Nioka 22ft Full Off-Road

Would almost 40 years’ experience in the caravan repair industry, fixing a variety of vans including major brands both in and out of warranty, along with aftermarket fit-ups and servicing, be a good background for entering the caravan manufacturing industry itself?

We think so, based on what we’ve just seen from new player Nioka Caravans, set up recently by Suncoast Caravan Service.

The company has been at the same Maroochydore, Queensland address for the past 38 years and in that time has no doubt witnessed some of best and worst of RV and professional trailer manufacture.

As a result, Suncoast has put its acquired knowledge to use and turned out a very smart caravan branded Nioka; an aboriginal word meaning ‘green hills’ and one steeped in family history as the name of the family’s station property in years gone by.

HOT COMPETITION

Nioka enters a very competitive section of the market dominated by long-term players including Kedron, Bushtracker and in recent years, Free Spirit, all of which build heavyweight off-road vans of some repute.

While those companies are household names Nioka is but six months young but may well be seen by others to be a serious competitor.

The Nioka chassis is built out of Duragal steel with sections and bracket systems laser cut, leaving a pin-neat finish. The system is then powder coated with a hammer tone finish.

Construction is from 100mm square box section on top of another 100mm box section, attached to a 150 x 75mm RHS drawbar.

Swinging underneath is Vehicle Components’ Cruisemaster suspension comprising a coil spring with internal rubber buffers and twin shock absorbers built on a trailing swinging arm for each of the four wheels.

So it’s fair to say Nioka has begun with the best in this department.

Snug up in the chassis and out of harm’s way (and protected by sheaths of galvanised sheet metal) were three, 82 fresh water tanks.

The fitted hitch was a DO35 Hitchmaster also by Vehicle Components; another solid choice for off-road work.

The rest of the drawbar was quite sparse, save for a pair of 9kg gas bottles. There’s certainly plenty of room to install an outboard motor rack, hose tray, fire wood container or generator box amongst other things.

The front boot hosts the three 100Ah batteries and a brace of Redarc electronics that should take the hassles out of keeping voltage up to the appliances.

With 450W of solar panels on the roof you’ll only need to fire up the gen-set during extended overcast conditions.

The nearside wall of the van had the typical TV mount behind a door and in the rear corner an unusually elongated hatch that opened to reveal a void running up to near the roof with enough room for surfboards or fishing rods in the vertical position.

We can’t recall seeing anything like this in the marketplace but it’s a handy compartment to say the least.

The through tunnel boot at the front of the body was fully galvanised metal lined and well lit at each end.

GLOSS ALL THE RAGE

Isn’t it interesting how caravan design evolves?

In the 1970s and ‘80s finished wooden internals were square cut, probably due to the limitations of wood working machinery of the day.

From that time internal layouts were softened with curvaceous lines to tables, benches and cupboard edges and throw in some heavy drapes…. so here we are today where the general trend is square again and no curtains at all.

You can blame the latest laminated trend for this, with acute rounded corners particularly difficult with the latest laminated finishes. All said though, the square look is in, drapes are out and it looks neat!

The acrylic finish over 17mm lightweight ply material on the internal furniture should also last a long time with minimal upkeep. You need to get over the fact that it’s very reflective and will show grubby marks more readily than a timber finish but should outlast the latter by an off-road country mile and will be easier to clean.

Stepping inside, the kitchen bench runs to the right and offers lots of bench space and there’s a large window positioned behind the cook-top.

The splashback extends from the bench top to the bottom of the overhead cupboard in which a microwave unit is installed.

It’s good to see the rangehood installed under the overhead cupboards was vented to the outside rather than lost in the void of the superstructure walls as is often the case.

Drawer slides were ‘soft close’ style and the catches looked robust enough to take the strain of weight when bumping along off-road tracks.

Moving past the kitchen bench and into the bathroom, there’s a shower cubicle with a see-through door on the right and a very large vanity basin cupboard.

Overhead cupboards further add to the storage potential and a front loader washing machine sits at face level, installed in the offside corner above the toilet.

Heading back to the front of the van, we pass a 215 litre Waeco Coolmatic 12V fridge/freezer and arrive at a floor to ceiling height cupboard door behind which is a full height pull out wire basket pantry.

Further forward is a café style lounge with tri-fold coffee/dining table with seating that hosts a storage drawer with under cushion, through top access.

The guys at Nokia must have taken on board customer comments as they’ve built the front of the van without the usual window.

Instead, they left the wall soft upholstered and installed one large window each side of the queen sized bed for better cross ventilation, including heat deflectors and pull up light shields.

Hands up how many current van owners utilise the front window? We didn’t put our hand up either, and the reason for this is that it’s a pain to lean across the bed to release the locks and wind the window out.

But before that you have to climb across the external front to lift the stone guard and lock to open it.

Unless suffering the extremes of a tropical night, it’s easier to leave it closed and even better to not have one at all. Nioka has nailed this one!

Finally, a three-quarter robe each side of the bed complements a cupboard at the front of the bedside tables.

VERDICT

This was only the fourth production van from Nioka and it made its debut at the recent Gold Coast Caravan Show.

As such a lot of the potential add-ons were not present, but no doubt we’ll see further design changes and more options and features added soon enough.

It’s hard to fault the quality control and subsequent finish on this Nioka van though. On first impressions these guys are going to be around for a while so don’t be surprised to see plenty of these caravans on and off the tar in years to come.

WE LIKED:
>> Good durable interior finish
>> High quality components and accessories
>> Ability to customise components to suit the buyer

NOT SO MUCH:
>> Still early days in design and development
>> Second spare wheel should be standard...
>> So should dedicated BBQ/genset boot, for the price

NIOKA CARAVANS 22FT FULL OFF-ROAD
Length overall: 8.74m
External width: 2.334m
Overall external height: 3.1m (incl. air con)
Internal length: 6.56m
Internal width: 2.282
Internal height: 1.975
Tare: 2900kg
ATM: 3500kg
Ball weight: 270kg
Water: 3 x 82l tanks
Washing machine: Dometic front loader
Refrigeration: 215l Waeco Coolmatic 12V fridge/freezer
Aircon: Truma Aventa Mk11
Hot water: Suburban 12v ignition gas/electric
Cooker: Dometic three gas/one electric cooktop, grille. oven
Solar: 450W in panels
Battery Management: Redarc Solar MPPT 240V DCDC charger
Batteries: 3 x 100Ah Ritar batteries
Gas: 2 x 9kg
Options fitted: media hatch, extra solar panel, extra battery, extra water tank, 2 x 12V fans
Price as tested: $112,000
Supplied by: Suncoast Caravan Service, Maroochydore Qld
More info: Nioka Caravans