Honest opinion of 4wd supacentre gear

[solidute]

Yep I'm asking it. Ive had gear from them before both kings and the tigerz11 before they rebranded to kings. Some things I'm ok with the lesser quality as its not all that important but other things i want to know its a good bit of kit.

The tigerz11 gear was real crap, but the kings seems a little bit better. Im just not convinced that it's heaps better.

I'm in the market for a new awning and we're set on getting one with the tent attachment.

So far Darche is leading the race but the cost of a kings unit is quite attractive.

Can anyone who has a kings awning shed some light on the quality? My tigerz11 one broke the first time I tried to fold out the arms, the ironman one i replaced it with is still going strong.

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[JD-120]

I've never bought anything from there  personally. My experience is things are usually cheap for a reason. All comes down to how often you would use it I would think.

I buy cheap power tools cause I don't use them that often and if they break I'll just go replace them

A 4x4 awning on my vehicle would get used 3 times a year max, so I would prob but something cheaper.

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[JusyApples]

Think there's a few other similar threads on this


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[edz]

The alphabet camping store is holding a 20 > 50 % store wide sale this week end 2 x 2.5 m awning for club members $115 I thought wasnt too bad XTM brand unknown if any good though .
Wasnt the size I wanted .

[lloydus67]

Many many posts on this
To summarise
If you want a budget / entry level Chinese product with little or no moving parts like a swag, awning, gazebo etc, the value is hard to beat.  If you are looking to buy a higher end product or sophisticated electronic goods, ie fridge, generators etc where quality is going to matter and being let down in the middle of no where is a great way to ruin a holiday, I would probably imagine you would get better value from a second hand well known brand name ( all though the cost will still be higher) like Honda, Weaco, Engel etc.
But each to their own
If you go to one of their show room/ warehouses you will see a returns corner full of substandard/ faulty products, many of them are generators


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[BC66]

I have one of their fridges and it's great


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[Bird]

if your regularly going to use it, buy the Darche.
if its once a year, buy cheap

[weeds]

My awning cost $1200.....kings don't have an option that match what I wanted so therefore have no idea of Kong's quality.

when I was on fraser last there were probably 7-10 4WD's parked everybody out watching the trailer fisherman......it started to rain and our awning was deployed in less than 30sec......every 4WD had an awning of some sort there were a few kings and other brands, everybody else got in their cars to escape the rain to continue watching.

Kinda wondered why they purchased an awning.

May one or two drove off but the rest hung there for a good hour until the rain stopped.


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[weeds]

Oh, meant to mention...we set up our awning five time to each time our friends set theirs up.....mainly cause it takes less than 30sec, only requires one person set and pack up no poles or ropes.....(the majority of time)


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[Bird]

Kinda wondered why they purchased an awning.

the latest "I'm a hardcore 4wder image" icon item
used to be the high lift jack

[Hairs]

Do your research on a product.
What are you expecting, how long are you expecting it to last, how often are you going to use it.
Yep you get what you pay for.
Having said that, the gear is subsidised by 4wd Action Magazine sales.

I have purchased the rear draws + wings for the 80,  floor mat(3×3), fire plate & cast fry pan.
In the future I will probably get Thumper Max Air Compressor.
Just my 2 Bobs worth.





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[loanrangie]

Nothing wrong with their products, the awning's are at least as good as those from a 3 letter high priced store.
I have 2 swags , awning and walls, light bar and winch and happy with all of them.

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[PWE]

The #4 reply sums it up.
I have their drawer (very heavy), rooftop tent, deluxe sleeping bag and a couple of other non-electrical stuf. Use to have a engine monitor which broke after a month or so.
I have a oztent awning for 5+ years and it is brilliant. Wait for the BCF pre-Xmas specials and buy an Oztent awning.

[Brodie Tas]

I have a tigerz 11 awning on one my triton and a kings one on my patrol they have both held up really well and we did have a real windy night once but a few more guy ropes and no problems, but we do use our gazebo most camping trips i like to be able to drove away if camping

[PWE]

Kings canvas product are basically a carbon copy of the drifta canvas bags, similar to Drifta's hard shelf rooftop tent which Drifta copied from Alu Cab when Drfta was selling the Alu Cab tents, so ignoring the ethics, their awnings is as good as any other normal awning (with legs)

Hannibal and the legless 270 degrees $1,000+ ones are in a different class.

[Hookie]

I have their drawers in the back of my GU, and although the wings were very tight and I had to remove the rear brackets and rely on pressure to hold them down to make them fit, the parts that matter work well and for the price I have no complaints.

I also have the thumper mk2 (although it's a different colour and I paid more for it) and I would say it's just adequate. If I'm airing back up on a hot day it will cut out 2 or 3 times when it overheats and I have to wait a while for it to cool. I also replaced the hose and inflator with some more reasonable ones as the original hose burst when it got too hot and an inflator that doesn't tell you your tyre pressure is ridiculous.
Next time I am in the market for a compressor I will buy a better quality one with a pressure switch. My old man has a mean mother that's 110L/min (I think, from memory) and it seems to have about the same rate of inflation as my 160L/min.

[DaveR]

When it comes to Awnings, 90% of the time they seem to die the same sort of way no matter how much you spend.
When the breeze gets under them and they flip over the roof is the time you'll be happy you spent SFA on buying it.
I have the King 2.5 x 2.5 and modified it.
I have the 2.5 x 2.5 extension panel to anchor it down, and I have small carabina's to hook onto some stronger clips for 6mm tent ropes and the biggest sand pegs I could get.
I also have the Kings sand bags which out of the pack are useless, so i added some press studs to the base of the poles and bag straps.
Between all this, it holds it down well for the random breezes that pop up.
I have killed 2 over the times and been thankful they were cheap, as beside me 1 day a guy lots his $1,200 flash kit the same way.

[edz]

Not the Supa center but the Supa Cheap option for us, works a treat reliable and as quick to put up as big name brands [  been tested  ] and only cost about $50 if you had to buy all the bits ....
Cheaper if sourced second hand ..

[DaveR]

I should add that mine is mostly used as shade when working on my truck these days.... sadly.... 

Hey edz, I hope you can roll that up and tie on the roof just so you can drive around town with an awning up top. 

[edz]

Nahh Dave,  dont want it to get sun affected and spoil  the clean Aerodynamic lines of the truck, Besides that some jealous Bastard might flog it, its so good . 

[trinityalyce]

Not a fan of the Kings awnings... but also not a fan of the new ARB ones. Both are of similar quality. We travelled with people who had the Kings awning and it DID survive Cape York, but there's a number of things I don't like, one being how flimsy it feels. Unfortunately the current ARB ones aren't much better. Very similar design. We had our old awning break after 15+ years and naively replaced it with the ARB one without doing much homework on it first (unusual for us...). Really wish we'd shopped around more. It popped rivets within the month and feels cheap. Not what I'd call "usual ARB quality".

Old awning was an Open Sky one and it was great. It broke a zipper pull (purely from being on there so long and wearing through!), but the eventual reason for replacing it was due to one of the legs no longer tightening reliably. I think being well-used for 15 odd years speaks for itself. No idea if their new ones are still up to that quality... But if the are I wouldn't hesitate to buy another. A friend has had the same model one for ages and it's also doing fine.

[richo9923]

I have the kings portable wood stove, honestly got it knowing that it was prob going to be a loss of $90 (was on special), the night it arrived I got it in the yard and just burnt some kindling sticks that you buy from the servo, kept it burning for about 2 hours and watched the black paint on the top of the steel plate (cooking area) blister and peel, next morning the bare steel was spotted with rust so hit it with the sander and a few liberal sprays with a can of potbelly black paint I had, since then have had it running for up to 8 hours with all types of wood going in it and apart from the original paint peeling I can now say its

[Craig Tomkinson]

Hi all, I bought a 2,5 x 3m kings one before our trip out to Winton and its fitted to our Jayco pop up Van its flaming great, we only use it for shade for smoko and if in the camp through the day and if its blowing hard we do not put it up or we put it down. and if a storm is coming we would drop the awning and pack it up and pack the van up anyway, Craig

[PWE]

I've order two of their clear top canvas bags that fit inside their titan drawers.
I also have a set of th Drifta clear top canvas bags.
The 4wd ones arrived today.
The Drita canvas is heavier and the Drifta clear tops looks like it will hold up longer.
Will use both and see how they hold up, because looks can be deceiving.

[Brodie Tas]

I've been needing a new cover for my arb rooftop tent  for a while rang up arb was aroumd 350 i rang up kings 88 delivered so i went the kings one. Looking forward to seeing the difference in quality beacuse thats a massive price difference. I think the kings gear is alright from what i have brought from there and makes camping more affordable for younger faimlys and people who might only go camping a couple of times a year.