My wife and I are expecting later this year and realized that our favorite hobby of traveling long distances on dusty roads and sleeping in the back of the car along the way isn't going to fly anymore and started the search for a trailer that could fit a small family. Say what you want, but prices for off-road trailers are absolutely insane. Whether the value is there or not is obviously up to each person and their financial situation, but we knew that we'd rather spend $60K+ on a bit of land somewhere before we'd spend it on a trailer for the occasional road trip or weekend camping trip. We set our budget to <$30k and started looking, and essentially found nothing that fit the bill from the usual suspects.
One option we strongly considered was the Opus OP4. It was great to see in person, the living space is a palace, and they can be found used for $20-25k. Unfortunately the amount of canvas would restrict our usage here in PNW with how rainy it is, and the setup time (and space required) would restrict our movement for the longer trips where we just need a place to crash on the side of the road. Digging further into the OPUS, realized that most of the models are made in China, with final assembly here in US. This sent me down a rabbit hole of how many trailers are actually built there vs in Australia or here in USA and spoiler alert: it's a lot of them. Going deeper down the rabbit hole I started trying to track down the factories to try to figure out what is the actual price of the trailers and stumbled upon, what is to us, the perfect trailer: The NJStar Explorer.
The Explorer clearly takes inspiration from the UEV 490, but with some meaningful differences that really make it perfect for us. For starters, the interior doesn't look like a prison cell, but instead uses lighter colored materials and wood accents. It also has an interior shower booth and sink which for us is quite important. It also comes standard with a 12V AC, diesel heater, diesel water heater (or propane depending on how you option it), 370W solar, insulated canvas, and the list goes on. Before shipping and options it is $19.8k, with about another $3k to get it shipped stateside. The issue is of course, getting it over here, getting it past customs, getting it properly insured and registered. Lucky for me, I'm not the smartest person when it comes to avoiding challenges like this so we decided to order it and put down our $6k deposit. The trailer is currently being built and I will be updating this thread with the progress of the build, the shipping, and all of the challenges of getting it from the port to on the road. Wish me luck!
Video of the trailer from the factory:
