Camper Trailer Australia — December 2017

rear locker engaged, and pressures dropped

it was almost irrelevant the camper was even

hitched. Pick a line, point the tiller where you

wanted to go, ease off the brakes and the

whole package effortlessly crawled through

the slippery sandstone course before me with

the camper happily doing as it was told.

There’s a pretty stout rear step protecting

the tail end of the camper from wayward

rock-ledges in steep terrain, with a pair of

recovery shackles either side if you run out

of talent. While poly-blocks are noisy and a

little goofy to attach they work well offroad

allowing the camper to slowly step in and out

of ruts without unsettling the tow-tug along

the way.

This model, the Premium, runs a larger

tent than the entry level Deluxe, so branches

and deep embankments need to be watched

cautiously as the tent is the most vulnerable

part of the camper. But for beach work, fire

trails, and most tough offroad situations it

shouldn’t give you too much grief.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

If you’re expecting a double-articulating twin

fold design, the Premium might not be your

cup of tea (Signature do offer a traditional

forward fold if that’s your bag). Set up is

relatively straight forward though. Drop the

four stabiliser legs into place, zip off the bag

then find somewhere to store it. Then set to

work on the tent. The whole arrangement

is reminiscent of the classic roof top tent.

Grab a handful of canvas at the rear and

pull it over. Once the floor is pegged out

square you can climb inside, put the ladder

into place and after a few adjustments have

a reasonably comfortable 80mm foam

mattress to lay your head down on as well

as ample standing room on the ground level

for changing, dry space out of the weather,

or setting up a couple of kid’s stretchers.

There’s plenty of room inside the bag too

so you can keep blankets and pillows up top

which drastically cuts down set up times. All

up the whole affair took less than 10 minutes.

Access to the fridge slide is through the main

tent which is handy for midnight snacks, but

does mean inside is quite cosy, when you’re

all set up. It’d be great to see a system that

holds the ladder more securely, but as this is

essentially the first run of these campers, I’d

expect the guys from Signature to sort out

niggling issues as the product line evolves.

The kitchen arrangement is neat and easy

to use. A classic stainless steel slide-out unit

pulls out of the front storage box with the

two-burner SMEV hooking directly to the

nearby 9kg gas bottle. Bench space is low,

A classic stainless-steel slide out unit
pulls out of the front storage box

A hard-core beast built for the rough

stuff, not genteel jaunts

Being light-weight and compact has

obvious advantages