I thought about starting this review with ‘I told you so' because I truly feel caravan makers have been slowly, and unwisely, turning their backs on small, nimble and simple caravans for too long. In fairness, in the past few years a plethora of hybrids have entered the market, predominantly imports which are hard for our local builders to compete with on cost. But what if you wanted a locally built, quality caravan of small proportions? You would be wise to look towards Goldstream's excellent efforts and the semi-imported Vision range the team here so love but from there, the pickings get slim. Which gives Cub Campers, one of the leading camper trailer makers with a strong 50-year history, an opening to take the slack.
WHO IS CUB?
Working across the brands that our parent company Emprise owns has made me lucky enough to sample a number of Cub Campers for sister masthead, Camper Australia. Over the past five years, I've been to Cape York with a Frontier, travelled through the Daintree with an Escape and I've been part of the judging panel at Camper Trailer of the Year where the Drifta II took out Best Build Quality in 2020. So, I've sampled the product a lot and maybe that's why I got the call to go look at the team's first-ever, real caravan. Cub was founded in 1968 by father and son duo JK and Roger Fagan. Since then, some 20,000 campers have rolled out of the North Rocks, NSW factory. Most recently, the team has seen success with forward and twin-folding campers after pioneering rear fold models.
All major components like the chassis, body panels, canvas and as much of the componentry as possible are made in Australia. A few examples in the C16 are the use of Blue Scope steel for the chassis, Enduro X suspension and REDARC for power systems leading to all Cub trailers proudly wearing the Australian made and owned logo.
