North Coast Titanium 15ft 2019 Review

Apologies to our ‘Scomo’, but North Coast founder Brian Ward is a ‘fair dinkum’ bloke who builds fair dinkum off-road hybrids.

The difference is reflected in what he and his 13-strong team are building in their new, few-frills factory in Australia’s hybrid manufacturing heartland of Caloundra. Sure, he’s got a couple of tough-looking vehicles in his car space, but what Brian Ward likes to do best is remote area camping, so the off-roaders he builds embody his experience.

From soft to hard

Back in late 1995, the first ‘North Coast’ was Ward's personal soft floor camper. Then came a familiar story; his mates asked him to build one for them and so the business started. He then moved to hard-walled hybrids in 2006 when interest in more comfortable campers grew.

The latest $92,000 tandem axle North Coast Titanium 15ft is an evolution of – and an alternative to – the $88,500 single axle Hybrid that is North Coast’s ‘bread and butter’. However, Ward rates it as ‘even better in the bush’.

Coming from someone else you might dismiss that as ‘marketing’ hype, but North Coast has some solid points to back that assertion.

For a start, the 15-footer tandem comes standard with height-adjustable air bag suspension, but instead of it acting on twin, independent trailing arms, it employs twin live axles with single large-bore EFS shock absorbers.

Why? They require less maintenance, add just 136kg to the Hybrid’s tare weight and, according to Ward, are more stable on washed out tracks and gullies, while the air bags smooth out the corrugations. It’s not all talk – that’s what he’s built for himself for his next Outback adventure.

The tandem is also good on sand – something we noticed when we took the Titanium onto the Cooloola Coast beach, north of Noosa, where its four tyres running at low pressures spread its 1850kg weight more evenly than the single axle model.

Looks tough too

Another part of the tandem Titanium’s appeal is that it looks ‘tough’, even more so on the new 15ft version than the 17ft Titanium tandems North Coast has been building for some years.

You'd expect two axles and four wheels under a 15ft hybrid to chew up more interior and storage space than a single axle set-up, but the packaging of the 2019 Titanium Tandem has actually slightly increased its exterior storage capacity.

For a start, the live axles take up less room underneath, allowing enough space to accommodate 400 litres of fresh water in twin poly tanks.

Exterior storage is excellent, with a large 100mm x 500mm x 500mm storage box – large enough to accommodate a 2kVa generator or Weber Baby Q on a slide – flanked by twin jerry can holders on the Titanium’s 150mmx 50mm x 3mm hot dipped galvanised A-frame.

A dual wheel flip-up ARK 750 jockey wheel and a sturdy truck-mesh stone shield up front and twin rear-mounted spare wheels show that North Coast takes off-road travel seriously.

A full though-the body-locker immediately behind swallows other bulky items that you might want to take along on a long remote area trip.

Part of this locker is a slide-out stainless steel sink with a fold-down mixer tap, with a large pot drawer below. These are partnered by a three-burner gas cooktop in the adjacent 220 litre pantry, whose top-hinged lid on its gas struts provides some shelter if you can’t be bothered deploying the large Dometic wind-out awning.

On the other side, there's a separate dust-proof hatch that hides an external shower and the valves that control the flow of fresh and grey water.

User-friendly features

However, while North Coast never claims to be a vanguard of new technology, they have been amongst the first Hybrid manufacturers to embrace useful, labour-saving technology.

The best example of this is the hydraulic actuation of its pop-top roof – something very desirable given its size and weight with its two large 200W glass solar panels.

To activate the roof’s two centrally-mounted stainless steel struts, you simply press a rocker switch and two steel rams and its scissor hinges elevate it into the right position.

If you run out of 12v power in the bush you can lower it manually, while over-centre external corner latches keep it in place and the dust out when travelling.

Typical of the quality fittings used, the roof curtain is made from 380GSM rip-stop vinyl – about twice the thickness of that used on most hybrids – so it folds down properly.

Functional interior

Once erected, you enter via North Coast’s unique, in-house-made door. This incorporates a left-hinged, swing out window that allows you to direct cooling breezes into the Titanium, whereas must caravans and Hybrids have fixed door windows.

Inside, the North Coast Hybrid is remarkably spacious considering its compact size and the fact that it incorporates a north-south queen bed, a combined shower/toilet bathroom in one rear corner, a two-person café dinette and generous internal cooking and bench space.

The queen bed is pushed against the left hand wall, making it easier to access than a transverse bed. As there's no front window, the bed pushes right up into the nose of the Titanium, leaving space for 190 litres of under-bed storage in two large drawers.

A long bench running along the left hand wall incorporates a stainless steel sink with a hot/cold mixer tap and four useful-size drawers to house all your clothing and personal needs.

Meanwhile there are three more drawers under the internal two-burner cooktop and more bench space above its adjacent 130L Vitrifrigo compressor fridge.

Touchscreen tech

Breaking the Titanium’s utilitarian mould is its Redarc RedVision management system that sounds like a luxury, but it’s a practical feature for remote area survival.

As fitted to the Titanium, the RedVision allows you to monitor the charge of its twin 120AH lithium batteries, that are fed by two 200W rooftop solar panels, while also showing the levels of its water tanks and how much energy you're drawing from its power storage via the Titanium’s standard 350W pure sine wave inverter.

Once considered a gimmick, power management is now considered an essential on modern Hybrids, given their extended off-grid ability.

You wouldn’t call the combined shower/toilet luxurious, but it's functional, with a sliding curtain at shoulder height providing privacy and a splash barrier. Nothing fancy here – just simple cassette toilet and not a lot of room for larger users.

Summing up

The North Coast 15ft Titanium Hybrid is an appealing blend of strength and worthwhile new technology. It’s built to last rather than dazzle and that’s a large part of its appeal to serious remote area travellers, with the promise of extra stability for little weight gain in its new 15ft tandem axle guise.

2019 North Coast Titanium 15ft Tandem

Travel length: 7204mm
External body length: 4800mm
Interior body length: 4570mm
External body width: 1950mm
Travel height: 2100mm
Interior height: 2000mm
Tare: 1850kg
ATM: 3500kg
Ball weight: 185kg
Body: Marine grade insulated foam fibreglass sandwich panel
Chassis: 150mm x 50mm x 3mm hot dipped galvanized steel with 3500kg rated McHitch coupling
Suspension: Tandem beam axle, with NCC airbag suspension and four EFS shock absorbers
Brakes: Electric drums
Wheels: 17in alloy
Fresh water: 2 x 300 litres
Battery: 2 x 120Ah Lithium with 350 Watt Redarc inverter and RedVision management
Solar: 2 x 200W roof-mounted glass panels
Air conditioner: Optional
Gas: 2 x 4kg
Cooking: Internal 2 burner gas cooktop and stainless steel sink, plus slide-out external kitchen with 3 gas burners and stainless steel sink with mixer tap
Fridge: 130L Vitrifrigo compressor
Shower/toilet: Internal combined shower/toilet and external shower
Lighting: LED throughout
Price: $92,000
Supplied by: North Coast Campers and Caravans, Caloundra, Qld