Chinese Trailer - NJStar Explorer

[FordGuy1]

I have been following these trailers on YouTube from the beginning. They seem to be built very well, and to me, almost on the same level as many Australian trailers. I own a S3, and its nice, but far from perfect. The labor issues in Australia are like in the US, its a problem for quality. I think you will see that the quality in regards to what is made by the human hand might be better. Asian workers do a much better job at following instructions. Now, who know about the quality of materials until its in someones hands to look at. I think it is going to be a great trailer.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Very cool! Good on you for taking the plunge. I've explored various Aliexpress trailers myself some time back and was always curious about them.

I honestly can't imagine the quality being any worse than what comes out of Indiana (for the North American market) on a daily basis. If anything, I'd expect this trailer to be better.

Not sure how trailer registration laws work in the US, but here in BC, Canada, there's always an option to register a trailer as "u-built". I think it may have caveats around GVWR and such, but may still be an option for some Aliexpress trailers...

 

[anume]

Umm the issue here in the US is the dealer model. They batch order these at a discount sub 20k then price them at $80,000 here. 😆😆. Its the US Consumer thats the problem. Du ok heres my signature for $80,000 7yr financed loan on a 19k Chinese trailer👍. Yes your probably better off going alibaba and skipping the US Dealer.
Black label was first to try it. Opus 2nd, now MDC variants etc👍
Agreed sub 20k mehh can fix the quality issues no biggie. $80,000 nope better be some good stuff….
Very curious how it goes👍

I think I found a company in Colorado reselling these as a rebranded product for $50,000... Sparks Overland MadCap. The rear exterior storage rack and overall shape is a give away and this looks to be a shorter model?

 

[calicamper]

I think I found a company in Colorado reselling these as a rebranded product for $50,000... Sparks Overland MadCap. The rear exterior storage rack and overall shape is a give away and this looks to be a shorter model?

Yup $35k on their website. Only one trailer and small video. This case $10,000 to place an order for ya.😆

 

[anume]

Yup $35k on their website. Only one trailer and small video. This case $10,000 to place an order for ya.😆

They have it listed on Facebook Marketplace for $50k so yeah $35k is a deal 🤣!

 

[oregontrd]

I think I found a company in Colorado reselling these as a rebranded product for $50,000... Sparks Overland MadCap. The rear exterior storage rack and overall shape is a give away and this looks to be a shorter model?

Nope, this one is quite different. The company I'm ordering from only makes the one model that's more or less a design knock off of the UEV 490 (although they are doing some one off prototypes for a truck camper as well as a camper van conversion). I believe the one I'm ordering is positioned as a more premium product within China, especially seeing as how all of their domestic customers seem to be rolling up in new Defenders, Raptors, etc to pick up the trailers. Check out the latest video one of the sales guy posted of my specific trailer (which is finally complete – shipping in next couple days):


You can tell even from the interior that they're trying to go just a little above the other Chinese trailers with insulated tent layer, teak floors, faux leather lined walls, felt lined storage, etc.

 

[calicamper]

The Chinese manufacturing model goes as follows.

You get a product designer in this case a creative out back trailer guy in Australia who goes to China to find someone to manufacture his trailer. He pays a crap load of $ to bank roll the production. The manufacturer in China sells the design or more commonly slips each part out the back door to his uncle’s manufacturing building where they copy it to make knock offs.

Pretty soon you have several manufacturers in china building a product thats based off of one that was pilfered from a designer that originally established a manufacturer for the original idea.

Knew a few friends that had their designs ripped off back in the 90’s when they established a manufacturer in China. One even caught his manufacturer making his product with slightly different materials and being resold to a major US brand. His lawyer shut the sale of the item down in the US and he yanked his product from that manufacturer. Had the same exact issue again two yrs later and he decided to stop selling the product which was in the Apple Store nation wide. The copy / knock off was again picked up by a major US label and was made by the same manufacturer he worked with to get production going.

 

[anume]

They have it listed on Facebook Marketplace for $50k so yeah $35k is a deal 🤣!

Now I've been searching on Alibaba! I've found similar units to the Sparks unit sellng for $10,000. Wow 3 X markup. I also found the Tribe Expedition 500 selling for $54,999 at ROA in Utah is also on Alibaba called the Conqueror Falcon Expedition 500 selling for only $21,000 to $31,000. ROA has a YouTube video on this unit.

Are the Sniper, OBI, Opus, Black Series models also rebranded and marked up? Any other brands doing this? Just curious because the mark ups are huge so why not just order directly on Alibaba?

 

[oregontrd]

Now I've been searching on Alibaba! I've found similar units to the Sparks unit sellng for $10,000. Wow 3 X markup. I also found the Tribe Expedition 500 selling for $54,999 at ROA in Utah is also on Alibaba called the Conqueror Falcon Expedition 500 selling for only $21,000 to $31,000. ROA has a YouTube video on this unit.

Are the Sniper, OBI, Opus, Black Series models also rebranded and marked up? Any other brands doing this? Just curious because the mark ups are huge so why not just order directly on Alibaba?

Yep all of those are Chinese trailers. 3x markup is the only way it makes sense to make a profit on these. For example, for my trailer, it’s going to be $10,000+ in shipping and customs fees. That puts it closer to $30k. You would need to sell it for at least $10k profit to run a profitable dealership, so price would be $40k plus here. I think for most people ordering from Alibaba is not an option due to the high risks - you can rack up tens of thousands of dollars in fees if anything goes wrong with customs. You also need to pay all of the money upfront (with tons of reserves in case anything goes wrong - otherwise your trailer will be seized at the port), financing also isn’t an option like it is with dealers. Then getting it registered and insured is another huge mountain to climb. I think it’s actually fair that dealers would charge $10k markup, especially if they are providing any sort of warranty which you obviously don’t get ordering straight from China.

 

[Obsessed2findARuggedHybid]

Now I've been searching on Alibaba! I've found similar units to the Sparks unit sellng for $10,000. Wow 3 X markup. I also found the Tribe Expedition 500 selling for $54,999 at ROA in Utah is also on Alibaba called the Conqueror Falcon Expedition 500 selling for only $21,000 to $31,000. ROA has a YouTube video on this unit.

Are the Sniper, OBI, Opus, Black Series models also rebranded and marked up? Any other brands doing this? Just curious because the mark ups are huge so why not just order directly on Alibaba?

ROA did a quick vid on that Tribe Expidition 500 hard sides pop up I believe last spring crickets since. No mention of it on Tribes FB page. My guess is RoA will drop them. To many chinese made moving parts to fail.

 

[calicamper]

Now I've been searching on Alibaba! I've found similar units to the Sparks unit sellng for $10,000. Wow 3 X markup. I also found the Tribe Expedition 500 selling for $54,999 at ROA in Utah is also on Alibaba called the Conqueror Falcon Expedition 500 selling for only $21,000 to $31,000. ROA has a YouTube video on this unit.

Are the Sniper, OBI, Opus, Black Series models also rebranded and marked up? Any other brands doing this? Just curious because the mark ups are huge so why not just order directly on Alibaba?

Yes they are. Though last I looked the Black Label twins on Alibaba weren’t there. But Opus / MDC twins were. This is likely because Black Label trailers aren’t built anymore.

I remember when I was kid way back we had a local tire shop that changed names every 2yrs. I got older and was reminiscing on old times with an old neighbor and mentioned it. He started laughing his ******** off and said you don’t know? That shop sold crazy warranties on their tires and they would “go out of business” then reopen under a new business name to avoid paying on the warranties. Kinda sounds like a similar business model ehh😆😆

 

[Obsessed2findARuggedHybid]

Looks like ROA has the Tribe 500 demo unit on sale for 34k. Does this mean they are dropping the line or have 40 of them coming? I believe they said the first production run will have improvements. After the OBI disaster my guess is thier dropping the line?

 

[The Artisan]

One thing also I had polyurea spray machine come in and the crate got flagged. Everyone in that crate had to share the expense of the 2nd inspection and fortuntatly there were like 10 orders in it. Would have sucked if it was just a few
Kevin

 

[Parb]

I had a container come in with my moving goods from when I lived overseas. Got flagged for x-ray. $1,200 down the drain.

 

[Victorian]

I had a container come in with my moving goods from when I lived overseas. Got flagged for x-ray. $1,200 down the drain.

Lucky! A full inspection means unloading, paying for labourers, warehouse fees and potential damage to your goods. This can easily go into 10,000's