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NEWS
North Coast takes on big hitters
Queensland off-road specialist undercuts rivals with new sub-two-tonne 17ft hybrid modelCaloundra's North Coast Campers and Caravans is tackling its direct rivals from Australian Off Road and Kimberley head on with a spacious, new and fully equipped 17ft tandem off-roader, the model tipping the scales at under two tonnes and coming in at up to $30,000 cheaper.
While the Caloundra off-road specialist has previously offered a 17ft pop-top off-roader, the new full-height Titanium model that makes its Victorian debut at the upcoming Melbourne Leisurefest (October 6 to 9) takes the fight directly to its Caloundra and Ballina rivals.
The project began earlier this year when founder Brian Ward built a unique full-height version of the pop-top for his own travels and displayed it at the Queensland caravan show in June.
Skewed towards the Queensland outdoor living he enjoyed, it had a hot dipper gal chassis, adjustable airbag suspension, four huge fully opening Dometic Seitz side windows, a full north-south queen bed, café dinette, a combined shower and toilet ensuite, an internal two-burner cooktop, Truma gas heating, a full external kitchen, 500 litres of fresh water storage, 600W of solar on the roof, three 120Ah AGM batteries, a Redarc battery management system and 350W inverter, and huge internal and external storage to suit its payload of up to one tonne.
However, he found that the model had equal appeal to 'southern' customers who tend to spend more time indoors, and when he was asked for a larger shower and toilet ensuite, a larger fridge, microwave, a full internal kitchen and a front-loading Dometic washing machine, he decided to add the 17tft Off-Road to the Titanium range.
Unlike its Aurora and Kimberley Kruiser rivals, the 17ft Titanium is a skinnier 2100mm wide, meaning it can track behind a large 4WD without requiring extension mirrors.
Like the Aurora and Kruiser, the Titanium employs marine-grade fibreglass cladding over an aluminium body frame, but with attention to detail Brian Ward has managed to pare the caravan's tare weight down to an impressive figure of under two tonnes – even with all the comfort features.
This compares to the physically longer and 50mm wider Aurora's tare of 2350kg and the 170mm wider tandem-axle Cruiser T3's 2670kg (although the singe-axle Kruiser S Class also weighs in at under two tonnes.
Some of this comes from creative use of fibreglass for inside storage, while lightweight materials are also used for the unstressed upper cabinetry and the unique entry door that North Coast also makes in-house.
The other killer Titanium 17ft feature is its price, with the bare pricing before additional equipment starting in the mid $90,000 bracket. This compares to the tandem Kruiser T3's opening price of $107,380 and the Aurora's $128,000.
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Written byCaravancampingsales Staff
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Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
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