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Equipment Tests > Sugar Glider Camper Trailers
Sugar Glider Camper Trailers
There is a very neat storage compartment for long thin things like fishing rods and tent poles at the front. An interesting option for fishos is a $1500 boat loader that can be operated by one person, suitable for tinnies up to 3m long plus a small outboard motor mount. Another option is solar panel. Included in the price is a canvas awning and poles, carried under the bed. The awning does not include walls.
While storage is plentiful, none of the compartments have tie-down points, dividers or any real means of stopping things sliding around. Removable divides would be good so you can take the bulky stuff if you need to. Most of the drawers and lids, especially the kitchen pull-out, lack handles. The front bin is great, but can't be opened at the same time as the cooker lid is open as the two lids foul. The winch strap also needs to be loosened for the storage lid to be opened.
Setting up the camper is straightforward; undo latches, flick over the base unit, and up comes the canvas, no pegs as it's a hardfloor. A couple of latches were misaligned which made life a little harder. Then you go inside and extend a few poles. The hard one is the one over the bed; the technique is to lie on your back on the bed and push it out with your feet. Effective, but inconvenient. However, the advantage is that the extended poles give much more headroom at the front end when compared to campers which just use non-extending poles that must be short enough to fold down without compressing. At the back there are no vertical poles at so it lacks rigidity in high winds. The canvas did not seal completely around the base unit, a problem in wintry or dusty conditions. In general, fit and finish isn't market-leading, but serviceable.
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The trailer does need to be set up on very flat ground, with the main unit also flat. This is because the flip-over section tends to have its forward part touch the ground first. It would be better to design the camper higher, and rely on the ability to vary the height of the feet under the flip-out floor so it could be more tolerant of uneven terrain.
Minor points that would make life easier are a couple of external 12v supplies for camp lights, some interior pockets for storage and interior clip-on lights. There is one interior light but it's low-mounted, not a reading light. On the plus side, when the camper is in travel mode the access panel for the under-bed storage flips down to make a table or bench chair, something always useful for those roadside stops.
While we have our criticisms of the Sugar Glider many of them relatively easy to fix - such as tie-downs, extra 12v sockets -- or can be worked around. We discussed this report with Sugar Glider and they were very open to the idea of improvements, already committing to fix several of the more difficult issues such as the vulnerable underslung spare, location of the winch, storage improvements, a suspension lift and a few other points. As it is now, the Glider's retail price is $21,000 which puts it at the less expensive end of the market for its size. With a few refinements this could shape up to be a very good value camper as it has several notable positives such as the suspension and storage areas.
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While storage is plentiful, none of the compartments have tie-down points, dividers or any real means of stopping things sliding around. Removable divides would be good so you can take the bulky stuff if you need to. Most of the drawers and lids, especially the kitchen pull-out, lack handles. The front bin is great, but can't be opened at the same time as the cooker lid is open as the two lids foul. The winch strap also needs to be loosened for the storage lid to be opened.
Setting up the camper is straightforward; undo latches, flick over the base unit, and up comes the canvas, no pegs as it's a hardfloor. A couple of latches were misaligned which made life a little harder. Then you go inside and extend a few poles. The hard one is the one over the bed; the technique is to lie on your back on the bed and push it out with your feet. Effective, but inconvenient. However, the advantage is that the extended poles give much more headroom at the front end when compared to campers which just use non-extending poles that must be short enough to fold down without compressing. At the back there are no vertical poles at so it lacks rigidity in high winds. The canvas did not seal completely around the base unit, a problem in wintry or dusty conditions. In general, fit and finish isn't market-leading, but serviceable.
read on below advertisement
The trailer does need to be set up on very flat ground, with the main unit also flat. This is because the flip-over section tends to have its forward part touch the ground first. It would be better to design the camper higher, and rely on the ability to vary the height of the feet under the flip-out floor so it could be more tolerant of uneven terrain.
Minor points that would make life easier are a couple of external 12v supplies for camp lights, some interior pockets for storage and interior clip-on lights. There is one interior light but it's low-mounted, not a reading light. On the plus side, when the camper is in travel mode the access panel for the under-bed storage flips down to make a table or bench chair, something always useful for those roadside stops.
While we have our criticisms of the Sugar Glider many of them relatively easy to fix - such as tie-downs, extra 12v sockets -- or can be worked around. We discussed this report with Sugar Glider and they were very open to the idea of improvements, already committing to fix several of the more difficult issues such as the vulnerable underslung spare, location of the winch, storage improvements, a suspension lift and a few other points. As it is now, the Glider's retail price is $21,000 which puts it at the less expensive end of the market for its size. With a few refinements this could shape up to be a very good value camper as it has several notable positives such as the suspension and storage areas.
next page »
