We have just cut short our first trip in our new Cub Camper - Spacematic Drover Off Road. We enjoyed 5 lovely days there, but today had a horrible experience. We found many faults with the Cub's Deluxe Annex. The set up is totally inadequate for strong winds. The poles are attached with c clips which keep popping off the poles. There are also not enough eyelets on the bottom of the annex walls to keep the wind out. Strong winds just pull out the pegs. At least 2 more eyelets on the shorter walls and 3 or more on the front - long side are needed. More Velcro straps around the poles are also a must. AS are, more Velcro straps on the roof to go around the poles. The Velcro spreader poles which are attached to the poles also not a good idea as they just break away in a strong wind.
We got very strong winds so we pegged down the annex walls. Tightened the guy ropes. Placed heavy bags on the inside flaps of the walls to stop the wind coming in. To no avail. The wind got stronger the pegs pulled out. The wind got in and the Velcro on the spreaders separated and the whole annex collapsed. To make it worse the whole trailer lifted and rocked.
We removed the annex - everything, walls and awning and the wind still lifted the back of the cub trailer - opposite the bed. My husband had to climb up onto the tool box to try and get the winch strap back onto the roof while I held onto the back bow bar from the outside. We ended up waiting for gaps in the wind gust to pack up the trailer as we thought the whole lot would rip off the frame.
Our Dingo Off Road trailer, soft floor camper trailer took the same winds in Eden and we didn't need to pack up. We now feel that almost $40,000 is wasted. I am no longer confident with this trailer. Shame we gave our son our old camper. We are trying to think of modifications that we can make to this trailer. Anyone else had the same experience? Your suggestions greatly appreciated as to how to modify the poles etc.
-- Edited by Zedd on Monday 27th of October 2014 07:54:41 PM
I used to have a Cub Spacematic Drover Outback .... I really loved it. However, the wind problem I can relate to - but thankfully never to the extent you have suffered.
If it was going to be really windy, I used to close the annex down because, as you can see from the photo, it was quite "exposed" to wind affect. I too had to 'retrieve' the wind-up 'cable' on occasions when it 'fell off' the roof.
Despite it not being in this photo, I bought chains and really heavy duty pegs and used to chain the end down (rear of flat floor) so that wind did not get under it and lift it up.
In some ways, it is like the awnings we now have on our caravans - not designed for strong winds - so we just wind them up when it is windy.
Not much help I guess, but best I can do.
Cheers - John
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2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE Auto - 2008 23ft Golden Eagle Hunter Some people feel the rain - the others just get wet - Bob Dylan
Thanks for your suggestion. I will tell my husband. We just were so disappointed with the trailer and we thought the whole lot would go flying off in the wind. It was frightening. And we have been through all sorts of weather extremes. We have been camping - either in a tent or camper trailer for about 40 years. So we are not new to camping.
This is only a segestion... Lashing down the body using 14 insh star pickets on all four corners would be a start .
Assuming you have warning time . This only is a thought hope it helps
Cheer .
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EVERY DAY IN EVERY WAY IT GETS BETTER
FROM Michael Crawford...".Some mothers do have them"
Should have stuck with the Dingo - we had one for ten years, never had wind troubles, apart from having to tie the whole thing to trees during a huge wind in Exmouth WA.
When we sold it as "experienced", there were no holes, mould, rips - terrific unit - paid from memory $4300 sold ten years lateer $3500 - not a bad price for ten years of wonderful adventures!!!
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jules "Love is good for the human being!!" (Ben, aged 10)
There is a campertrailer's group, a yahoo email group as well as on Facebook. There are some absolute Gurus for anything campertrailer related there. A link below to the website and articles for the group.
I will be contacting Cub Campers. I think other people also have problems, but just tend to fix the problems themselves. If more people actually complained, then Cub would realise that their annex system needs modifications and does not come up to the standard of the trailer. We spent a lot of time researching camper trailers before we bought it.
Some people have given me ideas which I will be trialling. The next time we encounter strong winds, we will be taking the awning and annex off. This is inconvenient, as that means table, chairs and kitchen etc all have to be packed up too. However, I still worry about the trailer lifting off the ground. John I can't believe you had to resort to attaching chains and anchoring these to the ground with large pegs.
I have since checked the wind speed and 10 kilometres away the wind gusts were reaching 78kph and that was more inland than where we were camping.
The trouble is that we also had to back it up in that wind and we were so worried that the gust would just rip it to bits as we winched it closed. especially when it was vertical just prior to the downward closure. I think we were extremely lucky and I really don't want to go through that again.
We spent a terrible night in a storm in an Aussie Swag camper-trailer. they are quite heavy, so the trailer itself didn't shift, but the awning was a mess. Fortunately when we retrieved it, nothing was torn, the top and sides had all been blown away separately, and were very muddy.
Even though the trailer didn't move except for rocking I was terrified, can understand how you must have felt. Sorry but I cant help with advice.
In caravan parks in cyclone-prone areas, each concrete slab is equipped with 4 tie-down points, so you can chain your caravan down should you need to. Scary thought, but some folk actually stay in their caravans during cyclones!
