Rick Huckstepp•13 Oct 2016

REVIEW

Stoney Creek SC-FF6

New Chinese-built, Aussie-assembled hard-floor family camper delivers bang for your bucks

Being a patriotic lot most of us try to buy Australian, but due to our diminishing industrial capabilities that’s not always possible. Invariably some components come from China and other labour-cheap countries and in an increasing number of cases a lot of foreign content makes up the build.

The Stoney Creek Camper comes under the latter but boy, have they done a good job of quality control of components coming out of the various Chinese factories.

This high offshore content reflects in the price, where we have this SC-FF6 model with all the bells and whistles of a top-end Aussie-built camper but coming in at roughly half the price!

What’s also impressive is the user-friendly operation of this trailer, thanks to the amount of thought put into its forward-fold design.

NITTY GRITTY

The body is predominately 2.1mm steel sheet with a zinc and powdercoat finish. Aluminium checker plate is also used for the roof of the forward section and the forward folding tent base, as well as to protect the sides of the spare wheel carriers.

All of this is carried on a chassis of 100 x 50mm drawbar and side rails with 50 x 50 cross members. The 265/75R16 wheels combine with 12 inch, heavy duty electric brake drums which swing on independent arms with dual shockers and a coil spring.

There’s an adjustable, over extension prevention chain attached as well.

Still underneath, the stainless steel water tanks features aluminium stone guard shrouds. The front twin 9kg gas bottles are mounted next to a dual jerry can rack and all this sits behind a full width stone deflector.

Treg’s rubber block and pin hitch is standard fit, as is a 10in swing up jockey wheel.

The four stabilising legs should be deployed before setting up the trailer for sleeping if it’s detached from the tow vehicle.

The two topside, alloy clad storage areas are fenced with low profile cut, steel edges so tie downs can be deployed all round. Once a canoe or other cargo is removed from the racks, four camber locks are released to allow it to be lifted up and folded forward by one person, ably assisted by gas struts.

If you’re short in stature or lacking the energy required to lift the top, a boat trailer-style winch strap is semi permanently mounted on the draw bar to provide assistance. Another of these winches is mounted in a rear recovery ring bracket and is used to bring the lid back to the closed position.

This winch is easily removable, to allow insertion of a recovery ring or rack to hold bicycles and the like.

The lid folded forward rests on a strut which forms part of the front winch assembly.

OPEN AND SHUT CASE

At the rear of the trailer the winch mechanism is then removed and put aside and the two spare wheel carriers are opened outwards. At this point a rear drawer is released and pulled out to reveal the second bed tent canvas with inner spring mattress underneath.

The spare wheel carriers have adjustable pins in their top end that locate under the extended drawer edge, manipulated by a screw thread to a point where the base is stable. This is a smart way to minimise ground struts that tend to be highways for ants and other crawlies that get into our gear when out bush.

The nearside door swings down, activating cantilevered steps to provide access inside the trailer. Once there the tent-adjusting rails pull the main canvas tight over a king size, 100mm thick inner spring mattress. It felt soft in the short term but the addition of an eggshell foam sheet would top it off; literally.

The rear tent section is pulled taut in the same way, over another queen size inner spring mattress.

This leaves the box of the trailer as a living area, with a smart collapsible dining table that forms a bed base for another double bed if required, for up to six berths in total.

In dining mode, there’s enough space to seat six around the table, with the face of the king size bed base loaded with large storage drawers. The battery monitoring system with 12V sockets and a 240V outlet are installed in the offside seat base.

The canvas top has a permanent fly attached, and each of the windows has its own awning; these are serve as external windows that can fold out of the way or be deployed with struts to utilise peripheral weather deflectors.

Should they be rolled up and you get caught out in an overnight shower, there’s an inner zip-up window to help keep things dry.

KEEP YOUR COOL

A nearside locker opens to an EvaKool fridge freezer of 85 litres capacity on a pull-out steel drawer rail, and there’s the option to fit another slide-out fridge on the other side of this compartment.

This SC-FF6 camper comes standard with enough canvas to build a circus tent, and it’s all stored in that offside compartment. This would also be the obvious spot to store a portable toilet, if you couldn’t squeeze it inside the trailer when folded down for travelling.

Also on the nearside near the fridge is another door accessing a tunnel boot, which features a sturdy drawer for a generator. Two 100Ah batteries are located in the offside, along with another hatch with the mains power circuit breaker and fuse installed.

We also found the electronic brake controller here, because the new owner of this trailer did not want it attached to his vehicle. The tent poles are stored in yet another hatch nearby.

With not a skerrick of space wasted, the hot water taps are behind another hatch on the offside wall, with the portable gas hot water service stored in a compartment next to it. This can be hung on a bracket on the opened wheel rack, and there’s also two gas bayonets located at the rear.

Nitto bayonet fittings for hot and cold water plumb H2o to the installed hot water unit and the kitchen, which pulls out of the nearside rear corner.

Cooking is taken care of by four gas burners, sheltered behind a fold-out wind break and a single bowl sink with light handily located nearby.

The stainless steel kitchen unit also features a retractable tea towel rail, and two large drawers for cutlery and other utensils. Quality stainless is not light weight, so there’s a fold-down leg on the end of the unit for support.

Also included in the price is a large canvas awning, which provides shelter along the ‘working’ side of the camper. However being so high, a three step fold-up ladder will need to be in your kit unless you play for the NBL.

It also comes with walls and a canvas floor to keep the nasties out and the quality of the 14oz canvas looks very good with tidy stitching.

VERDICT

Being able to camp together as a family under the same canvas with everybody up off the ground is a bonus, and to get six people into one unit equivalent to a single axle is almost unheard of.

The ATM of 2200kg is Prado-friendly, and that’s the type of tow vehicle many outdoorsy families with three of four offspring are likely to have. Value for money (and not a lot of the latter considering), the SC-FF6 takes the cake.

STONEY CREEK CAMPERS SC-FF6

Overall length: 5400mm

External body width: 1950mm

Internal height: 1.7m at foot of king bed

Travel height: 1400mm

Tare: 1700kg

ATM: 2200kg

Ball weight: 200kg (with tanks full)

Body: 2.1mm zinc and powder coated steel

Chassis: 150 x 50 x 3mm galvanised steel (50 x 50 x 3mm cross members)

Wheels/tres: 265/75R16/ AT tyres

Brakes: 12in electric drums

Cooking: Four burner gas

Fridge/freezer: EvaKool 85L

Toilet: No

Shower: Country Comfort gas hot water

Gas: 2 x 9kg

Lighting: LED

Batteries: 2 x 100Ah

Solar: wired for solar

Freshwater: 140 litre total

Price (as tested): $31,700

Supplied by: Ipswich Lifestyle Centre, Bundamba Qld

Website: Stoney Creek Campers

Stoney Creek SC-FF6

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