There’s nothing unique about huge markups in trailers vs any other imported product. It’s all a matter of scale, warranty requirements, and risk. For a small scale business like trailers, and in particular a niche market like off-road trailers, an importing business has to make enough margin to cover warranties, shipping and storage, marketing, salaries, insurance (including product liability), licensing, and inventory just to name the key costs. Any importing business will face the same costs, and 100% markup on a low margin product would be expected if not normal.
When you import yourself you take on all the risk that an importer takes on, so if the axle falls off and kills someone, or you get electrocuted, you have nobody to sue, and no way to warranty anything. Good luck getting the Chinese mfg to help. Not to mention inferior no name parts of questionable engineering quality, no safety certifications, and the knowledge that it’s probably a pilfered design from a western firm.
People try this all the time in the bike market, and sometimes a frame or wheel fails and there’s no recourse. You may get lucky and save some money, but the idea that there are crazy markups when these companies take on all that risk and need to make what are probably paltry profits as is, is just silly.
Hope it works in this case, but I bet that after a few years you will have to invest in so many fixes and upgrades that it won’t have saved much. Just looking at those cheap flexible solar panels on the roof and I can see those will be one of the first of many things you’ll want to replace. Sorry, I’ve looked into this route for several different purchases and buying direct from China is a risky endeavor.
