New off-road rival for Bushtracker

Another manufacturer of heavy-weight, off-road caravans has emerged from the Sunshine State.

Nioka Caravans is the new manufacturing arm of the Maroochydore-based
Suncoast Caravan Service, which for the past 38 years has been servicing and repairing caravans around the Sunshine Coast area.

Suncoast owner Bruce Beausang, along with his  26-year-old son-in-law, Adam Twist, are two of the main people behind the new business, which is concentrating on full-sized, off-road caravans to take on across town rivals Bushtracker and Kedron.

To help drive the new business Suncoast has hired four new staff, including ex-employees of Australian Off-Road and Sunland Caravans, adding to the repairer’s existing 26 staff.

“Our (caravan) build team of four guys has over 50 years experience in servicing and manufacturing,” Twist said.

“Our focus is on full off-road custom-built vans… Our standard features are Cruisemaster suspension, 300W solar panels, three batteries...”

While the construction method of timber or aluminium frame with aluminium stucco cladding on a powdercoated, Duragal chassis is nothing new, Twist said the aim was to avoid some of the “pitfalls” experienced by owners of other caravans such as cracked A-frames and water leaks.

“There’s nothing really special about (the caravan’s construction). It’s just the final finishing we do, gained through our experience in seeing other people’s issues. Having no warranty issues is our goal.

“For example, we’re double insulating the roof in our vans, then laying a 3mm ply over the top (as a base), because a lot of vans are coming into us with uneven and bubbly roofs holding water…”

“We’re also using industrial grade silicone and the techniques we’re using to seal with the silicone gives us a really great finish.”

Inside, the latest contemporary look is achieved with lightweight furniture ply finished in StyleLite high gloss acrylic finished foil, similar to the
latest Kedron caravans
.

“I would say we have the external finish of a Bushtracker with the internal finish of a new Roadstar,” he said.

So far, five Nioka caravans have found buyers over the past six months, ranging from 17ft to 22ft long and weighing around 2500kg or more (Tare).  

Twist said the plan is to build around 20 vans this year.

“I don’t want to get too big. My main focus is quality, as I’ve seen people build all these vans and I’m fixing them under warranty, and I don’t want to be like that.”

Like their hard-core rivals, the Nioka vans don’t come cheap, with an 18ft van with gas heater, Al-Ko ESC, 215 litre fridge, and Redarc battery management system recently selling for around $100,000.

Twist said the Nioka name was chosen as it was the name of a cattle property owned by Bruce Beausang’s family. It's derived from an Aboriginal word meaning ‘rolling hills’

A 20ft Nioka caravan will be on display at the Queensland Caravan, Camping & Touring Supershow at the Brisbane Showgrounds from June 3-9.