Titan Blackhawk 2021 Review

At just 28 years old, James Creswick is one of Australia’s youngest caravan manufacturers, heading up Titan caravans at its new Burpengary factory and sales HQ north of Brisbane.

What would someone that young know? Well plenty, as it turns out. After working for his family-owned company from the age of 15, and with time at Toyota, he's experienced many aspects of the industry, from retail sales and manufacture to distribution.

Now, harnessing all this experience, he intends to make Titan one of Queensland’s leading RV brands.

“I’ve sold a lot of caravans, but I got fed up with dealing with shipping, delays and managing quality from third parties,” he said. “So I decided to control my own future.”

To do this, he acquired 10 year-old Titan caravans, moved it from its Eagle Farm, Brisbane base into expansive new premises in a caravan enclave at Burpengary, and recently negotiated to supply caravans to major South Australian dealer Dave Benson Caravans.

The deal will see the large Adelaide dealer take more than 100 units from him in 2021, with the potential for many more in the years ahead.

Bold plans for Titan

Creswick sees the move to  Burpengary and the Adelaide order as the springboard for his larger vision of building Titan into one of Queensland’s premium caravans, along such established brands such as Kedron, Sunland and Zone RV.

His plan involves a blend of hands-on management, quality finish, increasing locally-sourced premium components and expanding best-practice customer support that together he hopes will drive annual Titan production to a peak of 500 camper trailers, hybrids and fixed-roof caravans within five years and more than double factory workforce numbers in the process.

Titan’s new competitiveness stems from its factory, where the lines that build its campers and caravans are just a 30-second stroll from Creswick’s unpretentious office. This allows him to keep an eagle eye on how his RVs are built and to solve any problems that might arise.  

It also allows the Toyota-like production system he's familiar with, where problems are solved at source, rather than sending a van back for rectification from the end of the line.

Going local

Creswick is also fanatical about customer support and this has led to his preference to engage quality, locally-based suppliers to achieve this.

For example, the new Titan Super Tourer versions of the current Blackhawk Touring caravan and full-height hybrid models to be launched mid-year will be equipped as standard with a Brisbane-sourced 200AH Enerdrive B-Tech lithium battery, connected to an RV80 board, with a 240v and DC2DC Enerdrive charger joined to twin 180 Watt rooftop solar panels.

The foundation of this power system will become standard on all forthcoming Blackhawk Touring models, with the exception of the Enerdrive battery, which will be standard on Super Tourers and a $2200 option on regular Blackhawk Touring models.

Soon to be launched AL-KO Outback premium off-road independent suspension, will also become standard across the expanded Titan range, replacing the current in-house designed and Chinese-made T-Tech trailing arm, coil spring and twin shock absorber per wheel system. Brisbane-made Cruisemaster steel and air suspension will remain an extra-cost option.

24 hour support

The move to more locally-based premium suppliers is driven by the need to streamline production and to be on hand to give buyers rapid support, wherever they are, if required.

“Some of these products come to us at a price premium, but when you really boil it down, that premium is not excessive," said Creswick.

"For example, the time that a custom made and tested power-board can save us by integrating into our production and enhancing our customer support is worth the cost.

"It gives us happy customers, supports our customer support and full off-road warranty and gives us an additional edge over many Campbellfield, Victoria-built caravans.

”Queensland-built caravans are already regarded as Australia’s toughest because they're built to withstand our state’s climate extremes and many unsealed roads and this is something we are building on.”

And if all this breaks down, there’s a 24-hour 1800 TITAN service number his customers can call from wherever.

“We are now seeing customers on their second and even third Titan,” he said. “We want to build on that word-of-mouth recommendation”.

Out in the dirt

It all sounds utopian and ambitious, but after sampling Titan’s latest 21ft 6in Blackhawk Family Bunk van, Creswick’s vision is not unrealistic.

Priced at $89,990, the 21ft 6in Blackhawk Family Tourer is right on the money for a large tandem axle triple-bunk van and with its equipment represents good value considering its all-roads touring ability.

The first thing you notice, apart from the Blackhawk’s distinctive light tan and black colour scheme, is the impressively-smooth finish of its Chinese-sourced 35mm diameter full sandwich fibreglass wall and roof panels.

Being around 5mm thicker than usual composite walls, they offer superior insulation properties, keeping the interior of the Blackhawk cooler than you’d expect for a van with coloured exterior panels.

The van sits on an imported 150mm x 50mm hot-dipped galvanised chassis with a similar spec A-frame – both 3mm thick. Creswick said both undergo a stringent quality control process in Australia involving X-raying its welds to ensure that the correct penetration rate is achieved – a key part of Titan’s move towards Australian Standard AS 9001 compliance that Creswick sees as critical to the brand’s upmarket credibility.

According to him, approximately 70 per cent of the Blackhawk  is sourced from Australian suppliers, but this will increase once the Enerdrive/ALKO components are incorporated in the coming months.

Full body protection

Back to the review Blackhawk. There’s plenty of checker plate around the van to protect its lower wall sides from stones, while standard scrub bars shield it against protruding stumps and rocks.

A large checkerplate tool box on the A-frame, which is additionally protected by a truck-mesh stone shield, holds the van’s twin 9kg gas bottles on the left side, while a slide-out tray on the right will house a decent-sized generator.

The full tunnel boot immediately behind, is unencumbered and has room for all the things you don’t want to store inside, like ground-matting, cables and hoses.

Underneath, there's some shielding for the Blackhawk’s twin 95-litre fresh water tanks, but the plastic waste plumbing from its standard rear-mounted 65 litre grey water tank is vulnerable to stone strike. Titan has fabricated a checker plate shield to solve this problem.

Comfy interior layout

There are no real layout surprises once you step inside the front-centre door –  Creswick obviously knows what customers want from his retail sales days ­– with the electric double step a welcomed added feature. 

The island north-south queen bed up front is nestled among cupboards and robes to your left, with a handy angled cabinet between the bed and the recessed body step protecting you from tripping into it in the middle of the night.

The bed lifts up to reveal the van’s large combined Truma gas/electric hot water and gas heater on the right, while the fuse box is at the rear on the left of the otherwise unencumbered storage bi

The batteries aren’t there – they're housed in a separate checker plate box mounted ahead of the wheels on the right hand side of the chassis, although we can expect the upcoming lithium battery to be located inside.

Kitchen and bathroom

Moving rearward, the Titan Blackhawk’s kitchen with its excellent bench space and Thetford Mk III Minigrill, is on your left, with a plush, leather-upholstered U-shaped club lounge on the right.

The lounge’s central rectangular dining table drops down and can be covered with a matching leather infill cushion to create more sleeping space for a third adult, or two children, if required. Fold-out footrests are other nice comfort touches.

The Blackhawk’s large three-way fridge/freezer is further down on the right opposite the cooktop, while the rear of the van is occupied by the separate toilet and shower cubicle on the left and its triple bunks on the right.

The vinyl sliding curtain that separates the bathroom and bunks from the body of the van looks a little underdone though, and a solid sliding door here would isolate the noise and add privacy to this area.

Straight ahead, the laundry cupboard will house all your bedding above a front-loading washing machine, which is standard, but was yet to be fitted to our review Blackhawk.

Indicative of the thoughtful thinking found in this van, the steps to the upper two of the three bunks are built into the bed frame, while each bunk has its own USB socket to recharge all the occupants’ essential media.

There’s plenty of kitchen and overhead cupboard storage inside the van for longer trips, including a large, under-bench pull-out pantry, with enough space to allow occupants to pass each other when you have a ‘full house’.

Easy V8 towing

Pleasantly for a large van, the 21ft 6in Blackhawk Touring van towed well empty, even without its rear washing machine fitted.

Even poor bitumen and crowned dirt forestry tracks in Queensland’s Glasshouse Mountains failed to disturb it behind the RAM 1500 tow car, which was quite unfazed by its 2780kg Tare weight thanks partly to its rumbling petrol-fuelled, 291kW/556Nm 5.7-litre Hemi V8.

I’d be confident that with a family of five and all its stuff on board the Blackhawk would make an even better and more confident touring van.

In a way, this was an interim review and we’re looking forward to sampling the ‘2021.5’ Blackhawk Super Tourer with its new lithium power and uprated off-road suspension when it’s released.

With the Blackhawk’s price unchanged, unless you option the Enerdrive lithium battery for an additional $2200, it should be an even better value, long-distance family travelling companion.

Summing up

The Titan Blackhawk Touring Family Bunk Van is a well-finished and well-appointed touring caravan that with a two-year all-roads warranty gives owners the confidence to explore remote places with their families.

What does the Titan Blackhawk 21ft 6in Family Tourer cost?

Price: $89,990 (towaway Qld)
Travel length: 9600mm
Body length: 7800mm
Body width: 2420mm
Travel height: 3160mm
Tare weight: 2780kg
ATM: 3500kg
Ball weight (Tare): 210kg
Body: 35mm fibreglass sandwich panel walls/50mm composite honeycomb floor/one-piece fibreglass roof
Chassis: 150mm x 50mm galvanised steel
Suspension: Independent T-Tech tandem with trailing arms, coil springs and twin telescopic shocks per wheel
Brakes: 12-inch electric drums
Wheels: Black 16-inch alloy with LT265/75-16 M/T tyres
Water: Two 95-litre freshwater tanks /65 litres grey tank
Battery: 2 x 120Ah AGM
Solar: 2 x 160W rooftop glass panels
Gas: 2 x 9kg
Hot water/space heater: Truma Combi electric/Gas
Air-conditioner: Dometic Ibis 4 roof-mounted
Cooking: Thetford Mk III (3 + 1) Minigrill  
Fridge/freezer:  Dometic 185 litre compressor
Shower: Separate internal shower and toilet
Entertainment: 24in TV/marine audio with speakers
Lighting: LED throughout
Supplied by: Titan Caravans, Burpengary, Queensland