Anybody own an OPUS-15?

Longtime lurker, first time poster. I’ve been eyeing the opus for a couple years, seems like a good fit for me and my family to double as a hunting/climbing basecamp and family adventure mobile. I would be using it year round in the sierras. We also are considering the Bóreas EOS-12 or maybe the obi dweller.

I know people have had issues with the black series requiring frequent repairs, and was wondering if the opus has similar problems. Would be interested to hear from some owners regarding their experience with it!
 

gkieser92

Active member
I don't own one, but I have to agree they are very intriguing and seem to have a feature set that is unique. I think they're pretty rare. I've only ever seen one in real life and it was only in passing on the freeway.
 

gendlert

Active member
I own a dweller and it's awesome, but wouldn't be good for a family rig unless you had an alternate sleeping arrangement for the kids (tent outside or RTT on your tow vehicle?). If you wait a few months, I've heard OBI is coming out with a new Dweller XT which will be a very similar floorplan to the OP15. I've never seen an OP15 in person.

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Louisd75

Adventurer
I don't own one, but I have to agree they are very intriguing and seem to have a feature set that is unique. I think they're pretty rare. I've only ever seen one in real life and it was only in passing on the freeway.

Off of I-5 in Mt Vernon WA? I spied that one on a road trip. Pretty sure it's sold.
 

Adventr.us

New member
We have an OP15. We love it. We use it as basecamp for family adventures - me, wife, our 13 year old. We don't climb much anymore, so usually that means biking, hiking, kayaking, that sort of thing. We've done a couple of extended road trips that way (one nearly 8 weeks) further afield, and then long weekends here in our general region (the midAtlantic, give or take). One such trip was described here, which will give you a sense of the unit in real live usage vice promo videos:


Sometimes when I'm training for a trek, trying to get some miles in, and I'm hopelessly bored with my local trails - I'll take the OP15 to some hipcamp a few hours away, near some other trails, and set up for 3-4 days, as a mobile office, doing some work around some training hikes. So it works great for that too.

I'd never hesitate to recommend the OP15 to someone if it fits your use case, and the quality has been pretty solid on ours. Especially in comparison to the problems I hear other trailer owners having.

For our OP15, we made two major upgrades/investments:

- We upgraded the electrical system to 360Ah of lithium ion batteries (fits in the same footprint as the factory 3 x 100 AGMs) and a RedArc Manager 30 system. I was going to add DC-DC charging anyways, and the integrated RedArc system just does much better with the solar and shore charging also than the factory stuff they were installing when we bought ours (2021 model purchased end of summer 2020).

- The awning worked just fine on our 8 week "distance learning" trip, because we were largely in the desert southwest. It may be all you ever need in the Sierra's also. However, back east here, first time I set up at Stone Mountain NC, in late March, and tried to cook outside, in a cold, windy, driving rain ... I realized either I was going to need to pack a jetboil and some foul weather freeze-dried meals I could cook inside, or we were going to need a more robust awning/annex solution, something like the OP4 offers. We found one, and that's all detailed also on Fakebook in the "Opus Campers Owners Group" (search on Kampa in the group, you'll find it; and join the group if you're considering a purchase, the group has been extremely helpful.) You may or may not need an annex, and we'd never set it up for a one night transit stop, but we've found it's a game changer for "basecamp" stops where we set up for 3-4 days in a place.

Hope that helps, and good luck finding one!
 
Thanks for sharing, glad to hear the dweller and opus are holding up for you all. Makes me feel a lot more confident about a potential purchase…
 

Crash90

New member
I was really close to buy one back in June 2020, but Covid sent my plans to go kick rocks. So decided to rent one first. I rented one for a two week trip around Idaho and Montana starting in San Diego and driving north this last June for a lot BML exploring and dispersed camping with all of it requiring dirt roads to get too. The trailer was only a few months old and had only been on a couple outings. My first impressions was it was going to be perfect for my family and me, as we have mostly done car camping out of Defender or a LR3. Now that we were able to take more then backpacking gear and have enough food and water for a few days in the outback and we were stoked. We tried not to bring everything and the kitchen sink, but with more room comes more stuff. Now a word of caution, the trailer does not like any real weigh added aft of the axle. It loves to fishtail and that is one my biggest complaints as it is a pig on the freeway and does not track well.

The second complain is that, there is no real storage. You have to sacrifice a bed to store anything, which didn’t work well at all for us, we needed both beds. The table mostly became where everything that couldn’t go outside lived.

Next is even though they say it is built in the states, I’m going to have to call **************** on this. There is a ton of fit and finish that is very poor and screams chinesium. Hell you can buy an exact copy on Alibaba. The design isn’t really made to last past the dealer floor. This became very clear when just going down the freeway things started to go sideways quick on us as latches started coming undone, drawers were coming open and breaking the rails. The trailer flexed so much that the rear panel wouldn’t close. Now I know that Southern California isn’t know for it’s pristine roads, but I’ll take them over Utah any day. At the beginning of the trip every gas stop I was having to fix something on the trailer and towards the end I had fixed most of the really nagging issues, but there was still a lot that needed to be addressed. I think that if it was my only choice I would change things more towards my liking, but at it is starting price point I started looking else where. All in all, I’m glad I rented it as I now have better understanding of what the family and I need and want. I’m not trying to bash this trailer, it just does not fit my needs, maybe it will fit yours.

Last thing I would like to add, last August I started talking the guys down under at LifeStyle campers and they forwarded me to dealer here in the states that just starting to import their trailers. They look very well built and have a pretty strong following in Australia. Hope this all helps.

Thanks,

Josh


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geoffff

Observer
OK, there's a distinct lack of photos here, except for a Facebook thing that doesn't load for me.

Here is what the Opus 15 looks like, for the clueless but curious (like me):

https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/opus-op-15.207821/

405ef3ed-d4eb-4504-b2e5-b068521cfd24-jpeg.532255
 
wow, that was sort of my suspicion. glad you shared that, too bad though as the configuration would be perfect for a family of four. Will have to check out Lifestyle. Have been really considering the boreas eos 12 too but it’s a definitely a smaller configuration inside... Seems like great build quality though
 

gendlert

Active member
Last thing I would like to add, last August I started talking the guys down under at LifeStyle campers and they forwarded me to dealer here in the states that just starting to import their trailers. They look very well built and have a pretty strong following in Australia. Hope this all helps.

I also talked to the Lifestyle guy here in the states last fall. They are legitimately Australian as opposed to both the Opus and OBI brands (Asia). I think the Reconn R4 product is really cool, but two things I didn't like were:
1. They have no plans to reverse the floor plan to put the door on the passenger side. Not a deal breaker, but it's backwards for our roads setup.
2. The pop up walls are at bed level so you're sleeping between soft side walls, not hard side walls. I have had a couple tent trailers with very thick sides, and the OP15 design is much quieter with wind and better for temperature management when necessary.

And in the spirit of sharing pictures, I'll share how similar the Dweller design is aesthetically.
6a74f71c163cc693a2d0f3670e0d2947.jpg


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Ditriz

New member
Longtime lurker, first time poster. I’ve been eyeing the opus for a couple years, seems like a good fit for me and my family to double as a hunting/climbing basecamp and family adventure mobile. I would be using it year round in the sierras. We also are considering the Bóreas EOS-12 or maybe the obi dweller.

I know people have had issues with the black series requiring frequent repairs, and was wondering if the opus has similar problems. Would be interested to hear from some owners regarding their experience with it!
An old friend of mine uses OPUS-15. I will ask him to share his experience.
 

Obsessed2findARuggedHybid

Well-known member
I looked at and OBI Dweller and it did have some nice components in the build. I am trying hard not to be so critical these days but the hardware to pop up the roof and hold in down seemed a bit flimsy. The canvas felt thin and to tight. It did have a feel of mass production with possibly under paid workers. The chassis did not look like it would hold up against corrosion. Please let me know if I am wrong if you own one.
 

gendlert

Active member
Not sure which hardware you mean that's flimsy. The interior bars are beefy, and the exterior latches are small, but adjustable like the rest and the interior bars lock down too.

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Obsessed2findARuggedHybid

Well-known member
You are correct the latches looked small but does that really mean they are weak. When inside the interior bars just seemed like they could have been stouter. I did not actually lift or raise the top so they could be fine. Maybe I am just old and paranoid of that roof flying off going down highway.
 

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