Marlin Ultimate Rear Fold reviewed at Camper Trailer of the Year 2024

TIM VAN DUYL — Camper Australia Creative Director

The Marlin Campers range has a few defining features that sets it apart from the competition — most notably its campers’ featherlight weight yet tough build and low cost. This year’s entry into Camper Trailer of the Year had a lot to live up to with the Escape Deluxe having won Best Value for Money in 2020. Fast forward a few years and we’ve got the Ultimate Rear Fold, the pinnacle of the range, which is still compact, still nimble and lightweight and still very budget-friendly, starting from only $19,490. But there were some changes and improvements, most obvious of all being an updated layout. And given Marlin won the Best Value for Money category yet again, you can tell it’s doing something right.

Innovation

It is hard to innovate on something as fundamentally simple as a box-trailer camper. Builders of this type of camper are somewhat restricted to the footprint of the trailer from which they build.

Steve — the owner, designer and production manager for Marlin Campers — loves to tinker and find ways to make his style of camper easier to use, more affordable and more robust. For 2024, the major change has been to move to a rear folding tent. The brand was predominantly side folding for the better part of the past five years, so I was surprised to hear of the change, but it makes sense. The new layout, sans awning, fits in the footprint of a caravan so it is better suited to most holiday parks. And if you set up the awning, your footprint is still within the same size of a van with its awning out. The previous generation, fully set up, could be as much as 6m (19ft 7in) wide. This move has taken a smidge of floor space out of the tent floorspace, but there is still room for a pair of cots or a table and chairs.

Importantly, details that have always impressed me in Marlin’s builds have carried over. You can still lift the tent base up off the trailer to access the storage area when fully set up, the kitchen still rolls out of the trailer but now swings on a heavy-duty hinge to the side of the camper and you can set it up single-handed. Admittedly, not as quickly as trailers with fewer poles but you can forgive that for its price.

Quality and build

With Steve spending a lot of time on the factory floor and being the main sales contact, you can trust he keeps a good eye on the 10-strong team in Somersby, NSW. His attention to detail is only bettered by his tinkering and finessing and nowhere is this more obvious than in the neat kitchen module.

Built with lightweight laminated timber, it’s super clever in how it features everything you need from space for a collapsible sink and countersunk shelf for a portable gas cooker to drawers and a handy drop-down shelf doubling as a cupboard door. There are bench extensions, holders for tea towels and rubbish bags — these small kitchens pack a punch from a useability and clever design standpoint.

Fundamentally, the Ultimate is also a stout camper with a 50mm x 50mm x 3mm Australian steel chassis rolling on ARK 7 Leaf suspension and six-stud steel wheels with 235/75 all-terrain tyres. The floor of the camper is hard-wearing checkerplate and the body of the trailer is made with ZINCANNEAL steel for durability. For what this camper weighs and what it can haul, it’s as tough as they come and with regular maintenance, should last decades.

Intended purpose

This is still a camper designed for longer, more adventurous stays than most others. It’ll take a little longer to fully set up its annex and to set up camp generally, but you can short-stay if you only extend the rear fold, but that’s not what the Ultimate is about.

With the volumes of storage in the large front locker and inside the body of the camper, plus its decent payload (320kg), you can easily carry a family load of gear from bikes on the long drawbar to water toys inside the camper (or carefully on the packed-down tent cover), making it ideal for young families camping for a week at a holiday park or a few days in the bush.

An unrivalled low weight also means owners do not have to invest in expensive or large tow rigs. With its 1000kg ATM and super-low approx. 45kg ball weight, it’s possible to tow any Marlin with what most would call a city car. We’ve seen all manner of Subarus towing them, even Toyota Camrys and older Holdens and their tiny packed-down footprint means they can be tucked away under carports or down the side of the house with real ease.

SCOTT HEIMAN — Heiman Habitat

At its core, the Marlin Ultimate Rear Fold offers a 3.7m x 1.7m (12ft 1in x 5ft 6in) box trailer to store your camping gear, a tent and just enough amenities to turn the inevitable chores of camping into a pleasure. While accurate, this description is inadequate to describe the level of self-sufficiency that this camper offers.

Self-sufficiency

With a 320kg payload and 1080L of storage space, the Marlin Ultimate Rear Fold comes standard with a REDARC GoBlock 100Ah lithium battery, 120V solar panel and plenty of 12V sockets. There’s a 60L water tank (with the option to upgrade to 120L), a water pump and Country Comfort hot water system, two jerry can holders and two 4.5kg gas holders. The water tank can be isolated from the pump, meaning you can draw creek water from a bucket for showering. Beyond this, of course, the big-ticket items are the Australian-built Drifta kitchen and the high-quality trailer-mounted tent with a soft floor annexe and an awning. And because the rear fold configuration fits the footprint of a standard ensuite site at a tourist park, it will be easy to stop in for a thorough wash-up and refill now and again.

The tent itself is 14-ounce poly cotton insulated with a thermal foil panel sandwiched between the roof canvas. While this approach to insulation sounds basic, combined with the tent’s numerous windows, it really helps ensure the tent stays cool and ventilated in hot conditions. Equally, on cold nights, it keeps condensation from gathering and dropping water over the bed spaces. For families, there’s sufficient space for a couple of bed stretchers to be set up inside the annexe. Meanwhile, outside, the canvas awning extends out 2.4m (7ft 9in) offering plenty of living space when the weather turns foul.

Ultimately, the Marlin Rear Fold provides the sort of utility that would be the envy of anyone who’s spent time at the end of a long day struggling to haul a tent bag off a car roof, pumping up air mattresses and hunting around for luggage stuffed in the boot behind the camp fridge. I remember days like these vividly from numerous outback trips in a FJ40 Shorty with my family in the 1980s, and it’s the sort of experience that turned my brother off camping for life. Perhaps if we’d had a Marlin camper as kids he wouldn’t have emigrated back to the UK as an adult.

Offroad and towing

Steve from Marlin told us that 70 per cent of his clients own a mid-sized AWD, so this is not a group of adrenaline junkies spending their weekends looking for punishing back tracks to challenge their rig and camper. But if you have more adventurous ambitions, the Marlin Ultimate Rear Fold can go wherever your tow vehicle can. It has a tiny approx. 45kg ball weight, 680kg tare, with Australian-made ARK 7 Leaf rebound suspension and a strong 45mm solid axle. Coming standard with 6-stud 15in steel rims with strong-walled light truck tyres, Marlin will happily match the stud pattern to your tow tug if need be. The quality Australian-made box trailer is produced exclusively for Marlin. Because the camper is so simply constructed, Steve provides a maintenance checklist that any home handyman (or woman) can routinely carry out to ensure that all bolts, brackets and fittings remain tight and terrific. Towing the Marlin Ultimate behind an Isuzu D-MAX during judging, it effortlessly navigated the particularly sticky conditions that we encountered on the Barraba Track in Mount Kaputar National Park, NSW. Doing exactly what it was supposed to do, it followed loyally behind as we navigated steep climbs, rocky ridges, narrow bends and slippery descents. I can honestly say there are few campers I would have been as comfortable towing over similar terrain.

X-Factor

In a camper market bursting with camper manufacturers intent on delivering all your household paraphernalia and electronic gadgetry on wheels, Marlin Campers is a breath of fresh air. Ultimately, the Marlin Ultimate Rear Fold is a self-sufficient camper for self-sufficient campers. Steve expects that it will be a component of an owner’s overland setup. So, if you’re a camper who knows how to make the most of what nature has to offer, make the Marlin Ultimate Rear Fold your camping buddy and there’ll be little stopping you staying in the great Australian outdoors for as long as you like.

KATH HEIMAN— Heiman Habitat

Ease of use

The Marlin Ultimate Rear Fold is intended to be the camper you buy when you first step away from swag or tent camping. That is, you already have a garage or shed out the back brimming with camping gear. So, the level of comfort you achieve in the Marlin Ultimate will be driven largely by how you choose to utilise the 1080L of storage area provided by the 1.7m (5ft 6in) wide box trailer which forms the camper’s bones — with one major exception. That is, the Marlin Ultimate provides a 100mm foam queen mattress, so you’re now guaranteed a comfortable place to ease your aching bones at the end of a long day behind the wheel or wandering in the great outdoors. And, because the bed is raised off the floor, you don’t have to crawl down to enjoy it. Indeed, the mattress is set on a wooden platform made from 19mm marine ply which is covered on both sides with a laminate to seal the timber and to stop any splintering. Supporting this is a galvanised steel sub frame for added strength. This wooden base construction, which was unique among the entrants, retains heat better than a base made of metal or fibreglass, so it will help keep you warmer at night when the mercury drops. Talking about insulation, the roof on the Marlin Ultimate is double lined with an insulation layer inserted between the canvas. This simple construction achieves real climate change — both by retaining warmth inside the tent at night, as well as by helping to keep the heat from the sun’s rays out of the living space during the day.

When you go to camping and caravanning shows, the salespeople will inevitably want to show you how fast their campers can be erected. And Steve from Marlin is no different: he’ll happily show you how easy the Ultimate is to set up. But for this year’s CTOTY event, we took it one step further — we timed him. And I have to say Steve passed this test with flying colours. The Ultimate was fully established, with the kitchen deployed under the awning and ready to make a brew, in just two minutes and 45 seconds. Certainly, Steve does this every day. So, you might expect to add five minutes to your own set-up time if you’re a beginner. But we’d wager it wouldn’t be long before the process would speed up for you too as the actions become ingrained in your subconscious. The hinging system makes everything as easy as possible and allows you to set up camp single-handedly while the rest of the crew gets a campfire going or gathers the fishing gear together. Chances are you’ll be finished before they are, especially if you’re not deploying the awning for a quick overnight stop.

Comfort

An interesting feature of the Marlin Ultimate Rear Fold is that the kitchen can be established either inside the main tent or outside under the awning. In some campers the kitchen can seem to be in the way of the living space. However, when it’s under the awning the Ultimate’s kitchen folds laterally along the side of the trailer and leaves plenty of covered space for everyone else to move around. On one rainy day during filming there were at least eight adults standing comfortably under that same awning while the kitchen was being used.

Talking of the camper’s footprint, because the tent folds rearward, it will fit comfortably into caravan ensuite sites at tourist parks, and this will be a welcome feature when you’re looking to pamper yourself after two or three days roughing it off grid. And, while you’re on the road, it’s worth noting that the camper comes standard with a Country Comfort instant hot water shower with a draw capacity from a bucket, jerry or (not tested) from a creek/river. We’d recommend against using the creek/river draw capacity, however, because you’re at risk of contaminating the water source with runoff unless you’re 50–100m away from a body of water. Instead, top up a bucket from the creek and enjoy your rub-a-dub-dub further away.

The Marlin Ultimate was the smallest camper at the event with a tare of 680kg, ATM of 1000kg (upgradeable to 1400kg with electric brakes) and a tiny ball weight of 45kg. This means you don’t have to be an expert at reversing. If you get yourself in a pickle, just swivel the hitch to the ball if you need to. Being so light also means that you don’t need a large 4WD with more talk than torque to tow the Marlin Ultimate. This little champion will sit happily behind a Honda CR-V or Subaru Outback.

Value for money

During this year’s CTOTY event, Steve told us that two years ago he was selling a similar-sized side fold camper for $2000 more. So, we were interested to know how he’s been able to reduce his pricing given the market effects of COVID and the current cost-of-living crisis.

What we learnt was that Marlin recently employed specialised trailer fabricators. Bringing the trailer manufacturing in house and combining two factories that were previously 100km apart into one location on the central coast of NSW, this change has made production more efficient and economic, and Marlin can pass on the associated savings to the consumer — you! Now, from my experience, this sort of customer care is very rare. Indeed, I’d be surprised if you could find a better Australian-made soft floor camper for less money.

The wrap

It’s no surprise that Marlin again won Best Value for Money. We judges debated long and hard about the fact they are basic and that some other campers at CTOTY came with more, but a lot of what you get in other campers can add complexity or reduce reliability and useability. The Marlin Ultimate Rear Fold just gets what matters right. It’s built tough, it’s simple in its design but clever in its execution and it has what a young family looking to hit the road on a budget needs and nothing more.

MARLIN ULTIMATE REAR FOLD SPECS

Weights and dimensions

Construction

Power, water and cooking

Marlin Ultimate Rear Fold price from $19,490

Options fitted

Nil

Marlin Ultimate Rear Fold price as shown $19,490

More information

Marlin Campers

Unit 2, 24 Pile Road

Somersby NSW 2250

P: 02 4315 3605

E: info@marlincampers.com.au

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Camper Trailer of the Year 2020: Marlin Escape Deluxe