Is this the new king of hard floor campers?
WORDS AND IMAGES BY PHIL LORD
Cub’s limited-run Longreach LE camper is big and blinged-out. We’ve kicked the tyres, turned the taps, and tested the bed; here’s what you need to know.
Aussie-made campers are fast becoming as rare as Dropbears, but there’s one brand in the country that’s remained true (for almost 50 years) to its local production roots. Meet the latest Cub release, the limited-run (available to order until the end of 2019), top of the range Longreach LE.
Based on the 3.2-metre-long Longreach, the Longreach LE adds a bunch of extra equipment, such as a hot water service, external shower, REDARC Redvision power control system, a REDARC BMS30 battery/charging unit and the exterior is painted in a colour unique to the LE called Lithium. All of this adds up to an $11,000 premium over the standard Longreach ($47,990 driveaway).
CAMPERS Cub Campers Longreach LE
What’s the Longreach LE like to set up?
Getting the Cub set up for camp is a straight-forward five-minute job: drop the rear stabiliser legs, open the camper, drop the floor legs and push out the rear bow inside and fit and adjust the vertical poles. We didn’t go as far as setting up the standard awning, although from past experience, once zippered to the main tent (as you can see in the photos) it’s not a hard job to set-up the poles and peg down the rope.
An advantage and a disadvantage of this camper is its canvas tent. On one hand it allows the Cub to offer much more floor space inside than a hybrid while being a hell of a lot lighter, but the downside is canvas doesn’t like being packed up wet and left like that. You have to make sure to open up the camper at the first opportunity to let the canvas dry out, or it’ll attract mould.
“The dining area at the foot of the bed is a great idea, giving you a comfortable table and seat set-up within the seconds it takes to lift and swivel the table into position”
What’s the storage like on the inside?
Getting into this off-road camper trailer is a big step – literally. If you’re a bit short in the leg department, you’ll need a folding step to get in and out of the camper.
Inside, the Longreach LE gets remote-controlled mood lighting at the bedhead, additional under-bed and floor lighting, a dinette area with swivel table, a four-drawer cupboard, a Fusion stereo and sub-woofer audio system, extra storage cubbys on each side of the bed and a thicker pillow-top mattress and bedhead headrests. The Longreach LE also scores bedside consoles with USB ports and reading lights.
The Longreach, like the now-superseded Spacevan Drover, has a taller body than your average hard-floor camper, which allows a deeper bed area with fixed-side hopper windows adjacent to the bedhead. There’s not only ample storage space on top of the 1950mm long by 1500mm wide bed (the LE’s bed is 150mm shorter than the Longreach) when closing up the camper, but there’s also a pretty generous under-bed storage area accessed by lifting the gas-strut-assist bed base.
ABOVE The ambient lighting is a nice touch in a camper trailer and seems to be all the rage these days // BELOW There's a huge amount of storage space beneath the bed.
What’s the living space like?
The hopper windows change the whole experience of camping compared to the shorter-body hard floor campers, because even with the concertina mesh screen drawn, with the windows open you really feel like you’re living in the outdoors, and with the hopper windows and three canvas mesh windows surrounding the bed all opened up, cross-ventilation is excellent. The other advantage of the hopper windows is that you can crack them open a little when it’s raining to get some ventilation – without getting wet.
The dining area at the foot of the bed is a great idea, giving you a comfortable table and seat set-up within the seconds it takes to lift and swivel the table into position. There’s enough room for two adults to sit at the table, or two adults and two sub-teens at a pinch.
The beauty of a hard-floor camper is of course that you have an open inside living area to do with as you wish – whether it be to set up bunks for extra campers, a table for guests or just to put luggage or camping gear. The Longreach LE’s hard floor area is huge – it measures 3000mm x 1940mm, more than enough for a couple of cots to be set up or even a couple of bunk beds, as there’s no shortage of ceiling height.
ABOVE The longer Longreach LE means there's a lot more floor and bench space. // BELOW cThe storage space inside the Cub Longreach LE is impressive.
The external shower hose plugs into a tap on the rear offside of the camper and uses a simple trigger on the shower head to operate. It might not be quite as effective as your shower at home, but it works well. All the power and monitoring of water levels is controlled by the excellent REDARC Redvision which, among other nice touches allows you to control items such as lights wirelessly on your phone.
The Cub’s underside is well protected for dirt-road or off-road forays with the strong 100-litre and 80-litre poly tanks strong enough to not require protection shields and all plumbing tucked up out of the way of flying stones and the like.
What's on the outside?
The Cub’s stainless-steel outdoor kitchen (made in-house at Cub’s North Rocks factory) is one of the better ones around. Not only does it contain a separate bench (that is stored underneath the kitchen slide) that hooks into the camper body side, but also a large amount of food prep space on the bench itself. There are also storage draws in the kitchen bench, although to get to the three front drawers the fridge slide has to be pushed in. Detail features such as the two LED lights and bottle opener are icing on the cake.
The front toolbox houses a fridge slide on the nearside and a large storage area on the offside – both lockable of course.
So, what do we think?
At $47,990 drive-away the Longreach LE is not a cheap camper, yet it does offer all-important towing lightness and toughness for remote-area touring as well as a large living space, sophisticated 12V electrics and big water capacity to stay at camp for a long time. Provided you can live with the canvas and set-up/pack down time (which you’ll get with any hard floor camper), this is a good alternative to a hybrid and appears to be one of the better-quality hard floors around.
2019 Cub Longreach LE Specifications
BODY LENGTH 3200mm
BODY WIDTH 1950mm
TARE WEIGHT 1425kg
PRICE AS TESTED $47,990 (drive-away)
MORE INFO cubcampers.com.au
Pros
• Sophisticated electrics;
• Large living space; and
• Spacious useable outdoor kitchen.
Cons
• High step into the camper;
• Canvas needs drying ASAP if wet; and
• That we don’t own it.
CAMPERS Cub Campers Longreach LE
Is this the new king of hard floor campers?
Cub’s limited-run Longreach LE camper is big and blinged-out. We’ve kicked the tyres, turned the taps, and tested the bed; here’s what you need to know.
WORDS AND IMAGES BY PHIL LORD
Aussie-made campers are fast becoming as rare as Dropbears, but there’s one brand in the country that’s remained true (for almost 50 years) to its local production roots. Meet the latest Cub release, the limited-run (available to order until the end of 2019), top of the range Longreach LE.
Based on the 3.2-metre-long Longreach, the Longreach LE adds a bunch of extra equipment, such as a hot water service, external shower, REDARC Redvision power control system, a REDARC BMS30 battery/charging unit and the exterior is painted in a colour unique to the LE called Lithium. All of this adds up to an $11,000 premium over the standard Longreach ($47,990 driveaway).
What’s the Longreach LE like to set up?
Getting the Cub set up for camp is a straight-forward five-minute job: drop the rear stabiliser legs, open the camper, drop the floor legs and push out the rear bow inside and fit and adjust the vertical poles. We didn’t go as far as setting up the standard awning, although from past experience, once zippered to the main tent (as you can see in the photos) it’s not a hard job to set-up the poles and peg down the rope.
An advantage and a disadvantage of this camper is its canvas tent. On one hand it allows the Cub to offer much more floor space inside than a hybrid while being a hell of a lot lighter, but the downside is canvas doesn’t like being packed up wet and left like that. You have to make sure to open up the camper at the first opportunity to let the canvas dry out, or it’ll attract mould.
“The dining area at the foot of the bed is a great idea, giving you a comfortable table and seat set-up within the seconds it takes to lift and swivel the table into position”
What’s the storage like on the inside?
Getting into this off-road camper trailer is a big step – literally. If you’re a bit short in the leg department, you’ll need a folding step to get in and out of the camper.
Inside, the Longreach LE gets remote-controlled mood lighting at the bedhead, additional under-bed and floor lighting, a dinette area with swivel table, a four-drawer cupboard, a Fusion stereo and sub-woofer audio system, extra storage cubbys on each side of the bed and a thicker pillow-top mattress and bedhead headrests. The Longreach LE also scores bedside consoles with USB ports and reading lights.
The Longreach, like the now-superseded Spacevan Drover, has a taller body than your average hard-floor camper, which allows a deeper bed area with fixed-side hopper windows adjacent to the bedhead. There’s not only ample storage space on top of the 1950mm long by 1500mm wide bed (the LE’s bed is 150mm shorter than the Longreach) when closing up the camper, but there’s also a pretty generous under-bed storage area accessed by lifting the gas-strut-assist bed base.
ABOVE The ambient lighting is a nice touch in a camper trailer and seems to be all the rage these days // BELOW There's a huge amount of storage space beneath the bed.
What’s the living space like?
The hopper windows change the whole experience of camping compared to the shorter-body hard floor campers, because even with the concertina mesh screen drawn, with the windows open you really feel like you’re living in the outdoors, and with the hopper windows and three canvas mesh windows surrounding the bed all opened up, cross-ventilation is excellent. The other advantage of the hopper windows is that you can crack them open a little when it’s raining to get some ventilation – without getting wet.
The dining area at the foot of the bed is a great idea, giving you a comfortable table and seat set-up within the seconds it takes to lift and swivel the table into position. There’s enough room for two adults to sit at the table, or two adults and two sub-teens at a pinch.
The beauty of a hard-floor camper is of course that you have an open inside living area to do with as you wish – whether it be to set up bunks for extra campers, a table for guests or just to put luggage or camping gear. The Longreach LE’s hard floor area is huge – it measures 3000mm x 1940mm, more than enough for a couple of cots to be set up or even a couple of bunk beds, as there’s no shortage of ceiling height.
ABOVE The longer Longreach LE means there's a lot more floor and bench space. // BELOW cThe storage space inside the Cub Longreach LE is impressive.
What's on the outside?
The Cub’s stainless-steel outdoor kitchen (made in-house at Cub’s North Rocks factory) is one of the better ones around. Not only does it contain a separate bench (that is stored underneath the kitchen slide) that hooks into the camper body side, but also a large amount of food prep space on the bench itself. There are also storage draws in the kitchen bench, although to get to the three front drawers the fridge slide has to be pushed in. Detail features such as the two LED lights and bottle opener are icing on the cake.
The front toolbox houses a fridge slide on the nearside and a large storage area on the offside – both lockable of course.
The external shower hose plugs into a tap on the rear offside of the camper and uses a simple trigger on the shower head to operate. It might not be quite as effective as your shower at home, but it works well. All the power and monitoring of water levels is controlled by the excellent REDARC Redvision which, among other nice touches allows you to control items such as lights wirelessly on your phone.
The Cub’s underside is well protected for dirt-road or off-road forays with the strong 100-litre and 80-litre poly tanks strong enough to not require protection shields and all plumbing tucked up out of the way of flying stones and the like.
So, what do we think?
At $47,990 drive-away the Longreach LE is not a cheap camper, yet it does offer all-important towing lightness and toughness for remote-area touring as well as a large living space, sophisticated 12V electrics and big water capacity to stay at camp for a long time. Provided you can live with the canvas and set-up/pack down time (which you’ll get with any hard floor camper), this is a good alternative to a hybrid and appears to be one of the better-quality hard floors around.
2019 Cub Longreach LE Specifications
BODY LENGTH 3200mm
BODY WIDTH 1950mm
TARE WEIGHT 1425kg
PRICE AS TESTED $47,990 (drive-away)
MORE INFO cubcampers.com.au
Pros
• Sophisticated electrics;
• Large living space; and
• Spacious useable outdoor kitchen.
Cons
• High step into the camper;
• Canvas needs drying ASAP if wet; and
• That we don’t own it.