiring something more capable for adventure touring.
“I went looking for something I could put on the back of a 4WD ute, but I didn’t like anything on the market, particularly those with canvas and (relatively heavy) weights," he said.
“I wanted a lightweight, hard-sided pop-top that could get me up rocky slopes and under trees, and so decided to build one myself. I also wanted a fixed bed that I didn’t have to make up, and with a coil spring mattress as I have a bad back.”
After testing a few prototypes off the back of his Volkswagen Amarok dual-cab ute, Quick Camper now offers two basic 1.8m and 2.1m long production versions, with the shorter version getting an east-west double bed, dinette, kitchenette with sink and under-seat storage area for a portable toilet, while the longer version features a north-south double or queen bed, with additional combination shower/toilet.
The Sydney manufacturer also custom builds various sizes to fit different size vehicle trays including for Iveco and Isuzu light trucks.
As well as the auto roof, which takes around 40 seconds to raise with 12V actuators, the Quick campers boast full fibreglass sandwich panel construction with an aluminium sub-frame, with a rear entry security door, side screened windows and a roof vent/fan hatch.
Tare weight starts at around 480kg depending on the configuration.
The campers also come with removable wind-down legs so the module can be easily removed and left at camp or stored in the garage.
With a background in commercial coffee machine repairs, Storey does most of the production work himself, describing a $15,000 computerised coffee machine as being “more complicated in many ways than the camper (construction)”.
Priced from around $35,000, the Quick Camper units also come standard with a 70 litre water tank and 12V pump, 85 litre fridge, internal swivel table and toilet, LED lighting and USB charge points, storage lockers and a 120Ah lithium battery system, with fitment of options like a hot water unit, external shower, awning, diesel or induction cooktop and an extra battery and solar panels, pushing the price closer to $40,000.
Storey said the use of quality fitting and finishes including solid timber benchtops and lightweight ply laminated cabinetry adds to the premium feel.
“Our main selling point is our light weight and automatic pop-top, but we’re also focusing on quality as well as custom orders,” he said.
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