Cub Improvements

[travelman]

Hi All
We have a 2008 Cub Supermatic Regal Off Road that we bought in good condition second hand three years ago.
We still think it's great camper and according to our rough calculations we've done about 30000km with it so far and have slept in it for 103 nights. It's been up and down the east coast between Canberra and Mackay, toured the Flinders Ranges, done the Birdsville Track, helped us explore Central Australia last year and back through Mt Isa, and luxuriated recently for a week at Byron Bay. Currently we're planning a trip with our Cub for later this year to the Kimberleys and the Pilbera. So as well as a lot of bitumen work, it's also been up and down some fairly rough tracks, with more to come.
If you do a search, you'll find details of the tropical roof we had made a while back out of heavy tarp which still works really well.
Recently, I've added a couple of extra improvements.
The original storage box on the A frame from Cub was OK, but we decided we needed something bigger for this year's planned adventure. There are a number of imported boxes available, but we chose a locally made one from Tong Metal. http://www.tongmetal.com.au/p/1580/tbha650
It's really well and strongly made, water and dustproof, and I've attached it with U bolts going under the A frame and secured inside the base of the box with large washers and nylock nuts. We chose the 1130 long one - a bigger one would have fitted but there might have been the temptation to carry a little too much extra junk.
The other recent improvement is a new winch. Everytime we wound up the floor, the old winch sounded like the army was doing machine gun practice - not good when trying to get away quietly from a campsite at daybreak without disturbing fellow campers. I phoned Pacific Hoists whose name was on the side of the old winch and they gave me the name of the company selling their products locally. A quick call to them secured a brand new winch (same physical size and colour as the original one) marketed as 'noiseless.' The BHW1200 cost me $165 all up including GST, less than half I'd been quoted elsewhere.
http://www.pacifichoists.com.au/our-products/categories/winches/hand-winches/pacific-brake-winches/
I wouldn't say it's absolutely silent, but all you hear up close now is the sound of the cogs turning. Not a machine gun within cooee!
I also got a new 50mm strap (to replace the skinny 25mm one) from a local upholsterer - about $20 all up with a loop being sewn into the end for attaching to the D bolt.
I'm not sure what the next improvement will be. We're pretty happy with our Cub as-is, especially with our increased storage and the new noiseless winch, but now doubt reading others' blogs on Myswag will get the creative juices flowing again before too long.
Travelman

[Terry W4]

Have to agree about the capacity of the box and the noisy winch.  I have a 2007 Regal Off-road purchased last year.  Have done one trip early this year as a shake down and learning experience. Loved it but made some mistakes re setup and pull down and packing.

Going off for a couple days 4x4 training this weekend and getting it ready.

What size water tank does the Regal have.  I have seen different figures quoted - I am assuming 60litres - never measure it mind you. Am about to sanitise and then add a water prifier.

[travelman]

Terry
From what I can gather, our Regal has an 80 litre tank. I can also carry two 20 litre jerry cans in the slots on the A frame so that gives a fair capacity, though because of the extra weight to tow I'd only do it if we were planning to be away free camping for awhile or if I knew the local water supply was dodgy or unpleasant tasting bore water. I guess it's not all that environmentaly friendly, but if we're heading off on a trip we'll often buy one of those packs of 24 water bottles for our drinking water for $8.00 from Woolies or Coles. And use the water in the tank for cooking, washing up, etc. At least you know the water's ok for drinking and the taste consistent.
One thing I am planning to do is to install a breather pipe on the water tank and terminate it up behind the storage box or in the space at the side of the kitchen with an on/off tap or some sort of filter. I was talking with a couple in Central Australia last year who'd come across one of the sandy desert tracks and they had got a great deal of sand in their tank which was causing a real mess. Evidently from the factory the tanks only come with a breather hole in the top of the tank which is a fairly easy entry point for dust, dirt, sand, etc under the right (or wrong) conditions. Will have to search Myswag for ideas about how to do it.
Good luck with the Off road course.
Travelman

[speewa158]

l might have to keep an eye on this 

[Chippy76]

 

Cheers Chippy

[Terry W4]

That figures. Thought it was 60 ltres but take a fair while to fill up. Have sanitised the tank and now fill up and added a water purifier.

 

Terry
From what I can gather, our Regal has an 80 litre tank.

[marvellous_matt]

in this thread there are a few photos of the 'breather' I found when I removed my water tank in my 2001 Kamperoo.

http://www.myswag.org/index.php?topic=33998.msg539116#msg539116

I now have a 90 degree elbow to fit to this hole, and I have a new lockable water filler cap that has provision for the breather to terminate there. I'm not sure if I will put some sort filter on it, or if the cap will be enough to keep dust out.